The main features of media globalization explain how this change has affected our everyday lives at a global and individual level. The first feature of media globalization is that the media industry has been continually dominated by a small number of mega media conglomerates. An example from the mass media would be Disney, Viacom and Time Warner Inc. These media organizations control the media industry and feed their consumers information that they feel is important or newsworthy. The book uses these examples explaining, "The structure of ownership of media organizations has become increasingly concentrated." (pg 55) I feel concerned that we are only receiving concentrated information. If there is something that these companies do not want the world to know, they have the power to limit the viewer or reader's knowledge on some happenings of the world. Another example of this is with the emergence of technology in China, the Chinese government made a deal with Google so that its citizens could not research the Tienanmen Square massacre. Why should people be limited to information when there are so many forms of it in our society today. If United States students wanted to research the Tienanmen Square event, we could research newspaper databases, encyclopedias, and the Internet. This makes the globalization of media in many ways a positive thing.
Another feature of media globalization is the aspect which says that there is a greater amount of homogenization and standardization in certain media products produced and distributed. An example of this is the iPod. The iPod has become so globalized that no one is buying any other brand of MP3 player although they have the same capabilities. Apple has become a name brand, selling because of their excellent marketing strategies. The only product that even comes close to competing with Apple's iPod is a recently new product called the Zune. It presents a design similar to an iPod with the same features, but is less expensive for more gigabytes (storage space).
The promotion of the ideology of consumerism which is bound up with the capitalism project is the last feature of media globalization. Consumerism has become the force behind the United States' and many other nation's economies. Consumerism on a local scale hardly exists and we are purchasing products from worldwide companies, such as Wal-Mart, McDonald's, Coke, and Apple. The force behind these companies' sales is the media. The advertising and marketing that goes into the products campaign. A child would be able to tell you that Wal-Mart's slogan is "Save money. Live better," or that Ronald McDonald is McDonald's spokesperson along with their slogan, "Put a smile on." The problem that arises with this aspect of media globalization is that small businesses hardly have a chance against these conglomerate organizations. They cannot afford to pay the media conglomerates for advertising methods which could boost their sales. This often leads to them closing their businesses and working for a large company instead of expanding the diversity of the economy. The media also promotes the ideas in the western world that material goods are necessary to live a normal life and fit in with social norms. They present this idea to us in television shows, music, movies, and commercials. CW11's television series Gossip Girl portrays high school girls who live a privileged life on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. In one episode, the main character, Serena was wearing boots priced at $50,000 and in every episode she is carrying a different handbag worth no less than $2,000. The television show Sex & the City, although aimed at older viewers, promotes the same message to women. Although this is the extreme side of advertising through a television series, it shows how these shows make many women feel inadequate so they increase their spending on things that they don't need, but things that they want. Vogue and Seventeen magazine enforce these ideals. This has become the basis for American women's consumerism because of the media.
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