Wal-Mart as a Transnational Corporation

The media text that will be examined in this paper is Wal-Mart - the largest corporation in the U.S. that is also a major transnational corporation (TNC). Since the 1990s, Wal-Mart has sought to transform the company into a global brand by expanding its operations all over the world, starting from the Americas to Asia (Featherstone, 2005; Rowell, 2003). More than just the largest retailer in the U.S., Wal-Mart's strategy of offering the lowest prices to customers, as encapsulated in its slogan -- "Low Prices. Always." -- has reshaped the culture of the retail industry and consumerism throughout the world (Yancy, 2004). The audience of this media text can thus be considered to include competitors, consumers, suppliers, and employees from all over the world.

As one of the largest TNCs in the world, Wal-Mart is an integral part of the business of international trade in information and entertainment. Various theories such as the modernization theory and the dependency theory have been formulated to capture the inextricably interwoven relationship between the mass media and TNCs. While TNCs have exerted imperialistic control over global trading arrangements by "dominating markets, resources, production and labor," their influence over the mass media has ensured that their domination practices are culturally justified (Thussu, 2000, p. 61). More specifically, since the media that are responsible for the transmission of information and entertainment are ultimately depende

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to communicate instantaneously with one another, regardless of time and space barriers. Even more importantly, this ease in communication has also led to the rise in global consciousness and reflexivity as people continuously process their practices and perspectives based on new input from the outside world. This facility in communication and interaction has thus provided the necessary support for the spread of Wal-Mart and its influences throughout the world (Monge, 1998). On the other, it is important to point out that the media text of Wal-Mart has not been completely successful in effecting the globalization of Western culture. Even though it has been successful in transmitting and selling its messages in Mexico, it has met up with considerable problems and resistance in other countries. In Germany, Wal-Mart suffered financial losses as it encountered opposition from the regulatory offices that considered Wal-Mart's pricing policies to be illegal. At the same time, German Wal-Mart workers also went on strike to compel the company to recognize unions. Similarly, the Wal-Mart operation in South Korea also encountered many difficulties. A study of the Wal-Mart operations in the country revealed that the shoppers were

Category: Business - W