Globalization and International News

News in a Globalized Society

• Stig Hjarvard University of Copenhagen

Globalization: Two definitions

• “Accordingly, the concept of globalization implies, first and foremost, a stretching of social, political and economic activities across frontiers such that events, decisions and activities in one region of the world can come to have significance for individuals and communities in distant regions of the globe. In this sense, it embodies transregional interconnectedness, the widening reach of networks of social activity and power, and the possibility of action at a distance”.
• David Held et al.: “Global Transformations. Politics, Economics and Culture”.
• “We can thereby define globalization as: A social process in which the constraints of geography on social and cultural arrangements recede and i which people come increasingly aware that they are receding”.
• Malcolm Water: “Globalization”.

Three roles of media in globalization

• Channels - create the conditions for globalization: makes coordination across time and space possible
• Messengers of a globalized world: cultural reflexivity
• Infrastructure - forms social and cultural interaction in new ways: disembedding - reembedding

Changes in international news broadcasting - I

• From international to (quasi-) global actors
• Vertical integration: fuzzy lines between news agency-broadcasting-service providers
• Horisontal integration: several different (news) media as part of a unified strategy
• Commercialization: from public service to commercial actors (fx. BBC and Euronews)
• Diversification of output: from general news to business, entertainment and special interest information services

Changes in international news broadcasting -II

• Regionalization as the general strategy: quasi- domestication:
• Content
• Languages
• Alliances with local actors
• Regional perspectives