Discussion Paper in GEC 8 -The Contemporary World

Global Media Cultures

Objectives:

1. Define Global Media Cultures

2. Identify the relationship of globalization and media and its evolution;
3. Explain various forms of global integration and the dynamic between Global and
Local cultural production; and,
4. Relate the understanding of the topic in real-life situation.

Global Media Cultures

Introduction
This chapter explores the definition of Global Media Culture, its relationship to
globalization. It also explores the evolution of media and globalization, how the
mediadrives various form of global integration, dynamics between global and local
cultural production, and global media culture pitfalls or downfalls.

Global Media Cultures explores the relationship between the media, culture and
globalization. This topic approach part and current challenges concerning
international communication and explores and problematizes the power of media
representation. Globalization and media have created the conditions through
which many people cannow imagine themselves as part of one world.
• Global media culture is the transmission of ideas, meaning, and characteristics
of agroup through media.
• Global simply means relating to or embracing the whole of something or of a
groupof things.
• Media is the main means of mass communication and is the outlets and tools
usedto restore and deliver information or data.
• Culture is the characteristics and knowledge of a particular group of people,
encompassing language, religion, cuisine, social habits, music and arts.

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It is made easier for advocates of globalization to reach larger audience through media
such
as:
1. Television programs
2. Social media groups
3. Books
4. Movies
5. Magazines
GLOBALIZATION AND MEDIA
GLOBALIZATION
•It is the process by which the world is becoming increasingly interconnected as a
result of massively increased trade and cultural exchange.
•It is a set of multiple, uneven and sometimes overlapping historical process
(economics, politics, and culture) that is combined with the evolution of media
technology.
•Globalization and media have been partners throughout history. They've created
conditions by which people can now imagine that they are part of a singular world.
Media
The term media, which is the plural of medium, refers to the communication channels
through which we disseminate news, music, movies, education, promotional
messages and other data. It includes physical and online newspapers and magazines,
television, radio, billboards, telephone, the Internet, fax and billboards.

It describes the various ways through which we communicate in society. Because it

refers to all means of communication, everything ranging from a telephone call to the
evening news on television can be called media.

The Evolution of Media and Globalization

1. Oral Communication
It allowed sharing of information. Language allowed human to communicate
andcooperate.
2. Script
Script allowed human to communicate over a larger space and much longer times.

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3. Printing press
This is where information revolution started. It transformed social institutions such as
schools, churches, governments and more.
4. Electronic Media
Radio and Television are part of these media. Radio quickly became a global medium,
reaching distant regions.
Television is considered as the most powerful and pervasive mass media. It brought
together the visual and audio power of the film with the accessibility of radio.
5. Digital media
Many of our earlier media such as phones and Televisions are now considered digital
media.
The media have a very important impact on cultural globalization in two
mutually
interdependent ways:
Firstly, the media provide an extensive transnational transmission of cultural products
and,
secondly, they contribute to the formation of communicative networks and social
structures.
The rapidly growing supply of media products form an international media culture
presents a challenge to existing local and national cultures. The sheer volume of the
supply, as well as the vast technological infrastructure and financial capital that pushes
this supply forward, have a considerable impact on local patterns of cultural
production. Global media cultures create a continuous cultural exchange, in which
crucial aspects such as identity, nationality, religion, behavioral norms and way of life
are continuously questioned and challenged. These cultural encounters often involve
the meeting of cultures with a different socio-economic base, typically a transnational
and commercial cultural industry on one side and a national, publicly regulated cultural
industry on the other side.
Due to their very structure, global media promote a restructuring of cultural and social
communities. The media such as the press, and later radio and tv have been very
important institutions for the formation of national communities. Global media support
the creation of new communities. The Internet, for example, not only facilitates
communication across the global, but also supports the formation of new social
communities in which members can interact with each other. And satellite tv and radio

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 allow immigrants to be in close contact with their homeland’s language and culture
while they gradually accommodate to a new cultural environment. The common
pointof departure is the assumption that a series of international media constitutes
a global cultural supply in itself and serves as an independent agency for cultural
and social globalization, in which cultural communities are continuously
restructures and redefined. (source: website)
In other words, media cultures take part in the process of globalization, including
howthey challenge existing cultures and create new and alternative symbolic and
culturalcommunities.
ROLE OF MEDIA IN GLOBALIZATION
• Mass media plays a vital role in the globalization process
• Many people argues that media and globalization go hand in hand. Boyle (2007)
argues that this media has changed the way young people spend more time online
onsocial networks with a global reach.
Global imaginary and Global Village
Media have linked the globe with stories, images, myths and metaphors.
Global imaginary
The globe itself as imagined community.
Various Forms of Global Integration
Global integration is not a new phenomenon in today’s contemporary world. Trade
took place between distant civilizations even in ancient times. This globalization
process in the economic domain has not always proceeded smoothly has it
benefitedall whom it was offered, but, despite occasional interruptions, such as the
collapse of the Roman Empire or during the interwar period in this century, the
degree of economics integration among different societies around the world has
generally beenrising in the past half century, and ever greater than it has been and
is likely to improve.
There are three (3) factors that have affected the process of economic
Globalization:
1. Improvements in transportation and communication technology have reduced
the cost
of transporting goods, services and factors of production and communicating
economically useful knowledge and technology

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2. Tastes of individuals and, societies have generally but not universally, favored
taking advantage of the opportunities provided by declining costs of transportation and
communication through increasing economic integration.
3. The character and pace of economic integration have been significantly influenced
by public policies, although it is not always in the direction of increasing economic
integration.
Thus, technology, tastes and public policy have important influence on the pattern and
pace of economies in its various dimensions.
Dynamics of Local and Global Culture
Global flows of culture tend to move more easily around the globe than ever before,
especially through non-material digital forms. There are three perspectives on global
cultural flows. These are cultural differentialism, hybridization, and convergence.
Cultural Differentialism

• Emphasizes the fact that cultures are essentially different and are only
superficially affected by global flows.
• It also Involves barriers that prevent flows that serve to make cultures more
align; cultures tend to remain stubbornly different from one another.
Example of cultural differentialism

• is the terrorist attacks on 9/11 and the subsequent wars in Afghanistan and
Iraq. To many people, these events are seen as the product of a clash between
Western and Islamic culture and the eternal differences between them.
This is significant because the concept of cultural diffferentialism emphasizes lasting
differences among and between cultures largely unaffected by globalization or any
transcultural flows. As seen in the example, clashing cultures can have a huge impact
on both cultures, countries and the entire world.
Cultural hybridization
• Cultural hybridization is the blending of elements from different cultures.
• Cultural hybridize is very much linked to the globalization process, which is the
spread of western ideas and culture.
• A key concept is “glocalization” or the interpenetration of the global and local
resulting in unique outcomes in different geographic areas.
An example of cultural hybridize is Creolization.

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• Creolization is used to refer to forms of culture that do not have historical roots, but
are the result of global interconnections.
• It is a useful way of thinking about hybridize, how different types of culture which
exist simultaneously and overlap, leading to new form of culture.
• Creole people today find it difficult to point out where their ancestors are from.
• Therefore, being creole meant to be uprooted and to belong to a new world in contrast
to a world that is old, deep and rooted.
• The term creolization has subsequently been applied to food, architecture, music and
language.
EXAMPLES OF CULTURAL HYBRIDIZATION
• Cultural globalization involves the spread of language, the art, food, business, ideas,
technology etc.
• In the US, they adapted lots of great things from other cultures and traditions,
including lots of foreign cuisine like Chinese, Thai, and Mexican food.
• In Europe, music from various European countries are heard in clubs and
restaurants, despite different languages
• Business leaders from all around the world gather in China, Japan, USA, and UK to
exchange ideas about the direction of their particular field, business. culture and
technology.
• Cultures around the world have also exchanged words or phrases “OK” or the thumbs
up is now used all over the world.

Cultural Convergence

• Cultural convergence can be defined as the propensity of various cultures to

adapt and change frequent exposure to other cultures. The similarity in cultures
comes in when different cultures interact more frequently with each other.
• approach stresses homogeneity introduced by globalization.
• It is performed when different cultures and societies come together and cause
similarities among themselves.
Example of Cultural Convergence

• The English language is spoken by people all over the world, they are from
different cultures and different societies.

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 • Sporting event. A sporting event brings people from all cultures and
societies together. This helps people learn new customs of different
cultures.
GLOBAL MEDIA CULTURE PITFALLS OR DOWNFALLS
1. FAKE NEWS - Fake news includes a high risk of inaccurate reporting and may be
a platform of identity theft and loss of privacy.
2. CULTURAL OTHERNESS - Global media culture represents a cultural otherness,
at times a threat to cultural tradition.
GLOBAL MEDIA CULTURE PITFALLS OR DOWNFALLS
• Global Media Culture contributes to the development of local cultures and brings
them into contact with social reality of a globalized modernity
• Cultures are the core values that cannot be disappeared just because of
globalization.
• As a system, globalization helps us to learn and explore different society.
• The main stream of any culture of the most remote society is not weak that it can be
affected by any globalization effort.
STANDARDIZATION
• Standardization is the process of making something to conform to a
standard and also the process of implementing and developing
technical standards based on a consensus of different parties that
include firms, users, interest groups, standard organizations and
governments, etc.

IS MASS MEDIA A POSITIVE FORCE IN GLOBALIZATION?

• McLuhan (1962) used the term Global Village. He states that mass media is a force
for positive change in the world, that mass media breakdown barriers of
understanding.
• Flew (2002) suggests that media, through globalization has created a global popular
culture. Through television and the internet, global corporations (e.g. Starbucks,
McDonald's) have spread a globally identifiable culture.

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• The Pluralist approach to the mass media argues that the media, like society, has
become more diverse; it offers greater variety an choice than ever before.
IS MASS MEDIA A NEGATIVE FORCE IN GLOBALIZATION?

• Fenton (1999) argues that global culture has led to the westernization of other
cultures. The mass media forces western cultural value (especially American) on non-
western countries.
• The mass media is damaging other cultures and promoting cultural homogenization,
where everything is the same.
Other criticism of the mass media and globalization

• Corporate entities' a threat to democracy

• Lack of regulation - the internet is the wild west of information

• Mass audiences has led to the 'dumbing down' of content, there is actually less
consumer choice
• Increased social isolation. Virtuality and a loss of social capital -- real human
networks of support in communities.

• Digital divide whereby those who don't have access to the mass media miss out,
creating global inequality. Media and Economic Globalization
Media and Economic Globalization

•Media fosters the conditions for global capitalism.

• Economic and cultural globalization arguably would be impossible without a global
commercial media system to promote global markets and to encourage consumer
values. -Robert McChesney. Media and Political Globalization
Media and Political Globalization

• Media corporations are, themselves, powerful political actors, but smaller individual
journalists are also intimidated as more actors contend for power. Popular Music and
Globalization
Popular Music and Globalization

• Circulation of cultural commodities such as music has been made possible due to
the current technologies of mediation (e.g. social media platforms)
Media and Cultural Globalization

• Media is a good carrier of culture.

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• It generates numerous and on-going interactions
• Globalization will bring about and increasing blending or mixture of culture

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