Media Flow and Contra

MEDIA FLOW AND CONTRA-FLOW
Media flows and counter flows tell us about the balance of power,
political and economic, and its shifts, in the global information age.
While contra-flows from Asia against the American media tide are still
weak and largely uneven, they however represent an alternative voice
that speaks in different tones of social values and has begun to be
accepted and adopted by large sections of populations.
Media flows are large, rich and powerful with many capitalists on their
side. They have the sources, connections and supporters at their
fingertips with their many investments and partnerships that allow them
to spread a biased, one-way flow of information. On the other hand
Contra-flows in media are other flows, some alternative flows of
information, ideas/ideologies, media and communication that
participate in a two-way flow of discourse about news, information,
politics, culture, etc. They counter the dominant media flows who
control the majority of the news and media outlets today.
The concepts of media flow and contra-flow have their origins in the
free expression and flow of ideas. These were prevalent in the era after
World War II, when U.S. foreign policy goals incorporated the concept
of free flow of information. There was growing suspicion in developing
world countries from the 1960s and 1970s that the concept so eagerly
promoted by the United States, Britain, and United Nations
Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) was a
form of cultural imperialism supporting the expansion of Western
media and benefiting Western advertisers through the export of a
Western way of life.
Globalization is like a big war on small screen, western media has been
major influence on global media in shaping media culture. Local
culture like traditional food, dress and dialect slowly getting promotion
internationally with the help of media. In today’s world majority of the
people are caught up in their daily lives culture and they do not realize
the major impact of media flows and counter-flows on nationhood and
cultural identity.
Society is built around flows which includes flows of capital, flows of
information, flows of technology, flows of organizational interactions,
flows of images, sounds, and symbols. These flows can also be described as
“media-scapes, or building blocks of culture that consist of many different
shapes and sizes and flow in multiple directions, serving as images of
cultural processes. This refer to both to the distribution of the electronic
capabilities to produce and distribution of information with the help of
newspapers, magazines, television, and film-production. .
This explain how they are available to increase private and public interests
though out the world and to the images of the world created by these media.
In other words, they describe the ways in which so many products become
available to so many places around the world. These images or flows also
supply many complications depending on their audiences (local, national,
or transnational) and the interests of those who own and control them.
There are dominant international media flows and there are smaller, contra-
flows that make up the global spectrum of media flows.
According to D.K. Thussu follow the dominant flows, from past of global
media industries as the global society becomes increasingly networked,
such flows have continued to grow in size and direction at rapid rates. In
Thussu’s case study, “Mapping Global Media Flow and Contra-flow,” he
discusses about how digital technology has aided in the proliferation of
satellite and cable television and the growing use of the internet, “partly as
a result of the deregulation and privatization of broadcasting and
telecommunication networks, and that this has empowered media
companies to seek and create new consumers on a transnational level
rather than on a national level. As a result, the convergence of television
and broadband has opened up new opportunities for the flow of media
content.
However, the relationship between dominant global media flows and
contra-flows is more complex than people believe.
Dominant global flows are large media corporations that have a big impact
on society with their extensive reach in obtaining many viewers. Audio-
visual programs and products, from news and current affairs through youth
programming to feature films, sports and the Internet. Dominant flows
include Google, BBC News, Hollywood, CNN and Fox News and social
media platforms. These are the example of dominant flows which we see
and use in our daily life.
Media contra-flows are smaller flows, but they still represent multiple
media sites of production, flow and identification. They are important but
their impact remains small in comparison to dominant flows. Contra-flows
can exist on the transnational level, such as Al-Jazeera, Euro-News,
Bollywood, Brazilian shows and Korean drama. With new communication
technologies evolving and other sources for information multiplying,
smaller, alternative forms of communication, such as minority and protest
media, have emerged with active and dedicated followers.
Rahul Jain
SCM-225, 3rd sem
M.A. Media & Communication Studies.

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MEDIA FLOW AND CONTRA-FLOW

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