MED4107 New Media and Photography | Week 3 | Media Globalisation

Media Globalisation Reading Response

Media globalisation is defined by Long and Wall (2012) as the “phenomena like the world wide distribution of identical programme content or globally interchangeable programme formats, and the distribution of special interest information, targeting a globally dispersed minority in any one national audience”.  Rantanen (2005) gives an insight into the history of studies on globalisation, saying studies emerged in the early 1990’s.

Rantanen (2005) talks about Gidden’s theory on the three stages to the debate on globalization, which are number one; whether globalisation actually exists, secondly; what the consequences of globalisation are and lastly; what the response should be for those negative consequences. By saying that there are only negative consequences, it makes me think that they view globalisation as a negative thing, which is different to what Long and Wall (2012) discussed. 

Personally I think that globalisation is a good thing, because it is important for the whole world to be connected through the same media information and to see one another’s culture.  Negative consequences of globalisation are things like exploitation and a shrinking world, whereas positive consequences are things like equality, communication, integration of economies and recognition, which are important factors to the modern world.

A main theme in the Long and Wall (2012) reading was the idea of the digital divide. The digital divide is defined by them as “a social issue referring to the differing amount of information between those who have access to Internet and those who do not”.  The old digital divide is the divide between those who have access to technology and those who do not, whereas the new digital divide is the divide between those who use technology and those who do not. (Long and Wall, 2012).  The digital divide means that there is differing information reaching those who have access to/use technology to those who do not, which I believe has helped western dominance.  

When it comes to new media and specifically the Internet, there are problems with global access to information, with one of them being “those who are not searching in English are disadvantaged, given that English has been, and remains, the lingua franca of the web”, Long and Wall (2012). But could it be argued that individual countries should be responsible for developing web content appropriate to them?

For future research regarding media globalisation, I would be interested in researching how the digital divide affects those in countries where access to Internet is denied, as Long and Wall (2012) says that denied access to internet happens “when oppressive or paranoid governments use the pretext of protecting citizens from ‘subversive ideas’ or defending ‘national security’ or ‘national cohesion’”.  I would tailor the research more towards social media, as this is where my personal interests lay. A suitable methodology would be political economy analysis, as this looks at the nature of production, distribution and consumption of resources, and the social relations under what that takes place.

References

Long, P. and Wall, T. (2012) Media studies: texts, production, context. 2nd edn. Oxon: Taylor & Francis.

Rantanen, T. (2005) The media and globalization. Thousand Oaks: SAGE.