16. Global Media

Richard E. CaplanThe University of Akron

16. Global Media

Christopher BurnettCalifornia State, Long

Beach

Differing Standards of Practice

• Most Wireless “Hot Spots” in the world– Paris, France with 2,934

• “TV Champion”– Popular Japanese game show in which contestants show endurance by eating spicy foods

• Venezuela’s RCTV– Shut down by President Hugo Chavez in 2007

• BBCTV– British TV supported by license fees instead of ads

Daniel T. Yara/morguefile.com

Wireless Hotspots by Rank

Illustration 16.1

Political Theories and the Media

• Soviet Theory– Government owned and operated mass media

• Authoritarian Theory– Government control and approval of media content

• Libertarian Theory– Media freedom and protection

• Social Responsibility Theory– Government oversight of media

• Developmental Theory– Mix of theories in developing nations

Nicholas Kamm/AFP Getty Images

World Media Systems

• Varied media systems• Influence of print

– North America, Europe, Australia

– 2/3 of world’s newspapers

• Dominance of radio– Developing nations with scarce resources

• Influence of television– Prosperous nations– Developing nations

• Urban centers• Government controlled

New Yorker Collection 1993 Lee Lorenz cartoonbank.com

Western Europe and Canada

• Press freedom– Some British restrictions– Stricter libel laws in France and Greece

– Scandinavia most liberal– Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, 1982

• Print Media– European press more partisan

• Audio and Video Media– Move toward private ownership– Watch half the TV Americans watch

– Mostly American programming– Fears of “Cultural Imperialism”

jmmelton/motleyimage

Eastern Europe

• Media helped bring change• Audio and Video Media

– Once government owned– Voice of America and Radio Free Europe provided radio counter-messages

• Print Media– Also government operated– Pravda - official Soviet newspaper

• Glasnost and change– Western ads allowed– 1990, media freedoms granted– 1996. Pravda goes bankrupt

John Lamb/Getty Images/Stone

Middle East and North Africa

• Print Media– Tightly controlled– Heavy government restrictions

• Audio and Visual Media– Government controlled– TV typically from early morning until midnight

– Foreign language radio• Alternative news source• BBC• Radio Monte Carlo (Paris)

– VCRs, DVD players and pirated video

– Al Jazeera (Arab CNN)

AP/Wide World Photo

Africa• History of European domination

• Print Media– Many carried-over colonial papers

– Strong advocacy content– Regionalism makes mass print difficult

– Drum magazine, South Africa– City Press– Argus Group, South Africa

• Struggled against apartheid

• Audio and Video Media– Dominance of radio

• Easily accessible• Lower literacy rates

– Very low television ownership

John Chiasson/Getty Images

Japan

• Most newspaper readers in the world– Tokyo based papers

• Japanese Broadcasting Corporation (NHK)– Licensing like FCC– Board like BBC– Mix of private and public ownership

– World’s most prosperous broadcasting company

– Limited cable access

Chung Sung Jun/Getty Images

Australia

• Dominated by Rupert Murdoch– Controls 60% of newspapers

– Daily Telegraph Mirror, Sydney

– Herald-Sun, Melbourne

• Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC)– Modeled after BBC– Dominates Australian TV

• Commercial Networks– Financially unstable

Kevin Connors/Morguefile.com

India

• Independence in 1947• Print media explosion

– 200 publications in 1947

– 25,000 by 1987

• All India Radio (AIR)• Doordarshan TV

– Satellite brings programming to 4 out of 5 Indians

• “Bollywood”– Indian film industry, Film City, Bombay

– 16 studios– 800 films a year

AP/Wide World Photos

People’s Republic of China

• Government media monopoly• People’s Daily newspaper• Xinhua, Chinese news agency• Three-tiered radio system

– Central national station– 100 regional networks– Local loudspeaker systems in markets and public places

• Limited television access• New market economy changes

– Massive expansion of newspaper and magazine publication

Peter Dell/morguefile.com

Latin America and the Caribbean

• Family dynasties• Print Media

– Vasquez Raña, 50 Mexican papers– Edwards, Chile’s El Mercurio since 1880s, 14 papers

– Mesquita family, Brazil’s O Estado, 50 years– Argentina’s La Prensa

• Audio and Video Media– O’Farrill, 150 Mexican TV stations. 8 papers– Mix of public and private control

• Terrorist targets– Dozens of journalists murdered

• Media Links

Western News Services

• Western news services– Associated Press (U.S.)– Reuters (Great Britain)– Agence France-Presse (France)– Deutsche-Presse-Agentur (Germany)– Agencia Efe (Spain)

• Western video service– Visnews, CNN, World International Network (WIN)

• Western satellite programming– SkyTV (Europe); StarTV (Asia)

Charges of Western Cultural Bias

• Critics of Western media bias– Developing nations

• New World Information and Communications Order (NWICO)– Ethnocentric– Western values

• Political, economic, religious, and social values

• UNESCO’s 1978 Declaration– Supported national self-determination in media policies

• The MacBride Report, 1983– Inconclusive NWICO resolution

Chien-Min Chung/Corbis

Non-Western News Services

• Middle East News Agency (MENA)• Information Telegraph Agency of Russia (ITAR)

• Asian-Pacific News Network (Japan)• Caribbean News Agency (CANA)• Pan-African News Agency (PANA)• Non-Aligned News Agency Pool (NANAP)

• Inter-Press Service (IPS)

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Global Media Markets• MTV

– International programming

• Yahoo, Inc.– 40% interest in Chinese online firm

• ABC-BBC– Newsgathering partnership– Competing with CNN

• Rupert Murdoch– British Sky Network for India

• Jun Murai– Wiring Japan’s universities to the Internet

• U.S./British advertising and PR– Shandwick, 50% U.S. contracts

The International Herald Tribune

• “The World’s Daily Newspaper”

• 1887, J. Gordon Bennett, Jr.

• World’s largest English-language newspaper

• Owned by New York Times• Published at 23 sites around the world

• Circulation 264,000• Readers in 185 countries• Popular among American foreign travelers

• Online edition

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Global Access to the Internet

• Access across borders• Some governments try to control through pricing– As high as $200/month

• Some countries still lack technology for access– Telephone– Cellular or satellite connection

– Only the wealthy have access

• Expanding economic uses– Future global communications medium

Clara Natoli/morguefile.com

New Pathways for Ideas

• New technologies bring new ideas

• Nations accustomed to controlling information face change on many fronts– Chinese government bans on satellite dishes and foreign programs

– Difficult to enforce

• Airwaves are borderless• Global media dialogue• Transnational marketplace

ABC News

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Critical Discussion

1. Many once-authoritarian nations credit the mass media with having a major influence for positive change, but criticize media excesses in the aftermath. Is there a balance between the good and the bad?

2. What cultural and political conditions have led to the development of very different media systems in Latin America and Africa? Does the Internet appear likely to play a role in changing the media system and expanding media access for people in these regions?