Globalization is a term used to describe how trade and technology have made the

world into a more connected and interdependent place. It describes the growing
interdependence of the world’s economies, cultures and populations, brought
about by cross-border trade in goods and services, technology, flows of
investment, people, and information. Globalization also captures in its scope the
economic and social changes that have come about as a result.
It is often associated with "Americanization," or the exporting of American brands
and consumer goods. American fast-food restaurants like McDonald's and KFC are
now common sites throughout the world, including China.
Why globalization is not another term for Americanization?
Globalization is the process of international integration, whereas Americanization
means the influence of American culture on other countries' cultural development.

Media globalization is the universal integration of media through the multicultural

exchange of ideas. It is the production, distribution, and consumption of media
products on a global scale, facilitating the exchange and diffusion of ideas cross-
culturally. Global media includes all forms of mass communication that reach every
corner across the globe.
It allows gaining information about different cultures by connecting with people
from all over the world through social media platforms. Much
globalized media content comes from the West, particularly from the United
States.

Global media refers to all the various forms of mass communication that reach
every corner across the globe - television, newspapers, radio, and social media
connecting people and cultures on a global scale. . It encompasses the use of
communication technologies to disseminate information, ideas, and
entertainment across national borders.
Global media plays a significant role in shaping national identities, political culture,
and economic systems. It is influenced by different approaches such as
modernization, political economy, and globalization, which impact media
production, consumption, and culture.
The study of global media involves examining the impact of media on national
governments, analyzing global production networks, and understanding the rise of
emerging powers like China. It also explores the role of global journalism and
social media in promoting freedom of expression and denouncing injustice .
Overall, global media studies provide a comprehensive understanding of the
interconnectedness and influence of media in our increasingly globalized world.

Impact of globalization in Indian media industry

The Indian media and entertainment industry is one of the fastest growing
industries in the world. Film and television sectors of the Indian media industry are
growing and globalization has impacted entertainment and media sectors. India
produces many films running at global level theatres, especially in Japan,
Singapore, USA and Canada. Indian films and televisions got very large audience all
over the world. Indian film and television producers are improving the
international marketability of large budget Indian movies by building partnership
with international screenwriters and composer technicians.
Indian film industry enjoys world’s fourth place and television industry is in the
third place.
The most important effect of Globalization on film industries was that it enabled a
bigger market for films worldwide. It was after the 1990’s that films started to get
released worldwide. This increased the size of the film market and massive growth
of revenue in result.
The first Indian feature film Raja Harishchandra was produced by prominent Indian
producer-director-screenwriter Dadasaheb Phalke, the Father Indian Cinema in the
year 1913. India had produced 1288 films in 2009 which was around 24% of the
films produced worldwide. The amount of films produced in India was almost the
double than that production in the United States of America (677films in 2009,
which is around 12% of the world share). The cost of production of films in India is
much lower than many other developed countries. When developed countries
produce films for billions of dollars, India does it in millions.
Formation of international joint- ventured production houses was one of the main
effects of Globalization. Mostly the ventures were between Hollywood and Indian
production houses. ‘Studio 18’ is an example for that. It is a joint venture between
‘Viacom’, a U.S. based communication company and ‘Network 18’, an India based
media conglomerate. Studio18 has produced a total of 15 films and have released
it worldwide.
Another effect of globalization was the absorption of small Indian studios by large
International production houses. This has acted both in positive ways and
negative. The positive factor is that many artists get to work with an international
company. Howerver, unfortunately the negative side is that is does not happen
most of the time. An example of such absorption was the Sony Pictures taking over
the Chennai based animation studio ‘Image works’. It was definitely for the good
of the company because later it had largely contributed to films like Spiderman 3
and I am Legend.
In the recent years a lot of international producers have put in money directly into
single films. Sony Pictures in 2007 associated with Sanjay Leela Bhansali and had
directly entered into the market producing a Hindi film named Saawariya. Though
Saawariya was not a commercial success in India, the film grossed high in U.S.A.
Later in 2009 Warner Brothers produced a film associating with Ramesh Sippy
Entertainment named Chandini Chowk to China. The film grossed around $1
million from U.S.A alone (I.M.D.B, 2009).
Globalization has helped the film production companies to share the international
pool of talent. The rate of usage of international talent increased tremendously
after the 1990’s. Many artists from international cinema have worked for Indian
cinema and vice versa. Stunt coordinator Danny Pierce (films like: The Pirates of
the Caribbean) had recently worked for an Indian film ‘Kites’. Hip-hop artist Snoop
Dog had worked on the sound track of a Hindi film named Singh is King.
A studio that recently worked for an Indian film was the Stan Winston Studios for
Enthiran. They had worked on the animatronics. Enthiran has been the most
expensively produced film among Indian films/one of the highest-grossing film in
Indian history. The film which spent around $38 million was produced in two
different languages, Hindi and Tamil.
Globalization resulted in Indian Artists Worked in International Films:
A.R.Rahman1 who composed and produced music for the film Slumdog Millionaire
and Resul Pookutty who mixed the sound for the same film are one of the main
examples. A major studio that contributed and is still contributing to international
films is the Ramoji film city in Hyderabad, India. It is in fact the world’s largest
integrated film studio complex.
India is one of the world‘s largest markets for satellite TV, with some 300 million
viewers. The Indian economy opened up in the 1990s after decades of being
closed. (Pressure came from western and international institutions such as the
IMF, World Bank, etc.) This led to an explosion in global consumer goods.
There was also an explosion in Indian television. While globalization of television
has been going on since the 1980s (with the likes of CNN, MTV, Sky, Star TV, etc),
in India, demand from urban middle classes came around 1991 for the likes of CNN
for coverage of international events such as the first Gulf War.
Star TV (a Hong Kong based company) found it easy to penetrate in India. This was
because of many reasons, including that the existing broadcast was based on an
old system. The existing broadcast was state-owned primarily a vehicle for news,
education and social issues, such as how to deal with various health. STAR (Satellite
Television Asian Region) TV was the first to exploit the demand of an alternative
TV channel. In 1991 it started beaming satellite service with five channels. The
satellite channels became an instant hit because of their entertainment and
Western programming which Doordarshan was lacking.
In 1992, Subhash Chandra Goel launched Zee TV, India‘s first private Hindi-
language and most successful satellite channel. It built new heights in
domestically-produced entertainment.
Rising advertising revenues and increasing numbers of viewers provided the drive
for many regional media houses like Sun TV, Asianet and ETV to move into other
States. For example, Sun TV, the first private owned channel from south India
made its debut in Chennai 1992. Today Sun TV Network has 20 channels in four
languages Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Bengali.
The Indian media and entrainment industry has been and will continue to be one
of the biggest beneficiaries of India’s favourable demographics. Being one of the
youngest nations in the world with high volumes of content consumption, a
vibrant indigenous content creation industry and a favourable regulatory frame
work, makes India an attractive investment destination for global media
entertainment sectors.
Globalization has given rise to the Media Conglomerates and now they
rule the media world. Justify.
Globalization led to the emergence of new media structures of ownership and
control. The key trends were the emergence of global conglomerations. Two types
of media ownership patterns became more visible at the global level – vertical and
horizontal.
In Vertical ownership a media house which is already in the business in any media
vertical ventures into other media verticals. For instance, we can say that Bennett
Coleman, which own Times of India, ventured into radio industry with Radio Mirchi
then into TV industry with Times Now etc. Vertical ownership is also known as
chain ownership pattern, where there is a logical relationship to the media
industry, some way or the other. The vertical ownership pattern has many
positives as under one flagship they have the control of many media platforms, are
able to reach out to a wider audience and can actually be with their audience
24X7. In such ownership pattern, since the audience base is high, the media house
is also able to provide the advertisers with more outreach opportunities.
Second type of ownership pattern is horizontal ownership where any company
with any profile owns one or many media vertical(s). It also known as cross media
ownership. For example, if a company is into power sector and runs a daily
newspaper too where there is no relationship between the two industries, such
type of ownership pattern are called horizontal ownership. Here there is lack of
logical relation with the media industry. For instance, Aditya Birla Group is into
many businesses as retail, telecommunication etc. also owns Hindustan Times.
The same is the case with Reliance which apart from businesses like petroleum,
retail, telecommunication etc. also owns Reliance Adlabs and CNN-IBN. Such type
of ownership has given boost to the commercialisation of the media industry too.
These corporate govern the media houses as they govern their other business.
Media conglomerates are so large that they have the abilities and financial support
to create quality output so that the public is satisfied with. Also with the size of
these companies it creates new jobs all the time and this progressively helps our
economy grow. Once they find something the public likes, they can keep mass
producing it to keep their customers happy.
They get the advantage of Converging Technologies - According to pro
consolidation arguments, due to converging technologies the media houses are
fueled by the desire to reach consumers in different and often innovative ways.
Another pros with these conglomerates are that they can make
optimum use of the various facility at hand, like the techno editing, electronic
designing and so forth. The combined marketing can also get them better mutual
returns, eg. Commercial marketing, or paid subscribers, etc.

Media Conglomerates
A conglomerate is a multi-industry company. It is a combination of two or more
corporations engaged in entirely different businesses together into one corporate
structure, usually involving a parent and several (or many) subsidiaries.
A company owning different mass media enterprises, television, radio, publishing,
motion picture, music etc. is known as a Media Conglomerate.
A media conglomerate/media group/institution is a multinational
corporation/company that owns a large part of the mass media market. Such a
corporation usually owns numerous companies involved in mass media enterprises
such as television, radio, newspaper, motion pictures/ movies, theme parks,
internet, book publishing and concerts. A conglomerate is often a multi-industry
company.
Media conglomerates are sometimes but not always, owned by even larger and
more generalized conglomerates which deal in entertainment as well as other
ventures.

Functions of Media Conglomerates

 Media conglomerates control the news and global audience.
 Media conglomerates use their access in multiple areas to share various
kinds of content such as news, videos and music between users.
According to the magazine The Nation, “Media conglomerates strive for policies
that facilitate their control of the markets around the world.”
Media Deregulation: Integrating Film and Television
Media companies have thought of a way to reconstruct and enlarge their
company, beyond the traditional operational methods. Often the television
networks are part of the film studios, thus having a link to the company. Often
there is a grand mixture of these companies working in all aspects of the media
conglomerates that own numerous amounts of networks and studios. These small
little companies are partly owned by these mass media companies.
For instance, Hollywood film industry is controlled by 7 firms: The Walt Disney
Company, CBS Corporation (because of CBS Films), Viacom, News Corporation,
Time Warner, Comcast (majority owner of NBCUniversal), and Sony (through Sony
Corporation of America), while Comcast & Sony’s entertainment properties stretch
across the film, music, and television industries.
Some Media Conglomerates (worldwide):
 The Walt Disney Company(US)
 SONY (Japan)
 Viacom(US)
 News Corporation (US)
 Time Warner(US)
 Comcast Corporation(US)
 General Electric (US)
 Warner Bros. Discovery (US)
 Paramount(US)
Some Indian Media Conglomerates:
 ABP Group (Ananda Bazar Patrika) is an Indian media
conglomerate headquartered in Kolkata, West Bengal. It was established in
1922.
 Network18 Media & Investments Limited, commonly referred to as the
Network18 Group is an Indian media conglomerate owned by the energy
giant Reliance Industries, headed by billionaire Mukesh Ambani.
 Zee Entertainment Enterprises is an Indian media conglomerate
headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra. Founded in 1926.
 India Today Group, is an Indian media conglomerate based in New
Delhi, India.
As of 2008, The Walt Disney Company had been the world’s largest media
conglomerate, with News Corporation, Viacom and Time Warner ranking second,
third and fourth respectively.
In 2011, The Walt Disney Company had been America’s largest media
conglomerate in terms of revenue, with News Corporation, Time Warner, CBS
Corporation and Viacom completing the top 5.
In the 2023 Forbes Global 2000 list, Comcast is the United States' largest media
conglomerate, in terms of revenue, with The Walt Disney Company, Warner Bros.
Discovery, & Paramount Global completing the top four.

How does a company become a conglomerate?

Every big company starts small. It is through sustained growth that the size
increases. Companies become conglomerates when they acquiring other
companies. It may start as a way of boosting their sales outside their
immediate industry. It may also be away of expanding to other industries to
cushion themselves from the risks involved in operating in a single industry.
This is known diversification.

Advantages of Media Conglomerates

 Media conglomerates are so large that they have the abilities and financial
support to create good quality films that their fan base or audience would be
satisfied with but with smaller companies they may not have enough funds
to support the idea
 With size of the company, media conglomerates provide jobs for individuals
and this progressively helps the economy grow
 Get increased revenues: This the most obvious benefits of a conglomerate.
As the parent company, there is no denying that it gets a share of the
subsidiaries coming its way. Depending on the size of the stake in the
subsidiary, the extra income could be big enough to jump-start a dying
company.
  Have reduced investment risk: The bigger the company grows the risk of
falling increases. Risks are all over the walls of business. One way of
minimizing the risk is by diversifying.
 Benefit from internal capital markets
Disadvantages of Media Conglomerates
 Decrease in conglomerate stock value: As the overall business grows, its
stock value decreases. This is because of the nature of the business model
employed by conglomerates. The stock value of the individual companies
adds up to a value that is higher compared to what the parent company’s
stock value is.
 Media conglomerates decrease the chances for entrepreneurs to open their
own businesses which could possibly hurt the economy.

 Potential difficulty and inefficiency in management: This becomes a bigger

problem when the management is not familiar with the industry the
subsidiary operates in. This makes it difficult for the management to make
good decisions to guide the subsidiaries. They largely have to depend on the
management skills and industry knowledge of the subsidiary manager. (This
makes the job of the top managers very difficult. To minimize the problem,
the top managers need to undergo training on the new industry being
represented in the network)
 The extra layers of management increases the costs of keeping them
running.

Criticism
Critics have accused the larger conglomerates of dominating media, especially
news and refusing to publicize or deem ‘newsworthy’ information that would be
harmful to their other interests and of contributing to the merging of
entertainment and news (sensationalism) at the expense of tough coverage of
serious issues. They are also accused of being a leading force for the
standardization of culture and they are a frequent target of criticism by various
groups which often perceive the news organisation as being biased toward special
interests.
There is also the issue of concentration of media ownership, reducing diversity in
both ownership and programming (TV shows and radio shows). There is also a
strong trend in the U.S. for conglomerates to eliminate localism in broadcasting
instead using broadcast automation and voice tracking, sometimes from another
city in another state. Some radio stations use prepackaged and generic satellite-
fed programming with no local content, except the insertion of radio ads.
Mass media critics often say that the content of the news industry is slanted
towards corporate interests. Some see the corporate media as being biased. There
have also been accusations of corporate censorship and whitewashing.
Furthermore, media conglomerates have also been accused of favoring flashy
infotainment over relevant news stories.

FDI in media was allowed in India in 1991