Mass Communication (Semester 1)

ACADEMIC PAPER

of

MASS MEDIA GLOBALIZATION

By

Name : Syafri Doini

NIM : 2006-10-1119

Class : X-28 C

The London School of Public Relation Jakarta

2006 / 2007

Mass Media Globalization

The pace of internationalization has accelerated because of advances in distribution technology and new economic imperatives. The mass media are affected, like everything else, by the general phenomenon of globalization. They are in a special position themselves as both an object and an agent of the globalizing process. They are also the means by which we become aware of it. Changes in distribution technology have been the most evident and immediate cause of change, but economics has also played a decisive part. We look at the internationalization of media ownership and of the content that flows through media channels.

A. Definition

There is no sharp dividing line between media content that is ‘global’ and that which is ‘national’ or local. Mass communication is almost by definition ‘global’ in character, and only a few isolated societies can claim to have a purely domestic media supply. The United States produces much and import little, but even in this case the content of American media culture is international by virtue of the fact that it is shared with the rest of the world and many foreign cultural influences enter the country through trade and immigration. It is also indirectly globalized by the orientation of much of its own production towards world markets.

There is several meaning of media globalization. They are:

a. Media are increasingly owned by global media firms

b. Media systems become increasingly similar across the world

c. The same or very similar news and entertainment products are found globally.

d. Audiences can choose media from other countries

e. These trends have effects of cultural homogenization and westernization

B. Driving Forces

There are two main aspects that forces the emerge of mass media globalization. Technology has certainly given a powerful push to globalization. The arrival of television satellites in the late 1970s broke the principle of national sovereignty of broadcasting space and made it difficult and ultimately impossible to offer effective resistance to television transmission and reception from outside the national territory. But the extent to which satellites reach global audiences directly is often exaggerated and is still relatively small, even in regions such as Europe.

While technology has been a necessary condition of extensive globalization, and the truly global medium of the Internet illustrates this most clearly, the most immediate and enduring driving forces behind globalization have been economic.

An important component of international mass communication is advertising, linked to the globalization of many product markets and reflecting the international character of many advertising agencies and the dominances of the market by a small number of firms. The same advertising messages appear in the different countries, and there is also an indirect internationalizing effect on the media that carry the advertising. Last but not least of the forces promoting globalization has been the vast expansion and the privatization of telecommunications infrastructure and business (Hills,2002).

There are several causes of media globalization :

1. More powerful transmission technologies
2. Commercial enterprises
3. Follow-on from trade and diplomatic relations
4. Colonization and imperialism, past and present
5. Economic dependency
6. Geopolitical imbalances
7. Advertising
8. Expansion of telecommunications

C. Mass Media Globalization Effect

Most of the issues surrounding global mass communication have a direct or indirect connection with the thesis of ‘cultural imperialism’, or the more limited notion of ‘media imperialism’. Both concepts imply a deliberate attempt to dominate, invade or subvert the ‘cultural space’ of others and suggest a degree of coercion in the relationship. It is certainly a very unequal relationship in terms of power. It is also implies some kind of overall cultural or ideological pattern in what is transmitted, which has often been interpreted in terms of ‘western values’, especially those of individualism, secularism and materialism.

If the process of global mass communication is framed from the point of view of the national societies at the receiving end, according to the media imperialist thesis there are at least four effects that should be consider. However, there has been a shift in thinking about globalization that has moved on from the overwhelmingly negative perspective of media imperialism. It is not a return to the ‘optimism’ of the modernization phase, but more a reflection of postmodern ideas and new cultural theory that avoids the normative judgments of earlier theory.

The effects of media globalization:

1. Global media promote relations of dependency rather than economic growth
2. The imbalance in the flow of mass media content undermines cultural autonomy or holds back its development
3. The unequal relationship in the flow of news increases the relative global power of large and wealthy news-producing countries and hinders the growth of an appropriate national identity and self-image
4. Global media flows give rise to a state of cultural homogenization or synchronization, leading to a dominant form of cultures that has no special connection with real experience for most people

Mass media globalization also bring effects towards audience in terms of their culture. One cultural consequence of media globalization may be overlooked because it is obvious: the rise of globalized media culture as such. Media internationalized probably does lead to more homogenization or ‘cultural synchronization’. According to Hammelink (1983: 22), this process ‘implies that the decisions regarding the cultural development of a given country are made in accordance with the interests and needs of a powerful central nation. They are then imposed with subtle but devastating effectiveness without regard for the adaptive necessities of the dependent nation’. As a result, cultures are less distinctive and cohesive and also less exclusive.

The cultural effects of media globalization:

1. Synchronization of culture
2. Undermining national, regional, and local cultures
3. Commodification of cultural symbols
4. Increased multiculturalism
5. Hybridization and evolution of cultural forms
6. Rise of a global ‘media culture’
7. Deterritorialization of culture

D. International Media Group

The recent phase of the ‘communications revolution’ has been marked by a new phenomenon of media concentration, both transnational and multimedia, leading o the world media industry being increasingly dominated by a small number of very large media firms (Chalaby, 2003). In some cases, these developments are the achievement of a fairly traditional breed of media ‘mogul’ (Tunstall and Palmer, 1991), though with new names. Despites the high visibility of larger-than-life media moguls, it is likely that the trend is rather towards more impersonal patterns of ownership and operation, as benefits such large global enterprises.

Certain types of media content lend themselves to globalization of ownership and control of production and distribution. These include news, feature films, popular music recordings, television serials and books.

Globalization and concentration of large media companies tend also to lead to cartel forming, and the very large firms co-operative in various ways as well as compete. They also exhibit ownership connections. Tunstall and Machin (1999) reported a complex pattern of interrelated interests amongst the three leading American media firms (Time Warner, Disney, and Viacom) and also four foreign firms with a big stake in the US market: Seagram (Canada), Bertelsmann (Germany), Sony (Japan) and News Corporation (Australia). Companies also co-operate by sharing revenue, co-production, co-purchasing of movies, and dividing up local outlets. Although the story becomes increasingly complicated by the rise of Japanese and European media enterprises, there is little doubt that the USA has benefited most from global expansion in media markets. According to chan-olmstead and Chang (2003), European media firms are less inclined to diversify internationally. The example of international media group are MTV International, CNN international, BBC world, and TVCinq.

While in Indonesia there are also multi media ownership. For example like Media group, Multimedia nusantara citra

Global mass communication is a reality, and since the second half of the twentieth century there has almost certainly been a steady strengthening of the conditions of globalization. These are: the existence of a free market in media products; the existence of a free market in media products; the existence of and respect for an effective ‘right to information’, and thus political freedom and freedom of speech; and the technologies that can offer fast, capacious and low-cost channels of transmission across borders and large distances.

Indonesia, as one of ‘the biggest’ country in the world and have good relationship with many countries will surely be in the middle of mass media globalization in the future. With the advance technology in Indonesia, and the growing numbers of television and media stations right now, definitely in the future, the flows of information to Indonesia from around the world will be a lot bigger than right now. Even right now, we can see a lot of foreign TV station and foreign TV programs in Indonesia.