This document discusses the globalization and domination of Western media. It makes several key points:
1) Global media emerged in the late 20th century as technologies like satellites and cables allowed for faster transmission of information across borders. However, Western media companies, especially from the US, came to dominate the global market.
2) This domination was criticized by non-aligned nations as a form of cultural and economic imperialism that imposed Western values. They called for a new international communication order with more balanced representation.
3) Even today, a small number of large Western conglomerates dominate most global media industries like film, music, publishing. Their content is widely distributed but coverage of non-Western issues remains limited
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for generation, if at all.The revolutionary development of geo synchronous communication
satellite’s. in the 1960 and 1970 fanned the flames of the concern about global media.
The major global institution that dealt with communication issues the United
Nations, UNESCO and the international Telecommunication (ITU) now had majorities
comprised of third world nations and sympathetic communist governments. The impetus
for the global media debate came from the movement of the (NAM) which comprised over
90 members nation by the 1970s.
The NAM criticized the global media system at several different levels. Global
communication was attacked for the flagrant quantitative imbalance between and south and
the corresponding “ inequality in information resources.
A central criticism revolved around the western monopoly of global news services,
with their almost exclusive service to the needs of the developed nations. There was almost
no journalism by people in the nonaligned nations for the developed nations or for each
other. The domination of Entertainment programming across the Third world was criticized
as a cultural imperialism that implemented alien western values on audiences. The role of
transmission media in undermining national sovereignty was another major concern. The
capitalism and economic imperialism, the global media were seen as working primarily to
serve TNCs and advertisers, thus reinforcing the inequalities of the global economy. As one
NAM resolution noted, a new international order in the fields of information and
communications is as vital as a new international economic order. The non-aligned position
included a socialist critique of capitalist media and a nationalist critique of imperialist
media.
Research Methodology
The research methodology of this study is document study and Research Questions are formulated.
• Are the west dominated Media
• Are we going to adopt the Global culture?
Media Globalization
Media and entertainment outlays are growing at a faster rate than GDP almost everywhere in the world
and significantly faster in the Far East and central Europe. A 1996 survey of teenagers in television –
owning households in forty-one nations finds that they watch on average six hours of television per
day, and now here in the survey is the figure under five hours. This has been a boon for the US
entertainment industry, as it dominates the global market for the production of television programming
as well as films. Employment in the entertainment industry in Los angles alone has more than doubled
from 53,000 in 1988 to 112,000 in 1995.
There has also been an increase in the export of cultural products by nations other than the
United States in 1990, not only from Europe but the developing nations.
The leading global media firms are producing fare in languages other than English for example
MTV the global TV service has begun to differentiate its content around the world and incorporate
local music.
The three media industries that entered the 1990s with the most developed global markets,
books publishing, recorded music and film production have continued their growth in some times
booming global oligopolistic markets.
Recorded music is the most concentrated global market. The leading five firms in order of
global market share, are Polygram (19 percent) Time Warner (18 percent) Sony (!7 percent) EMI (15
percent ) and Bertelsmann ( 13 percent ).The only other players of any note is universal ( formally
MCA 9 percent) . All but EMI are part of larger global media conglomerates. Some estimates show
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these six firms’ combined sales as accounting for over 90 percent of the global market, while others
place it closer to 80 percent. Global sales grew by 38 percent from 1992 to 19995. With western
markets relatively mature, sales in the developing world are growing more rapidly. Global film
production in 1990s is dominated by the studios by Disney, Time Warner, Viacom, universal (owned
by Seagram) Sony, Polygram (owned by Phillips) MGM and News Corporation. All but MGM are
parts of large global media conglomerates.
Global Media and Cultural Imperialism
Media Imperialism occurs when one society media dominate another country's culture. The medium of
cable television is a prime example to illustrate the effect of media imperialism. Cable TV & Satellite
transmissions, for better or worse, has made the world a global village. It is our TV viewing that shapes
our understanding of the world and ourselves. However, it is saturated with foreign influence and
media imperialism. How much world television through satellite & cable TV has affected our culture
and identity is yet to be explored. Media globalization is seen as a modern form of imperialism and
more believe that this globalization will destroy individual cultures & diversity.
Culture domination refers to the process in which national cultures are overwhelmed by the
importing news and entertainment from other countries – mainly from the United States and other
industrialized nations. Resident of many countries are concerned that their national and local heritage
will be replaced by one global culture dominated by US values. They point out that American music,
books, TV Shows and films are popular around the world. Many countries Canada, Spain, France have
placed quotas on the amount of foreign materiel that can be carried on their broadcasting system. The
culture domination also spills over into the news area. For many years, the representatives of many
developing countries have been arguing for a new world information order.
Global News Flow
In the global media, global news industry also emerged. the big four news agencies AP , UPI, Reuters
and AFP still dominated the global print market while Reuters TV ( Formerly vis news) and worldwide
television news remain the dominant global TV news agencies , but satellite TV has brought into
existence regional and global news channels. The most prominent is CNN international, own by Time
Warner, which reaches over 200 countries and the vast majority of the world population. BBC and
VOA also working in global media. CNN faces increased competition including two more global news
channels launched in 1996. One by News Corporation and the other by NBC and Microsoft.
News comes from five big media Giants which portray the interest of own country. These
global television agencies take the stories that pour into their London Offices, edit then into new story
packages, but without any narration in most cases, and transmit them via satellite to their clients
throughout the world. They also provide on demand complete stories ready for broadcast.
The international agencies are the major agenda setters. They make the first decisions on how
and whether international stories will be covered. They choose where to allocate their resources and
hence which stories will be covered and where, they decided by those agenda setters.
They point out that existing flow of news is one way from the industrialized to developing
nations. News coverage of Third world nations was unbalanced.Those who champion that free flow of
information across also champion their right to profit from the sale of their products across borders.
Proof of Jewish Media Domination
"Today, seven Jewish Americans run the vast majority of US television networks, the printed press, the
Hollywood movie industry, the book publishing industry, and the recording industry. Most of these
industries are bundled into huge media conglomerates run by the following seven individuals:
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Gerald Levin, CEO and Director of AOL Time Warner Michael Eisner, Chairman and CEO of
the Walt Disney Company
Edgar Bronfman, Sr., Chairman of Seagram Company Ltd
Edgar Bronfman, Jr, President and CEO of Seagram Company Ltd and head of Universal.
Sumner Redstone, Chairman and CEO of Viacom, Inc.
Dennis Dammerman, Vice Chairman of General Electric
Peter Chernin, President and Co-COO of News Corporation Limited
Those seven Jewish men collectively control ABC, NBC, CBS, the Turner Broadcasting
System, CNN, MTV, Universal Studios, MCA Records, Geffen Records, DGC Records, GRP Records,
Rising Tide Records, Curb/Universal Records, and Interscope Records.
Most of the larger independent newspapers are owned by Jewish interests as well. An example
is media mogul is Samuel I. "Si" Newhouse, who owns two dozen daily newspapers from Staten Island
to Oregon, plus the Sunday supplement Parade; the Conde Nast collection of magazines, including
Vogue, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Allure, GQ, and Self; the publishing firms of Random House,
Knopf, Crown, and Ballantine, among other imprints; and cable franchises with over one million
subscribers." I could add that Michael Eisner could depart Disney tomorrow but the company will
remain in the hands of Shamrock Holdings, whose principal office is now located in Israel.
Television Networks
CBS
Sumner Redstone - chairman of board and CEO of CBS and Viacom, "world's biggest media giant"
(Economist, 11-23-02). Viacom owns Viacom Cable, CBS, and MTV all over the world, Blockbuster
Video Rentals, and Black Entertainment TV
Mel Karmazin - CBS corporation president and CEO
Leslie Moonves (great-nephew of Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion) - president of CBS
Television
David Poltrack - executive vice-president, Research and Planning
Jeff Fager - executive director of “60 Minutes II.”
NBC
Jeff Zucker - president of NBC Entertainment
Neil Shapiro - president of NBC News
Jeff Gaspin - executive vice-president, programming NBC
Max Mutchnik and David Kohan - co-exec. producers of NBC’s “Good Morning, Miami”
Lloyd Braun - chair of NBC Entertainment.
ABC
Michael Eisner - major owner of Walt Disney, Capital Cities, and ABC
David Westin - president of ABC News.
FOX
Rupert Murdoch (Jewish mother, hence legally Jewish) - owner of FOX TV, New York Post, London
Times, and News of the World
Sandy Grushow - chair, FOX Entertainment
Peter Chernin - second in command at Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp., owner of FOX TV
Gail Berman - president of FOX Entertainment.
CNN
CEO Jonathon Klein
Wolf Blitzer - host of CNN’s Late Edition.
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Hollywood Movie Studios
Sony Corporation of America: Howard Stringer - chief
Columbia Pictures: Amy Pascal - chair
Warner Bros.: Barry Meyer - chair; Jordan Levin - pres. of Warner Bros. Entertainment.
Miramax Films: Harvey Weinstein - CEO
Paramount: Sherry Lansing - president of Paramount Communications and chair of Paramount
Pictures’ Motion Picture Group.
DreamWorks: Stephen Spielberg, David Geffen, Jeffrey Katzenberg (owners)
MTV Entertainment: Brian Graden - president
Turner Entertainment: Brad Siegal - president
Clear Channel Communications: Robert Sillerman - founder
PBS: Ben Wattenberg - moderator, PBS ThinkTank
Newspapers
Samuel Newhouse Jr. and Donald Newhouse own Newhouse Publications, which includes 26
newspapers in 22 cities. The Conde Nast Magazine Group includes the New Yorker, Parade, the
Sunday newspaper supplements, American City Business Journal, business newspapers published in
more than 30 major cities in America, and interests in cable television programming and cable systems
serving one million homes.
Wall Street Journal: Peter R. Kahn, CEO
New York Times, Boston Globe, and other publications: published by Arthur O. Sulzberger Jr.
New York Daily News: Mortimer Zuckerman, owner
Village Voice, New Times and network of alternative weeklies: Owned by David
Schneiderman
Washington Post: Donald Graham, chair and CEO, son of Katharine Graham Meyer, former
owner of Washington Post
San Francisco Chronicle: Ron Rosenthal, managing editor; Phil Bronstein, exec. editor
AOL-Time Warner Book Group: Laurence Kirshbaum, editor
Magazines
US News & World Report: Mortimer Zuckerman, owner and chair of the Conference of Presidents of
Major Jewish-American Organizations, one of the largest pro-Israel lobbying groups
New Republic: Marty Peretz, owner and publisher (NR openly identifies itself as pro-Israel.)
Barron’s: Peter R. Kahn, CEO
National Review: Michael Ledeen, editor
Business Week: Bruce Nussbaum, editorial page editor
Newsweek: Donald Graham, chair and CEO, and Howard Fineman, chief political columnist
Weekly Standard: William Kristol, editor, also executive director, Project for a New American
Century, (PNAC)
The New Yorker: David Reznik, editor; Nicholas Lehman, writer; Henrick Hertzberg, “Talk of
the Town” editor
"Four of the largest five entertainment giants are now run or owned by Jews. Murdoch's News
Corp (at number four) is the only gentile holdout -- however Rupert is as pro-Israel as any Jew,
probably more so."
Jewish American Journalists
Journalsits are playing major role for moulding opinion of the people and for this domination of media
the Jewish media owners are working and pay lot of money all over the world .Here is the list of jewish
journalists who are trying their best for West domination Specialy USA.
Carl Bernstein — Washington Post.
David Brooks — New York Times
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Aaron Brown — CNN's Newsnight with Aaron Brown, ABC's World News Now, and ABC's
World News Tonight Saturday
Matt Drudge — The Drudge Report.
Giselle Fernández — Access Hollywood.
Thomas Friedman — New York Times.
Bernard Goldberg — CBS News.
Jeffrey Goldberg The New Yorker.
Seymour Hersh — investigative journalist.
Paul Krugman — New York Times.
Dave Marash — Washington-based anchor of Al-Jazeera's English language 24 hour news
channel..
Frank Rich — New York Times.
Geraldo Rivera — Fox News.
Steven V. Roberts — U.S. News and World Report. William Safire — The New York Times.
Daniel Schorr — National Public Radio.
Joel Siegel — film critic.
Gloria Steinem — feminist editor and writer, founder of Ms. magazine.
I. F. Stone — NY Post, PM, The Nation and I.F. Stone's Weekly.
Mike Wallace — 60 Minutes.
Barbara Walters — media personality, a regular fixture on morning television shows (Today
and The View), evening news magazines (20/20), and on The ABC Evening News, as the first female
evening news anchor.
Gideon Yago — MTV reporter.
Global Media and Third World Countries
Communication in Less development countries (LCD’s) is constrained by economic, educational and
demographic factors. Because financial resources are scare, government ownership of news media and
the national press, in the sale (Blake, 1979,225: Davision (1965:137) low literacy rate are also common
–rates of 25 or 30percent are considered high, low level of literacy mean that broadcast media are of
greater importance for reaching the masses than is the printed word (Davision 1965: 133 Kvrian, 1982:
570: Schramm 1964)
Third World nation nations depended to some extent on western television programming but
almost self-sufficient in the more important area of radio broadcasting. In the area of global media
Third world are not in the position to counter the propaganda and the culture of west. Western culture
is imposed on third world countries by dominant global media.
Global Media and Pakistan
After 9/11 Pakistan is becoming Hub for news, every day in international media we can see news from
Pakistan. When we started work along with USA against war in terror . In Pakistan media boomed and
now we could find that here more then 50 TV channels are working and them few are very popular and
foreign media trust on these channels and broadcast Pakistani news in their channels, but still they have
monopoly on media , mostly people are trusting on BBC, DEWA Radio, CNBC rather then GEO TV
and Express TV etc etc, For Media manipulation USA started radio channels in Pakistani tribal areas
where they are fight with so called Taliban .Because in tribal area mostly TV Channels and radio
Channels are not working ,West hired local journalists for their own propaganda against Taliban and
achieving own goals and targets.BBC, Mashal Radio, Deva Radio is eailsy listened in Tribal areas
rather then pakistani radio channels .For counter this propaganda paksiatani Govt tried their best failed
to counter these all channels. Now the situation is that people of pakistan are globalized and Pakistani
viewers whole life style is being eclipsed by foreign media. Cable TV channels have become the
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source from which the young viewers get the inspiration about new trends, fashion and dresses. In a
way our language and literature are being adversely affected by the onslaught of foreign channels. So
our youth is overawed with English language. People resort to ostentatious and lavish way of living.
They love to dine out at expensive hotels and western food chains along with celebration of
unnecessary events and festivals which in turn invokes the class consciousness in the society
Conclusion
If we took a glance we conclude that the global media market is dominated by west, most of which are
based in the United States.They propagate the third world culture negatively and demarganalized the
positive aspect of these developing societies. They invade passively into the social, political and even a
religious system. They win the consent of the masses of the third world through media by propagating
the information, which are in favor of them. West has dominated the third world in the field of
hardware and as well as software technologies. Most of the third world countries are at the disposal of
the west for the transfer of sophisticated and up-to-date technologies but the west misused their
dependency and they transferred their material and non-material culture in the shape of information
and technologies. This domination has crippled the creativeness of the third world. And they are no
more as puppet in hands of the west.Foreign satellite entertainment programs have drastically impacted
our media cultural products including different categories of programs such as film, drama, music,
fashion and film award shows. In the field of music Pakistani channels are copying western music
shows in which boys and girls sing and dance together. We can conclude here that west dominated the
whole world media specially third world countries on their targest .From this media globalization they
have ruined third world countries culture and inhibitants of the Pakistan ,india, bangladesh, sri lanka
and more othere countries are pupets in the hand of West .And this they done only through media ,the
question is arise that why we cant counter western media the answer is that third world countries have
no powerful media.
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