Analysis the Potential of Media to Promote a Cosmopolitan Orientation through the Two Media Formats: Television and News

: This paper is centred around Robertson's (2019) argument that the possibility of media having the ability to inspire cosmopolitan tendencies is "both inevitable and impossible". The key focus is on analysing two communication media, television and the news, to analyse the extent to which they promote cosmopolitanism. In the end, it is found that Robertson's argument is indeed valid, but that diasporic media have the potential to become alternative spaces for world solidarity.


INTRODUCTION
This essay agrees that the possibility of media possessing the ability to stimulate cosmopolitan inclinations "is both inevitable and impossible" (Robertson, 2019).In recent years, television audiences across the world have collectively witnessed profound tragedies such as terrorist attacks and natural disasters, sporting events that inspired unity such as the Olympic Games and the World Cup soccer tournament, and have watched for quarantine updates as the Coronavirus crisis brought change to all of humanity.Globally mediated communication is responsible for the widespread consumption of these experiences and has enabled the possibility of a cosmopolitan mindset (Beck and Cronin, 2014).This essay will begin by analysing the propensity of Korean women to adopt cosmopolitan tendencies as a result of television exposure.Next, it will review the three categories into which informational media can be divided.In this section, the essay will distinguish the varying degrees of cosmopolitanism promoted by these differing news types in relation to their coverage of the Syrian war.Following that, the limitations and impossibilities of the media's tendency to promote cosmopolitanism will be emphasised and discussed.The conclusion of this essay will analyse whether or not diasporic media can serve as an alternative space for the purpose of world solidarity.

EMPATHY, REFLEXIVITY, AND MOBILITY
The media plays a crucial role in exploring cosmopolitan relations.This is because it serves as its consumers' political, cultural, social, intimate, and personal interface (Kim, 2005).Additionally, the media is often perceived as a compression of time and space.This references the erosion of the limitations such as time and distance due to social organisation defined by the interaction of widespread electronic communication.Accelerated interconnectedness is recognised as the global intensification of social relations, which further expounds on the idea of a world community.Distant action is also an aspect of cosmopolitism and is factored in when the actions of social subjects in one location substantially impact the "distant other" (Kim, 2005).Thompson (1995) coined the prominent phrase "mediated cosmopolitanism" to denote the aptitude of mediated emblematic structures to shape how one experiences the world.He contended that a significant portion of an individual's perception is derived from media-circulated content.Consequently, many have developed a sense of belonging with communities with which they share commonalities, such as possessing similar paths in time or space, a familiar origin, or a shared destiny (Thompson, 1995).Mass globalisation implicates an expansion in the scale, speed, and impact of interregional movement and social interaction patterns (Held and McGrew, 2003).This is primarily influenced by the development of communication systems (Giddens, 1999).In other words, globalisation cannot occur without the presence of communication media.The media possesses the potential to influence audiences globally through three primary methods; these methods are as follows: the media's ability to encourage cultural reflection and knowledge, stimulate the mobility of their audience, and, finally, the media's aptitude to promote the audience's openness and empathy.
Capable of promoting cultural reflection and knowledge, the media provides audiences with the opportunity to appraise unfamiliar cultures and to reflect upon their own.In the contemporary age, all societies, no matter how detached by time or geography, become available as icons and commodities.If a person elects not to visit other cultures, then those cultures visit in the form of images and information on television (Hebdige, 1990).Thus, the media, especially television, is crucial to the progression of cosmopolitan ideas.Serving as a window to the world, television transforms an individual's understanding of space through mutual visibility and recognition (Silverstone, 2007).Concurrently, it is also recognised through the changes that "situational geography" possesses over social life (Loshitsky, 1996).This aims to ensure that people inhabit a cosmopolitan space where innovative forms of identity can be established (Meyrowitz, 1999, pp. 99-120).Kim (2005) interviewed fourteen Korean women (seven of whom were working class and seven from the middle class) between the ages of twenty and twenty-two.The study's results revealed that the entirety of these young women was able to successfully provide, through their continued interface with global television, a critical analysis and self-discovery of their realities and Korean society.
First appearing in the 1980s, globalisation has become a staple in Korean social life and is especially prevalent in neoliberal economic restructuring policies.Satellite direct-to-home services, such as SkyLife, and the introduction of 119 widely available cable TV channels ensured television's status as a significant representative of global culture.It accounts for roughly 80% of media consumption in 15 million households.This consumption includes Hollywood movies, travel programs, and TV dramas.Among these categories, imported movies rank third in viewership, and their audiences are primarily comprised of young women who are either teenagers or in their early twenties (KBI, 1999, cited in Kim, 2005).From the conducted interviews, it is apparent that each of the Korean women has imagined and aspired to be like the women they have observed in western TV programs.Jung-hyun, a 22-year-old college student, felt that Korean society was constantly telling her she could not "do this or that".This led the young woman to believe the life she was living was not her own, but after watching western TV programs, Jung-hyun found that western life is full of an envious amount of freedom and that women can follow their heart's desire.Another woman named Nari, a 22-year-old saleswoman, was surprised when she learned that toilet cleaners in the West could go to college.She was further shocked by the fact that people in western countries who possess no education beyond a high school diploma can get a decent job.This is a stark contrast to a high school diploma received in Korea, which is no different from garbage.21-year-old waitress Suh-jin spoke about how western students are able to return to school at any age and receive an education, but such behaviour might be perceived as ridiculous in Korean society.As the western mediated influence strengthens, so will these young women's desire to fight hard against confinement and the stagnated order.
Although they must maintain their local lives, their voluntary and lighthearted interaction with the broader symbolic world may change the outlook these women possess on everyday life (Kim, 2005).Their horizons are likely to expand along with them developing a deeper understanding of subjects continuously extending as the globalised spread of television deepens practices of reproduction.This occurs primarily due to the media's constant creation of new openings and new imaginaries for the propagation of their lives.The average marriage age for Korean women has increased, according to statistics.Additionally, the divorce rate has swiftly risen from 5.8% in 1980 to 11% in 1990 and 33% today (Kim, 2012).Along with the marital changes, the enrollment rate of females in high school (17-19 years old) recently achieved 95%, with 56% of the female students who successfully complete high school entering higher education.Their insistence on self-actualisation in both work and education is the primary reason that this change has occurred (Kim, 2012).Rejecting traditional feminine roles, the majority of female college graduates aspire to individualise their experience through work (Kim, 2005).These women are progressively enriching the practice of self-innovation by launching themselves into innovative forms of life, relearning and globalising their cultural experiences.
Television media has created a unique space in which Korean women can comprehend and reflect upon their life's condition using a highly critical approach.The media they consume allows them to imagine new possibilities of freedom even within the constraints of their current social environment.Additionally, television media has aided these young women in developing an attitude comprised of outward-looking, cosmopolitan inclinations that encourage their compulsion to travel abroad (Kim, 2011).Many people possess a strong desire to cross borders and visit new countries.This desire is intimately associated with "their ability to imagine other places" and "possible lives" that are "better than what they have" (Salazar, 2011, p. 578), and the media is a vital element in fostering these imaginings.The media's capacity to instigate openness and empathy in viewers, especially those possessed by the news media, is often portrayed as an instrumental obligation.An example of this portrayal can be found in the media's responsibility to inform and entertain the western public.The spectacle of mortal anguish has always drawn the attention of the news media and is required to be obligatorily ethical in its coverage.News stories revolving around distant misery best exemplify how the media can use the influential power of representation to transmute its viewers from detached individuals into a collective with a willingness to act (Zhang and Luther, 2019).Chouliaraki (2008) claimed that the news media possesses a figurative power to progress a cosmopolitan perspective through the use of emotive language and imagery.Concurrently, Chouliaraki proposed a model of "distant levels of suffering" in the media that consists of three primary divisions of news: "adventure news", "emergency news", and "ecstatic news".
Presenting all the indicators associated with worldliness, the broadcasted content found in both "emergency news" and "ecstatic news" exhibits a form of news narrative which calls upon its viewers to take action.They take careful note of emphasising the most crucial components of anguish in their coverage to achieve the goal of alleviating suffering and aim to unite a collaborative global audience (Chouliaraki, 2008).Zhang and Luther (2019) evaluated these three media categories according to how cosmopolitan each one was.They did this by contrasting the portrayal of the Syrian War's tragic victims as observed in the coverage of three separate news media outlets: CNN, Al Jazeera English, and Sputnik.Actively inhibiting empathy for those in distant places, all three of these news outlets create adventure journalism, which is defined as not cosmopolitan (Chouliaraki, 2008).Eliciting no emotional reaction from its audience, the massive amounts of fatalities and displacements were stated in a straightforward fashion by each of the three news outlets.For example, 'nearly 1,716 civilians, including women and children, were killed, while 12 hospitals in three provinces and bakeries in Temale and Sarakib were hit by Russian air strikes' (Al Jazeera, 2015).This style of adventure journalism risks alienating its viewers from distant suffering as it delivers only numbers and concise narratives that shy away from emotional demands.Some "emergency news" was, however, generated by Al Jazeera.They crafted comparatively complex narratives that detailed the victims' lives and highlighted the dangers and perils that these people were forced to face.Direct quotes from local victims supplied its audience with in-depth accounts from a more personalised perspective creating a different call to action.One local resident who spoke with Al Jazeera English recounted a personal tragedy, "I searched for my brother's body in the rubble but couldn't get it out until the next morning.He left behind a wife and four children" (Al Jazeera, 2016).Fostering a sense of global solidarity, this news coverage greatly improved the prospects of viewers potentially reflecting upon and actively engaging with the narratives of those suffering in Syria.
"Ecstatic journalism" necessitates the importance of focusing news reports on exceptional happenings with the goal of provoking viewers' awareness and consternation.For example, CNN reported, "Ultimately, when we talk about Syria, we should remember that it's not all about military tactics, power politics or ideology; it's about human beings.The suffering of individuals, children, and the elderly fuels the anger that keeps this conflict burning and growing" (Wilkinson and Shah, 2016).By purposefully incorporating words such as "we" and "humanity" into the narrative, CNN makes an emotional plea to its audience to take collaborative action in aiding the Syrian people.The words utilised are selected with care and utilitarianly implemented in a manner meant to emphasise the humanitarian position of the war.Correspondingly, another CNN report voiced an equitable matter: "This war is not the fault of President Barack Obama, nor is it the fault of Angela Merkel or Ban Ki-moon.But world leaders should be ashamed of themselves for standing by and allowing this wound to fester for so long.This is a disaster of overwhelming humanitarian proportions" (Grinberg, 2016).This report is intended to further avert humanitarian disarray in Syria.The "appeal to humanity" that these ecstatic news sources utilise tend to speak in a global voice and are designed to unite global audiences in the pursuit of advocating for world leaders to strive towards alleviating the humanitarian crisis in Syria (Chouliaraki, 2008).It is apparent that the media is seizing global liability in relation to the creation of a relationship between the viewers and the victims.This is meant to be established through timeless values that everyone can easily empathise with, thus formalising a worldwide perspective.

LIMITATIONS AND IMPOSSIBILITY
As more information is excavated through investigation, researchers have determined that several constraints are preventing the media from providing the fluid communication necessary to achieve worldwide solidarity.One of these constraints includes the issue of geopolitical involvement (Zhang and Luther, 2019).The media has been manufactured into an inadvertent contributor due to the myriad of news coverage categories being heavily influenced by the respective countries in which they are produced (Wojcieszak, 2007).The aforementioned war coverage in Syria exemplifies this scenario in its portrayal of politicians and defence analysts debating Syrian war matters, such as if the war has gone beyond a civil war and is now a proxy civil war or not (Hughes, 2014).Proxy wars involve a major power funding an armed insurance agency without suffering massive deficits in either human or financial resources.They do this either to benefit their personal and national interests or to destabilise the power of an adversary (Hughes, 2014).Thus, the economic and geostrategic concerns possessed by the United States and other western countries affect their behaviour in relation to the Syrian War due to their opposition to Russia and their tendency to work against Russian interests.A strategic ally, the Assad government holds close ties with both Iran and Russia.Due to their role in the extraction and trade of natural gas.Qatar operates in cooperation with the West and is in direct competition with Iran (Jokar, 2013).
Hostility between the United States and Russia is steadily increasing due to their differences in geopolitical stances.The likelihood that both CNN and Al Jazeera English purposefully utilise news reports comprised of tantalising narratives of Syrian victims alongside bitter condemnations of Russian military action to promote their own stance is extremely high.This means that even though a news report may give all the indications and the impression that it is promoting a cosmopolitan view, this may not be the case.The concept of an international community that values each other's anguish remains an elusive ideal as they are not entirely independent of the needs of nationally established political elites.
Disparities in the global news flow, such as that which separates the North and South.may result in the manufacture and reproduction of global social imbalances, dichotomies, stereotypes, and sympathy fatigue concerning western audiences.The entirety of these factors is capable of restricting the capacity of the media's cosmopolitan inclination.This is especially relevant to events which involve human tragedy.One could assess that western countries only begin to strongly empathise with such cases when the west becomes a participant in the suffering.The situation regarding the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami and the coverage of the suffering that ensued exemplifies this behaviour.The event aroused global urgency, and the tsunami survivors received unparalleled assistance.Then UN Secretary-General Koffi Annan described this act as "an expression of global solidarity" (Chouliaraki, 2010, pp. 608-624).Conversely, subsequent research expounded upon the event to reveal that the crisis was likely considered to be of global importance due to the fact that 9,000 of the victims were Western European citizens (Riegert and Olsson, 2005).
Western tourists and their subsequent contribution to the diffusion of images and narratives involving the tsunami disaster spurred the stringent organisation of the tsunami's visibility in the global multimedia environment.As a result of this discovery, a significant dent of the responsibility in the world achieving global uniformity has been placed upon the news media (Chouliaraki, 2010, pp. 608-624).The west replied to the tsunami disaster not with a worldwide sentiment but with a personal one since such a massive quantity of the victims originated from western countries.
Civilians who occupy countries outside of the west are frequently most susceptible to suffering and are often forced to endure a multitude of life-threatening situations.Garnering western attention, sympathy, and active assistance is viewed by many as their only hope of escaping their anguish.For example, a British news outlet broadcasted an Indian boating accident in the following brief report: "A river boat capsized in the Baytarani River in Orissa, India, as it was heading towards the town of Jaipur -"40 people are feared drowned -Most of them were factory workers and school children."(BBC World, 2002, cited in Chouliaraki, 2010, pp.608-624.)This narrative is devoid of both a call to action and emotion, successfully putting distance between British audiences and the Indian sufferers not only geographically but also in sentiment and integrity.These two stories revolving around widespread anguish illustrate that the cosmopolitan perspective and media appeal that journalism chooses to convey is likely based on whether or not the victims are citizens of western countries.When those afflicted by tragedy are not citizens of western countries, the western media elects to provide only the sparsest of coverage, none of which contains even a semblance of emotional resonance nor the attempt to foster global sentiment.
Moreover, the media does not often hit its mark when reporting transnational matters to the public objectively.One can frequently observe the media's sensational tactic to divide the world into "us" and "them" in their biased coverage.Following the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, the local coverage was largely positive and placed emphasis on the promotion of uplifting narratives.The media highlighted stories such as "Miraculous rescue story" and "Survivors celebrate miraculous return to life" (Uesugi, 2011).Conversely, the New York Times shifted away from the uplifting narratives and published pieces that were intended to criticise the Japanese government for its management of the tsunami and earthquake.The headline of one of their articles read: "A Political Response Without a Compass" (Pons, 2011) and another was titled "Experts Have Long Criticized Potential Weaknesses in Shipwrecked Reactor Design" (Zeller, 2011).
A similar response occurred in Japanese and French newspapers after Hurricane Katrina.Countries outside the United States portrayed the tragedy as a humiliating remembrance of America's diminishing global influence (Darling-Wolf, 2014, pp.36-59).In further publications, they aimed to depict the United States as a disgraced and vulnerable country.For example, "the United States is being forced to confront its internal social divisions and the loss of global power" (Lesnes, 2005).Even though a minority of news sources are willing to criticise their own national institutions, these criticisms are never truly objective and do not match the intensity of publications of international origin.The news media is significantly less quantitative because they possess more talent in identifying the malfunctions of outside countries than acknowledging their own domestic failures.(Darling-Wolf, 2014, pp.36-59).
Hidden conversations involving race and culture "at home" and "abroad" can be observed through the media's portrayal of tragic events.In the instance of the Japanese tsunami, the United States and France portrayed Japan as a "national obsession with self-restraint," a "Japanese communal spirit," a "neat perfectionism," a "proud spirit of cooperation," and a "strong sense of community" (Darling-Wolf, 2014, pp.36 -59).Initially, these reports may appear to be positive, but if one looks closer, these discourses have undertones rooted in discrimination.They feed into the Asian racial stereotype as restrained, conformist, conventional, submissive, and terribly insecure.Buried beneath the American and French commendation of the Japanese national spirit and the resilience of its citizens lies the underlying implication that the Japanese are fundamentally separate from the subscribers to the French and American national newspapers.
Instead of presenting a cosmopolitan perspective, the news broadcast by the aforementioned media involving calamity is typically more critical of other countries, tends to adulate their own, and also further cultivates the dichotomy between "our" country and "their" country.It also encourages the development of viewer stereotypes in relation to the ethnic and cultural identity of unfamiliar countries through sensationalised reports.This western-centric and sensationalistic methodology in regard to reporting on human tragedy can create alienation between distant countries and eliminate one's motivation to alleviate suffering (Joye, 2015).Compassion fatigue is likely to occur as the media degrades its audience's compassion (Moeller, 1999).In summary, the prospect of the media successfully facilitating worldwide connections drops increasingly lower.

ALTERNATIVE SPACE-DIASPORIC MEDIA
Diasporic media is media that is manufactured by and for immigrants.It highlights one or more concerns with particular relevance to members of diasporic communities, and it can, to a certain magnitude, open up a space for intercultural discourse.In addition, diasporic media can assist excluded factions in locating their voice and ascertaining a discernible presence.While this form of media can promote cosmopolitan solidarity, it is concurrently paradoxical.Diasporic media presents itself as a representation of excluded communities, to be anti-nationalist, and to be firmly in support of cosmopolitanism, but it actually reinforces nationalism.The cosmopolitanism portrayed in current depictions of diasporic media can manifest through the self-representation of minorities, helping to counteract prejudicial depictions and discursive marginalisation of immigrant parties.
In Europe, Muslim News was developed with the aim of delivering Muslim news content that reflected their concerns and interests.It strived to do this while challenging stereotypes between the democratic West and the regressive East by providing an alternate view of Muslim culture to the mainstream media on a smaller yet influential scale (Myria, 2002).For example, on November 26, 2022, The Muslim News distributed a report entitled "NUS unsafe space for Muslims".The purpose of this article was to bring light to the ongoing injustices suffered by Muslims in the UK, declaring that even though the UK's higher education institutions are practising greater diversity, this change has not guided the country towards superior cohesion and impartiality.The article went on to state that the faction of university students most susceptible to unfair treatment and questionable amounts of surveillance via the authorities are Muslim.Struggling to achieve a more secure safer social environment for the Muslim community is not the only aspect of this narrative.It is also about advocating for worldwide solidarity by pursuing a non-discriminatory space for every citizen in the world to thrive.
Nonetheless, the media still prevents the advancement of cosmopolitanism to a certain extent in its promotion of nationalism and detachment of immigrants from their country of origin.Kim (2011, pp. 133-151) analysed 60 women from the following three Asian countries: China, Korea and Japan.The women who participated in the research were all students who were enrolled in London.The conclusion of the study indicated that due to their encounters with transnational discrimination, racial hierarchies, marginalisation and exclusion, each of the women had developed a firmly distanced and defensive stance towards their host society.They elected to wholly disassociate from the UK's media, only consuming information and entertainment produced by their own nation, thus providing the women with a sense of stability.
A woman from South Korea exemplified this when she explained how she watched television to gain societal information for the duration of her first year in London, but after three years, she ceased watching.The British accent on TV, combined with the unfamiliar culture, made her experience isolated feelings of alienation, and she began to believe she did not belong in London.Correspondingly, women from China and Japan conveyed similar events (Kim, 2011, pp. 133-151).While the British media can assist immigrants in obtaining expertise in the understanding of their society, the British mentality on social belonging is one of the most important determinants in the transnational students' measured withdrawal from host media.Consequently, this is the reason that nationalism is frequently conveyed and ingrained into the consciousness of the diaspora (Kim, 2011, pp. 133-151).This is an antithesis to the assertation issued by the diaspora media in relation to furthering itself from nationalism and striving to support cosmopolitanism.In spite of the promotion of cosmopolitan solidarity, this goal is, to some extent, impossible.

CONCLUSION
The ability possessed by Korean women to reflect upon and criticise a myriad of differing cultures by viewing western television shows and to envision an innovative new lifestyle can inspire a desire to emigrate or study abroad.This demonstrates how the television media can promote viewers' cosmopolitan tendencies."Adventure news", "emergency news", and "ecstatic news", known as the three categories of news media, exhibit varying degrees of cosmopolitanism in relation to international tragedy.Adventure news is incapable of displaying cosmopolitanism, whereas emergency news and ecstatic news do possess the necessary capabilities to resonate with viewers.Even though the media could utilise cosmopolitanism, the geopolitical interference present in the media's message, the perpetuated dichotomy of "us" versus "them", and the inequitable production and reproduction of media narratives render the media utterly incapable of promoting true cosmopolitanism.Diasporic media may permit immigrants to discover a sense of belonging in an unfamiliar society, but it also inexorably pushes them away from cosmopolitanism.In conclusion, while the media can successfully link audiences around the world with cosmopolitan sentiments, it is impossible for the media to achieve a fully cosmopolitan orientation due to the many obstacles that modern society presents.