Professional Documents
Culture Documents
The Global Media, Communications and Cultures of Consumption
The Global Media, Communications and Cultures of Consumption
The Global Media, Communications and Cultures of Consumption
• Section Two
• Highlight the main points of Baudrillard’s
and Fine’s theories of consumption
• Briefly seek to relate their conclusions to
contemporary processes of globalisation
Section One
• Contrasting Images of Digital
Democratisation/Global Media Village and
Cultural Imperialism
• Useful to review facts
• First, retreat from public broadcasting and
regulation to more free market based
system (changes in way Public Service
broadcasters behave).
• Privatisation of the Communications
Infrastructure.
• Technology convergence of different media and
technologies and the ability for information to
transcend distance
• Most striking trend is the growing market power
of a small number of firms
• Bagdikian argue that between 1983 and 1994
number of global media companies fell from 50
to 20
• Links between these firms Disney union
with ABC, Time Warner CNN
• Media sector is characterised by global
monopoly capitalism
Global News Agencies:
• Associated Press (AP)(USA)
• Reuters(UK)
• United Press International ((USA) )
• Agence-France Presse (AFP)(France)
• Bloomberg (USA)
Company Fortune Revenues
Rank Global 500 $
Revenues Rank Millions
1999
1 Nippon Telegraph 13 93' 591.7
and Telephone
(Japan)
2 AT and T 28 62' 391
(USA)
3 SBC 42 49' 489
Communications
(USA)
4 Deutsche Telekom 77 37' 835
(Germany)
5 WorldCom 79 37' 120
(USA)
6 Verizon 97 33' 174
Communications
(USA)
7 BT 110 30' 546
(UK)
8 Olivetti 112 30' 088
(Italy)
9 France Telecom 118 29' 049
(France)
10 GTE 152 25' 336
(USA)
• With media deregulation
we see the rise of
imported programmes. In
the German private
television sector US
imports account for 32%
to 52% programming
• This is important because
the images and sounds
we consume important in
making us who we are
and shaping our
conception of the good
life
Although links between ownership,
control and nationality are complex
• In some respects non-English
economically advanced states feel most
threatened
• Large section of the World remain outside
global communications loop.
• In 1993 Africa 16 (267 Europe) daily
newspapers, 173 (982 North America)
Radios and 39 (406 NA) TVs per thousand
• Half the world has never made a phonecall
and 24 OECD countries with 15% world
population account for 71% of lines