lobalization shows how the world’s cultures, populations, and economies are interdependent on one another
Since time immemorial social interaction among human beings has always been a big part of a person’s life. Interaction is two way such that both parties should benefit from the interaction. Various situations in life make people interact to help each other out in times of hardships. Interaction helps people solve complex problems that would be otherwise hard to address if they acted alone. Today not just people interact, but also countries across the world. This form of interaction between countries is called globalization. Globalization has helped many countries grow economically and improve the living standards of their citizens. Globalization shows how the world’s cultures, populations, and economies are interdependent on one another.
Many sectors in the world have started globalization to be able to grow faster. The media is faced with many challenges, and its growth in some countries has been poor. One major challenge of the media is the political influence media houses face from authorities in their countries (Potter 13). The media helps people know everything that is going on in the world, and this importance cannot be overlooked. Globalization in the media has helped bring the world together in a way that promotes many virtues among people. A person can view the world from anywhere they are through phone, television screen, or a computer. Globalization in the media has many positive aspects that continue to help the world in many ways.
The global market has enjoyed huge benefits from media globalization. Firms learn of better prices from other countries and produce goods to export to foreign consumers (Kasemsap 32). Many nations are not self-sufficient and need to import goods from other countries. Through the media, countries acquire high-quality products and raw material as information about them is available. Expanding the global market implies that the market becomes larger, bringing more returns. Foreign firms are also able to advertise their products through the media to low-income countries to purchase them at lower prices. Media globalization in these concepts helps in the growth of the world economy.
Globalization of the media has helped shrink the world. Globalization of the media has shattered social boundaries in the world and brought a huge transformation in interaction (Lule 30). Marshall McLuhan, a Canadian theorist, formulated the idea of a Global village in 1960. According to Marshall, the world has been reduced to a village due to advancements in the fields of science and technology, the media being one of them. Due to globalization in the media, the people in the world live close together. Through the media, people are able to share their problems, emotions, and ideas. The media has helped people benefit from inventions and discoveries of other people since they can learn about them wherever they are in the world. The media informs people across the world on ideas they can share in a short time, which makes it a more great experience. Communication through various media channels provides an opportunity for people to contact others over distant locations.
The globalization of the media has promoted competition in many sectors across the world. All sectors in the world compete in their own fields in order to remain in the market. The industry is a sector where the stakeholders compete to outdo one another to retain their position in the market. The media promotes this kind of competition by providing information on various companies’ products. In this way, a competitor who is anywhere in the world gets the information and starts to make their product better than those of others. Media is the only channel that helps a company become aware of such an event. Competition helps companies’ increase the quality of their goods and reduce their prices. Companies are able to invent new products through competition as they are made aware of an opportunity through the media.
Globalization of the media has promoted education across the world. With technological advancement in the media industry, new forms of education have emerged (Rai 20). Through the use of the internet, students are able to access classes from other countries from their own countries. The media helps students get the information they need in their studies as a student can learn how to solve a problem that was solved by a foreign student. Globalization of the media has also helped students in diversification as they can also interact with foreign scholars, which broaden their minds. The media also offers a channel to further studies. With the globalization of the media, it is possible to take different courses at a time, which has increased the number of graduates and consequently, the number of ideas that people have on improving their livelihoods.
The globalization of the media has had a huge contribution in legal and administration matters. The media covers events happening across the world to a large extent. Through the media, international mediators are able to learn about civil wars happening in a foreign country where they offer their help to the people. Intergovernmental courts like the International Criminal court are also able to learn about those who have committed crimes against humanity and are able to intervene and charge them. Economic sanctions are also imposed on governments that refuse to adopt international conventions through information provided by the media.
The globalization of the media has helped in poverty eradication. Many countries in the world had many resources; they did not know how to utilize it. Through the media, information on such resources is given to them and are able to learn about how to use these resources. Through globalization, companies utilizing these products started and have grown to become global competitors of their pioneers. The media has also promoted education by offering new ideas to learners. Job opportunities have also been created by working online for foreign organizations. All these factors help in the fight to eradicate poverty.
The media has also led to cross-cultural management. Culture is the particular way people do things, and they way they believe and what they value. Bringing together cultures from across the world would have been hard if there was no channel to learn about them. Through the media, people have come to learn about other cultures across the world. Gender equality was not recognized in some countries, and women were not allowed to become leaders or engage in business. After the globalization of the media, many countries adopted this culture, and women have become great world leaders and top businesswomen. Gender equality has now become a global culture and is being recognized by many legal systems in the world.
Media globalization has led to increased foreign investment. Through the media, foreign companies are able to learn about business gaps existing in foreign companies as information flows in media daily. Companies invest in such opportunities and even manage them through the internet. Without the media, it would be equally hard to learn about these opportunities. The media provides information on banks, the interest they offer, and their services; this has enabled people to open bank accounts in other countries where they are able to get higher interest on deposits. The capital market has also grown as people can buy shares from foreign companies.
Science and technology have also benefited from media globalization. Scientists across the world are able to share new ideas through the media. This has helped in the growth of technology due to the fast and efficient way of sharing ideas. A scientist in the process of developing a new technology also combines ideas from mass media, which is available all the time. The growth in this sector has been ignited by media globalization due to the ease scientist find in learning new ideas.
Although media globalization has many positive effects, there are a number of challenges that it has led to. There are social, economic, and political negative effects of media globalization. When advancement like media globalization takes place, there are a few aspects that are left disadvantaged as they cannot fit into the new system. The negative effects are also brought about by people who act contrary to the aspect of media globalization. By taking advantage of media globalization, people are able to exploit new ways of utilizing dangerous activities.
Media globalization has led to the ease of doing crime. Terrorist attacks in the last decade have been on the rise. Terrorist groups use the media to bully governments and people into making certain demands to them (Franko 44). When terrorist groups capture people, they torture them and give the information through the media so as to make orders. In this instance, the media is used in the wrong way, which has dangerous mental effects on victims and their families. Cybercrime is also eased by the use of the advanced technology found in the media industry. Criminals hack social media accounts and spread wrong information without the owner’s consent. Banks and many firms have lost property through cybercrime, which has led to big losses. Cybercrime continues to be a big threat in many developing countries.
Media globalization has led to the erosion of culture. Through television shows and movies, many people in the world have changed their behavior. People have learned about the culture of other people and are not able to separate good and bad behavior (Crane 43). People have left their cultures in the way they wear and even how people relate to one another. People turn to social media to course other people harm. The social media has been used as a tool to demoralize people for their actions. Whenever someone is wrong, people attack them through their social media accounts and use abusive language against them.
The positive aspects of media globalization largely outweigh the negative aspects. The contribution of media globalization has had cannot be undermined. It continues to bring the world together, solve economic and social problems. The media has helped in times of disaster, which has helped the human race from hunger, poverty, and exploitation by individuals with ill-motives.
Works Cited
Potter, W. James. Media literacy. Sage Publications, 2018.
Kasemsap, Kijpokin. “The roles of social media marketing and brand management in global marketing.” Social media marketing: Breakthroughs in research and practice. IGI Global, 2018. 425-453.
Rai, Binita. “IMPACT OF GLOBALIZATION ON QUALITY EDUCATION IN SIKKIM.” Advance and Innovative Research (2019): 62.
Crane, Diana, Nobuko Kawashima, and Ken’ichi Kawasaki, eds. Global culture: Media, arts, policy, and globalization. Routledge, 2016.
Lule, Jack. Globalization and media: Global village of Babel. Rowman & Littlefield, 2017.
Franko, Katja. Globalization and Crime. SAGE Publications Limited, 2019.