Dominant patterns of media ownership and control in Middle East and East Europe Essay

INTRODUCTION

I walk into a barber shop in Nairobi and everyones eyes are intensely glued to the huge TV screen. They are watching an international football match. Everyone is so tense! During the commercial break, everyone in the barbershop discusses the football match passionately! Randomly, I ask about how local football clubs are doing. And everybody looks at me as if am crazy! They tell me that the local football cant be compared to International football! In fact no one supports the local football clubs! Insults are hurled at the local football clubs! I was in shock! As I walk home after my haircut, several things struck me about the barbershop scene Digitalization, Liberalization and Globalization.

In module 3 unit 13, Hamelick describes in his paper, Trends in World Communication, how communications across borders consists of flows of words, images, texts and data that move between and among individuals, governments, social movements and business organization (Hamelick, 2002, p. 5) Basically what this means is for world communication to take place there has to be a flow of material (be it news, entertainment programs, data etc) across borders. In the barber shop scene there was flow of an entertainment material (football match) from abroad to Kenya and so there was world communication taking place! This scene is of course a simpler version! Mr. Hamelick adds that four trends that shape the multibillion world communication marketdigitalization, liberalization, consolidation and globalization (Hamelick, 2002, p. 5)

The aim of this paper is to show dominant patterns of media ownership and control in Bahrain, Middle East and Serbia, East Europe. I will briefly look at the political, economical and social issues in each country before looking at the dominant media patterns because the political, economic and social structure or lack thereof in a country or region affects how media is developed, owned, controlled, shared and sold. Looking at the bigger picture for there to be flow of world communication across borders, we have to examine the political, economical, social structures of regions or countries to understand why the media operates as it does in that particular region and if that operation affects world communication.

Briefly I will explain what these trends mean and their significance to world communication. Hamelick defines Digitalization as growing significance of digital technologies in the recording, storage and transformation of images, words, text and data (Hamelick, 2002, p. 6) Liberalization, according to Hamelick refers to the introduction of competition in the supply of information and telecommunication services. (Hamelick, 2002, p. 13) Hamelicks consolidation is whereby control of the world communication is consolidated in the hands of few megaconglomerates (Hamelick, 2002, p. 22). Globalization is used to present the world as one single place or to represent the experience of all human beings as living in one world (Hamelick, 2002, p. 28) the barber shop scenario, shows these four trends. For example, it is through digitalization that the barber is able easily access the international football match, through his satellite dish.