The Role Of Media In Globalization

In today’s fast moving world, there is an increased amount of interdependence among nation states. How countries interact with each other, and the roles of countries in the international arena are greatly influenced by globalization. As a result, the international system and structure are always prone to change. One vital factor in international relations is the balance of power between different states. Starting from the early 20th century the world experienced a multipolar and a bipolar international system. Multipolar, referring to the situation in which there were multiple major powers and none of them was any more powerful than the other. After World War two, many of these major powers declined and the world was left United States and

Rapid advancement of communication and technology, made it more globalized. The emergence of the internet, social media, and mass media, virtually inter-connected the world. Today all forms of media are part of our everyday life. They have an important function in the society. One of the basic function is disseminating information. It is through media that people learn about what happens in other parts of the world. Hence societies around the world are extremely dependent on the media. Also, according to social scientists, in today’s world media has a vital role in socialization of the society (Lewis, 1976). It is through media, that people intepret events happening around them. There is a lot of empirical evidence which shows how much media can influence its audience (Lewis, 1976). What should be noted here is that, the U.S has a huge influence on both social media and other forms of mainstream media. 9 out of the 10 largest media houses in the world are based in the U.S (Le, 2015). Most of the media that we consume, are produced by these companies or their subsidiaries. Be it movies, songs, podcasts, newspapers and even novels too. Even though these media companies are not controlled directly by the American government, the owners of these companies have close relations with the government, and often funds political campaigns. Because of this their

The largest social media companies are based in the U.S. However, unlike mainstream media, U.S does not have control over the content since most is user generated. But, the U.S has the capability to intercept communication that occur in this sphere. Since the internet is globally connected U.S can look into almost anyone's personal emails, listen to phone conversations and so on. According to WikiLeaks the U.S even intercepted phone conversations of German Chancellor Angela Merkel for several years (Huggler, 2015). This shows how U.S uses globalized communication technology to their advantage. In recent history there has been various incidents where U.S used media to achieve their foreign policy goals. It is an undeniable fact that, the U.S has a huge control over the media and communication platforms, and through their influence, they are able to consolidate more and more power globally. None of this would be possible if not for the increase in scale and rate of communication today. Globalization of communication, certainly is a key factor in U.S maintaining their position in today's international