17/Global Mass Media

1. 17/Global Mass Media Mass media are globalizing under a few companies. American media companies are dominating global media products. Globalization works against indigenous and distinctive media content. Technology has been eroding the power of nations to control mass media content.

2. A few facts • The Simpsons (FOX) aired on television in more than 60 countries last year. • Many movies created in the U.S. make more money on international sales yet more movies are created in India than in the U.S. • The News Corp.’s satellite TV signals (British Sky Broadcasting-United Kingdom, DirecTV-United States, Sky Movies-Japan, Sky Latin America-Latin America, and Star Satellite Broadcasting-Asia) reach about three-fourths of the globe. • BBC, a radio and television system funded by British government, is known for its global news coverage. It has 250 full-time correspondents, compared to CNN’s 113.

3. A few more facts • Mexican and Brazilian soap operas (telenovelas) reachas many countries as some popular U.S. television shows and are more popular in Latin America, Eastern Europe and Central Asia. • CNN (Time Warner) can reach one billion people in most countries. • MTV (Viacom)-Asia, Europe, United States, Russia, Brazil, Latin America, Canada, Japan, Africa, and Australia-is the world’s largest television channel. It can be tuned in a 419 million homes (more than one billion viewers) in 164 countries in 18 languages.

4. A few more facts • American Idol is broadcast to more than 100 nations, including many with their own version of Idol; however, it is not a live broadcast and may be tape delayed by several days or weeks (excluding Canada in which is also aired live). The Idol concept began in Great Britain, moved to the U.S., and then became an international TV show with local versions in Portugal, Denmark, Kazakhstan, Germany and the Middle East. Freemantle, a subsidiary of Bertelsmann, created the original British and American versions. Bertelsmann’s BMG music group signs the winner to a recording contract.

5. A few more facts • The Wall Street Journal‘s international editions reach about one million people, mainly in Europe, Asia, and South America. • Reader’s Digest publishes more than 49 international editions that are distributed to 19 million readers in nearly 200 countries.

6. Media conglomeration • Foreign branches: many companies have products that are altered for international residents. (Reader’s Digest) • Acquisitions: media companies buy foreign media companies. (Bertelsmann) • Mergers: creating opportunities by joining companies. (Time and Warner/then AOL and Time Warner) • Alliances: Media companies rely on other companies for foreign distribution. • Content-Distribution: media globalization through one conglomerate combining content-creation companies and content-distribution companies.

7. American media products American media companies are dominating global media products. • American media products led the global scene for several reasons. • The media products are created in a language (English) that is spoken by more people worldwide than any other language. • Freedom of expression has worldwide appeal. The freedom available in the U.S. allows a wide range of books, movies and television shows to be created, with limited interference by the government.

8. American media products • Audience diversity in the U.S. inspires media companies to create a range of products. The chance for these products to be successful in other countries is greater than those produced in less diverse societies. • Companies have the abilities to produce popular entertainment because of the big-business structure of the American economy.

9. Globalization • Globalization works against indigenous and distinctive media content. • Cultural Imperialism An unbalanced relationship in culture and media between counties. National cultures are overwhelmed by the importing of news and entertainment from other countries—mainly from the United States and other industrialized nations.

10. It’s the idea that Western values are exported onto other cultures in countries that heavily use U.S. media products. • The concern is not the flow of values among developed countries, but the flow of values from developed countries to developing countries. • Scholar Herbert Schiller said that professional Western productions will overwhelm locally produced programming. • As a result, the Western-controlled mass media preempt native culture.

11. Examples • In South Africa, bank robbers yell “freeze” after watching bank robberies for U.S. television programming. • Schiller and others say that audiences will be persuaded to adopt the values of Western media content such as capitalism, materialism and consumption. • Other scholars say that the growing effects of Western media on Third World cultures are more of a melding of Western programming into local content because most conglomerates modify programming for local cultures. • Also, many countries limit the amount of imported media content to their country, so the media’s impact is reduced.

12. Cultural imperialism • Schiller’s critics explain that the cultural imperialism argument seems to assume that people in other countries are weak and simply absorb and accept cultural messages. • Other experts say that global media companies are neutral as to content and have no ideological preferences except making money so they don’t really influence a country’s culture.

13. Emerging Global Media • Concern about Western cultural imperialism is changing because many international media companies are starting to come from countries other than the U.S. and Europe. • U.S.-based companies are working with local companies or subsidiaries to produce new, local content. U.S. companies are investing in local programming because of competition with media companies in Europe and Asia. (For example, MTV and ESPN both have built advanced production studios in Singapore. • HBO and Venezuela’s Omnivision are partners in producing HBO Ole. Mark Burnett’s The Apprentice rights recently were licensed to a company developing a similar show in China.)

14. Emerging Global Media • For example, Middle Eastern television producers created reality shows based on the popular shows in Europe and the United States. • Globalization of mass media content is expected to increase. • The six media conglomerates Time Warner, Disney, News Corporation, Viacom/CBS, NBC Universal Vivendi and Bertelsmann (together own more than 80-90 percent of the U.S. media products market) are developing new ways to distribute media content worldwide.

15. The Internet and Globalization • New technologies are opening the way for more companies to seek global audiences directly with no middlemen at low cost. (e-books, streaming radio/television) • The Internet also has provided an avenue for people to be media creators instead of passive users with blogs, podcasts, and personal websites. • Media scholars are studying if the Internet will give small companies the chance to complete on the international level with conglomerates. The resulting diversity would ease concerns about the media becoming concentrated in only a few companies.

16. Government control Technology has been eroding the power of nations to control mass media content. Media control • Many countries’ governments have been able to control media content, but citizens are finding ways to create and get information, especially via the Internet. Web-based publishing versus traditional publishing or terrestrial television versus satellite television • For example, citizens who live in a country that bans certain information can find it on websites hosted outside that country.

17. Government control • Or citizens in countries that ban certain television programs can get television reception from orbiting satellites via a blackmarket receiver. • On the other hand, countries such as China are still able to control the Internet in many ways. The Chinese government has extracted agreements from U.S. Internet firms to contain e-mail message content as a condition of doing business. • In order to do business in China, U.S. Internet firms must agree to restrict online content. • Consistent with Chinese laws, Google, Yahoo and Microsoftrestrict e-mail, news and discussions online. • Google and Yahoo censor their Chinese search engines. Microsoft bans certain words on Chinese blogs that it hosts.

18. Examples of restrictions • After a steamy video of a Brazilian model leaked onto the Internet, a judge ordered YouTube banned in Brazil until the site took down all copies of the video. • Pakistan officials tried to embargo a handful of blogs hosted by Blogger.com, but every blog on the site was blocked because of faulty ISP filtering. • Some filtering programs will allow a government to ban entire categories of sites, like pornography, gambling, or advocacy groups. This often means a country doesn't even know what sites it's blocking. • Most countries only censor sites in their local language, so CNN is accessible just about everywhere. In Iran, you can read any BBC site except BBC Persian.

19. Media control in Thailand September 2006—The leaders of Thailand’s military coup issued broadcast media directives that resulted in the closure of more than 300 community radio stations.They dissolved Thailand’s 1997 constitution, which guaranteed press freedom. The Information and Communications Technology Ministry ordered the closure of the Web site www.19sep.org, which had posted comments critical of the coup. Earlier, the military leaders had ordered all radio stations to cancel phone-in news programs, and television stations to stop displaying telephone text messages from viewers. It also ordered Web-based chat rooms to screen and censor any comments viewed as provocative to the coup-makers. www.cpj.org/censored/censored_06.html

20. Commonly censored websites • Pornographic websites (some countries and schools) • MySpace.com— in the Middle East • Wikipedia.org— in the mainland China • Political blogs and websites • Religious websites • Google • YouTube • Censorship-circumvention websites • Photos of censored media • http://jturn.qem.se/2006/more-pictures-of-iranian-censorship/ • http://blogoscoped.com/archive/2006-01-27-n42.html

21. The Economist in Iran • The Economist, 2005 • National Geographic, 2006 Cover of a couple embracing

23. Google Images Censored in China • http://blogoscoped.com/archive/2006-01-27-n42.html • In China, the system that restricts online access is call The Golden Shield.

24. Arab Media Systems • Media systems in Middle Eastern countries are quite diverse, reflecting a variety of cultures and values. • Based on CNN, Al-Jazeera is a 24-hour satellite news channel that originates from Quatar. Many shows are uncensored and include commentaries on government officials. • Dubai Media Incorporated, a quasi-government agency, operates four television channels. • Saudi-owned Middle East Broadcast Center owns the Al Arabiya satellite network, the main rival to Al Jazeera.

25. Media Systems • India’s movie industry • Bollywood (in Mumbai-was Bombay) • Model for extending the mass media into isolated areas • Government supporting program to build wi-fi centers. • These wi-fi centers link remote villages with the rest of the world.

26. Online videos • A PBS video on a software program designed for Chinese citizens to circumvent their government's Internet censorship: • http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/asia/jan-june06/china_4-18.html • Google has agreed to censor its search engine in China. In return for blocking politically sensitive terms, Google gains access to the world's No. 2 Internet market. Following a background report, an expert discusses censorship for business interests and the implications this decision may have on the Internet. • http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/cyberspace/jan-june06/google_1-25.html

27. Mass Media Questions • What ideology do most global media companies export? • American media products dominate the global scene for several reasons. Explain why. • American media products are easily available in other countries. What media products from other countries are easily available here? Why is there such a difference? • What can be expected if global consolidation of mass media companies continues? • How has the ability of nations to control media content changed with new technologies? • Why has MTV become such an international phenomenon? What factors influence the international success of television programming? • Discuss examples of media content that have international reach.