This essay aims to find out whether globalization of the media tends to undermine
national cultures. Current arguments about the relationship between media
globalization and national cultures are presented and analyzed. A study of the
different functions performed by global media within the context of different
economic, technological and cultural situations, from a cultural perspective, was
carried out in order to examine the different ways globalization of media can
influence national cultures. Media might play a necessary and active role affecting a
nation’s culture, but is improbably to be called a “sufficient condition” for cultural
resistance or submission. Whether the globalization of media undermines national
culture or not also depends on how strong a particular national culture is. On the
positive side, economic and technological globalization of media not only recharges
the existing media strengths, but also allows new media bodies to emerge and grow.
The essay uses the case of India to exemplify that the driving forces behind global
cultural homogenization can be weak under some circumstances and that global
media may be indigenized in some cases. The national and regional media groups in
India, such as Zee TV, develop quickly. Thanks to cultural factors, they have an edge
over foreign competitors and play a very important role in the preservation of Indian
cultural identity.
“Internationalization” is a fashionable, mysterious, and magic word on everyone’s lips.
For some people, it is what we must do if we wish to be happy; for others it is the cause of
much angst. Most agree that the trend toward internationalization appears to be irreversible,
and it is a process that is bound to affect all in one way or another. Although we accept the
situation as significant, there are some problems with the term, itself. Does globalization turn
our planet into a world society, a “global village”? Or, conversely,...