NDM News: Globalisation

1) Is our news influenced by American cultural imperialism? 

Cultural imperialism is when critics of cultural dominance refer to the British Empire, when the Empire ruled a large proportion of the developing world and forced British values and ideologies upon it. Our news is influenced by American cultural imperialism as today's critics argue that the current US media domination amounts to cultural imperialism because it forces US culture on us through our media consumption. Others argue that US monopolises the global information system, dominating nations that wield less power in it. News is culturally dependent but it is also a product and producer of that culture. In my opinion, I think the news in the UK is influenced by American culture as we get many stories from the States. An example of this was the Black Lives Matter situation, which caused news channels in the UK to also distribute the story. Consumers also watch Hollywood movies, as well as listen to American born artists. As a result, I think that we have without noticing, become Americanised through the news and their ideologies. 

2) Has the increased globalisation of news improved the audience experience? 

The increased globalisation of news has improved audience experience due to the fact that they are able to gain access to a variety of news stories around the world, however, it could be argued that this has led to local news dying which means that audiences are not aware of what is going on locally which would be more beneficial. Additionally, the increased globalisation of news also causes moral panic, for example, people all around the world were reacting emotionally to Trump being elected despite the fact that it would have little impact on their lies. This is due to the amount of coverage this got on social media and the news which made it appear as a big thing. In my view, I think the increased globalisation has improved the audience experience as they are able to gain news from international countries. Encountering foreign news stories, allows the audiences to become aware of what is happening in both neighbouring countries and across the globe also. This is important as audiences can gain an insight into how different stories may be represented and it may also open their eyes to the fact that not all stories are true.

3) Has globalisation benefited or damaged major news institutions?

Globalisation has damaged major news institutions due to citizen journalism which means that audiences are more likely to read about news via social media rather than going onto a news website to gain more insight. This is damaging as the quality of the news may be compromised since professional journalists aren't filming it, similarly, there is the issue around 'fake news' which means that  the news may not necessarily be true as it could be manipulated. On the other hand, citizen journalism has benefited major media institutions such as Google, Facebook, Twitter etc as they are potentially taking money from news institutions because no one pays for news and just access it online. However, this also means that news coverage is cheaper for news institutions too because of the development of technology, free-lance/citizen journalism. In my view, I think that globalisation has benefited major news institutions more than they have damaged them. This is because globalisation has allowed free movement of labour and therefore news institutions benefit from international workers. Also, I think the fact that consumers are more interconnected and have the ability to speak to people abroad means that they will be able to use this to their advantage and benefit from news globally. A negative of this would be that audiences can become more inter twined with the other countries ideologies and we may enter cultural imperialism, which would negatively benefit the domestic news institutions.