Media Production in a Global Age

This week’s lecture was about Globalisation and how over the years globalisation has developed and one of the reasons for this could be the raise of internet and people being able to connect and travel. We covered the definition of Globalisation - “The intensification of world-wide social relations, which link distinct localities in such a way that local happenings are shaped by events occurring many miles away and vice versa”

Anthony Giddens – Sociologist Long & Wall (2012) p.198)

Many companies today sell products which will suit specific need to the specific country in which they are selling their product. For example, McDonalds which is one of the most well known fast food chains with over 30k restaurants will adjust their menu to specific countries and cultures sometimes in order to meet the consumers of that country- for example the menu in India might be different to what we see here in the UK.

In this weeks set reading Long & Wall highlighted the ways in which internet has become a huge part of the increase of globalisation as it creates a way for people to communicate around the world and is a ‘’global media platform’’ (Long & Wall 2012:237). Internet based companies such as Google and Facebook are now most powerful companies within the media and both are platform for communication therefore globalisation as well.

For my own further reading I chose ‘’Media and Globalization’’, the writer believed that to understand globalization the following three stages should be followed "the first on globalization, the second on its consequences, and the third on what we can do with them". In his book he goes on about why the theory of globalization is not clear also that in order to research the results of media globalization, the different definitions of globalization should be considered.

For my further research I would look at how international businesses have used media to be globalized, interviewing people from these companies would be the ideal scenario to get to know how the company has been developed and how media has helped and improved the development in order for these companies to become global.

References:

Long, Paul and Wall, Tim (2012) Media Studies: Texts, Production, Context. London: Pearson, pp. 234-270

Rantanen, Terhi (2004) The Media and Globalization. London: Sage, pp. 1-18