( Source: www.mediachannel.org/ownership/chart.shtm)As globalization becomes ever more prominent, the role of media and advertising and consumerism also increases. Ideal for the large multinationals that can take best advantage of globalization include the even larger "market" to which products can be sold. However, diverse cultures could sometimes be an obstacle to easy selling. Ideally then, attitudes and consumption habits need to be similar for best effect. As a result many media companies promote and project a more aligned culture that will cross these boundaries but also allow easier consumption of their products.
Though advertising has gone global, many advertisers have moved toward niche markets. Instead of marketing to the masses, they target segments. New media and communication technologies enable advertisers to reach select group of consumers with selective media. Marketers now search for and implement media and marketing plans aimed at special selective market.
Though advertising has gone global, many advertisers have moved toward niche markets. Instead of marketing to the masses, they target segments. New media and communication technologies enable advertisers to reach select group of consumers with selective media. Marketers now search for and implement media and marketing plans aimed at special selective market.
Of all the media forms, it is television, according Nicholas Abercrombie in his book, Television and Society, 1996, that contributes most to a sense of globalisation. Television in its scope and effects has become truly international. First, its content is international. It is not only news programmes that depict events taking place in far away places. Further, television is, in effect creating a global audience. Second, television can be received internationally. This is partly a function of new means of supply, cable and satellite transmission. In certain circumstances, the international scope of television transmission can leave national governments powerless to regulate the content of programmes that its population can receive. Third, the ownership of television production and distribution is becoming internationalized. Fourth, the aspects of the globalisation of television concern the trade, the imports and exports in television programmes and products. Fifth and last, television is produced internationally. Some of the processes involved are most obvious in the production of news. There are television news agencies, which distribute raw, unedited news footage from around the world.
The convergence phenomenon has altered the conventional conceptions of mass communication. Richard Campbell along with his colleagues Christopher R Martin and Bettina Fabos defines age of media convergence as the merging of the electronic and digital eras. Media convergence according to the authors is a term that refers to the appearance of older media forms on the newest media outlets. For example, magazine articles radio programmes now accessible on the Internet.
In the context of audience, there is a shift by media toward smaller and smaller target audiences. The result is narrowcasting as against broadcasting. Today’s mass media is all about ‘specialized media’ for ‘specialized audiences’. Phrases such as the “18-24 year old” and “target audiences” are in use these days. Programming which at one time was directed was at mass audiences, has now become local programming directed at specialized audiences. City magazines are another example of specialized media.
As technology has allowed communication media to target audiences and get fast feedback, there has been increased emphasis on the interactivity. Now you have interactive television, interactive cable, interactive telephones, interactive computer services, interactive games, interactive commercials, and interactive compact discs and so on. Interactive is used as synonym for two-way. But few of the systems developed to date that are truly two ways in the same sense that a conversion between two people is.
The new technologies have made it possible to strip away many layers of the media organizations and to shrink the minimum size of the media enterprises back to the size of small cottage industries. Media corporations are getting bigger but the number of people required to turn out a media product within them is shrinking.
Theorists have long predicted trend toward specialized and personalized media. Industrial society eventually necessitated the creation of specialized media and post-industrial society results in the growth of service industries, which are “consumer of specialized media”. We are in the era of new media technologies and personalized media. There are videodisc and videotapes for personal viewing. Direct broadcast satellites make possible for us to purchase antenna and receive hundred of channels where the personal preferences and choices of what and when to watch is possible. Through Internet we can hook up to such services as stock market reports, gardening information and airline schedules. In the process we become not only the receivers of communication but also the senders and gatekeeper
Last but not the least, ownership of media companies in fewer and fewer hands is threatening diversity of opinion, alternative sources of information and a full public agenda are essential for the workings of a healthy society. The concentration of ownership in the mass media seems to work against this. Having a few huge corporations control our outlets of expression could lead to less aggressive news coverage and a more muted marketplace of ideas.
As technology has allowed communication media to target audiences and get fast feedback, there has been increased emphasis on the interactivity. Now you have interactive television, interactive cable, interactive telephones, interactive computer services, interactive games, interactive commercials, and interactive compact discs and so on. Interactive is used as synonym for two-way. But few of the systems developed to date that are truly two ways in the same sense that a conversion between two people is.
The new technologies have made it possible to strip away many layers of the media organizations and to shrink the minimum size of the media enterprises back to the size of small cottage industries. Media corporations are getting bigger but the number of people required to turn out a media product within them is shrinking.
Theorists have long predicted trend toward specialized and personalized media. Industrial society eventually necessitated the creation of specialized media and post-industrial society results in the growth of service industries, which are “consumer of specialized media”. We are in the era of new media technologies and personalized media. There are videodisc and videotapes for personal viewing. Direct broadcast satellites make possible for us to purchase antenna and receive hundred of channels where the personal preferences and choices of what and when to watch is possible. Through Internet we can hook up to such services as stock market reports, gardening information and airline schedules. In the process we become not only the receivers of communication but also the senders and gatekeeper
Last but not the least, ownership of media companies in fewer and fewer hands is threatening diversity of opinion, alternative sources of information and a full public agenda are essential for the workings of a healthy society. The concentration of ownership in the mass media seems to work against this. Having a few huge corporations control our outlets of expression could lead to less aggressive news coverage and a more muted marketplace of ideas.
