Global Movements
Global media networks have changed the way capitalism functions in most areas of the economy. Many of the tried and true ways of making money such a publishing papers, buying television companies, advertising, retail, selling music have been transformed by global media and in the case of media related business, made traditional forms of business almost obsolete. The newspaper has rapidly lost sales over the last ten years and those businesses have adopted internet based news forms, shedding staff and losing profits. Global media such as Facebook, blogs, millions of individual writers creating news and information blogs, social media getting news out in real time all the time has de-valued the financial worth of traditional newspapers and television news for the matter. Increasing numbers — especially Generation X and Y — rarely look to this traditional forms at all for their news, information. This has also transforms advertising companies around the world who were used to making billions from selling television advertising. Now advertisers have to figure out how to get there message to a population that interacts largely with their smartphone using social media and Internet sites to be their information and be entertained.
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The music industry has also been transformed. Artists used to sell millions of records to achieve gold record status. Now if they sell 20,000 CDs they are ecstatic. Most people now download music from the Internet-often for free- and create their own playlists to plug in to their car radio. This has totally disrupted the business model of the large music production and retail companies.
As with any economic change, there are winners and losers. While global media networks offer hope for a more egalitarian world with more be distribution of wealth as individuals take advantage of the economic possibilities, the trend in the increasing gap between rich and poor has actually worsened at the same time as the rise of global media. It my be that only a few new players will benefit from the digital revolution because leveraging off the global network transformation of capitalism still requires avert traditional element-money. So as is always the case in a capitalist economy, it is those with money who are in the best position to take advantage of any change.
