Introduction
It is widely known that most movies made by Hollywood can be watched in almost every corner of the world. How this happened however, is a different question. It is also a known fact that not just American movies circulate around the world, but also its music, its games and many other entertainment outlets is accepted by most cultures around the world. Why this happens, is the main purpose of this study. Is it because the topics of the shows are culturally diverse? Is it because it’s basic in human nature that it can transcend the bounds of culture? If so, then why does it seem that this mostly work if the media in question comes from America?
Background of the Study
America, specifically, the United States is one of the most populous areas in the globe. With over 200 million Americans tuning in on their television sets daily, the telecommunications industry, or the media in the country has been one of the most lucrative and profitable avenues not only for profit but also for social and cultural growth. In the era of information technology, information tends to flow smoother and faster, which evidently leads to massive growth and development of the media industry. However, there are growing concerns in this industry, specifically in the aspect of culture. Some analysts say that like other countries, the media industry in the U.S. is one of the least accommodating to other cultures, and that most products of the media entities in the country only focus on providing quality, and updated services to the American audience, and lower quality ones for those who belong to other races and cultures, if any. This has been a problem because the media should be made for everybody, as what the concept of globalization is silently trying to explain. A nations’ media industry should be accommodating to every culture . However, despite knowing the ideal scenario in the United States’ media industry, many analysts still indeed that the entire industry, since the government is not really to exercise control over the press, still faces significant challenge in creating culturally relevant media outputs that would be relevant not only to the American but also to other audience populations as well. Because of this, there is a great need to examine what the U.S. media industry needs to improve and focus on. Knowing the loopholes in this small but bound to be big problem can definitely be perceived as a huge step towards the creation of a more uniform and accommodating media industry.
Review of Related Literature
Different forms of media involve different forms of art, specifically visual and performing arts. One of these forms of media that has been around for a very long time is the radio. While not originally meant for entertaining purposes, the radio today is now mostly used to connect people through music, keeping them up to date with the latest news and posting dialogues for fans and guest to talk about different issues .
It has been shown that the radio not only keeps the people of America up to date, but also helps them become socially and culturally visible despite difference in cultural and ethnical backgrounds .
While the media is a great channel to boost the way news travels to people, in a study published in Journal of Audiovisual Media in Medicine, it was shown that despite this, health education did not improve significantly with the help of the media. The study showed the fact that despite the media’s wide arm; it still cannot be applied to all populations.
The Media has several weak points and Hugo (2000) has identified the media’s lack of formative assessment instruments, particularly in the health and lifestyle section of the media industry as one of the weak points. In order for the media to include all non-native American citizens in the convergence, problems like these should be addressed first.
Spreading culturally-sensitive media practices to the youth could offer promising results since most individuals from this population have witnessed the different phases of globalization, particularly, the world’s transition to the information technology era. However, no matter how cooperative these various cultural populations may be, everything would definitely be worthless if the government will not take active steps in facilitating the increase in the media industry’s cultural sensitivity. Currently, there are biased programs being aired by media firms. Some are motivated by political interests while some by personal ones. There have been numerous sources that successfully exposed the dark side of every country’s media industry and it appears that the media industry in the U.S. is not an exemption.
Ignoring these issues could lead to severe cases such as the collapse of an entire enterprise, especially if it relies heavily on advertising and marketing services that can only be provided by the media industry, and in worse cases, the slowing down of an economy.
Objectives of the Study
The objective of this study is to identify and examine the different active and passive steps that the United States media industry are taking in embracing globalization, specifically in making media products and outputs more relevant to other cultures and not only to the native American culture. The paper will focus on the aspect of international rather than domestic programming because the population of non-native Americans in the U.S. would naturally be smaller compared to their collective population internationally
Statement of the Problem
The problem that this research would try to solve is the lack of first hand evidences obtained from individuals belonging to other major cultural denominations in the U.S. on their experience watching and using the outputs of media entities across the country. The focus population in this research would be the major cultural groups in the U.S. aside from the Native Americans. The intervention that the researchers are planning to use is the one on one interview process, as in the one being used in exploratory types of studies. The paper does not aim to compare anything, but rather to compare something, specifically, the perceptions of non-Americans on the U.S. media industry.
Research Methodology
This will be an exploratory type of study that will target non-American populations both inside and outside the U.S. There will be more than one series of interviews that the subjects will undergo for a span of more than one month in order for the researchers to have a good grasp of their perceptions on the type and quality of outputs the U.S. media industry currently offers and whether they think the outputs and other services they experience have been tailored for the general public and not only for Americans. Other factors will naturally be discovered along the process, which is actually a common trend among exploratory type of studies.
Significance of the Study
The study basically potentially affects everyone who is related to the media industry of the United States, meaning, its stakeholders. The study will mostly be significant to the audiences who are non-native Americans because they are the ones who are currently at a disadvantage. The investors and capitalists behind every media firm, and the media firms themselves would also be directly affected, should they proceed to base their future decisions on the results and conclusions of this study.
Scope and Limitations
This study only aims to examine how the United States media industry makes effort in making every media material applicable to various cultures rather than simply catering to an all-American audience. This study does not aim to touch financial, economic, and even political issues related to the media industry, but rather on the social and cultural face and aspects of it.
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