Globalisation Of The Media Industry
Introduction
It is my great honour to share some reflections with you all today in this awesome space and time. I want to thank the organizers of the World Social Forum for their invitation and generous welcome. I feel, like all of you, invigorated by the electric spirit of change that is in the air, and revel in it, and am in awe of it…
I feel particularly hopeful today because as an feminist activist interested in questions of media, information and communications, the space that has been given in this forum for a discussion of media and globalisation recognises the intricate and complex relationship between media in the broadest sense of the word and the global powers. It is time that we recognize and give strong resistance to what transnational corporations and governments have long understood - that seizing power may require guns and military and political machinations, but ultimately staying in power, is about conquering the hearts and minds of people - which is why the corporatisation and control of media and communications systems has been crucial.
I will try to examine this notion of conquered minds and hearts that takes place through media manipulation and the project of cultural domination - which I believe has merely changed in form but not essence since the period of global colonialism. I will do so by reflecting on some of the experiences that feminists have had in their brave challenge to media corporations as the high priest of the patriarchal capitalist enterprise. I will also try to reflect upon the colonising effect of Western-dominated media with a viewing from the margins. By the margins I mean a space where there is an intimate and politicised struggle of identity and self-determination taking place, whether it be the struggle of indigenous people, the struggle of Dalit communities, the struggle of various ethnic, social and religious minority groups whose are being brutally suppressed by...
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