What are the negative and positive effects of media in the globalized world?

According to the Peterson Institute for International Economics, Globalization is the

word used to describe the growing interdependence of the world’s economies, cultures, and
populations, brought about by cross-border trade in goods and services, technology, and flows of
investment, people, and information. Therefore, a globalized world is a world where different
nations or states are interdependent of each other. Media, on the other hand, describes the various
ways through which we communicate in society. Because it refers to all means of
communication, everything ranging from a telephone call to the evening news on television can
be called media (Market Business News, 2020). Basically speaking, media refers to the
communication channels utilized to be able to disseminate news, information and data.
Media received a great influence and impact from globalization, as well as how media
caused great impact to globalization. As we can see, the most visible effect of globalization is
wide-spread communication. Through globalization, media platforms were able to spread
information and gather people from all-over-the-world, altogether.
There are three main types of news media: print media, broadcast media, and the Internet.
As of today, the most commonly used type of media is the internet or digital media. Digital
media is any form of media that uses electronic devices for distribution. This form of media can
be created, viewed, modified and distributed via electronic devices (Preston, n.d.). Particularly,
social media is extremely common among people these days, especially the youth, and I think
that the negative effects of media is highly applicable to us, youths.
The negative effects of media most likely include deterioration of mental health. It is said
that abuse of media usage can lead to mental health problems such as depression and anxiety.
Human beings are social creatures, so social interactions and connections helps a lot in
maintaining a healthy mind, however, media decreases social connections and interactions, and if
we lack social life, it can result into serious risk on one’s mental health. Moreover, overuse of
media, creates deep insecurities to everyone who thinks that they do not meet the world’s
standard. Additionally, media promotes self-isolation, instead of decreasing the feeling of
loneliness thru scrolling on social media sites, it rather increases such feeling, media makes us
feel even more lonely. Aside from these, there are more negative effects of media, cyberbullying
is one of them, through the use of media, cyberbullies are all over the internet and victims are
mostly children.
Despite the negative effects, positive effects of media cannot be ignored too. Just like
how we are trying to live these days, media is very useful for everyone. It is now used to work
and study without having to leave the house. Also, if for example you have a relative that lives
miles away from you, you can use a media platform to contact them and see them through the
screen. Furthermore, if media is to be used properly, we can use it to promote advocacies and
raise awareness about contemporary issues of the world.
In a globalized world like today, effects of media are clearly visible, it can be used to
spread important news and information from all over the world. We are updated from what is
happening within a nation or state, and vice versa. Communication within countries are easy, and
many more. There may be countless negative effects of media, such as how social media changes
a country’s way of govern or how they shake healthcare and public health but I believe that if
media is to be used appropriately, negative effects will slowly fade away.

References:

 Peterson Institute for International Economics. What Is Globalization? And How Has the
Global Economy Shaped the United States?
https://www.piie.com/microsites/globalization/what-is-globalization
 Market Business News. What is media? Definition and meaning.
https://marketbusinessnews.com/financial-glossary/media-definition-meaning/
 Preston, (n.d.). What is Digital Media? https://www.digitallogic.co/blog/what-is-digital-
media/#comments