Upload
marius-egeland
View
212
Download
0
Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
8/3/2019 Globalization Essay Final 101
1/9
Student Number: 110113731
1
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)
8/3/2019 Globalization Essay Final 101
2/9
Student Number: 110113731
2
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
8/3/2019 Globalization Essay Final 101
3/9
Student Number: 110113731
3
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)
8/3/2019 Globalization Essay Final 101
4/9
Student Number: 110113731
4
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
8/3/2019 Globalization Essay Final 101
5/9
Student Number: 110113731
5
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
8/3/2019 Globalization Essay Final 101
6/9
Student Number: 110113731
6
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
8/3/2019 Globalization Essay Final 101
7/9
Student Number: 110113731
7
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
8/3/2019 Globalization Essay Final 101
8/9
Student Number: 110113731
8
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.
8/3/2019 Globalization Essay Final 101
9/9
Student Number: 110113731
9
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)