Globalization of Communications Media

JCOM 240

Spring 2003

Thom McCain

Global, Regional, National, Local Media

• Global media– Local productions done with global form and idea

• “Baywatch”

• Globalization– Worldwide spread of media companies

• News Corporation – Rupert Murdock

• Regionalization– Media through a geographical region

• Inability of Europe-wide television market to develop– European media is still divided by language and culture

• Brazilian soap operas – Telenovelas

Globalization Strategies

• Cultural proximity– Desire of audiences to see programs from their own or similar cultures

• Egyptian productions are more popular than American productions through the middle east

• Americans will only watch English language productions – Dubbing

• Re-recording the audio• American audiences are not receptive to dubbed programming

• Other cultural aspects that define an audience – Jokes, slang, historical references

• U.S. sitcoms don’t work in Latin America

• Targeting cultural-linguistic markets– Targeted at language and cultural communities

– Markets are developing in regional areas

Press Theories

• Four Theories of the Press (1956)– Siebert, Peterson, and Schramm

• Classifications reflect polarization of the Cold War• Divided media system into four categories

– Authoritarian, libertarian, social responsibility, and Soviet/totalitarian

• Developing nations’ media now described as developmental

• With the fall of Communism in Russia the Soviet/totalitarian media system is referred to as authoritarian

Authoritarian model

• Control over media – To maintain authority over their citizens

• Historically – Nazi Germany, Soviet Union, and Mao era China – Control the population

• Totalitarian states – Cuba, Iraq, North Korea, Myanmar, and Afghanistan – Censorship for moral content

• Iran forbids the broadcast of “Baywatch”

– Censorship of political news• Cuba

Developmental Model

• Government operates the media in order to promote economic and social development – Developing nations of Africa,

Asia, and Latin America

• Less control over content than Authoritarian – Media enlisted in effort to

promote national development • Market economics has led to

privatization of media and private competition

– Media asked to voluntarily cooperate

• India is an example of a nation with the developmental approach

– Newspapers and magazines are privately owned

– Government owns and operates radio and television

• Promote agriculture, health, and education

Privatization in Indian Radio

Free Press/Libertarian Model

• Theory developed in the eighteenth century – Emphasizes the need for freedom of expression for well informed

voters

• Print media in most countries are run under the libertarian theory – Electronic media is usually not run under the libertarian theory

• U.S. is an example of a nation with the libertarian model – Very little control over print media– Broadcast media is controlled more closely by government

• The Internet is truly libertarian – No controlling authority– China and Singapore have tried to control the Internet using

firewalls and filtering software

Social Responsibility Model

• Free expression with some limits – Government regulations or self-regulation – Media is controlled by media professionals who operate the

media using a code of professional ethics

• British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) operates under the social responsibility model – Financed by license fees

paid by radio and television set owners

– Avoid government and advertising influence

– Programmers are guided by strong ethics

BBC Newsroom

Globalization of Media Companies

• Top 9 global firms dominate world market– Preponderance of US firms

• AOL Time Warner (U.S.)– CNN, WB

• Disney (U.S.)– ABC, ESPN

• Bertelsmann (German), RCA records

• Viacom (U.S.)

• News Corp. (Australian)– Fox

• AT&T/TCI (U.S.)

• GE/NBC (U.S.)

• Sony/Columbia/TriStar (Japanese)

• Vivendi-Universal (French)

News Agencies

• Telegraph produced news wire services in the 1840’s– International news flow

• Associated Press (AP)– Cooperative of American newspapers– 1848

• Reuters– Great Britain – International news for the British Empire

• United Press International (UPI)– Developed as a competitor to AP

• Agence France Presse (AFP)– Joint government probate agency

• Serves France and French speaking nations

• Critics argue that American and European wire services emphasize disaster and sensation

Radio Broadcasting

• International radio– Public diplomacy– Short-wave frequencies

• Voice of America, Radio Havana

• National radio– Government control

• Spectrum allocation– Scarce frequency rationale

• Education or propaganda– India - solve major health and education problems

– Private ownership• Profit motive

– Public Radio• BBC

– License fees

Music

• Music is the most globalized media – Around the world you hear American music– All areas of the world have their own music

• Music flow– American and British music dominate – Anglo-American messages abut sex, violence, drugs

• Clash with local values

• International ownership – AOL Time Warner, Sony, Polygram, and Philps

• National & classical music is subsidized– Many countries have national symphony orchestra – Classical music in the U.S. is supported by National Endowment

for the Arts

Film

• Film media is difficult for many nations to sustain– The cost of film is so high it eliminates many nations from production

– The average Hollywood film cost $40 million +

• U.S. dominates film production– U.S. produced movies fill 70% of the theatre seats

– It is very difficult for non U.S. productions to break into international production

• Export promotion– U.S movies are actively promoted by Motion Picture Association of

America (MPAA)

• Subsidized film industry – France and Spain – U.S. has objected to subsidized film industries as an unfair trade practice

Video

• In many countries films are seen on home video more often than in theaters – Increase of middle class households that own VCRs

• U.S. productions dominate the video rental market– Video rentals are supplied by Hollywood films

• Diversification in video rental is following the movement of immigrant populations – Immigrants prefer to watch television from home

• Movies and television programs

Television

• Television divided between government, private, and public control• In Africa, Asia, and Eastern Europe government ownership and

control – Supported through government funds

• Public broadcasting– Public cooperation

• PBS in the US• BBC in UK and NHK in Japan

– License fee on TV sets

• Privatization trends– Reduce the cost to the public

• CBC in Canada

– Reduce political control• New Zealand “Cultural Adjustment Seminars”

Television Flows

• More restricted international flow– U.S. television is global

• Cultural imperialism– Half of the world’s countries get 1/2 of their TV from the U.S.

– Quotas limiting the amount of U.S. TV programs imported • European Economic Community requires at least 50% of television be

produced in Europe

• Television exports increase share of profits from production • Foreign shows are entering the U.S. market • Because of convergence the cost of producing local television has

been decreasing • Television news

– Increase in news via satellite• CNN and other satellite news operations

Cable and Satellite Television

• Direct satellite broadcast (DBS)– Direct-to-Home (DTH)– Cable channels and language specific services

• Star TV in Europe and Asia – Owned by Fox’s Rupert Murdock

• Saudi channel aimed at Middle East

• Satellite Television – Cable stations feed systems worldwide

• CNN, MTV, HBO, ESPN, TNT, Nickelodeon, the Cartoon Network, Discovery Channel, and Disney Channel

• Some countries moved to fully digital television and cable– British Sky Broadcasting initiated 140 digital cable TV

Telecommunications Systems

• U.S. and Japan have 50 telephones per 100 people– Most other countries have fewer the 50 telephones per 100 people

• Worldwide public satellite network– Intelsat

• Consortium of telephone companies

– Inmarsat• Marine and mobile communications

• PTT Postal, telephone, telegraph – Most state owned telephone systems

• Liberalization – Newer services offered by PTT

• Cellular telephone is growing faster in Europe and the Far East– U.S. failure to accept digital cell phone standards

Computers and the Internet

• Computers have been spreading slowly world-wide– Hardware is too expensive for Third World Nations

• The Internet– Scandinavia and Singapore moving faster than US– In the third world slow telephone lines limit the Internet to text

only

• Trans-border data flow – Dominated by the U.S.– Seen as a tool for U.S. corporate power– Political

• Zapatista Liberation Front uses the Internet to get world support

– Authoritarian nations are looking for a way to control access to political content

– Saudi Arabian Student Use -- Talal

International Regulation

• International law– No enforcement – Closing down of pirate radio stations off the coast of the United

Kingdom was in fact an act of war

• International Telecommunication Union– Technical standards – Radio spectrum allocations – Satellite Footprint

• Issues in international regulation of the Internet – Assignment of domain names – Standards for privacy – Taxations – Hate speech

Transborder Data Flows

• Seen by critics as a tool increasing U.S. corporate power– Use of remote sensing

• Enable corporations to monitor resources in Third World nations giving them a economic advantage – Health of Brazilian coffee crop or locations of minerals

• Centralized control over multinational corporations – Closing and downsizing branches around the world

• Loss of jobs and revenue

– Moving production to low-wage nations – Moving data entry and programming jobs to countries

like India

Cultural Imperialism

• Unequal flow of film, television, music, and news from the U.S. to the rest of the world – Causes cultural erosion

• American style of dress all over the world

• American words creeping into other languages – It is a crime for French journalist to use English

– Concern about the level of frustration in Third World cased by the materialistic values in the media

• American media is having less influence around the world – Other nations are producing more programming – Media in many nations is subsided by the government– Import of U.S. media is limited in some nations

Cultural Impact of Information Flow

• Global media has produced an increase in the variety of content flowing between countries – No country can isolate itself– New ideas and values are flowing between nations

• Rapid change in the world’s culture is producing a “global village”– Marshall McLuhan (1964)

• What will the global village be like?– Hollywood films, Anglo-American pop music, and American

television • Sex, violence, drugs, sexism, and racism

– Optimistic view is of a decentralized global village • International cooperation

Free Flow of Information vs. Sovereignty

• Fear that unbalanced flow of information will diminish national sovereignty – Free flow of information reflects the concept of freedom of

speech – National sovereignty reflects concern over control of national

resources including media • National sovereignty is used as a justification for control of media flow

• UNESCO debated over free and balanced flow of information between 1976 and 1979– Proposal would give greater control to government to control

information – U.S. withdrew from discussion in protest over the proposed

limitation on journalistic freedom

Trade in Media

• Media flow is a trade issue raised by treaty organizations – European Union (EU), and North American Free Trade

Agreement (NAFTA)– Media content is a major export for the U.S.– Europe and Canada have rules to limit imports of American

media to support internal production and protect culture

• General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs (GATT)– Trade talks lobbied to keep countries from protecting film and

television industries– European nations opposed such a change

• European Union has tried to open up trade in media content

• World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) – Created in 1974 to protect copyright

Media and National Development

• Media can play a role in national development – Promote education, health, agriculture, local religious and cultural

values

• Developing nations do not need slick American entertainment programs and advertising

• ITU and the World Bank support investing more funds in telephone and telecommunications systems in the Third World – Further investment would have the effect of increasing poor

nations’ international debt • Investment needs to stay away from slick entertainment programming

and emphasize telecommunications that will help build the economy

Communication and the Future

Communication Technology’s Life Cycles

• Precursor – imagination, prereq’s exist• Invention – short period, prototype made• Development – longer period, market• Maturity – integrated into life forces • Pretenders – some advantages, enough?• Obsolescence – 5-10% of life cycle• Antiquity – museum pieces (mechanical calculator,

typewriter, carbon paper)

Moore’s law of integrated circuits

• Transistors decrease in size by ½ every 24 months– Computing capacity (the number of transistors on a chip) double

every 24 months (or less)– Speed of each transistor doubles every 24 months

• This may be an under estimation

Moore’s law at work

• Year Transistors in Intel Chips• 1972 3,500• 1974 6,000• 1978 29,000• 1985 275,000• 1989 1,200,000• 1993 3,100,000• 1995 5,500,000• 1997 7,500,000• 1999 15,000,000

Ray Kurzweil’s laws of accelerating growth in computer technologies

• Exponential growth and the game of chess– Growth powerful, but deceptive– “knee of the curve”brings unrelenting fury of development

• Digital Divide– How will the whole world benefit?– Can access be assumed– Does political economy of communication technology match

technical capacity?

Communicating in the future

• Can do anything, with anyone, everywhere, at any time• Most meetings can be accomplished virtually

– High resolution 3-D images projected through direct-eye displays and audio lenses. Resolution exceeds human eye

– Technology totally emersive and wearable

Tactile Environments

• Resolution exceeds or equals human touch– Pressure, temperature, textures, moistness– Total haptic environment requires entering a VR booth

• Medical exams and your virtual health

• Sensual/sexual experiences with human or simulated partners

Disabilities

• Optical sensors used by blind and sighted persons• Deaf persons read through lens displays• Paraplegic and quadriplegic routinely walk, climb stairs,

are “on their own.”• Generally the disabilities are not observable to others

Implications of Moore’s Law

• Innovation in communication technology is on an increasingly fast innovation curve.– More technologies will be invented in the next 20 years than have

been imagined in all of prior human history– Kurzweil predicts by the year 2020 this will have computers

exceeding human intelligence• They already do in some areas

• What will be next?

2020 is coming

• A computer will be everywhere– Walls, tables, jewelry, our bodies– The environments of virtual reality will directly display on contact

lenses or the retina. The clarity of the VR display will exceed the capacity of the current human eye.

– Three dimensional audio will be similarly available

2020 continued

• Keyboards are rare– Most interaction will be with gestures using hands, fingers, facial

expressions, two-way natural spoken language.– Interaction with computers will mimic interaction with other

intelligent beings– Personalities of computers will be essential and varied – just like

other intelligent beings

• Cables will have largely disappeared

Moore’s Law Implications -- Kurzweil

• Computational capacity of a $4,000 computing device is approximately equal to the computational capability of the human brain– 20 million, billion calculations per second

• Memory in 2020 is an electronic phenomenon, not a mechanical one– Neural Implant chips are introduced