Landry (2010) discussed on his article Globalization of Ideas, like goods and services, ideas also flow

across borders all over the world and their globalization is in progress. From the different corners of
the world, people are trading ideas and everybody is benefiting from it. This module guides the
students in understanding Global Media Cultures, Globalization of Religion and Researching
Globalization.

Today, the global flow of ideas is prevalent in smart phones, computers, mp3 players, e-readers and
other technologies that we use in our everyday lives. Measuring the production and the flow of ideas
is difficult; however, by using patent filings, the production of ideas and circulation can be validated.
Moreover, cross-border patenting – the patenting of one idea in different countries – can be helpful
on tracing the flow of ideas. This is confirmed by the data of BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China)
that the idea production has taken off and that the imports and exports of ideas have grown
significantly. The flow of religion is also the flow of ideas which affect the people’s way of life. Religion and
globalization are two equally shapers of social realities. Yet, religion has existed far longer than what we
known today as globalization. Religion has become an apparatus to spread globalization: crossing
boundaries spreading through religious crusades; cultural diffusions; and expanded through social-ties. To
further answer questions pertaining to globalization, students will conduct a ‘research’. With
research, our understanding of the way things are will be deepened and broadened as it contributes
to ideas, knowledge and societal progress.

LESSON 1: GLOBAL MEDIA CULTURES

This lesson deals with one of the essential institutions that made the realization of the globalization
– the global media system. As a medium to distribute ideas, information, values and beliefs, global
media prevalently facilitates the distribution of cultural symbols that shape human relationships in
the globalized world. Its role is to enculturate, the global media system also serves as a bridge all over
the world.

Tylor (1871) defined “culture… is that complex whole which includes knowledge, beliefs, arts,
morals, law, customs, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by [a human] as a member of
society.” Its development is shaped by social forces, including media. Generally, media are
communication vehicle or means of information delivery system to express, cultivate, or convey
message to a target audience. Since, people are social animals, we communicate with one another.
However, contemporary society became too sophisticated which eventually needs to adapt to
communicate with a wider and reach large audience.

Mass media as the name suggests is, a form of media which reach broader sphere simultaneously.
The idea of mass media was typically confined to print media until the World War II, when radio and
television were introduced. Today, any media that proliferate messages and reach wider audience
simultaneously is called ‘Mass Media’ (McFadden, 2016).
Forms of Media Fernandez Rodriguez (2013) indicated that
printing and publishing began in the Philippines
with the arrival of the Spanish in 1565.

1. Print Media. The oldest media are those printed in

word or picture, which conveys information through
the sense of sight. Example: books, newspapers,
pamphlets and direct mail pieces and magazines.

2. Broadcast Media. Broadcast media is the most

convenient and practical means to spread
information to reach the broader audience
immediately. The traditional forms of broadcast
media include radio, television and films. Although,
the Internet presently challenges the television as the
dominant source of both recreational content and
news.

3. New Age Media. With the dawn of computer

technology and internet, human society is benefiting
the high technology media. New age media refers to
various forms of electronic communication that is
made feasible through the use of computer
technology. Basically, the term new media
represents content available on-demand through
online media or the Internet. Example: mobile Front page of the first printed book in the
phones, computers, Internet, digital media and social Philippines: Doctrina Christiana (1593)
media. (source: Project Gutenberg)

Since the beginning of human history, new communication technologies have had a remarkable
impact on culture. Though, in the early phase of the communication technologies introduction, the
impact and effect of such technological innovations were inadequately recognized (Furedi, 2015).
Today, it greatly affects people’s lives as it has the power to influence our minds and thoughts.

Culture can be both shaped positively or negatively; hence, new media can impact societal norms,
beliefs and values, technology, and the culture in general. With the constant advancement of media
today, the future of our culture is ambivalent because different generations are exposed to different
ideas and information. Hence, could greatly affect the way of life. Media is a very powerful tool which
can shape and influence human behavior.

LOCAL AND GLOBAL CULTURAL PRODUCTION

Firat (2017) investigated globalization’s contemporary widespread presence which has emphasize
the conflicts between the global and the local. This emphasis has blurred our capacity to be
perceptive on recognizing the interdependence of global and local, and cannot exist without the
other. Considerably, globalization is associated to negative, imperialistic force, eradicating local
identities, compelling the uniformity of experience and culture, and eliminating independent
determination (Danaher and Burbach, 2000). Kraidy (2002) even argued that the role of mass media
in the globalization of culture greatly affected by media messages stemming from the Western
countries. However, globalization is also seen as a positive force, facilitating economic growth in
poverty-stricken areas of the globe, making people closer and united together, and multiplying and
understanding of each other among countries (Fukuyama, 1993; Huntington, 1997).

Whether globalization is negative or positive, however, the local and the global have almost always
been depicted as opposing and in conflict with each other. In fact, the local and the global are
interdependent and cannot exist without each other. The local is necessarily always in relation to
(an)other. Without the presence of the other, there can be no cognition of the local – all would be one
and the same. Without the other, there is no possibility of a (re)cognition of the global, because it is
a multiplicity of the local(s) that enables the presence of the global. Thus, the local and the global
require each other (Firat, 2017).

With so much flow of ideas and information across the globe, culture tends to interact and merge.
Pieterse (2009) offers an insightful and lucid examination of the cultural implication of globalization.
He strongly asserted that there are only three perspectives on cultural difference: cultural
differentialism, cultural convergence, and cultural hybridity.

1. Cultural Differentialism

The idea of cultural differentialism emphasized lasting difference between and

among cultures predominantly uninfluenced by globalization or any countries, and trans-
cultural flows and processes. Rooted in the idea of unwavering differences between and
among cultures. It is not literally saying that the culture is not affected by any of these flows
and processes, mainly globalization, but the heart of their culture is not greatly affected by
any of these forces, still they continue to persist as they always have been.

You may read this for additional information: Samuel Huntington’s Clash of Civilizations
https://www.beyondintractability.org/bksum/huntington-clash

2. Cultural Convergence

Cultural convergence refers to the notion of increasing homogenization or sameness

all over the world. The cultures of the world are becoming and growingly similar, or at least
to some extent and ways. Characterize also as a form of universalism because it assimilates
the dominant culture as the center of importance: Americanization, Westernization, and
others. However, with the global assimilation that geared towards dominant groups in the
world, still local cultures are not totally disappearing, or totally altered fundamentally. Even
globalization is a massive inexorable force, local realities may change dramatically, but it
continues to thrive in some other form.

3. Cultural Hybridization
 Cultural hybridization refers to the mixing of cultures as a result of globalization due
to interaction of global and local, a unique and new hybrid cultures that is completely
different from global or local culture. From this view, the focus is the global processes
integration with diverse local realities which creates distinctive and new hybrid forms that
promotes the continuity of global heterogenization rather than homogenization. Ritzer
(2015) asserted that hybridization is a very positive, even romantic, notion of globalization
as a creative process that materialize new cultural realities, and will continue to persist, if not
multiply, heterogeneity, in various parts of the world.

With the interaction and dynamics of global and local cultural production,
glocalization emerged. Glocalization is a combination of the words “globalization” and
localization, which refers to the simultaneous emergence of both universalizing and
particularizing trend in political, social, and economic systems. With the dynamics of global
and the local engendering peculiar results in different places.