Globalization Essay Final 101

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    Define globalization and discuss the extent to which media are globalized.

    Tracing the origin of globalization through history leads us to several key

    momentums, but through this analysis, pressing the matter on those key points that

    best exemplifies how the world we live in today has benefitted from the development

    of technology and media through time, this essay will attempt to define

    Globalization and how it may help us understand the world we live in.

    Already in the 1960s Marshall McLuhan predicted the type of globalization that

    exists in todays world. He foresaw a world where we were all linked together in what

    he called a global Village. In many ways this global Village is what we today

    know as social networking. But globalization stretches way beyond the boundaries of

    social networking. We see a world being connected, now more than ever before.

    Globalization is a definite trend that is changing everything and against which

    national states or trade unions can do very little or even nothing. (Went, 2000, p.7)

    At a general level "globalization" can be seen as "an inexact expression for a

    wide array of worldwide changes in politics, communications, business and

    trade, life styles, and culture," or it can be understood as "a multidimensional

    set of social processes that create, multiply, stretch, and intensify worldwide

    social interdependencies and exchanges while at the same time fostering

    people a growing awareness of deepening connections between local and the

    distant." (Gorman L, & McLean D, p. 264-265)

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    The world is getting smaller is something we hear people say when they experience

    something like being able to talk to relatives on Skype on the other side of the planet.

    Globalization has a direct effect on this saying, and in some sense it`s true. This idea

    of the world getting smaller, or globalization sprung up in the beginning of the 1990s.

    The cold war between The United States and The Soviet Union had just ended and for

    that reason more information could be passed on more easily across foreign borders.

    But by taking for granted that the idea behind globalization started out in the 90s

    gives a false account of the developing process.

    Interdependence is what used to describe what is now known as globalization. The

    dependence countries had to each other where not as prominent in the past as it is

    today, but none the less its vital to know how interdependence worked in the past in

    order to know how globalization work today. Although interdependence didnt cover

    nearly as much as globalization does, it has in fact shaped our world. A historic event

    that really changed a lot was the forming of the UN in 1945 after world war ll. In the

    cold war the whole fundamental idea of interdependence was threatened. The Soviet

    Union threatened the United States using scare propaganda, saying they would launch

    missiles from Cuba directed at The US. This is only a brief account on how

    interdependence was threatened during this time.

    Through the 1980s a boom of American television being broadcasted through out

    countries around the world meant that borders between countries were being cut and

    globalization could take place.

    'Insofar as media are concerned, the developments in communications

    technologies and infrastructure (including satellite broadcasting and the

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    internet) have been fundamental to globalization, as they have made previous

    "boundaries" irrelevant.' (Gorman L, & McLean D, p. 265)

    Seeing as the cold war ended in the early 90s meant that The United States and The

    Soviet Union no longer dominated global affairs. Communism and the soviet union

    proved to the world not to have worked as a potentially gathering political rule, full of

    propaganda against its citizen, also contact with western societies were virtually cut

    all together as they put up the iron curtain to prevent western influences to infiltrate.

    The end of this cold war meant that information could now flow more easily across

    borders, and globalization could begin to fully root itself.

    With a world in constant change, the uprising of the Internet was something that had

    long been only of interest to the few, but as the potential for transnational connection

    came through, so did the number of web sites. The late 90s a whole world was being

    introduced to the power of the Internet and the ultimate communication platform for

    practically anyone to take advantage of it.

    As with what had been taken place in the 80s, with what was know to be

    Americanization, the major media companies were mostly American. Such as

    Microsoft which had most of its interest in computing, but some in digital media,

    Time Warner, and Disney. Japanese companies had interest in this type of market

    with Sony; even French companies had a big interest. The reach of such

    corporations can be illustrated by data for News Corporation, which, by the late

    1990s, reached approximately 75 percent of the worlds population. (Gorman L, &

    McLean D, p. 269)

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    With these and other companies using the web to their advantage in order to reach out

    to the world was far greater than any point in history before. The companies could

    now more than ever cross promote their products throughout the world. For Disney

    this meant that they could earn more money by launching their movies and their

    movie spin-offs in practically every language. The golden age of Hollywood, which

    had its boom in the 30s and 40s, had at the end of the 1990s and in the early 2000s

    been revived with emerging technologies, such as the Internet and CGI. Despite the

    fact that people where able to illegally download films, the emerging Internet gave the

    whole world access to material previously unobtainable. The Hollywood studios saw

    a chance to advertise and use the Internet as a whole new platform to make sure that

    people saw their films.

    The Internet gave the mass-communication a whole new meaning. Mass-

    communication in a more traditional sense meant that the people within a country was

    able to read the same news papers relatively at the same time, and or watch the same

    TV-shows. With the Internet emerging, this set a new standard and meaning for mass-

    communication. What had earlier been concentrated around a country gave now the

    possibility for a whole world to enjoy the news broadcasts or movies, all with the

    ever-emerging World Wide Web.

    Globalization as an emerging entity holds various sub categories, and maybe the one

    that constitutes the word best is, New Media. Online newspapers or web sites, in

    which everyones able to enter, bare the description of new media. The use of the

    Internet opened up massive possibilities, and in the case of news it had a profound

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    effect. Being able to access most of the worlds newspapers from anywhere on the

    globe highly indicates what globalization is all about.

    Also a factor that gives proof to the globalization of media is how the world through

    the Internet is changing. With sites such as Facebook, one can contact old friends and

    make new ones, update statuses to let the world know whats going on. The emerging

    of Facebook in 2004 gave the world the possibility to stay in touch like never before,

    and a new type of socializing was born. Media in earlier days, only taking it back 10

    years, this type of interactivity was not possible, one could argue that media was a

    static system, of such complexity that made the users mere audiences to the content.

    Whereas today its a whole other ballgame, we see Facebook growing rapidly and

    its by todays date a place for everyone to participate. The world is getting smaller,

    what we knew about cultures across the globe ten years ago is far beneath the

    understanding we have today. Now we can get to know someone from the other side

    of the globe without ever having to meet the person face to face, and still have what

    would be called a real relationship with that person. Sharing information, sharing

    videos etc, creates a whole new way to look at a community. What the Internet has

    ultimately done is creating one big worldwide community.

    This new way of being interactive and getting a voice out into the world has never

    been easier. Though Facebook is a popular site, Twitter is the one site that has the

    most growth and the number of users keeps flourishing. On Twitter weve seen

    through the past couple of years this platform where the users can only type in a limit

    of 1400 characters in one message save lives.

    As Alex Leff reported in January, Costa Ricans used Twitter to communicate

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    damage reports and create emergency networks following the biggest

    earthquake in nearly two decades.

    Twitter made an impact in Madagascar, too. When the country erupted into

    political violence in March, a journalist in West Lafeyette, Indiana kept the

    world informed by collecting and translating tweets from the isolated island

    nation. (Mucha, T. 2009)

    This change in Internet interactivity is called web 2.0, a predecessor from web 1.0.

    This new 2.0 has changed how people interact with each other online, and is the root

    to Facebook and Twitter. Also You Tube is categorized as a product of web 2.0.

    Essentially what it does to the web is making it more interactive, people are able to

    participate through what they write, what we say in videos we post. Everyones able

    to state his or her opinions online, and with that possibility what is written can change

    the world. These changes some say brought about President Barack Obamas win for

    President in the 2008 presidential election in United States. The way voters used their

    voices online ultimately led to his Presidency. On that note, its prudent to point out

    the fact that a lot of politicians use platforms such as Twitter to reach out to a broader

    reach of voters.

    Politically, one may look back in history and find that with change within the media

    sector ultimately changes can be found in society as a whole, and then also in politics.

    Its by no doubt that politics do change in accordance with media, and it clearly

    happened as a result of the television, where politicians now had to be rightfully

    presented in order to come across as a leader worth voting for. Every previous

    innovation in communications, from the emergence of the mass circulation press

    through the development of radio and television, has profoundly altered not only how

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    politics is understood in societies, but the nature of political negotiation itself.

    (Curran J, Seaton J, p. 194)

    The way people perceive celebrities changes as the web and globalization to changes.

    Being able to follow their every move has created a whole new way of being a

    celebrity, because now everyone can become one, online.

    Its not only the Internet that has flourished as an expense of globalization, the

    widening of the telecommunication has drastically changed in the last 20 years.

    Between 1990 and 2000, the number of independent national telecommunications

    Regulatory agencies multiplied from 12 to 101. (Chakravartty P, Sarikais K, p. 54)

    The global evolution in satellite technology, fiber optics and new wireless

    communication methods has provided not only large companies, but also individuals

    to communicate effortlessly across borders, and also continents. The traditional

    method of long-distance calls has gradually eroded as an aftermath of these new

    technologies emerging.

    Despite all the definite, remarkable things that have come, thanks to the world being

    globalized, ultimately what is happening is the big companies get larger, stronger and

    richer. There are only a few major companies working the business around the world.

    Many media businesses became part of global conglomerates producing

    entertainment and media products, and computing software, with global

    distribution networks. Some large media concerns in turn became part of even

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    larger corporations whose interest extended far beyond media (Gorman L, &

    McLean D, p. 269)

    Another feature of globalization of the media is that though most of the western world

    is benefitting from the developing of new technologies. Seeing as the western world is

    benefitting from it, third world countries are starting to receive some of the benefits

    we see here in the western world, western style cloths, our TV shows etc. This will in

    the end only benefit the west, seeing as its here the money in the end will end up.

    What the third world countries end up with are the picture of what the west is all

    about, theyre left with our entertainment, but what they sorely need is our expertise

    in technology. In order for them to lose the status as a third world country, and

    become part of a globalized world, its in the field of technology where the west can

    help them out. Schiller suggested that traditional, local cultures are destroyed by the

    external pressure of more powerful countries, especially media and other cultural

    exports. (Branston & Stafford, 2010, p. 145).

    What the world has experienced over the past 20 years has surpassed any previous

    years. Were passing the barriers to a world united. Previous borders are being opened

    up; we see a world constantly changing in every way. For globalization these changes

    are hopefully for the better, and future developments in the media industry hopefully

    looks bright.

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    Bibliography

    - Ashton J. Nigel, (2002), Kennedy, Macmillan and the Cold War, (Chippenham and

    Eastbourne)

    - Chakravartty Paula, Sarikais Katharine, (2006), Media Policy and Globalization,

    (Edinburgh University Press)

    - Curran James, Seaton Jean, (2003), Power Without Responsibility The Press,

    Broadcasting, and new media Sixth Edition, (Routledge)

    - Gorman Lyn, McLean David, (2009), Media and Society 21st

    Century A historical

    Introduction 2nd Edition, (Wiley-Blackwell)

    - (Mucha, Thomas. (2009) The globalization of social media. Available at:http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/commerce/090528/social-media (Accessed: 7

    January 2012)

    - Went Robert (2000) Globalization: Neoliberal Challenge, Radical Responses

    London, (Sterling)

    - Branston, G and Stafford, R (2010) The Media Students Book 5th

    edn. London,

    (Routledge)