Pustaka Ilmiah Universitas Padjadjaran

Abstrak

China’s Integration to the Global World: A News Corporation Case

The world starts to operate in a different way since neoliberalism gained momentum during the Reagan administration in the United States and his European counterpart, Margaret Thatcher, ruled the United Kingdom in the 1980s. The marketdriven world then endorses integration of economies by means of the increasing interdependence between nations as well as the decreasing trade barriers (Kamalipour, 2007, p. xii). This phenomenon then popularly and loosely termed as globalization due to its extensive scope and complexity (Downing, 2007; Flew, 2008; Robertson and White, 2007).

Central to this phenomenon, is the existence of global communication media, particularly in the discourse of power distribution and domination (see Foucault, 1982). As McGraw III (2005, p. 556) posits, globalization is the dynamo behind economic growth which in turn become the driving force for the increasing number of people who need to keep informed on what is happening around the globe. These people have a growing thirst for information; hence, this is where the global media play its part. Furthermore, Flew (2008, p. 193) argues that the importance of media in global realm is not only related with its role as the international distributor of messages and meanings, but also from ‘the perceived role in weakening cultural bonds that tie people to nation states and national communities’.