Media and Globalization: Exploring Impacts and Implications Report

This report delves into the multifaceted relationship between media and globalization, examining the significant role of electronic media in fostering interconnectedness and cultural exchange across the globe. It explores how media, including television, the internet, and social platforms, influences cultural dynamics, leading to both cultural influence and homogenization. The report highlights the economic impacts of media, such as the opening of new markets and the vertical integration of organizations. It also discusses the potential negative consequences, including the erosion of local cultures, the misuse of media for criminal activities, and the censorship of content by national governments. The analysis concludes that while media accelerates globalization, it also poses threats to communities and countries, thus emphasizing the need for regulation to balance its positive and negative impacts.

MANAGEMENT
MEDIA AND GLOBALIZATION

MEDIA AND GLOBALIZATION 1
Introduction
With the global boundaries being shrink more than ever, the debate for the role of the media,
especially the electronic media is of significant importance. It is a well-known fact that the
electronic media facilitates an improved interconnectedness and flexibility in context of the
communications across vast distances, around the world (Crane, Kawashima and Kawasaki,
2016). In addition, the media has been rightly stated to be the cultural product, allowing for
cultural interactions across the world. The objective of the following report is to explore the
relationship between media and the globalization, the impact of the former over latter and an
overall conclusion on the same.
Media and Globalization
The concept of globalization is one of the most significant to be studied and debated topic of
the twenty first century. It is vital to note that the influence of the globalization is not
consistent across various countries of the world, and one of the main reasons behind the same
is the levels of technological integration among the countries. The countries that are more
technologically developed and integrated tend to transfer their ideas, knowledge, concepts,
ethics and culture, to the countries that are comparatively less technologically integrated
(Mirrlees, 2013). Few of the prime channels of media, particularly the electronic media that
have contributed significantly towards the globalization are the satellite television,
computers, internet, mobile phones, and others. Some of the prime contributions of media, on
the phenomena of globalization are explained as follows.
One of the major impacts of media in context of globalization is in the form of cultural
influence of dominating economies on the others, through the usage of media exports. This
occurs through the television content, advertising messages, radio programming and the films
as well. The universal popularity of the American culture, and their media products is a
significant evidence of the same. The benefit of the same from the point of view of the
American economy is in the form of ability to change the regional authority and breaking of
the stereotypes. With the right mass media usage, the demands for the American products and
services have increased more than ever (Hutton and Fosdick, 2011). The transfer of the
American culture for instance has led to the opening of numerous markets for the US
organisations across the globe.

MEDIA AND GLOBALIZATION 2
The yet another chief product of the interaction of media and globalization is the vertical
integration in the organisations leading to the international coverage. There have occurred
significant convergences such as that of the mobile phones and internet, leading the
individuals across the globe informed about the international political and economic events.
The multinational organisations can increasingly spread their work area and employ the
employees from across the globe. The virtual teams can interact with each other at fingertips
and this leads to the dramatic reduction in the travelling costs for the businesses. Not just in
the organisational context, but the social media sites like Facebook, Instagram and others
have aided in personal relationships.
In terms of the national objectives, the media has aided the developing economies seek aid in
the events of natural disasters, or other resource shortages. One of the most significant
examples of the same is the networked information services like that of HealthNet (Hilhorst
and Pereboom, 2015). The network was widely used by the government and the doctors of
the country of Central Africa to disseminate the information about the deadly Ebola disease
outbreak in the year 1995. In the areas where the literacy rates have been low, the radio has
acted to be a cost effective medium to the spread of information like that of water
conservation, sustainable use of natural resources, hygiene skills and others.
However, the critics state that such a media domination prevents the native cultures from
thriving and leads to the negative impacts on younger generations and teenagers (Durham and
Kellner, 2012). The process of local cultures getting influenced by the other dominant
cultures is known as homogenization. The yet another possible influence of media in context
of globalisation is the possible misuse of the media by the criminals to evade regional laws
and regulations, and indulge into dangerous and socially deviant behaviours such as mass
shooting, sex trade, child pornography, gambling, and others. While there is widespread drug
culture and twenty-four hour online gambling sites in the countries like United States, the
same may shake the social fabric of other countries, and thus pose a great risk. In addition to
the cultural harm, the negative impact of media and globalization is the content been
censored by the national governments of the country, if the goals of the former are
contradictory to the country’s objectives and securities. For instance, there is content being
banned in the country of China, Korea and others, when the ideologies are not on the same
lines.

MEDIA AND GLOBALIZATION 3
Conclusion
The discussions conducted in the previous parts aid to conclude that media has rendered a
significant contribution to the globalization. The various influences of media have been
explored in the form of cultural influence, vertical and horizontal integration of the
organisations, and the opening of new markets. The negative influences of media have also
been explored in the form of the eroding of the local cultural values, possible cyber security
and national risk, risk of harm to social values of the regions. Hence, it can be concluded that
while media has accelerated globalisation, it poses threats too, to the communities and
countries, and hence regulation of the same is essential.

MEDIA AND GLOBALIZATION 4
References
Crane, D., Kawashima, N., and Kawasaki, K. I. (Eds.). (2016) Global culture: Media, arts,
policy, and globalization. UK: Routledge.
Durham, M. G., and Kellner, D. M. (Eds.). (2012) Media and cultural studies: Keyworks.
UK: John Wiley & Sons.
Hilhorst, D., and Pereboom, E. (2015) Multi-mandate organisations in humanitarian aid. In
The New Humanitarians in International Practice, UK: Routledge, pp. 85-102.
Hutton, G., and Fosdick, M. (2011) The globalization of social media: Consumer
relationships with brands evolve in the digital space. Journal of advertising research, 51(4),
pp. 564-570.
Mirrlees, T. (2013) Global entertainment media: Between cultural imperialism and cultural
globalization. UK: Routledge.