Global media, globalised cultures: Contingency or coincidence?

Discourses on globalisation still tend to treat the media, particularly television, as an independent cause of cultural change within societies. However this synthesis of media, communications, cultural studies and sociology literature on globalisation suggests rather that there is multidirectional causality between media and culture in the process. Thus globalisation of the media and culture does not necessarily spell imperialism of one by the other, but is often characterised by two-way interaction at both global and local levels. Furthermore the politico-economic integration of nation-states and the place of multinational corporations in the capitalist world-system have significant impact on media and culture. The consequence seems to be hybrid cultural identities in postmodern societies which have access to transnational media and are subject to global marketing. In highlighting research in the late 20th century, this paper suggests that academic theorising and social policy-making in which global media and local culture are characterised as sole or at least dominant players are wholly inadequate, even defective