Mark Zuckerberg- The Modern day Murdoch?

Rupert Murdoch… it can’t ignored that he had and still does have an outstanding influence over print, television and media. As well as the ability to foresee the way of the future and act accordingly.

But sadly with the explosion of the Internet in the past ten or so years, it has had a negative impact on print media. It has meant that Newspaper and print are slowly dying out and loosing the frequent readability by the population. Through use of the Internet people have turned to social media and in particular the vastly popular site- Facebook.

Created by Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook in less than ten years has jumped to become one the most well known and frequently visited sites globally. And its growth does not appear to be slowing any time soon, with more room to grow and expand.

Having 526 million people logging onto Facebook on a daily basis[Bullas,2012], means 526 chances of exposure the individuals all around the globe to whichever means possible. Steven supports this statement saying that ‘…Especially TV, Radio and internet enjoy significant economics of scale, so that it becomes very cheap or of no cost at all to reach more customers’.[steven,P,2003]Depicting that newspapers and print are a more costly way to reach customers and with less frequency. My global media empire would be based on the Internet and Facebook as it is a way of the future and has access to an ever-increasing large amount of the globe’s population.

---

[1] Bullas, J, 2012,  ‘20 Interesting Facts, Figures and Statistics Revealed by Facebook’, http://www.jeffbullas.com/2012/04/30/20-interesting-facts-figures-and-statistics-revealed-by-facebook/#Qmym6JArQKm7Urhk.99

[2] Steven, P 2003, ‘Political economy: the howling, brawling, global market place’, The no-nonsense guide to the global media, New Internationalist, Oxford, pp. 57

'Lets just google it... '

'Google it'

This phase is increasingly becoming common not only within my friendship group but also among my siblings and work colleges. It sums up how far in terms of information flows we have come through globalisation. As they say the answer now to a question is only a click of the button. Whether stuck on an answer to a question or simply want to know the result of a sporting contest- Google has all the answers. Google has revolutionized the way people research and find results by providing an instantaneous response.

This statement is strongly supported by various sources, Scholar Arthur C. Brooks states that ‘over the past decade, Google and its rivals have enhanced the ease of information-gathering, lowered research costs and made creativity cheaper and easier’. [Gelernter, 2008]

Another example of how technology has changed our means of media and communication is through Google maps. Melways are well and truly a thing of the past with an ever-increasing number of people having access to smart phones. Smart phones have the ability to pin point your exact location and put in specific location and give you alternative routes. This is a dead set timer saver, when only a few years ago you’d be forced to rifle through several pages and coordinates to find your starting point and location.

Google, Google maps have increased efficiency but also can be blamed for laziness.

Gelernter, David, September 2008, 'Has Google changed the world' http://www.aei.org/article/has-google-changed-the-world/, Page 1

Defining Globalisation:

How does one begin to define globalisation!?!? As I am studying a arts/commerce degree when it comes to defining globalization I cant help but define it in a business related way. My understanding being that Globalization is the nations of the world becoming more closely linked than ever before through the breaking down of traditional barriers to trade, cultural flows etc.

Comparing this definition to Robertson’s slightly arrogant take on defining globalization ‘as a concept that refers to both the compression of the world and the intensification of consciousness of the world as a whole.’[Roberston, R, 1992] Robertson uses long and quiet intense words to get across his feelings on globalization. The idea of globalization is constricting or reducing the world is not exactly accurate as in fact it is opening more doors through cultural and social means.  As there still are many different cultures present in our society today and some still haven’t embraced the ‘norm’ or what is considered to be mainstream. The most obvious example of this is seen through the widespread increase of cultures embracing different cultures traditional food and drink.

Therefore to accurately define globalization, one cannot skip over the importance that it brings to cultures, society at large and how it is not exactly compressing society but more so the opposite by opening the world up to embrace and experience others way of life. 


Nettl, J.P. and Roland Robertson. 1968. International Systems and the Modernization of Societies. New York: Basic.