Globalization Theory and Global Media - Report Example

Globalization Theory and Global Media Name Institution Date Introduction Many scholars and researchers have developed a number of theories with regards to globalization which is the integration of nations’ views, products and services, ideologies and cultures among others across the world. Globalization has been made possible as a result of the constant developments in the transport industry and the telecommunications infrastructure especially the development of the internet. Scholars have made attempts to trace the beginning of modernization with some arguing that it can be traced way back in history. Global media refers to a platform that allows for research and debates on globalization to take place with issues such as the advantages and disadvantages of globalization and global media environment. Global media has played a big role in globalization focusing on issues such as studies in communication and media, sociology, telecommunications, public policies and also transnational security among others. Development in the telecommunications industry has enabled most of the information to be accessible online and such accessibility has brought about insecurity to many individuals, firms and organizations on the online community. Such insecurities include; digital piracy which has resulted in losses in the global music industry, others include copyright infringement, cracking, phishing, child pornography, hacking, as well as child grooming among other cybercrimes. In this research we are going to look at the general factors that make globalization and global media players in insecurity and we shall also look at exactly how they affect growth and development in the economy especially in the global music industry. The research will use literature review as its main methodology to prove that globalization and global media have negative consequences not just to the financial and security aspects of the world but also in the creative industries across the world. Globalization and Global Media as facilitators of Cyber Insecurity There are many factors that can be attributed to the high rates of insecurity in our online communities and it is unfortunate that although globalization has brought about increased quality of goods and services produced, increased employment rate as well as increased information to allow people to make more informed choices it has also been a source of cyber crime incidents. As defined earlier globalizations entails integrating nations through sharing of ideas, cultures and also views among others and developments in telecommunications has enabled this sharing process to be easier and even faster through the use of the internet. The internet has reduced the barriers that once existed in the dissemination of information and malicious people have taken advantage of the freedom to benefit themselves at the expense of others (Kshetri 2006). Insecurity in the internet can also be referred to as cybercrimes and globalization has been a major contributor to such insecurity because as the technology advances for the purpose of integrating nations the same technology is also being made accessible to the perpetrators. Players in the software industries are recklessly selling their software tools to people across the world using the internet and these people use the same tools to overcome the protections installed by the software developers that is the passwords and the process has been made so easy that one does not require special computer skills to get involved in cybercrimes (Kshetri 2006). Certain areas in the world had little access to information and technology but thanks to globalization these regions have been given equal access to such software tools that facilitate or encourage cybercrimes. The internet has provided such anonymity to the users which make it impossible to apprehend such criminals and this allows them to continue taking part in cybercrimes without fear of being caught. Cybercrimes have made people very apprehensive about putting their personal data online because of the high rates of cybercrimes being committed across the world. Many people are becoming exposed to certain dangers by using and uploading their personal or confidential data online or on the internet and some of these dangers include child pornography, hacking and also digital piracy for those in the media industry such as music, spoken word and also film among others. Cybercrimes are making globalization appear as a destruction of the relationship meant to exist between the users of technology and the technology itself. This is because advancements in technology are as a result of globalization (Kshetri 2006). Advantages of Globalization and Global Media Globalization has contributed to many achievements across the world and some of them include; development in technology, improved relationships between nations across the world, increased accessibility to information which has led to improved quality of goods and services produced or created, has also allowed informed decision making to take place for individuals, firms as well as organizations and globalization has also contributed to better health care and facilities among others. Globalization has also enhanced peace and coexistence among countries that did not understand each others’ cultural practices and beliefs. This has been made possible through the attempts to integrate nations through use of the internet and the media platforms such as newspapers, televisions, radio and also online communities which contribute in spreading peaceful messages (Brenner 2012). Disadvantages of Globalization and Global Media The most prominent disadvantage of globalization is cybercrimes which involves the use of computer and internet connectivity to put the financial and security well being of an individual, firm, organization or a country at risk. Other insecurities arising as a result of globalization and global media include infringement of copyrights of individuals, firms and even the country. Some of them include infringing the exclusive rights for personal properties such as songs, books, logos, scripts and also productions rights among others. Negative effects of globalization and global media are most felt by developed countries that developing countries. Globalization and global media have given terrorists new platform to attack their rival countries through the use of the technology to gather Intel on the countries they wish to target for attacks. Global advancement in technology has been made accessible to everyone across the world as long as there is internet connectivity and they have still not found ways of verifying the intentions of those using the internet thus allowing criminals to use the technology for their own malicious intents (Brenner 2012). Literature Review Online Digital Piracy Piracy involves the reproduction of intellectual properties that belong to another party without their consent. According to Brenner 2012, although globalization has ensured growth and development in many sectors such as the information and communications technologies this growth has also brought with it threats not just to the economic, financial and political stability of the world but also threats to the creative industries as well. This has caused a significant decline in the global industry and therefore this research will look at how much digital piracy has contributed to the decline in the industry (Brenner 2012). Kshetri 2006, says that the situations have been made worse by the challenges that security bodies face when trying to investigate as well as persecute such crimes as they are difficult to prove. The global music industry has not been spared when it comes to the negative effects of globalization and global media through piracy or illegal access to their music and films among other software in the creative industries (Kshetri 2006). Continuous growth in technology and its accessibility have contributed to the increased complexities in cybercrimes. Many academic researchers have been conducted in various fields to try and tackle the issue of cybercrime and these fields include computer science, media, criminology, legal studies as well as political sciences among others. The increase in use of digital and technologies that share networks make it challenging for the legal field to develop schemes to protect the owners of such intellectual properties. The creative industry involves industries such as music, spoken and written word, arts and also movie and film script writing among others and these industries have been declining because of people that are continuously duplicating and sharing through selling of the duplicated content without permission from the owners. Advancements in technology have allowed people to go online (use of internet) to commit such crimes. There are theories that scholars have come up with to explain the motives behind digital piracy and these include; the incentive theory of motivation, the social cognitive theory and the ethical theory. According to Taylor, Ishida and Wallace, 2009 the incentive theory suggests that the economic conditions act as motivations for digital piracy which is an infringement of the copyrights the owners have. The social cognitive theory and the ethical theory suggest that the motivations behind digital piracy could be as a result of psychological factors, peer pressure from friends and the ethical orientation of the offender among others (Taylor, Ishida and Wallace, 2009). Impacts of Digital Piracy The creative industry contributes significantly to the gross domestic production of a country and the acts of digital piracy cause a reduction in the overall sales of the works of the creative industry thus reducing the gross domestic production of a country which affects the total national income of the country. The reduced sales also mean fewer profits for the creative industry and fewer profits mean that they will not have enough funds to expand their productions or ensure growth in the industry (CBC News, 2013). Digital piracy has caused a decline in the sales of compact disks, print book sales and records thus revenues from such sectors. However, there has been a conflicting research by the London School of Economics which shows that digital piracy may not have a negative impact on the sales for the creative industry and in fact digital piracy helps to boost the creative industry revenues. The research shows that digital sharing through digital piracy has led to formation of new business models that help increase the sales through use of websites that offer file sharing services such as the Pirate Bay and the Bit Torrent websites. These sales are generated from digital sales, streaming of live performances and subscription services among others. From the research conducted it seems that the emergence of digital piracy has increased the benefits and sales of products of the creative industry and the profit margins are so large that they offset the losses the industry suffers from illegal duplication and sharing of the content. Therefore even though digital piracy bring about losses in the profit margins they are not very significant. Given the contradicting results one can conclude that digital piracy can be both a disadvantage and an advantage for the creative industry. It is a disadvantage when the industry focuses on the losses being made from the illegal distribution but can also be advantage looking at the new business opportunities that present themselves to the industry (CBC News, 2013). Findings From the literature reviews and the research conducted it is clear that there exists a relationship between digital piracy and the financial and social performance of the creative industry. Also one can deduce that if digital piracy affects the performance of the creative industry then cybercrimes resulting from improved technology in globalization and global media affects the economic, political and security of a country thus a relationship does exist between globalization and global media with the financial and security performance of a country (CBC News, 2013). According CBCnews, 2013 figures show that as a result of digital sharing that was brought about by digital piracy revenues in the music industry in the United States of America increased by 34% from 2011 to 2012. In the box office movie industry the sales and rental revenues of DVDs have declined by 10% from 2001 to 2010 but with the inception digital sharing there was a significant growth in revenue from 2011 to 2012 of about 6% (CBC News, 2013). Similar declines and growths have been witnessed in the video games and also book publishing industries. These developments in globalization and global media have led to a new trend in business and that is phasing out of exclusive ownership rights in the sharing of music, movies, video games and books among other content files. This has led to new lines of doing online business and they involve finding out how the owners of the content would like their content to be distributed to the general public such as use of content sharing websites such as the Soundcloud which is involved in sharing music files (CBC News, 2013). Conclusion Globalization and global media was started to bring about growth in relationships between various countries through sharing of their ideas, technology and information among others. Growth was seen and this led to an improvement in the quality of goods and services produced in that country, improved and advanced levels in technology and accessibility to information that will help in making informed decisions by individuals, firms, organizations as well as countries during trade and negotiations among others. However, as this growth and development was being witnessed other issues were also arising as a result of globalization and global media and some of these issues include threats to the economic, political and communication infrastructure state of the countries as well as their state of security due to issues such as emergence and rise of cybercrimes. Cybercrimes have increasingly become complex and these challenges reflect negatively on globalization and global media. There is no sector that cybercrimes have not targeted as evidenced by the negative impacts of globalization and global media on the creative industries through digital piracy. List of References Brenner, SW 2012, Cybercrime and the Law: Challenges, Issues and Outcome, Northeastern University Press, New Hampshire. Kshetri, N., 2006, The Simple Economics of Cybercrimes, Security & Privacy, IEEE, vol. 4, no. 1, pp. 33-39. Taylor, S, A, Ishida, C. & Wallace, D. W. 2009, Intention to Engage in Digital Piracy: A Conceptual Model and Empirical Test, Journal of Service Research, vol. 11, no. 3, pp. 246-262. CBC News, 2013, Digital Piracy not Harming Entertainment Industries: Studies. Retrieved on 3rd June, 2014 from < http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/digital-piracy-not-harming-entertainment-industries-study-1.1894729> Bender, M, T & Wang, Y 2009, The Impact of Digital Piracy on Music Sales: A Cross-Country Analysis, International Social Science Review, vol. 84, no.3/4, pp. 157. Read More

Players in the software industries are recklessly selling their software tools to people across the world using the internet and these people use the same tools to overcome the protections installed by the software developers that is the passwords and the process has been made so easy that one does not require special computer skills to get involved in cybercrimes (Kshetri 2006). Certain areas in the world had little access to information and technology but thanks to globalization these regions have been given equal access to such software tools that facilitate or encourage cybercrimes.

The internet has provided such anonymity to the users which make it impossible to apprehend such criminals and this allows them to continue taking part in cybercrimes without fear of being caught. Cybercrimes have made people very apprehensive about putting their personal data online because of the high rates of cybercrimes being committed across the world. Many people are becoming exposed to certain dangers by using and uploading their personal or confidential data online or on the internet and some of these dangers include child pornography, hacking and also digital piracy for those in the media industry such as music, spoken word and also film among others.

Cybercrimes are making globalization appear as a destruction of the relationship meant to exist between the users of technology and the technology itself. This is because advancements in technology are as a result of globalization (Kshetri 2006). Advantages of Globalization and Global Media Globalization has contributed to many achievements across the world and some of them include; development in technology, improved relationships between nations across the world, increased accessibility to information which has led to improved quality of goods and services produced or created, has also allowed informed decision making to take place for individuals, firms as well as organizations and globalization has also contributed to better health care and facilities among others.

Globalization has also enhanced peace and coexistence among countries that did not understand each others’ cultural practices and beliefs. This has been made possible through the attempts to integrate nations through use of the internet and the media platforms such as newspapers, televisions, radio and also online communities which contribute in spreading peaceful messages (Brenner 2012). Disadvantages of Globalization and Global Media The most prominent disadvantage of globalization is cybercrimes which involves the use of computer and internet connectivity to put the financial and security well being of an individual, firm, organization or a country at risk.

Other insecurities arising as a result of globalization and global media include infringement of copyrights of individuals, firms and even the country. Some of them include infringing the exclusive rights for personal properties such as songs, books, logos, scripts and also productions rights among others. Negative effects of globalization and global media are most felt by developed countries that developing countries. Globalization and global media have given terrorists new platform to attack their rival countries through the use of the technology to gather Intel on the countries they wish to target for attacks.

Global advancement in technology has been made accessible to everyone across the world as long as there is internet connectivity and they have still not found ways of verifying the intentions of those using the internet thus allowing criminals to use the technology for their own malicious intents (Brenner 2012). Literature Review Online Digital Piracy Piracy involves the reproduction of intellectual properties that belong to another party without their consent. According to Brenner 2012, although globalization has ensured growth and development in many sectors such as the information and communications technologies this growth has also brought with it threats not just to the economic, financial and political stability of the world but also threats to the creative industries as well.

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