Mass Media

Mass media means technology that is intended to reach a mass audience. It is the primary
means of communication used to reach the vast majority of the general public. The most
common platforms for mass media are newspapers, magazines, radio, television, and the
Internet. The general public typically relies on the mass media to provide information
regarding political issues, social issues, entertainment, and news in pop culture.

Globalization
Globalization refers to the process of integrating governments, cultures, and financial
markets through international trade into a single world market. Usually there is a snowball
effect, and globalization becomes a mixed bag of economic, philanthropic, entrepreneurial,
and cultural efforts.
Globalization means the speedup of movements and exchanges of human beings, goods,
and services, capital, technologies or cultural practices all over the planet. One of the effects
of globalization is that it promotes and increases interactions between different regions and
populations around the globe.

Mass Media and Globalization

The mass media are seen today as playing a key role in enhancing globalization, facilitating
culture exchange and multiple flows of information and image between countries through
international news broadcasts, television programming, new technologies, film and music.

Globalization has a great influence on the media and further its impact on us. The most
visible effect of globalization is wide spread communication. The introduction of
newspapers, magazine, internet and TV has immensely helped to spread information and
has helped people to come together from all over the world. However this impact has its
own disadvantages, its advantages are much more.

Globalization reflects our identity and connects us to the rest of the world. The science and
technology makes the world globalized and in turn reflects the theory of convergence and
promotes cultural identity.

Globalization is a very debatable topic as with a lot of positive aspects there are quite a lot
of limitations or negative impact of globalization on the countries. Where it has benefited a
lot of countries on one hand, on the other it has also generated significant international
oppositions over all the issues that has increased inequality and environmental degradation
The limitations are as follows:

Economic liberalization

Effect on income disparity

Effect on disease(health)
Effect on the environmental degradation

Globalization is definitely bringing the world together in order to create “one global world”
but however one must understand its limitations and make the best use for the betterment
of the nation and oneself by adopting the best of every nation’s culture.

Media has always played a very important role in our society and for a long time it remained
one of the methods of controlling people and their recreational time. (The Role of Media in
the Society) The media hence provides different types of information in different ways in the
form of newspaper, internet, television, magazine, radio etc. In fact it’s a very essential and
simplified way to inform or simply to entertain the audience.

As the process of globalization becomes more prominent the role of media and
advertisement and consumerism also increases considerably. Therefore globalization is not
just integrating trade, investment and financial markets but also integrating the consumer
markets. At the same time the consumer receives an overflow of information through
commercial advertising. However with the years progressing the methods and techniques of
advertising have become sophisticated creating a better and much aware world and hence
turning luxuries into necessities. (Shah, 2006)

Just by sitting at home one can get the entire news of the world by any medium like radio, tv
or internet, this is possible only because of globalization. Globalization in media has also
made us aware about the economical and political conditions of a particular country but
also provides us with entertainment of all sorts.

Globalization in the media has definitely got some negative aspects to it but however the
advantages are way more and therefore there is a remarkable progress in development in
all economic, social, political, cultural and traditional aspects.

In my opinion the impact of globalization on media has its own advantages and
disadvantages but however the advantages are much more than the disadvantages. As
mentioned above one can see that the process of globalization has led to opening up of
people mind towards not just the walls within which they stay but also be aware of what’s
happening around the world. Ever since mass media came into existence companies have
used this as a means to communicate to let a large no. of people aware about their
products. On the other hand even the people watching it or reading about it are in a
position to gain maximum benefit as with the help of media they will be able to decipher
between good or bad as per their requirements. With the years passing by and increasing
globalization there is sophistication of advertising methods and advancement in the
techniques adopted. Globalization in media, not just restricted to advertisement in other
fields in fact in every field has opened up broader communication lines bringing the various
companies, economy and more importantly the countries together.
Role of Internet in the Media Globalization
The internet has done a revolution to the impact of globalization in the media. The
contribution of internet in the role of media has changed over the past few years and has
increased distinctively. In the society the digital media is intensely transforming the
consumer behavior and traditional media business models.

Be it at school or work or home everybody has an access to the internet these days. People
especially students are heavily active on social networks like facebook and LinkedIn.
In political field internet serves as a medium to connect the media and the viewers. A lot of
people are unable to go through the newspapers everyday because of either very busy
schedule or ignorance or because of travelling. However most people in today’s generation
are connected with internet. Therefore people read about the elections about the various
political issues through the internet. Even the media updates all its news at every instant on
the internet and get a lot of responses from all its viewers which helps them get feedbacks
to make amendments.

Role of Television in the Media Globalization

The television acts as an eye opener to the viewers. The role of television in the media
globalization has made a remarkable impact on the society. There are both sides to it
negative as well as positive. However it is the positive effect of television which is way more
than the negative and hence the impact is progressive on the society. In today’s world
almost every house has an access to television and over the years the accessibility has
increased immensely.

When the press media had not come into picture, people used to communicate by writing
letters and sending them through direct mails .The beginning of press media came as an
information revolution. It assists the journalists in networking and the globalization has led
to revolution of news circulation, printing, editing and reportage. It is because of
globalization that the spread and exchange of news becomes possible which leads to people
of one country knowing not just about the news within their own country but aware about
international news as well.

Role of Radio in the Media Globalization

Radio is one of the easiest and cheapest media source. It is easily available in most part of
the country. The biggest advantage of the radio as a means of media globalization is that it
can be understood by even an illiterate person and can cater to a larger number of
people.Radio in today’s world is a platform for advertisement. In fact it generates a lot of
income and adds to the economy of the media..

Radio also provides a platform for the cultural and traditional exchange. For example, the
radio channels provide music of different parts of the world and hence this leads to one
nation understanding the music of the other. Music reflects the culture and the tradition of
the area to a large extent.

Effects of Media Globalization

Researchers have noted a variety of effects resulting from media globalization. Some of
these observed effects are open to interpretation while others are acknowledged by most
communication scholars. Certain researchers tie their observations to their own theories
which attempt to explain certain observed effects. In contrast, other researchers may take
on a more descriptive approach preferring to describe detailed effects and apply the
theories of other scholars as models for explanation.
According to researcher George Gerbner, the most successful television programs are no
longer made for national consumption but rather for international distribution. Gerbner
further noted that content is affected by the desire to increase the marketability of
international television program distribution.
Robert McChesney is a media historian and political economist. In a recent article by
McChesney (2005), he criticized multinational corporations in a number of ways. First, that
the global media market is dominated by eight multinational corporations which also
dominate U.S. media.
 Pike and Winseck make three major points in their article. First, globalization is not a recent
phenomenon. Some scholars have interpreted the early stages of globalization as being
synonymous with imperialism, since "competing western nations utilized communications
to aid in the expansion of their empires" (p. 643). Second, there is the technocratic view of
globalization. This view linked the technical aspects of globalization with the global spread
of modernity and civilization. Third, globalization is a natural extension of "laissez-faire
capitalism," which broke through national boundaries to extend the free market economy
to a global-world market. 

Communication Theories that Address Media Globalization

The trends and effects of media globalization will continue to be both observed and debated
by communication scholars, sociologists, economist, and politicians alike. With the fall of
communism in the USSR in August of 1991, private investment and the proliferation of
multinational corporations has continued to march across Europe and the other continents
of the world. The trend of continuing media globalization has showed no recent signs of
retreat. Both critics and advocates of media globalization agree that there is fierce
competition taking place between the first and second tier corporations.

Cultural Imperialism and Marxism and Critical Theory

One of the oldest theories of mass media which is also critical of globalization is cultural
imperialism. John Tomlinson (2002) has addressed a number of issues related to cultural
imperialism discourse. First, Tomlinson recognized that traditional Marxism divided the
world into a political-economic dialectic struggle between an elite ruling class and a larger
working class.
Critical Theory as popularized by the Frankfurt School, was founded in 1923. It continues to
be an important methodology in the study of mass communication. Critical theory and
cultural imperialism theory share common roots in Marxist ideology, which are both anti-
capitalistic and generally anti-Western in their approach to the study of media globalization.

Cultivation Theory
George Gerbner (1977) has developed cultivation analysis theory. Gerbner's theory asserts
that television has displaced traditional sources of socialization such as: the family, the
church, and school:
A culture cultivates the images of a society. The dominant communication agencies produce
the message systems that cultivate the dominant image patterns. They structure the public
agenda of existence, priorities, values, relationships.The mass media printing, film, radio,
television – ushered in the modern world as we know it. Mass communication changed the
production and distribution of knowledge.

Spiral of Silence Theory

Similar to Gerbner, Noelle-Neumann also argued for the dominating effect of mass media
upon the public. Noelle-Neumann's spiral of silence theory proposed that people are more
likely to publicly express their opinions when they perceive that others share their views.
The spiral of silence effect refers to individuals choosing to be silent when faced with the
potential of criticism by others.

Dependency Theory
Dependency Theory is a means to address the role of news agencies in the international
distribution of news content. Oliver Boyd-Barrett and Terhi Rantanen (2002) discussed the
roots of dependency theory as stemming from the viewpoint that agencies such as Reuters,
were seen as significant in certain British territories during the 1930's, in promoting British
trade interests.

Megaphone Effect Theory

Bloch and Lemish (2003) have created a new term which they call the megaphone effect.
They theorize that cultural texts which become adopted into the popular culture in the
United States can be transformed into a global cultural phenomenon, through the
international media. The theory suggests a two-step process. First, cultural texts cross the
Atlantic (or Pacific) and enter into the culture of the United States. The second step occurs
when these texts are then perceived as having wider international appeal, and are then
marketed and distributed to the global community.

Global Imaging Theory

The Roar of the Crowd (1993), Michael J. O'Neill built a strong case for a more homogenized
world culture, as the result of television and mass media. O'Neill is the former editor of the
New York Daily News, and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Tetrad Theory
Perhaps one of the most interesting theories regarding media globalization is one developed
by Marshall McLuhan and Bruce Powers (1989) in their book The Global Village. [2]McLuhan
and Powers present a model which they refer to as a tetrad. The tetrad is a made up of
three elements. The first element is visual space which refers to a Western civilization mind
set, based on logical systematic, linear, and Platonic reason. The second element is acoustic
space, which is more holistic and Asian in approach. The third element is the tetrad itself
which is a collision of these two opposing philosophies in a four part metaphor, consisting of
enhancement, reversal, retrieval and obsolescence.

Interactive Global Media Theory

A theory of media globalization based on an interactive platform is sustainable for many
reasons. First, the global spread of the Internet and the increasing trend of digital media
convergence. Pavlik and McIntosh (2005) pointed out that feedback in the converged world
of digital communication is instantaneous in comparison with traditional analog mass
communication. Second, television is becoming increasingly interactive. Millions of viewers
call in to vote, as in the case of the popular television program American Idol.