Week 4- The Olympics as a Global event

The Olympics is truly a global event in every regard whether you view it from a broadcast perspective, a participation perspective or an events perspective- collectively capturing the imagination of the world and instilling a sense of national pride in people of all nations.

In the current day, the occurrences during the Olympics games are heavily publicized not simply just in the host nation but worldwide across all platforms; Television and radio, print blogs, webpages and across social media. It is truly by definition; a global spectacle with representatives of every nation on earth invited to come and compete in a wide array of athletic and physically demanding events for international recognition in their fields.

The expected amount of tourists who will be visiting England this year for the London 2012 games being double the usual amount at around 500,000 shows the spread and invitation for global participation so much so, that it adds certain environmental concerns and practical domestic and transport issues to be taken into consideration in the planning of an event on the scale of this one (Mair, 2012).

Certainly when you consider in a much more tangible way- the exposure you have to the Olympics in the course of your everyday life it's something hard to escape in the weeks leading up to, and over the course of the competition. Even if it was not something that particularly holds interest for you, you would be unable to go without any word of the Olympic phenomenon; even if the means word reaches you is through the age-old method; word of mouth.

http://theconversation.edu.au/london-2012-locally-green-but-what-about-globally-8138

Week 3- My Media Empire

Media Empires it seems, are all around us shaping the ways in which we live, communicate, and consume media. Many function in a variety of ways but nonetheless are able to manage making an impact on an international scale.

Mass Media is usually the termed used when describing the emergence of media empires and the influence they harbour so when it comes to deciding what kind of media would be best- it should be assumed that it should spread across a variety of mediums and particularly the ever-growing resource of the Internet- which can be utilized most effectively if one possesses entrepreneurial traits. Many forms of traditional media are already combining elements of old and new media formats to stay relevant on into the 21st century so any media empire can't underestimate or overlook the power of offering mixed media services and presentation (in the forms of news blogs, videos, podcasts, Twitter and Facebook updates and so on)

Encompassing a broad range of mediums (Film, television, radio, newspaper, online services etc) helps fulfill modern mass media's role as a kind of cultural industry with the associated driving economic factors backing it up (Steven P, 2003, pg 55) and this is integral to the successful running of a media empire

An expanding, cross-sectional oligarchy seems to be the format that the main media giants have accumulated their power and it appears that they have proven to be the most effective methods of acquiring power and influence not just in the nation of the company/ies origin, but also internationally.


Steven, P 2003, The no-nonsense guide to the global media,
New Internationalist, Oxford, pp. 37–59.