Media
needs globalization
Barlas
F. Esin - Unsystematic
Ideas
Globalization is a recent phenomenon that
has quickly gained wide acceptance among
the American public. As the dissemination
of news has become instantaneous - thanks
to the Internet and digital technology -
media companies have begun to merge into
global firms. These alarmingly powerful
media monopolies, whose span and influence
far exceed the United States, can reach
all across the world.
Therefore,
understanding the nature of media mergers
or conglomerates is crucial for understanding
the nature of globalization. It is also
important because the media continually
affect our perceptions and beliefs by determining
the news content. We now, more than ever,
need to know the truth hidden behind the
media curtain.
Several
of today’s most powerful media monopolies
are Viacom, AOL/Time-Warner, Disney, Sony
and News Corporation. These names may raise
certain concerns in people’s minds, though
we may not feel educated enough to address
them.
I’m
sure most of us are familiar with such media
companies as Paramount Pictures, UPN, MTV,
VH1, Nickelodeon, BET, Blockbuster, CBS,
TNN, Comedy Central, etc. They all have
their share of viewers supporting them.
Yet all of these firms are owned by a single
parent company: Viacom. Scary, but true.
Like
Viacom, AOL/Time Warner also owns a variety
of diverse media companies: AOL, Warner
Bros., CNN, Netscape Navigator, Amazon.com,
Time, Fortune, Life, HBO, New Line Cinema,
etc. Even good-old Disney has become dangerously
vast in power, having ownership of such
companies as Walt Disney Pictures, Touchstone
Pictures, ABC, A&E, History Channel,
Disney Channel, E! Entertainment, Miramax
Books, NBA.com, NFL.com and so on (For complete
information on the media mergers, I advise
everybody to check out www.cjr.org/owners/index.asp>).
All
of these conglomerates share one common
innate characteristic: They control various
media branches, which extend like a spider
web from America to Europe, to East Asia
and Australia.
We
cannot halt or slow down the process of
globalization. So it seems that fresh monopolies
are bound to surface, while the established
ones will grow ever more powerful. Whether
you are using print, broadcast, radio or
the Internet as your main communication
medium, you are probably supporting the
social and economic interests of at least
a few of these conglomerates.
The
situation does possess, however, some positive
implications. For example, media mergers
are beneficial because they support the
financial well being of the market economy
— thus the nation as a whole. They also
make the world a smaller and more relevant
place —the concept of a global village —
wherein Indonesia and Papua New Guinea are
no longer remote names to American ears.
We
still need to remain aware of the harmful
implications though. For example, in recent
years the largest media giants have attained
enormous success in affecting the media
laws and regulations in their own favor
and against the interests of the general
public. Their concentrated power allows
them to become an even greater factor in
miseducating each generation with entertainment
paradigms of behavior and of personal values.
In other words, the media may not tell us
what to think, but they surely tell us what
to think about.
The
power play that is taking place between
competing conglomerates also upholds the
prevalence of the profit-driven mentality,
which affects the accuracy of objective
news reporting. The priority has become
gaining more audiences to increase earnings
and dominate the market economy — both domestically
and internationally. In this sense, the
media monopolies endanger the survival of
highly respected, small-size newspapers,
forcing them to merge in order to sustain
their existence.
The
truth is simple: Globalization needs media,
and vice versa. However, we stand in the
middle of this equation. We are crucial
for the progress of globalization and the
future stability of these media monopolies,
so our voices and opinions can help generate
a healthy balance of power. That’s the reason
why we need to spend more time and effort
trying to understand the media phenomena
rather than just keeping up with the new
media trends.
We
can ultimately become more aware “global”
citizens by using a variety of reliable
news sources, by analyzing sensational trends,
and most importantly, by being skeptical
of media monopolies — instead of ignorantly
accepting globalization as a new dogma.
Barlas
F. Esin is a journalism and philosophy double
major.
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