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Introduction
This essay will start by giving an outline of the global media system and how it developed over time. The modern era is commonly described as one of globalization democratization, and technological revolution. In all the three areas, communication and media play an inevitable fundamental role. Both economic and civil globalization would be possibly impractical devoid of a global commercial media structure.
The very essence of the technological revolution is the radical development in digital communication and computing. In the past three decades, locally owned television, radio daily industries, films, music and books characterized public media systems. The media systems were largely dominated by U.S. based firms.
Today, globalization is apparent and although American media feature prominently within the global scene, other countries across the world are engaging in media heavily (Hills, 2002, p. 3). A number of firms govern the globalized media system.
The six largest include; Vivendi-Universal (French), AOL, Time Warner (U.S.), Disney (U.S.), Viacom (U.S.), Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation (Australian) and Bertelsmann (German). Other four main global firms that are also inclusive include; AT&T (U.S.), Microsoft (U.S.), General Electric/NBC (U.S.) and Sony/Columbia/ TriStar (Japanese) (Variety, 2002).
The media system is growing and globalizing speedily. Time Warner and Disney created approximately 15 percent of their proceeds outside the United States in 1900, a digit that increased to 30-35 percent by the year 2002. Besides global firms is another group of media firms that earn between $1 billion and $8 billion yearly from media-related trade.
These firms tend to have either nationwide or cultural linguistic monopoly, or focus on particular global places. For instance, the BBC concentrates in news. About half happen to be American (Gannet, Comcast and Advanced) while the majority of the remaining ones are from Europe (Hachette, EMI, Reuters, Havas, BBC) or Canada.
A good number are found in East Asia (NHK, TVB, Fuji, Chinese, Asahi, and Central TV) and Latin America (TV Globo, Clarin/Argentina Televisa). It is thus evident that whereas previously media systems were principally national, global commercial-media market has emerged in the past few years and this has been made possible by the development of communication technologies (Hills, 2002, p. 3).
Discussion
Creation of Global Media Market through Development of Communication Technologies
Technology is elemental for human civilization and its advancement. Historically, with the progress in technologies, civilization has had enormous impact in all spheres of life (social, political and economic fields). Advancement has occurred from agricultural based society to a developed society with key innovation in technologies.
Today, human beings are in the Information age that is embarking to be the guide in the ‘post industrial-age’ (Mowlana, 2005, p. 175). However, the exchange of information and communication has occurred in the olden times, though in a traditional form.
It evolved from clay tablet in Mesopotamian, Papyrus roll in prehistoric Egypt and Greece, paper in China that then moved to Europe. It is from Europe where the printing press was developed followed by postal service in Britain (Thussu, 2003, pp. 12-14). Communication and resourceful information was constantly perceived vital for escalating both national and international trade.
Although the term ‘globalization and information society’ became familiar to many people in the twenty first century, the revolution of communication from nationwide to intercontinental level had previously begun. This was marked by the introduction of telegraph during the mid-nineteenth century (Hills, 2002, p. 3).
The telegraph technology was first introduced in Britain and later in USA in 1843 and 1847 respectively. With the invention of telegraph, the exchange of information became speedy and easy.
The use of telegraph advanced the intensification of big businesses from 1860s in the United States and 1870s in Britain and aided in the improvement of US companies into Europe prior to World War I (Hills, 2002, pp. 4-5). Telegraph and cables also became central to press during the mid-nineteenth century.
It presented an aperture to get an edge in mass communication (Winseck & Pike, 2007, p. 3). Around 1871, the telegraph lines had popularized half of the globe among Australia, Europe China, and Japan.
As a result, information became available within few days. Press agencies like Reuters were set up which utilized this situation (Scholte, 2005, p. 91). This outlines how telegraph had paved way for globalization of media market back then.
Telephone connections and radio communications were developed from 1890s and offered further momentum to globalization (Scholte, 2005, p. 91). Telephone came into existence in 1877 in America (Thussu, 2003, p. 19). The radio was another great technological advancement.
It was able to perform wireless communication between countries in 1866, and was followed by the discovery of television in 1926 and later computer networks around 1969 (Scholte, 2005, p. 91). The innovation of television and cable networks assisted the course of homogenization by initiating ‘cross national broadcasting and the multiplication of channels’ (Hallin & Mancini, 2004, p. 260).
Nevertheless, the most critical constituent of communication infrastructure was the introduction of satellite. Satellite had countless benefits lacking in other means of communications. It formed ‘the star point of a communications net’ allowing connections to people estranged by geographical margins (Roddy, 2006, p.1).
McChesney (2000, p. 78) state that the rise of global media market is encouraged by new digital and satellite technologies that make global markets both cost-effective and lucrative’.
Cable and satellite TV, which first became familiar to Americans, Canadians, and some Europeans, is now expanding in majority of other countries. Direct Broadcasting Satellite (DBS) started in Britain and Japan has now spread to several other countries, frequently across bordering countries.
By the 1990s, cable systems and the private satellite TV channels to supply them were emerging in Europe, Latin American, and Asia. These cable (70 Mirza Jansystems) delivered a one-way expansion of new video channels, especially the U.S. Consequently, a number of channels rapidly became universal in reach: CNN, MTV, HBO, ESPN, TNT, Nickelodeon, and the Cartoon Network (Straubhaar & LaRose, 2004, p.12).
However, some cable channels and DBS services started with a more specific language or regional target. Some focus on sport, films, children’s shows news or music. Satellite TV and cable television are recently to expanding in Latin America and the Middle East.
Yet again, channels exported from industrialized nations (BBC, CNN, MTV and so on) are popular, but numerous nations (Brazil, Hong Kong, Egypt, Mexico, Saudi Arabia) are developing their own satellite television channels. These target both national audiences and neighbors with similar cultural linguistic characters.
For example, the Qatar Channel Al Jazeera is designed to offer regional news to the Middle Eastern regional market of Arabic speakers. By covering the U.S., ware against Iraq in a manner that gave extensive exposure to Iraqi civilian casualties besides providing pro-Palestinian exposure of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It has won many audiences in the region.
The Introduction of cable and satellite aided quick transmission of information all over the globe; however, the global media market picked pace only after the liberalization of media and communication industries.
The economic stagflation during the 1970s led to transformation of the global political arena, transfer in ownership, from public to private resulting in opening up of markets for commercialization. Although several countries were frustrated with their telecommunications that had progressed from ‘monopolistic’ operators, the result was liberalization of telecommunications in many countries.
The ultimate aim was to lower the prices out of competition (Geradin & Luff, 2004, p.1). A good example of this is the American Telephone and Telegraph (AT&T) that was divided into 22 local companies breaking the domination and thereby liberating the market for personal competition (Thussu, 2003, p. 83).
Liberalization and privatization has undoubtedly evolved many transnational corporations. It has also lead to several parallel unions of these corporations that desired to establish domination in a particular sector for larger market shares and profits. Today, media possession has been concentrated to few huge conglomerates many of which are from the USA.
With the development of Federal Communications Commission (FCC) act in June 2003 that altered media possession policies, the conglomeration of media ownership further hastened, with big corporations controlling over more than one discrete division of media (McChesney, 2000, p. 16).
This was due to the developments in communication technology that has become sophisticated in such a manner that the ‘twenty first century term’ mass media which represents ‘primarily print, media, radio, television and cinema’ has ‘joined to create a new product with massive potential for economic market’ (Mowlana, 2005, p.170).
This has particularly become achievable with the introduction of internet where digital convergence is now possible (Thussu, 2003, pp. 123-124).
With the chief mergers occurrence around, it is clear is that there may lack a gap for small or middle-sized media to endure. ‘McChesney (2000, p. 20) claimed that firm either gets larger through mergers and acquisitions or it is swallowed by a more aggressive competitor’.
He then explores the trend of ‘vertical integration’ in this deregulatory time, where the media firms not only produce content but also hold distribution channel.
This guarantees ‘places to display and market their wares’ and gives an example of Disney that owns ABC and the News Corporation that owns Fox (McChesney, 2000, p. 21) thus strengthening their existence internationally, which has led to the concentration of media authority in the hands of very few big conglomerates.
Conclusion
As Thussu (2003, p. 7) remarks, ‘global media market evolved partly as a result of deregulation and liberalization of the international communication sector in the 1990s and partly as a consequence of the rapid expansion of new communication technologies, notably satellite and cable’.
In conclusion, the paper can be ended by highlighting that, one of the chief aspects of deregulation and liberalization of the market was in fact the advancement in communication technologies. Moreover, as a whole, the growth of global media market was principally because of the introduction of newer technologies. Were it not for the communication technologies advancements, global media market would still be a dream.
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