Exam 2 Media Studies
1914-1945
World Wars I & II permit Hollywood to outplace competitors
In south and east asian, such communication by print and by movement of teachers has been going on for millenia
Radio, TV, and satellite TV signals also spilled directly from one country to its neighbor -Well over half of the Canadian population can directly receive US radio and TV signals
1990
Satellite TV begins to compete with national control of TV
In most countries, national and local radio become much more important than international radio
Radio can cater to the apparently widespread audience desire for local news, weather, and information and local talk shows and music
Behind the top global firm is a second tier of 30-40 media firms that make between $1-10 billion/year
These firms have national or cultural-linguistic strongholds or specialize in specific global niches -Some are American, but most come from Europe or Canada, some are based in East Asia and Latin America
Al Jazeera (Doha), CCTV 9 (China), and Russia Today have also pushed TV news operations into a number of countries
They became the alternative news sources -Often have a strong national point of view and questionable credibility
Some media industries have been global since the 1920's
They control many of the companies in other countries that distribute and exhibit the films produced in the US -J. Walter Thompson, RCA, and Motion Pictures Association of America (MPAA)
1945
UN founded, incorporating ITU, starting UNESCO
Globalization
reducing differences that existed between nations in time, space, and culture
Some films must be remade in the home country for audiences to enjoy
-The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009, Australia) did not do as well as the US version (2011)
1865
ITU (International Telecommunication Union) begins as the International Telegraph Union
The Us dominates the film world
-American films filled over 80% of theater seats in Europe in 2014 -Overseas sales can more than triple those in the US
The strength of national and local radio has a great deal to do with a revival in national and local music around the globe
-Artists can be heard around the world on many station that appeal to affluent and globalized young people, but other stations are playing music by local artists --> appealing to more middle-class, working-class and poor people
Most often, music development has been left to musicians's initiatiave, market forces, and audience demand
-Audience members are often willing to pay for local and national music, although they also listen to and purchase global music
Some countries are getting creative with financial incentives to promote national film production
-Brazil lettgin natoinal and international companies deduct any losses on Brazilian film investment from their taxes --> film investment and production increased by 100 films a yeay
Rising trend for local versions of popular shows
-Brazilian version of Big Brother in its 15th season in 2015
When AT&T invested in foreign telecommunication companies, it also had competition
-British Telecom (UK) -Telefonica (Spain) T-Mobile (Germany) in the US
Governments sometimes require that a certain proportion of nationally produced music be played on radio stations
-Canada requires satellite radio Sirius to include Canadian content -May subsidize national music industries to make sure that local music is produced
Nations vary considerable and what they can or will do to create media
-Companies based in larger, more prosperous nations can create more media content in those in small, poorer nations -Production companies in the US, UK, Japan, India, South Korea, and other media powers can afford lavish production values
In the European Union (EU) and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) regions (Canada, US, and Mexico), governments have negotiated agreements on ohw to handle such media border crossings
-EU 1989 tried to have "TV without frontiers" within EU, but the attempt to produce programming for a Europe wide TV market proved difficult --> Europeans are still divided by language and culture (don't want to read or watch in another language)
Quite a few films are produced in Asia (primarily India and China)
-Egypt is the film center of the Arab world -Nigeria of West Africa -Mexico and Brazil produce more films than any other Latin American countries Shows that film industries can be maintained, even in some developing countries if the domestic market is large or if the film companies produce for a multicountry audience and market
Several key reasons why American film have dominated in variety of markets:
1. the enormous size of the US market for movies, which for many years permitted Hollywood to recover most of the costs of films in their domestic release 2. The heterogenous nature of the US audience, which includes diverse groups that demand simple, more entertainment orientated and more universal films
Language provides a strong natural barrier to media improts
-In the US, most of what little imported TV or film comes from UK, Canada, New Zealand, or Australia because they are similar culturally and speak the same language -Many global youth are getting used to listening to music in English --> some have to sing in English to break into US market
Global institutions and companies have a major impact
-International Telecommunication Union (ITU) allocate satellite orbits, determine broadcast frequencies, and define the standard for telephones, mobile phones, faxes, and Internet connections -Cable & Wireless of the UK, Telefonica (Spain) run much of the world's communications infrastructure -Rupert Murdoch reached people directly with media and forced domestic competitors to react to them
Where other aspects of culture are shared can help build cross-national markets
-Latin American countries used to import American situation comedies in the 1950's and 1960's --> now tend to import comedy shows from one another -US Spanish speaking audiences who usually prefer Mexican shows to Hollywood since they feel more familiar
National government can help or hinder media growth
-National goals for media, reflected in government policies, are often very different and they significantly affect how media are structured and what they create -Some nations, like China, expect media to cooperate with government political and economic goals -Some like Saudi Arabia or Pakistan, expect media to project a certain set of religious values
Majority of media companies have been structured to serve national markets, even though transnational and global companies are on the rise
-National governments have far more effective control over media through station licensing, economic controls, technology controls, and subsidies than regional or global institutions or treaties
Global media are not a Hollywood monopoly
-Simpsons made by animators in South Korea -Some major US media companies have been recently owned by Japanese (sony) or Canadian (Warne Records) companies -Rupert Murdoch: first based in Australia --> UK --> US
A handful of publicly traded firms dominate the most globalized part of the media system
-Some of the largest are Disney, Comcast, Rupert Murdoch's news corporation, Warner-EMI, Sony -other main global firms: Apple, Microsoft, Google, FB, Amazon, Vivendi
Sports and music, which transcend culture and linguistic barriers have helped pan-European Tv channels grow and find audiences
-They still prefer their own, but are more willing to listen to other nations music
Music around the world seems to be both the most globalized and the most localized media
-Travelers to almost any country will hear a great deal of American and European music, but they will also hear a variety of local music -Nearly all cultures have a musical tradition --> usually adapts well to being recorded, played on the radio, streamed online, and sold on CDs
Local music can reflect location preferences in local languages and local news and talk tend to cover things that most concern people in daily life
-Wales: radio stations attract people to listening in Welsh in order to get the language alive and sell ads to the locals -A growing global community radio movement, trying to get more community groups on the air, strengthens this this trend
Language is a crucial divider of media markets
-trade in TV between countries has been shaped by language and language seems to be shaping Internet patterns, as well
Among the few foreign, non-English speaking genre to be hits in the US are:
-stylish, violent action films from Hong Kong and China -Love dramas form Korea -Sexy, violent, cartoons from japan -Sports are universal appeal -Pop music is globalzied
Several current reasons why film production, finance, and distribution remain concentrated in the US
1. Film is relatively expensive to produce (Hollywood film over $85 million; Global promotion costs continue to rise) 2. The economic success of a film is never guaranteed so it represents an expensive, risky investment to the producers, investors, and other funding sources, which many countries are unable to sustain 3. the distribution channels to enable a film to make money have been globalized to a greater degree than any other medium, except news services
Nation-states can still be powerful if they are well organized and determined
2014 European Union gave its citizens the "right to delete" links to misleading, defamatory content about themselves
Of the top 12-13 global media firms,
8-9 of them are American -depending on how one defines groups like News Corp -These types of companies are growing and globalizing quickly
Films of significant quality and interest have been produced in many countries, but few countries are currently producing many feature films
A number of poor nations have produced only a few full-length films in their histories (others not at all) -Film production has slowed down in many countries, such as most of Latin America and Africa, as many companies or government production institutes have fallen into debt or suffered other economic crisis
Other major aspect of globalization is the increasingly worldwide penetration of media technology
All nations now have quite a few people using the internet and satellite TV -New media can greatly increase global reach and access for many, but new media coexists with a global digital divide
In radio, the urge for cultural proximity by audience and market segmentations by advertisers often favors the very local
Although, people still want to hear national and global music and news
Most countries produce increasing amounts of their own TV, music, Internet content, and magazines
But if they produce them by drawing on other country's models and genre ideas or format, it becomes a somewhat globalized product
Time Warner and Disney generated around 15% of their income outside of the US in 2014
By 2014, countries outside the Us represented 70% of the total box office for all films
Facebook is one of the most popular websites in over 130 countries worldwide
Compete with some companies in parts of the world like Renren in China
The ownership of Hollywood itself became globalized when Sony purchased Columbia and TriStar film groups
Critics scrutinized the results to see whether films produced by Sony reflected Japanese, rather than American sensibilities (no real change found) -Both Bollywood (India) and Nollywood (Nigeria) are challenging Hollywood by turning out thousands of films at lower costs and releasing them for much lower costs too
2016
Facebook has 1.59 billion members worldwide
2010
Google violates European Union privacy protections by collecting street-level data
There are also thriving national and regional music industries with a variety of genres and audiences, which is also popular in most countries
Historically, audience tastes tend to be multilayered, with many people listening to global music, regional or national music and local music to fit the different needs/interests
Film is the most globalized and most difficult to produce on a sustained basis international media
Hollywood film gained decisive advantage when WW1 and WW2 destroyed the competing film industries -After WW2, US government pressure on both conquered nations and former allies pushed them to open their markets wider to Us film in order to receive postwar aid
2003
ITU hosts World Summit on the Information Society to promote use of the Internet in poorer countries
Major companies that dominate international music import also sell the dominant American and European pop music around the world
In many countries and regions, they also record and sell works by national or cultural-linguistic market artists -gives them a stake at promoting those artists, both at home and abroad when they perceive that there might be an export market
Because the print media's reach is limited in many countries by low literacy and purchasing power broadcast media took on increased importance
In the poorest countries, radio is still the main mass medium for many people -In several parts of Africa and South Asia, some people do not even have access to radio because the signal does not reach them, they can't afford a receiver, or they don't have electricity or the means to recharge batteries
Some of the poorest countries where domestic radio stations don't cover the whole country, people in remote area may listen to international broadcasters
International radio commercial radio stations, or foreign government stations are usually on short-wave frequencies that can carry across thousands of miles
More countries are competing to sell or transmit media to others
Mexico, Brazil, India, and South Korea compete worldwide -"Gangnam Style" (South Korea) topped billboard charts in the Us and was the first music video to top 1 billion views globally
New services have begun in hotspot areas
Now try to use medium wave radio, which can be received by more people than short wave
The US and Canadian markets remain the most important to Hollywood, but
Other markets like Europe and Asia Pacific have grown greatly between 2006 and 2015
Record companies are similarly structured expect that they have more diverse set of origins and an even more international ownership
Parts of the music Big Three are based outside the US, including Warner-EMI, Sony- BMG Music group, and Vivendi-Universal -Russian company, Access, bought a 2% stake in Warner Music Group in 2011 before acquiring EMI -These companies also have large foreign branches that produce and distribute records within other markets, as well as distribute American and European music
In a number of countries where film production had been heavily subsidized, governments have found themselves unable to continue to support
Some countries still continue to subsidize their film industry, but this led to conflicts in trade talks with the US, which considers these subsidies an unfair form of protectionism
By the 1970's, many critics asserted that the major newswire services had too much control over international news flow
They followed standard American and European definitions of what news was: -diasters -sensational or unusual events -political upheaval -Wars or conflicts -famous personalities -current events This often produces negative coverage and images of other countries
Multinational firms record Jamaican reggae and dance hall as well as Caribbean salsa and Mexican Norteno
They sell them at home and export them to the US -Willing to risk distributing national music because musical tastes are more diverse and the costs are much lower than film or TV
Government protection of film industries in other countries is not surprising
They want to ensure that national film industries survuve
Information and reporting by a variety of people on Twitter have become both direct news sources for many and sources that professional news reporters use in their own story
This became particularly clear with microblogging in China and Twitter's role in Arab Spring political and social revolutions of 2011 -Many now argue that face-to-face communication, grassroots organizing, and mass media were all more important than Twitter in terms of lasting effects
30 eyars ago, people talked about Americanization of media in the world
Today, they talk more about globalization
1976
UNESCO hosts critical discussion for proposals for a New World Information Order
AT&T's recent acquisition of satellite TV giant DirecTV was motivated by
a desire to expand into South American markets, where DirecTV had millions of subscribers
Cultural-linguistic markets
build on common languages and common cultures that span borders -Smaller than global, but larger than national
Music now sells in many forms
cassette, CDs, MP3 and streaming online -Piracy is prevalent in most places that music groups earn a living, mostly from live performances
There can be a contradictory tug-of-war between
cultural proximity and imported production values or, the cosmopolitan appela of sophisticated imported programs
International films, even when produced at national expense
do not break through the largely Hollywood-based control of international distribution -Most national markets, with the exception of larger nations are not big enough to make money with films that have little chance of international distribution
After the 1840's, newswire services, based on the then-now technology of the telegraph, the US Associated Press (AP), British Reuters, and Agence France Presse (AFP) were the:
first electronic news services, anticipating the increase in speed and volume of information of the internet
American producers used the cartel monopoly power to
fix prices, allocate and dominate markets, undercut and destroy other nation's film industries, and control global distributions in favor of Hollywood films over all others
One threat to global and local music is piracy
in many countries, local and national musicians cannot make any money selling records since nearly all copies sold are pirated illegally -Artists support themselves by touring and giving concerts --> deterring people from becoming professional musicians
Regionalization of media is growing, as well
in several regions of the world, magazines, newspapers, and books have been transported easily across borders for centuries, serving regions of common language or culture
Music is much cheaper to produce than film or TV
it serves a wide variety of subcultures and market niches within and across nations because of this
Besides language, other aspects of culture are important in defining audiences
jokes, slang, historical references, political references, the familiarity of landscape and city spaces, gossip about stars, and remarks about current people and events are often culture or nation specific
Although geographical closeness or proximity helps media cross borders
language and culture seem more important than geography
Regionalization
links nations together based on geographic culture, linguistic, and historical commonalities
Glocal
local people borrowing or adapting global ideas -national soap opera reflects local culture, it can still help other countries if sponsored by a company in another country
New has flowed across borders for hundreds of years
many early newspaper and newsletters installed correspondents in other countries so that they could publish foreign news for themselves
Truly globalized markets are emerging as
many youths are exposed to the internet and shop online
American media still play a prominent role in the global scene, but
media industries from a number of other countries are also heavily involved across the world -There are also media whose goal is to cover a region -Some media, like FB, now explicitly target the world even if they started in a very specific place
As music production becomes cheaper all over the world
more groups are recording at all levels: local, national, and regional
As radio and TV became the dominant news media in many countries, the wire services developed material for them and later so did satellite channels (CNN)
news agencies now have to compete with the many news sources now available to everyone online
Cultural imperialism
occurs when some countries dominate others through the media Media products made in the United States dominate popular culture worldwide -The Simpsons (in over 200 countries in 2015) -Rupert Murdoch's companies reach about 3/4 of the globe with satellite Tv signals and even more countries with movies and Tv programs
An increasing number of firms (like Fox and Sony) do actively look for international films to distribute to the US and abroad as well as,
opportunities to coproduce films with foreign companies
Although American-made films, TV shows, and music remain attractive to world audiences,
other global, regional, national, and local media industries, audiences, and regulatory bodies are emerging, with a wide variety of ideas, genres, and agendas
Although cultural proximity is a strong factor, audiences in many countries still respond ver well to some kinds of important programs
particularly those whose emphasis is on action, sex, and violence, where dialogue or cultural nuances are minimized -Many of the most popular US films now focus on action and are explicitly aimed at foreign markets since it brings up to 3x more revenue
Rating and audience research over the years tend to show that, given a choice, people tend to
prefer to see national content in media
Facebook could be a dominant force in global media if it achieves its plan to
reach most of the world's mobile phones
Localized
refers to a global company adapting its programs to local markets to make them more attractive
Turkey, Egypt, and Lebanon dominate a regional market in the Middle East characterized by
shared geography, language, and/or culture -Similar to the regional market for Mexican TV that includes US Hispanics
There is a truly global music industry based primarily in the Us and Europe
speaking to a globalized youth culture
Technology changes, like global flow of music files over the internet can increase access to US music, but
technologies, like internet radio, digital downloads or streaming, and videos on YouTube are all increasingly used for regional and national music
Even as global and cultural linguistic markets for media are all increasingly important
the main point at which media are paid for through advertising fees, created, regulated, and consumed remains the nation
Cultural proximity
the preference of audiences for media in their own language and culture
The globalization of media is probably the most pervasive at the level of technology and media industry models ways of organizing and creating media
the world is becoming a more integrated market based in capitalist or market place economics -This exerts pressures to make media more commercial, supported by ads aimed at consumers, and to privatize or commercializes telecommunications or other media that were once government owned
Many producers have discovered that making too many references to current politics, use too much slang, or otherwise focus too narrowly on current local issues
their program are less well received form around the world -Seinfeld is too specific to the US -Sex and the City and The Simpsons does better abroad
Hollywood studios, organized under the MPAA, have worked together to promote exports and control overseas distribution networks
they have done so with cooperation and collusion -Can be considered an anticompetitive violation of antitrust laws if were done domestically (permitted under Webb-Pomerene Act 1918)
People use the internet to find information and many have similar questions
webpages can be translated into 40 different languages instead of developing a separate webpage for each country. -Controversy over global campaigns and some firms find it better to go local in marketing strategies
Those who prefer and imported program are also more likely to be
well-off, better-educated, and urban
Twenty years ago, both the rich and poor's experiences relied on TV, but this is now changed
while over 90% of South Koreans have broadband internet access, less than 2% of Mozambicans have any kind of internet access