In our contemporary global environment, information is the key to understanding and dealing with social, political, financial, and other aspects of our lives.  Most of us, regardless of geographical location, rely heavily for our daily news and information on the mass media—in other words, we have become heavily dependent on the media.  In fact, it would be practically impossible for us to imagine a world without the media!  Unfortunately, one of the problems is that the media, in their relentless race for obtaining higher audience ratings and disseminating news in a speedy manner, often overlook the social, political, economic, and emotional implications of their coverage of epidemics.

Some of the main functions of mass media, in addition to providing news and information, include:

• Entertainment

• Education

• Commerce (making profits)

• Persuasion (propaganda and advertising)

Collectively, the mass media are highly influential and effective in raising public awareness, increasing knowledge, informing, and changing peoples’ attitudes and behavior both nationally and globally.  It is through the mass media that we learn about a wide range of issues such as politics, war, natural disasters, health, crimes, achievements, sports, arts, and famine.  Our dependency on the media was illustrated in a newspaper cartoon in which a child is standing in front of his father.  The caption reads:  “Dad, if a tree falls in the forest and the media aren’t there to cover it, has the tree really fallen?”

The mass media, like other institutions or businesses, have their own priorities and limitations.  For instance, they (1) are a major part of the global economy, (2) are in the business of making a profit, (3) rely on advertising dollars for their survival, (4) are marketing and advertising channels for manufacturers, (5) are run by professionals who are not trained in dealing with medical and scientific issues, (6) tend to be sensational in order to attract viewers, and (7) tend to be biased in covering certain issues and events.

Globalization is a vast and multifaceted process that cannot be easily defined.  In fact there are as many definitions as there are disciplines.  Nonetheless, according to Tollison and Willett the following explanation seems to capture the essence of this evolutionary process:  Globalization has resulted in the integration of economics through increased interdependence among nations, decreased trade barriers, and the generation of open markets.  Globalization is a process which is technologically driven and as this process continues to unfold, it leaves behind it some “winners” but many “losers.”

Globalization seems to benefit the advanced countries while damaging the economies of developing countries.  According to the Information Society Index (ISI, 2000), “in digital terms, the rich countries are getting richer while the poor are too, but that digital divide between groups and societies will eventually grow larger and larger.”

Based on the same ISI report, nations maybe divided into FIVE groups.  The variables that they used to categorize the nations were: (1) Computer infrastructure, (2) Internet Infrastructure, (3) Information Infrastructure, and (4) Social infrastructure.  The categories are:

·         SKATERS:  Advance countries that are in a strong position (technologically, economically, socially, and politically) to benefit from the Information Revolution.  Examples would be Sweden, United States, Finland, Australia, Japan, United Kingdom, Germany, and so on.

·         STRIDERS:  Have the necessary infrastructure in place and are moving forward.  Examples would be Belgium, Austria, France, Korea, and so on. 

·         SPRINTERS:  Nations that are shifting their priorities and at times seem to move forward by making the necessary adjustments.  Example would be Poland, Chile, Argentina, Malaysia, Russia, Brazil, and so on.

·         STROLLERS:  Moving ahead but in an inconsistent and limited manner.  Examples world be Egypt, China, Indonesia, India, and so on.

·         STARTERS: Nations at the beginning of the road to information revolution which together constitute about 40% of world’s population.

Some of the obstacles among the Sprinters and Strollers include:  Over population, lack of infrastructure, lack of resources, lack of planning and management.

Indeed, global problems require global cooperation and the global media can certainly play a crucial and decisive role in informing and educating their audiences about AIDS, poverty, health, environment, and other contemporary matters.

Scholars adhering to the belief of globalization as a new phase of imperialism maintain that the emergence of a single global market is bringing about a ‘denationalization’ of economies in which national governments are relegated to little more than transmission belts for global capital (Held et al., 1999).  In Ohmae’s (1995) terms, the older patterns of nation-to-nation linkage have lost their dominance in economics as in politics.  In other words, nation-states have already lost their role as meaningful units of participation in the global economy of today’s borderless world.

According to Miyoshi (1996), transnational corporations have replaced nation states to continue colonialism.  In the current period of Third Industrial Revolution, even though the nation-state still performs certain functions such as defining citizenship, controlling currency, providing education, and maintaining security, its autonomy has been greatly compromised and thoroughly appropriated by transnational corporations.  In the realm of communication, Hamelink (2007) observed that today’s global governance system differs from the system operated during the past 100 years in that the old system existed to coordinate national policies that were independently shaped by sovereign governments, while the new system determines supranationally the space that national governments have for independent policy making. 

In fact, the information and economic gap or the digital divide between the “haves” and “have nots” has increased dramatically.  For instance, according to the World Bank, since 1997, the percentage of population living on less than One-Dollar-a-day has more than doubled.  This is in view of the fact that the dominant global corporations, with governmental support, continue to increase their size (through mergers), global reach, and income!

Consider the growth of a once relatively small corporation, Times Inc.  In recent years, Times has acquired Warner Brothers, Turner Broadcasting, and America Online—through mergers—to become one of the largest media conglomerates in the world.

Other major global media players include Walt Disney, News Corp., Sony, Vivendi Universal, Viacom, and Berletsmann.  These corporations have their hands into practically every mode communication that you can imagine—movies, books, radio, television, magazines, newspapers, consumer products, and more!  Today a handful of media conglomerates produce and distribute most of what we see, read, and hear—through the global media—around the world.

In general, people throughout the world are more alike than different but, unfortunately, we tend to focus on what sets us apart than bring us together.   What is missing in today’s global environment is a collective effort to empower peoples and nations so that they can not only solve their internal social, political, and economic problems but benefit from the enormous wealth which is generated globally.

What is needed is a concerted effort by the mass media, transnational corporations, health organizations, governmental and non-governmental organizations to join hands and focus their resources and energies on funding research, finding remedies, saving lives, educating and informing people in a balanced, fair, and truthful manner.

As a concerned teacher, scholar, and human being, I am quite perplexed by the complexity and immensity of the social, political, economic, communication, relational, and environmental problems that face our global community today.  Hence, I consider it my duty to do whatever I can—in cooperation with other likeminded individuals, such as yourselves—to devise mechanisms and new communication channels, such as Journal of Globalization for the Common Good and Global Media Journal, that will help us to explore, discuss, share, inform, and educate as many people as possible.  As the saying goes, in this Information Age, knowledge is power.

References

Hamelink, C. J. (2007).  The politics of global communication.  In Y. R. Kamalipour (Ed.), Global communication, 2^nd ed. (pp. 161-187).  Belmont, CA: Cengage Learning (formerly Wadsworth).

Held, D., McGrew, A., Goldblatt, D., & Perraton, J. (1999).  Global transformations: Politics, economics and culture.  Stanford, CA: Stanford University.

Kamalipour, Y. R.  (2007).  Global Communication, 2^nd ed.  Belmont, CA: Cengage Learning (formerly Wadsworth).

Ohmae, K. (1995).  The end of the nation state: The rise of regional economics.  New York: The Free Press.

Miyoshi, M. (1996).  A borderless world? From colonialism to transnationalism and the decline of the nation-state.  In R. Wison & W. Dissanayake (Eds.), Global/Local: Cultural production and the transnational imaginary (pp. 78-106).  Durham, NC: Duke University.

Tollison, R. D., and T. D. Willett.  (1973).  International Integration and the Interdependence of Economic Variables, retrieved online at http://www.jstor.org/view/00208183/dm980202/98p01336/0.

Welch, W.  (2000, Spring).  The Information Society Index (ISI) 2000.  http://www.worldbank.org/devoutreach/spring2000/article.asp?id=86.