Education
Hello, welcome back to the COMM122 podcast! Its Episode Eight, MY name is nina, ill be your host for today, just kidding, its still maxIn this episode, we will discuss challenges to media globalization, and how media institutions adapt to the challenges.The first challenge is the uneven development in media technology and telecommunication infrastructure. We refer to this problem as the digital divide. In 2016, the United Nations declared the promotion, protection, and enjoyment of the internet to be human rights. However, while the internet penetration rate was 79.6% in Europe, and 87% in the US, it was barely 22% in Africa. In many parts of the world, a stable supply of electricity remains an issue, not to mention high-speed internet. Of course, things are changing with the quick adoption of mobile phones in South Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Latin America. Uneven development requires media institutions to come up with different audience-targeting strategies. For instance, while institutions in North America are invested in using social media to raise awareness campaigns on public health issues, in the rural areas of developing countries TV series prove to be very effective in changing social norms and behaviors . For more info, please read the BBC coverage of Detective Vijay, a TV series in India featuring an HIV-positive detective.The second challenge is a legal and political one. Netflix, for example, is available in over 150 countries, but not in Crimea, a former part of Ukraine and now annexed by Russia. This is due to the US sanctions on Russia. Oh, yes, let’s talk about Netflix in China. In 2017, Netflix announced that it had reached a licensing deal with a local video-streaming company in China. Based on the Chinese laws and regulations, foreign companies providing information services must partner with local companies, and local companies should be the majority shareholder in the joint venture. Needless to say, had the deal gone through, Netflix’s content in China would also be highly selective and censored by the state. The deal never went through. The Chinese new Cybersecurity Law that went into effect in 2017 has made American tech companies’ presence in China increasingly difficult, if not impossible.While the legal and political barrier is largely associated with economic protectionism, sometimes, the barrier also has something to do with strong local competitions. In the Chinese case, there were already three local major video-streaming giants at the time of Netflix's entry. The local companies are doing very well in the Chinese domestic market and have been expanding overseas. Even if Netflix were present in China, it would face an uphill battle with local competitors.Piracy is another legal challenge. Because of the relative ease of copying and transmitting digital content, some argue that media institutions have lost revenues to piracy. But, does it? It is a debatable point. For that point, refer to the video shown in class titled Can piracy be “good” for business?Lastly, the linguistic and cultural barriers. Selling Russian films to American audience? Well, something is bound to be lost in translation. What is key here is not just a common language, but cultural proximity. Some cultural linguistic markets may have an advantage and benefit from closely linked geographies. Other cultural and linguistic markets may be based on diasporic communities, due to colonization and immigration. Be noted that places that seem to be culturally similar may have very different types of audience. For example, Crazy Rich Asians won big in America, but lost big in the Chinese market. Local audiences in China just don’t resonate with the film at all. Want to know more, watch the clip from CBS played in class.How do media institutions overcome these barriers. For the linguistic barriers, the most straightforward strategy is Dubbing and Subtitling. But it is an exp