Global Media

1. 15 Global Media

2. Global Media • A Short History of Global Media • Global Media Today • The Debate over Cultural Imperialism • Developing Media Literacy Skills • Chapter Review

3. A Short History of Global Media • International Mass Media Before Satellites • Beginning in the mid-1900s, the major European colonial powers used shortwave radio to connect with colonies • Shortwave was (and still is) well suited for transmission over very long distances, because its high frequencies reflect—or skip—off the ionosphere, producing sky waves that can travel vast distances

4. A Short History of Global Media • Antigovernment (anti-regime) radio constituted important segment of international broadcasting • Clandestine stations typically emerged “from the darkest shadows of political conflict” • Relatively few clandestine operations functioning inside the regions to which they transmit are classified as indigenous stations • Radio stations operating from outside are exogenous stations

5. A Short History of Global Media • Pirate Broadcasters—illegally operated stations broadcasted to British audiences from offshore or foreign facilities. • 1940: U.S. established what would eventually be known as the Voice of America (VOA) to counter enemy propaganda and disseminate information about America • Britain augmented its colonial broadcast system with an external service called the BBC World Service

6. A Short History of Global Media • 1985: Success of surrogate services—broadcast operations established by one country to substitute for another’s own domestic service—prompted U.S. to establish special division of VOA, Radio Martí, to broadcast into Communist Cuba • 91 million listeners a day tune in to VOA broadcasts in 53 languages • Another 20 million people in 23 developing countries listen to surrogate operations

7. A Short History of Global Media • Satellites and Global Mass Media • 1957: satellite revolution began with successful launch and orbit of the Soviet Union’s Sputnik • 1962: U.S. placed second satellite, AT&T’s Telstar I, in orbit • Congress established the Communications Satellite Corporation (COMSAT) • President Kennedy convened a consortium of Western and nonaligned countries to establish the International Telecommunications Satellite Organization (INTELSAT)

8. A Short History of Global Media • 1982: INTELSAT’s system became large and technologically sophisticated enough to begin offering its television customers full-time leases rather than the customary single-show service

9. Global Media Today • Comparative Analyses • Public service remit—British Independent Television Authority (ITA) must accept limits on the amount of advertising and agree to specified amounts of public affairs and documentary news programming in exchange for their broadcast licenses • Prior restraint can occur, but only when a committee of government officials and representatives of the media industry can agree on issuance of D-notice

10. Global Media Today • Development concept—government and media working in partnership to ensure that media assist in planned, beneficial development of the country • No country “officially” embraces revolutionary concept as a normative theory, but this does not mean that a nation’s media will never serve the goals of revolution

11. Global Media Today • Authoritarian systems and communist systems call for the subjugation of the media for the purpose of serving the government • Financially, Chinese broadcasting operates under direct government subsidy • In China there is wide distribution of wired radio, centrally located loudspeakers that deliver primarily political and educational broadcasts

12. Global Media Today • Programming • Radio and television programming throughout the world looks and sounds much like that found in the U.S. • U.S. a world leader in international distribution of broadcast fare • Early in the life of television, American producers flooded the world with their programming at very low prices

13. The Debate over Cultural Imperialism • The MacBride Report and the NWIO • 1980: UNESCO’s MacBride Report studied how to maintain national and cultural sovereignty in face of rapid globalization of mass media • Some countries saw Western-produced content as a form of colonialization • Cultural imperialism—invasion of indigenous people’s culture by powerful foreign countries through mass media • Every Western U.S. allies had quotas that limited U.S. media content in their counties

14. The Debate over Cultural Imperialism The Global Top-10 Media Conglomerates, 2002 Source: “Variety’s Global 50,” 2002.

15. The Debate over Cultural Imperialism • The Case For the Global Village • Global village proponents see world community coming closer together as common culture is negotiated and as we become more economically interconnected • Should be little fear that individual cultures and national identities will disappear, because the world’s great diversity ensures culture-specific, special interest fare remains in demand

16. The Debate over Cultural Imperialism • The Case Against the Global Village • The global village is here, and the problem is what it looks like • Professor Richard Rosenberg predicts the erosion of national sovereignty • There is no simple answer to the debate over protecting the integrity of local cultures

17. Developing Media Literacy Skills • Making Our Way in the Global Village • If the common culture that binds us is that of Mickey Mouse, is harmony worth the loss of individual, idiosyncratic cultures? • The new communication technologies will connect us in ways that were unimaginable in pre-Internet times

18. Chapter Review • International telecommunications has its roots in the clandestine radio stations operated during WWII and the Cold War • Satellites made global telecommunications possible • Comparative analysis traditionally examines different countries’ media systems in terms of the normative theories that guide them

19. Chapter Review • Critics of cultural imperialism argue that nonnative fare inevitably debases native cultures and that global media companies exert undue influence over the flow of information • Others claim world might be better place if its people shared a more common culture and that most nations demand culture-specific content