The global mass media, with its expanding array of global networks and affiliations, has often been posited as a potential threat to local, national, or indigenous traditions, language, and culture. Yet, while the media has certainly done much to erode cultural – as well as economic and political – boundaries, in this paper we suggest that "the local" continues to remain a significant factor in determining the global media's scope and reach. In particular, by examining an instance of local resistance to influential media conglomerate News Corporation within the realm of Australian rugby league, we aim to demonstrate how domestic politics, histories, and traditions still play key, often predominant roles, in shaping local culture and identity. However, we also suggest that, just as they can be mobilised as a means of expressing, and enacting, anti-global, anti-corporate resistance, local sporting forms and practices are nonetheless increasingly constituted through the workings of global corporate strategising.
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Grainger et al. (2005) studied this question.