The Impact Of Global Media On Culture: Positive And Negative Effects

Function of Global Media in Shaping Culture and Civilization

Question:

Discuss about the Media Communication and Culture.

Global media is one of the popular technologies of today’s world. It has a very strong influence in our social and cultural life, and also affects our everyday routine. There is a bright connection between global media and our cultures. Without global media, the culture will deteriorate. This new technology named global media has changed our conceptions towards a culture of other countries. With the help of this global media flow, the different components of a culture are evolving and striving itself.

Global media affects the cultural civilisation of a country in a broad way. It helps us to see the culture of a country in a different viewpoint. The boughs of global media, such as communication portals, broadcasting channels enter into a country and influence their social and cultural life (Peng, 2016). To know about the culture and ethnicity of a nation, people mainly depend upon the universal media. Some examples would be sufficed. India is a big country, and the global media flows spread the Indian culture all over the world. Indian entertainment programs are popular among every nation. The global media flows give information about the movie industry and also depicts the Indian cinema cultures. Through this global media, people from other nations could gain the knowledge about Indian cultural civilisation and their impacts. This could help to change their understanding towards Indian culture. Another great example would be Australia. Australia is another big country, and the moving platform of Australia influences the whole world. Australian fashion industry provides the latest trends which are very popular universally. People eagerly wait for the launch of new fashion trends. Their TV series and comic series are famous and being watched by the whole world. In fact, their news channels also help other people to know about the present political and economic situations. Apart from that, Australia has another strong cultural source; that is their amusement resource. The global media flow is an anchor between the Australian cultural programs and the world. With the help of this medium, people will understand the Australian culture and their influences.

The global media flow has an enormous impact on the inhabitants of a country. Now, these impacts may be positive or negative. A detailed discuss the consequences would be sufficed. In today's world, with the help of modernised media, people can know everything without giving any effort (Karush, 2012). It also affects the intellectual assortment of a nation. Now, this upgraded global media has some positive and negative aspects. The positive aspects of global media flows are:

• Media supplies the trending news and updates the people with the present situation of the world. This way people can gather any data about any country from their home. Global media helps to let people edifying about the world trends.
• Precision is another positive outcome of global media flow. They provide the news of a country with precision. This precision would diminish the doubt factor among the people.
• It also works as a medium of amusement. By watching different movies of different countries, people can understand their culture, language, thinking, fashion, etc (Sparks, 2013).
• Another essential positive outcome of global media is that it talks about sensitive matters and alerts the normal people. Child labour, injustices to the rape victims, girl child's importance, education of girls are the most sensitive topics that can be acknowledged through the platform of global media.

There are some negative aspects of global media also present. These negative outcomes are:

• Global media has a bad influence on the young generation. For example, world television has made a lot of crime shows that mainly alerts the human being about the various crimes and the mental instability of the criminals. These crime shows have a good intention, but it results in a negative way among the youth. The teenagers take ideas from these shows and commit crime. A survey among the young criminals was conducted by the American Government. The survey shows that almost 80% of those criminals have taken their crime ideas from television shows and serials.
• Sometimes media shows their partiality for some news or political parties. It affects the collective judgment in a negative way. People get confused whether to believe the media or to trust their instinct (Shome, 2012).

There are some examples of global media that help us to understand the cultures of a country. Let us discuss the functions and impacts of these models.

1. News: News channels are a strong example of global media flow. These channels provide the news of different countries and also explain the current status of those countries. News helps people to change their thinking about a country’s cultural and social affairs. For example, the terrorist attacks in Jerusalem, India are giving people information about the pathetic condition of those countries. It influences the thinking of the inhabitants. On the other hand, the cultural programs (Republic day programs, etc.) of a country spread the cultural richness of a country. Some vital cultural functions also influence the understanding of people towards the cultural ethnicity of a country. Apart from that, with the help of news channels, the political and economic status of a nation is also known to the world.
2. Entertainment channels: Entertainment channels are another part of global media portal. There are so many cultural programs that have been conducted by the entertainment channels of global media. For example, the mythological and cultural serials of Indian television depict the common family cultures, the relations between in-laws and daughter-in-law, etc. The mythological programs exaggerate the power of Gods and their epic stories. These types of entertaining series help the people to know about the heritage and rich culture of India. A great example of this channel would be the fashion channels of America. These channels conduct many fashion shows and contests. Through the help of this portal, people get to know about the latest fashions and latest trends. It also changes the thinking of individuals about the Australian cultures. Sports channels are another entertaining medium that helps people to know about the cultural plays and sports of different countries (Chopra and Gajjala, 2012).
3. Blogs: Blogs and magazines depict the artistic and intellectual attributes of a nation. These characteristics help people to gather knowledge about the diverse cultures of a country. This knowledge affects their judgments about those countries.
4. Social media: Social media is another important example of global media flow. Internet, Facebook, Twitter highlights the enriching aspects of every country. For example, the amazing facts about a country can be known through the social media.

Effects of global media on the culture of a country: Global media has a vital effect on the culture of a nation. The global media evolves the political structure of a country. Politicians can reach out to the citizens and convince them to make a credible Government.

The common culture of a nation is also influenced by the media. Globalisation has made easy to communicate with other peoples through global media.

Apart from that global media helped to create a civilisation based on acquaintance. It also spreads culture and education all around the world (Oldenburg, 2016).

The global media is making a revolutionised change in the whole world. People are getting aware of every small thing that is happening around them. All these factors of global media play a significant role in the cultural enrichment of a country.

Culture and global media are interrelated: It is true that culture and global media are co-related. Both of them shape each other. Just as global media has an enormous impact on culture; similarly culture plays an important role in the formation of global media. Culture supplies the core ingredients, by which global media creates news and other programs. In short, culture works as an asset of global media flow. Every work of global media, whether amusement or news, is taken from the cultural activities of a country. Culture is the key feature of international media, and global media is the key anchor of culture. The interrelation between culture and media helps people to understand the local and international cultures. Thus the opinions of the people about different countries and their cultures go through modification and changes (Bryfonski, 2012).

Conclusion:

Media is one of the strongest social platform in today's world. This media is expanded all over the world and became the global media. Various aspects of the global media enable the citizens of a country to gather local and international information. This report depicts the unique cultures of different countries. The elaborate discussion about the cultural attributes of a nation influences the understanding of people towards that country. Thus the global media flow changes the viewpoint of people towards the culture and social status of other countries.

References:

Bryfonski, D. (2012). The global impact of social media. 1st ed. Detroit, MI: Greenhaven Press.

Chopra, R. and Gajjala, R. (2012). Global Media, Culture, and Identity. 1st ed. Hoboken: Taylor and Francis.

Karush, M. (2012). Culture of class. 1st ed. Durham: Duke University Press.

Oldenburg, S. (2016). Book Review: Mediatized Worlds: Culture and Society in a Media Age. Media, Culture & Society.

Peng, W. (2016). Sino-US film coproduction: A global media primer. Global Media and China, 1(4), pp.295-311.

Shome, R. (2012). Asian modernities: Culture, politics and media. Global Media and Communication, 8(3), pp.199-214.

Sparks, C. (2013). Global media studies: its development and dilemmas. Media, Culture & Society, 35(1), pp.121-131.