Asian ascendancy: media in the age of globalization

Media is the most prominent and strong mode of expression in this age of globalization, and Asia has discovered the power of media to maneuver and manipulate ongoing agendas (Rudolph 1992; Hoselitz 1957). In Asia, the United States, Latin America, and Europe, the top ten activities of teens during the mid-90’s were media associated (Walker 1996). The Asian media setting is different to other parts of the world, although it has been influenced by the west to a certain extent. This difference can be viewed by looking at its performance and operations. The United States has played an important role in learning, creating, and sharing cultural norms. This has been the basis of most media flow (Appadurai 1990; Walker 1996). Appadurai (1990) and Hannerz (1990) described the overlapping of Asian consumer culture with the United States, which is facilitated by the US media. From snack food to fashion to furniture, consumer culture schemes (lifestyle, aesthetics, and language themes) are channeled from the United States to other parts of the world through mediascapes. Media allows people to communicate through different sources. In both media law and practice, Asian countries are similar to international standards. Djankov et al. (2003) found that government control of the media (related to less liberty of the Press) is greater in countries with autocratic political establishments. The Asian media is open and democratic (for the people and by the people). Public interest and government drives the Asian media for the betterment of the community (Djankov et al. 2003).

In the recent years, Asian media outlets have tried to overcome and challenge their western opponents who control the world media market. A renowned Asian news agency’s editor-in-chief stated that the information of the world flows from developed countries to developing countries. Another New York Times columnist said that the magic power of globalization has been proven by famous entrepreneurs like Bill Gates (Harrison 2012).

One seventh of the world’s population is from Asia and developed countries, but they control two thirds of the total information flow. In addition, Asia has tried to be fairer, objective and provide more comprehensive coverage than western media. Asian media agencies, particularly from the developing nations, are now actively participating in world events and collaborate more when reporting regional news. There is no longer a monopoly for reporting important regional news and events in Asia, as media outlets are now sharing, editing, and exchanging information and reports to provide better media content (Chan J, Suen W 2008).

Asian media are researching new technologies to send news over the internet and cellular phones. Asian media have been developing and improving since the 1960s, fighting against unjust control by the western developed nations, and are now becoming globally dominant.

Disparities of the media content and information flow between developed and developing countries has not improved in decades, because of the western media’s misapprehensions and biased opinions regarding developing and Asian countries. Asia has learnt to invest in its own and relocate its resources to encourage better communication and gain power. Recent developments include communication meetings and groups where, for example, countries like China, Japan, Korea, and Sri Lanka have signed agreements to speak louder than the rest of the world (Xinhua 2007).

Time and place are always important, and the same is true for media. Cultural barriers have created differences in media content. From the organization perspective, there are hindrances to entering into foreign markets because of the demands of culturally reliant spectators. Increases in the global flows of commodities and people mean that we have entered into ‘imagined worlds’, where social connections are made without borders, flags, or national interest. International audiences lack familiarity with signs and symbols. Language barriers are another difference, which vary from country to country. Media content is translated into the language of local audiences, but language barriers still influence the success of the media content (Rohn 2010).

Media represents the modern era; it accepts and broadcasts the positive and negative events that are happening around us. It acts as a platform to reveal and address various issues from different perspectives. However, it also generates positive appearances and expressions, and reflects on the history ingrained in societies. This paper is an empirical attempt to highlight the role of media in the age of globalization in Asia.

Challenges in Asian media are related to cultural politics. The first challenge is the competition to produce culture, and arguments over its meaning. Modern society seeks individual identity and worth, which may be visible through media, and propagates the circulation of power, wealth, and status. The second challenge is that media’s key interest is to generate the public’s culture at the same time as encouraging socio-economic gain (Rudolph 1992). It is a challenge and an opportunity that media can reveal and hide the realities of society. The realism, symbolism, idealism, classism, and romanticism of society can be allegorically or non-allegorically reported and addressed by the media. The media expands culture through globalization and the international exchange of dialogues, but sometimes by reporting opposing views regarding different sovereigns they can increase hostilities between nations.

Media substantially contributes to economy and production. As studied by the World Bank, Locksley (2008) identified that the principal level, which is transparency and multitude, supports and nurtures media as a whole and provides good power/governance for political and economic markets.

It is a top-down and bottom-up approach because the media reaches out to the powerful and powerless, to the rich and the poor, to safeguard the interest of the particular, create a sense of responsiveness, and make government and policy makers accountable for the environment’s safety and protection.

The expense of advertising on a global scale is because of the media’s ability to control and sway behavior. A large amount of money is spent to persuade and bring change in individuals, groups, and organizations worldwide. The effectiveness of the media in encouraging transformations or changing opinions varies (Bryant and Zillmann 2002; Hornik 2002).

Table 2 also highlights the contribution of the Indian media. The data revealed that the Indian media contribute significantly and positively to expanding culture, facilitating multilateral dialogues, and income generation (significant beta coefficients and their respective t-statistics, i.e., all t-statistics are greater than 1.5). However, they do not look after the interest of minorities or ease aggression with neighboring nations (insignificant beta coefficient and t-statistics, i.e., t-stats < 1.5).

The Afghani media do not significantly contribute to any of the areas of our investigation (all beta coefficients and their respective t-statistics are insignificant, i.e., all t-statistics are less than 1.5).

The Iranian media only contribute to the cultural expansion of the (significant beta coefficient and t-stats > 1.5). They fail to facilitate the exchange of multilateral dialogues, look after the interests of minorities, ease aggression with neighboring nations, or generate revenue (t-stats < 1.5).

The Chinese and Japanese media contribute significantly and positively to all of the outlined areas, i.e., they expand culture, facilitate the exchange of multilateral dialogues, look after the interests of minorities, ease aggression with neighboring nations, and generate income (positive beta coefficients and t-stats > 1.5).

In contrast to the Chinese and Japanese media, the Singaporean media only contribute significantly and positively to facilitating the exchange of multilateral dialogues, and easing aggression with neighboring nations (positive beta coefficients and t-stats > 1.5).

We conclude that the media in Asia as a whole significantly contribute to cultural expansion and the exchange of multilateral dialogues. However, they do not look after the interests of minorities, although there have been minor improvements in relation to religious minorities. It should be noted that the media are virtual ambassadors who should always attempt to mitigate hostilities between nations, but it can been seen from our results that they can often provoke aggressions between territories. Asia has become an emerging economic source of power and this economic advancement will determine military modernization and any form of war intervention. The findings further reveal that, in Asian media the packaging factor production feature is the most practiced feature (see Table 3).

The findings of this paper unfortunately highlight that the media has failed to look after the rights and interests of minorities. This was confirmed during the massacre at Burma this year 2012, which was not reported by any of the Asian media outlets. It is also disheartening that the findings of this paper show that in this region the media provokes hostilities instead of mitigating the chance of wars. This has been seen in the case of drone attacks on tribal areas in Pakistan (although primarily used to attack and destroy militants, war crimes have been committed because of damage to innocent civilians), and the threat of US attacks on Iran and North Korea because of negative propaganda from the Indian media (Mazhar & Goraya 2011). In contrast to these issues, the media has promoted cultural expansions and multilateral dialogues among the nations of the region.

Media trends are nurturing two-way communication for information exchange. This also creates job opportunities in desirable locations (Landry 2000). We also noted that communication is difficult in rural areas, making it difficult to influence and help some communities. Recent developments have targeted these areas, particularly because of floods and natural disasters. The media reported on flood and earthquake victims in Pakistan and Japan to encourage the rest of the world to send aid. Many more similar incidents are being reported on to influence governments and policy makers.

In Asian countries that are developing, poor, more autocratic, or less educated governments own the media because they use public choice theory to handle political and economic freedom. China, Japan, Korea, India, Sri Lanka and many other countries control information communication technology (ICT) by enforcing policies and deploying certain projects (Shiming 2008).

Asian nations have initiated collaborations with media to foster an extremely strong media industry in the near future. These include the following.

The Asian media should continue developing this industry by incorporating true value using the following outline.

Asian governments are trying to maintain stability and revenue returns in media. It is now evident that the Asian media expanded very quickly. Politics has a major role in the media. Commercialization of media has made it more powerful, public, and profitable. In this race, it is very important to concretely define what is right and what is wrong, and decide whether media content has a positive outcome. Media is the only platform and channel to unite people from different castes, creeds, and races during tragedies and during celebrations. The policy makers, stakeholders, and new entrants into this domain should recognize the basic purpose of the media, which is to explore, visualize, and share information that may improve the world.