What shapes the News?

Global JournalismGlobal Journalism

Journalism and

SOCIETY

Rather than society being our own community, city, region, state or even country, we are

now, more than ever, part of the world community.

Are you impacted by the global economy?

How did we get to this point?

The evolution of globalization.

Three step process

• The rise of the nation-stateThe rise of the nation-state (1492-1800): powerful governments dominated the world (France, Great Britain, Spain, etc) and they controlled commerce and the transmission of information.

• 1800’s through the mid-1990’s: multi-national multi-national businessesbusinesses controlled commerce and influenced governments, sometimes even surpassing the governments in power.

Then came the InternetInternet.

And nothing has been the same since.

How has the Internet changed the world?

How has the Internet changed the world?

Didn’t globalization start with the Nina, the Pinta and

the Santa Maria?

Haven’t we been global for a long time now?

What is different now?

Governments can’t control information

• How can the French government control their own culture if the French people can read anything on the Internet?

• Last fall, the reigning government in the Honduras tried to shut down the media but word spread on the Internet around the world.

Multi-national businesses are also losing their stranglehold.

• Macy’s may own all the department stores but you can now go on the Internet and bypass the major retailers. You can go straight to the manufacturers, or smaller retailers.

• As a result, we see constant acquiring, merging and partnering of companies.

Such as …

• JP Morgan Chase• ExxonMobil• Miller/ Coors/ SAB• DaimlerChrysler• GlaxoSmithKline• WCW/ WWE• Dow/ Rohm & Haas

• Anheuser Busch/ InBev

• Macy’s owns Bloomingdales, Strawbridges, Filene’s, Hecht’s, Kauffman’s, Burdine’s, etc.

Do you feel the impact of global conglomerates?

Think about the media use log and the impact of the media

on your life.

Who tells you what products are the best?

The major media operations are European or American.

So what?

• With so much information coming out of so few operations, is there a threat to society?

With so few people controlling all of the world’s messages, are we creating a massive

cultural hegemony?

Eat like an American.

• More than 31,000 restaurants in 119 countries, serving 47 million people daily.

Whose culture will dominate the world?

Even without mass media?

What’s the harm in the world being able to watch Friends?

You can watch the Simpson’s in dozens of languages

around the world!

MTV is available in more than 400 million homes

around the world.

Gulp.

Does conglomeration and globalization undermine native

cultures?

Cultural ImperialismCultural Imperialism?

• Mass media is used to open & control new markets.

• Media promote unified tastes (for example, non-regional dialects).

• Commercial media stimulate desire in consumer culture.

• Supports unequal power relations & dependency.

Negative Trends of Globalization

• Poorer nations left behind

• Poorer nations less able to contribute their way of seeing the world

• Western media focus on negatives: poverty, disease, disasters

Positive Trends of Globalization

• Globalization of media increases freedom to report news

• Communication gadgets empower individuals to seek out information; create reports; challenge authority

• International news system keeps people connected in “real time”

When the monks protested in Myanmar, we heard about it despite the

government shutting down the Internet.

Does conglomeration and globalization force people away

from the major media outlets?

Yes.

The MASS MEDIA is NOT personalThe MASS MEDIA is NOT personal.

In trying to reach the largest audience, the content is more and more watered down.

What is the next step?

Niche media.

Community journalism.

Elsewhere …

• Journal-Register own the suburban ring community papers

• PMH owns city neighborhood papers• New Times media owns alt weeklies across

the country• Community and niche websites are popping

up everywhere• YouTube and bloggers are everywhere• iReports on CNN and other citizen journalism

There will always be the massive operations.

But the middle operations will struggle to reinvent themselves.

HyperlocalHyperlocal will survive.

People will always want to know what

happened in their neighborhood.

What are you going to do?

Now that you know the media is evolving, what do you want to do in your career?