Global Media Flows in Australian Culture

Essay by squidster77University, Bachelor'sB, August 2005

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Global media flows in Australian culture

Global media flows throughout history has led to the development and change of many cultures around the world. As different technologies have become available such as the motion-picture camera and the radio, countries have been flooded with sounds and visions from other nations. While mass media has made entertainment available to more people, it also began to homogenize tastes, styles, and points of view among different cultures. This has led to the Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance (MEAA) contending that Australian culture is at risk of being changed by the world's big media industries due to the free trade agreement (FTA) which is taking place between America and Australia. In addressing this topic the author will analyse the MEAA's argument towards the possible influx of global media flows and will make a judgment on whether it believes the MEAA has a valid point.

The media transmits ideologies through a number of communication devices that gain the attention of their target audience, these include, newspapers, television, radio etc.

Media 'do not and cannot merely report the world out there, they construct it, they construct our understanding of it and, by so doing, they construct our understanding of ourselves' (Copping & Fiske 1982). With the continual development of these communication devices, mass entertainment has extended the reach of American culture into the everyday lives of Europe and the civilized world.

America over time has become a dominant cultural source for entertainment and popular fashion, from the jeans and T-shirts young people wear to the music groups and rock stars they listen to and the movies they see. American television programs are viewed all over the world and even the American news broadcasts help define what people in other countries know about current events and politics. American...