"In recent years we have come to witness interesting, albeit somewhat puzzling, developments in the world of communications: the transnationalisation of of national, or even local, television...and media globalisation and localisation as concurring phenomena" (Wang & Servaes, 2000).This "media revolution" is rapidly changing the global media landscape and poses critical questions about the future of journalism (Breit, 2001).
Breit (2001, p. 217) says this concentration of ownership "is threatening the integrity of journalism." Globalisation threatens diversity in news in favour of a product that can be sold. This also means that local news is no longer produced by journalists working within a community, but operating out of larger national bureaus. We can already see this with Prime and Southern Cross Ten who present local news out of Canberra-based studios. I choose to watch NBN as often as possible, knowing they offer an entire section to local and community stories.
In an ever-changing media landscape where TNCs will continue to dominate, I think local news is more important than ever in diversifying content and keeping base with the public.
Sources:
Breit, R. (2001). Journalism in the global village, In S. Tapsall & C. Varley (Eds.), Journalism: Theory in Practice (pp. 213-231). South Melbourne: Oxford University Press.
Wang, G. & Servaes, J. (2000). Introduction, in G. Wang, J. Servaes & A. Goonasekera, The New Communications Landscape: Demystifying Media Globalisation. London: Routledge.
Renee, I think it's great that you make the choice to watch locally produced news; as I have mentioned in my blog, it is the audience who has the power to speak out against TNCs.
ReplyDeleteHowever, as you said in your comment to my blog, it is a big ask for the individual or the local to speak out against such large global companies. We cannot only rely on the audience to save local journalism, as Breit (2001, pp. 19 - 20) suggests, journalists have to "foster public understanding of all issues". The public's 'right to know' has to be put first, which is perhaps an idealistic statement.
Reference:
Breit, R. (2001). Journalism in the global village. In S. Tapsall & C. Varley (Eds.), Journalism: Theory in Practice (pp. 213 - 231). South Melbourne: Oxford University Press.
I think it is a big ask for the individual or the local to speak out against large global companies because most of them don't know that a problem even exists, they do not recognise the power that the TNCs have over them with such standardized content (among other things).
ReplyDeleteI agree that local news is more important than ever in diversifying content and keeping base with the public. I also think more awareness about the dominance of TNC's needs to be raised.
My parents watch today tonight, which drives me absolutely crazy, but I am atleast thankful they don't watch Fox news!
Making a solid attempt to watch locally produced news is a great thing, especially within our society. It is something that I myself now make a conscious effort to do, and can see more and more happening in areas that will have this locally produced content that they can turn to. Being from Tamworth we religiously watched NBN to ensure that we were actually receiving content that was relevant. It's really great to read that you are also looking at this for your major project, hope it all went well!
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