Media & Globalisation

This article discusses the presentations of three of the speakers who participated in a panel entitled "The Communicatioon Medias and Globalization" held on January 26, 2003 as part of the World Social Forum 2003.

Ignacio Ramonet, Professor of Communications at the University of Paris, focussed on changes in the media. He claimed that the media has over the last decade lost its function as a resource that citizens could draw on to criticise and exert influence over the powerful. Instead, in the author's words, "The media has been commercialised and its content is sold off to the highest bidder. The boundaries between real information and commercials and entertainment are becoming vaguer by the moment." In short, Ramonet faults CNN, TimeWarner, and other large media corporations for taking control of all aspects of the media, to the exclusion of local or national media organisations. As the author puts it, the approach of these media giants is one of "endorsing the positions and interests of the powerful oppressors." Ramonet thus urged participants to work toward the formation of an alternative, independent media that he called the "Fifth Power".

Sally Burch, a British journalist living in Ecuador, described her experiences as the founder of ALI (Agencia Latinoamericana de Informaciones). ALI has been working to resist the "neoliberal" and commercialised versions of media coverage; in that context, Burch called for democracy in the media and criticised the upcoming World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) for allowing the United States to propose the two major themes to be discussed. Burch then suggested five forms of action that could be taken against domination of the Internet by "the powerful":

• Citizen Action.
• Media Education.
• Legislative Action.
• Focus on Human Rights at the WSIS.

Susanna George, a media activist who directs a feminist organisation in the Philippines, began by pointing out: "It is time that we recognize what the governments and multinationals have long understood: that staying in power is based on conquering the hearts and minds of people. And that the media is a powerful instrument in achieving this purpose." Encouraging listeners to resist globalisation of the media, she lamented what she sees as the media's silencing of local and minority languages, cultures, and expressions. She claimed that the stereotypes thereby perpetuated often force people to adopt Western models and norms. She urged social movements to collaborate more extensively and encouraged widespread support of independent and alternative medias.

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