Sociology Now, Census Update

The mass media have become truly global in nature. CNN broadcasts via 23 satel-

lites to more than 212 countries and territories in all corners of the globe. Major sport-

ing events are seen by hundreds of millions of people worldwide. The 2006 World

Cup, for example, was watched by a cumulative television audience of more than 26

billion viewers across the globe (FIFA, 2007). The Internet is growing more global

every day, allowing millions of users from all over the world to come online to seek

and share information, post opinions and creative work, and shop for items previ-

ously available only to those who physically traveled to other countries.

In the 1960s, the path-breaking media scholar Marshall McLuhan predicted that

the rise of global electronic media would bring the world closer together. He coined

the term global villageto describe an environment in which people everywhere could

make their voices heard to one another, thus compelling “commitment and partici-

pation” and making human beings “irrevocably involved with, and responsible

for, each other” (McLuhan and Fiore, 1967, p. 24). Four decades later, is that what

globalization means?

What Is Media Globalization?

Media globalization has two main concerns. First, there is the technological innovation

that allows us to communicate instantaneously over vast distances. In many countries

today, there is no need to be physically close by to work together; images, sounds, the

thoughts of almost anyone, from anywhere, can potentially be available to billions of

people. Technology is giving increasing numbers of people the power to produce cul-

ture. And technology is making it as easy to communicate with someone on another

continent as it is with someone down the hall.

But media globalization also concerns the cultural products that are available

around the world. In that area, sociologists are finding that McLuhan’s vision of a

610 CHAPTER 18MASS MEDIA

Free Press

Many people think it is important to have complete freedom of the press and news media in the

United States. Others think the press too often invades the privacy of public figures like senators

or members of Congress by printing stories that contain personal details about their private

lives. So, what do you think?

18.2

What

do

you

think

❍There should be complete freedom of the press, even

if the press sometimes invades the privacy of public

figures.

❍The press should develop a code of ethics to keep it

from invading the privacy of public figures.

❍The government should keep the press from printing

stories that invade the privacy of public figures.

Which of these three statements comes closest to your feelings about balancing freedom of the press

and the right to privacy?

?

See the back of the chapter to compare your answers to national survey data.