8. Media Contraflows

One of these days most trendy and important factors that have been involved in the globalization of media is the influence of the Western world over developing countries'. Indeed, the influence of the dominant countries has played a major role in shaping the structure of the flow of news circulating in different media and also created new shapes of media content due to the mix of different cultures and backgrounds.  First, we have to mention that the medium that has played a major role in the rapid production and the mixture of cultures in the world of media is television. Indeed, as the television got rid of many restrictions (political and socio-cultural), people have started shaping a new identity through the content shown on their screen. The very numerous programs and choice of channel options provided are the main elements that encourage people (in the developing countries) to be aware of what’s happening (on the national and the international level as well) hence, it becomes a considerable part of their lifestyle and worldview.Second, it’s clear now that there are new ways of using and presenting media. It’s becoming fully based on the commercialization of the content. Moreover, global events such as the World Cup event is very commercialized and associated with Western ads and is being more and more exported from developed to developing countries. The global audience is, indeed, consuming the content as if it became part of their basic identity.Adding to that, the globalized media content became the basic catalyst for Eastern countries to consume the content. It is all based on following the model provided by the developed countries because it’s more present under different forms. The fact that a unique structure with the integration of the periphery’s contribution to the content leads, little by little, to new reforms in the world of global media.Concerning the format and the structure of the media content presented at a global scale, it’s being mixed and diverse with many cultures and subcultures shifting between Western and Eastern countries. We have to admit that some developing countries have restricted the local access to global media content in order to keep the shape and the root identity within the society. It’s a choice based to contradict the overexposure of the Western culture presented in media.To sum up, Global media is being more and more controlled by the Western and by different means. Developing countries not only follow the model but also try to put their local traditional touch into it through the language, the insertion of some cultural hints and the reshaping of the Western raw model of media.
I'll take this last paragraph as a space where I react to the information discussed above. I personally think that there is a huge influence from the West at the level of global media content but, it really helps in gathering the world and making it a smaller space where different and diverse cultures get in touch with one another. It highlights the differences and the similarities that the common space between the developed and developing countries contains.