Globalization and Media

Learning Outcomes
At the end of this module, the students should be
able to:   
1. Explain the relevance of McLuhan's statement
"the medium is the message" to globalization.
2. Discuss how media have contributed to the
creation of the "global village."
3. Examine the view stating that the evolution of
globalization is intrinsically connected with
the evolution of media.
4. Identify the impacts of media, particularly
advertisement, to global and local cultures.

Module Overview
Globalization does not only refer to the movement
of goods, capitals, services, and technologies
around the  world. It does not only involve the
interaction and collaboration of peoples, states,
governments, civil societies, and private entities
globally.  It also refers to the sharing of
cultures--ideas, beliefs, traditions, customs, and
experiences--worldwide through the various means
of communication.
 

In this module, we shall discuss about how the

various media of communication have created what
Marshall McLuhan calls the Global Village.
 
 

Media, Globalization, and the Creation of the Global Village*

In 1964, Marshall McLuhan wrote a book
entitled Understanding Media: The Extensions of
Man. As suggested in the book's title, McLuhan
broadly defines media as the extensions of man. He
understands media synonymously with technology. In
this sense, all technologies, including the
different media of communication, are extensions
of man. Thus, knives could be understood as
extensions of man's hands; cars as extensions of
his feet; earphones and radio as extensions of his
ears; microphones and megaphones as extensions of
his lips; televisions as extensions of his eyes
and ears; and computers, especially those equipped
with artificial intelligence, as probably
extensions of his nervous system.
 

McLuhan's main contention in the book is

paradoxically stated: "[T]he Medium is the
message"(McLuhan 1964:23; emphasis added).
Ordinarily, we understand "medium" as the channel
through which we express our thoughts. In this
sense, speech, script, print, and electronic and
digital devices are considered media because we
use them to communicate our thoughts. As channels
of messages, media are conceived as separate and
different from the messages they convey. Thus, to
say that "the medium is the message" is quite
perplexing. 
 

Essentially, what does McLuhan mean by this

statement? McLuhan explains:
 

This is merely to say that the personal and social

consequences of any medium--that is of any
extension of ourselves--result from the new scale that
is introduced into our affairs by each extension of
ourselves, or by any technology. (McLuhan 1964:
23; emphasis added)
 

That is, every medium introduced to

us changes the way we think, behave,
live, and interact in the society. In
short, the medium transforms our
personal and social lives. Thus, the
medium does not only convey a
message; it is the message
itself, which is the change it
inevitably brings into our personal
and social lives. 
 

McLuhan further explains:     

 

What we are considering here, however, are the

psychic and social consequences of the designs or
patterns as they amplify or accelerate existing
processes. For the "message" of any medium or technology is the
change of scale or pace or pattern that it introduces into human
affairs.(McLuhan 1964, 24; emphases added)
 

Put differently, the introduction of any medium or

technology into our lives creates an atmosphere or
condition that affects the way we behave and live
in the society. 
 

McLuhan provides examples: 

The railway did not introduce movement or
transportation or wheel or road into human
society, but it accelerated and enlarged the scale of previous
human functions, creating totally new kinds of cities and new kinds of
work and leisure. This happened whether the railway
functioned in a tropical or a northern
environment, and is quite independent of the
freight or content of the railway medium. The
airplane, on the other hand, by accelerating the
rate of transportation, tends to dissolve the railway form of
city, politics, and association, quite independently of what
the airplane is used for. 
 

Let us return to the electric light. Whether the

light is being used for brain surgery or night
baseball is a matter of indifference. It could be
argued that these activities are in some way the
"content" of the electric light, since they could
not exist without the electric light. This fact merely
underlines the point that "the medium is the message" because it is
the medium that shapes and controls the scale and form of human
association and action. The content or uses of such
media are as diverse as they are ineffectual inn
shaping the form of human association. Indeed, it
is only too typical that the "content" of any
medium blinds us to the character of the
medium. (McLuhan 1964, 24; emphases added)
 
McLuhan (1964) gives three examples of media that
fundamentally changed the economic, cultural,
social, and political landscapes of the societies
in the world: the construction of railways, the
invention of airplanes, and the discovery of
electric light. On one hand, railways
revolutionized transportation which led to the
formation of city life with all the economic,
social, cultural, and political transformations
accompanying it. The invention of airplanes, on
the other hand, further accelerated
transportation, which facilitated what Roland
Robertson calls the "compression of the world." In
the same token, the discovery of the electric
light paved the way to the inventions of various
machines used for medicine, education, production,
leisure, etc., which, drastically changed our
economic, cultural, social, and political lives.
Indeed, "the medium is the message" because the
changes it brings to our lives condition, shape
and control our personal actions and social
relations.   
 

But, why is McLuhan's view of media important in

our study of globalization?
 

McLuhan (1964) provides an answer: Media were

responsible for the creation of the so-called
global village. Electronic media, especially
television, made the people worldwide aware of the
events happening in many parts of the world
enabling them to think of the world  as an
"imagined global village." 
 

In his article, Globalization and Media: Creating

the Global Village, Jack Lule (2014) provides a
much clearer account of the intrinsic link between
media and globalization. For him, the history of
globalization corresponds to the evolution of
media from speech, to script, to print, to
electronic media, and finally digital media. He
argues that globalization would not exist without
media. 
 

In agreement with McLuhan, Lule argues that the

evolution of each form of media  brought with it
specific transformations in human affairs. Speech,
for example, allowed people to communicate with
one another, paving the way to the establishment
of political societies. Script enabled people to
put into writing their knowledge and ideas about
the world, making it possible for them to codify
their economic, political, religious, and cultural
systems and practices, which could be easily
spread and shared to other places in the world.
(Lule 2014: 367)
 

The printing press had revolutionized the

production, distribution, and consumption of
knowledge and information. This paved the way to
the democratization of ideas, considered to be
responsible for economic, cultural, social, and
political revolutions. (Lule 2014, 367)
 

Then came electronic media, with television as the

most influential. Through televisions, "The world
was brought into the home. The amount, range, and
intensity of communication with other lands and
cultures occurred in ways simply not possible
before. For some scholars, the introduction of
television was a defining moment in globalization.
Marshall McLuhan proclaimed the world a 'global
village', largely because of television." (Lule
2014, 369)        
 

And lastly, the digital media, which use computers

and internet in the transmission of information.
They include mass media, search engines, social
media (YouTube, Facebook, twitter, Instagram,
Twitter, TikTok, and other social media apps).
These forms of media are considered to be the most
pervasive and the most powerful globalizing force.
They have revolutionized the economic, cultural,
social, and political landscapes of the societies
around the world. They have,in the poetic phrasing
of Thomas Friedman, "flattened the world." 
 

For a detailed reading of Lule's article, find a

copy here:       
/files/602722/Globalization_and_Media(10)(2).pdf
 

For a powerpoint presentation of this lesson,

click this
file:/files/602722/Media_and_Globalization(2).pdf
  
 
 
 
 

REFERENCES: 
 

Lule, Jack (2014). Globalization and Media:

Creating the Global Village. In The Sage Handbook
of Globalization. Editors: Manfred Steger, and
Paul Battersby & Joseph Siracusa. London: Sage
Publications Ltd. 
 

McLuhan, Marshall (1964). Understanding Media: The

Extensions of Man. New York: New American
Library. 
 
 
 

*This lesson was prepared by Rommel Mazo, faculty

of the Social Sciences Department.

Advertisement and Globalization**

Globalization has so much impact on the world’s
different cultures. The world’s varied beliefs,
customs, traditions, ways of thinking and ways of
behaving have changed in a spectacular and
striking level because of the process called
GLOBALIZATION. In the same manner, however, we can
say that culture has aided globalization in
attaining its goal like a speed of light.
 
Through the globalization of culture, the world
found itself like one big "global village." This
means that the world seems smaller and more
accessible and the Mass Media is responsible for
this transformation of the world. Through the Mass
Media, particularly advertisement, the diverse and
varied cultures of the world became a uniform way
of life, a “shared culture”. But there is claim
that the emergence of the shared culture has
opened the gate for the erosion of local cultures.
Let us then read and learn from the text of Rob
Bowden…
 

Advertising has played a major role in the spread

of Western cultures around the world. Commercial
breaks on television, the radio and in movies
promote the latest products or trends to audience
of millions. Billboards and magazine
advertisements do the same on other areas of our
lives. There is little escape from the
advertiser’s messages and often great pressure to
be like other people by buying particular products
in brands. Advertising is especially powerful
because unlike other aspects of globalization,
such as the internet or satellite television, it
has the ability to reach and influence the whole
of society not just the wealthy. Young people are
often specially targeted by advertisers. Such
targeting can have a strong influence on local
cultures because many young people are influenced
by the promotion of particular products and
brands. In some societies, advertising has
contributed to dramatic cultural shift, such as
changes in clothes or food in the space of a
single generation.  (GLOBALIZATION: The Impact on
our Lives, 2004 pp 38-39)
 
Watch this short, but powerful, clip on how
advertisement influences our lives. 
https://youtu.be/g2Sei7F61U8
 
 
The power of advertisement to control and
manipulate the people’s behaviors is without
question. Advertisement appeals to the emotion and
psychology of the people, and not to their reason.
Hence, advertisement is responsible for the
homogenization of the world’s multiple cultures.
Because of the power of advertisement, the world’s
diverse and distinct cultures are now said to be
unified and unvaried. Rob Bowden gives us the
other lens to look at it:
 

According to him, but are advertising and the

influence of TNC (Transnational Corporation)
really responsible for the spread of uniform
culture? There are many who think not. Instead,
they would argue that globalization has brought
about more variety and differences than any time
in history. Far from being uniform, they say,
there is now almost infinite cultural choice and
many influences come from the outside Western
culture.
 

In Britain, for example, curry, an Indian dish, is

the nation’s favorite food. Meanwhile, throughout
Europe and North America, cultural influences from
the East such as karate, yoga and sushi become
increasingly integrated into everyday life. From
this point of view, local cultures, far from being
eroded may actually be strengthened as they
attract wider interest. (GLOBALIZATION: The Impact
on our Lives 2004)
 

POINT TO PONDER
“Every city is a mishmash of humanity of all
shades, habits and opinions. On the global scale,
this variety is almost infinite” (Richard Buckley,
Understanding Global Issues, The Global
Village,1998)

Globalization and Local Languages***

There are two opposing views on the effects of
globalization to local cultures. The first one
claims that globalization leads to the creation of
a homogenous global culture. And the second one
states that globalization preserves and promotes
diversity of cultures.
 
One way to determine which of these views is
correct is to look at the effect of globalization
to local languages, which are fundamentally
reflective of local cultures.  Let's turn to Rob
Bowden's views on this. 
 

One noticeable result of globalization has been

the gradual disappearance of local languages in
favor of English. This is because many elements of
globalization (including international business,
the media, the internet and travel agency) are
heavily dominated by English. In some countries,
the ability to understand and speak English is
considered essential for any involvement in new
global era. Young people in particular strive to
learn English. In many parts of Africa, for
instance, children communicate with each other in
English while their parents continue to speak
local languages. If such patterns continue in the
coming generations, many local languages may well
disappear… further victims of globalization.
 

Some linguists [language scientists] believe that

the loss of language is an inevitable result of
progress and that is necessary for globalization,
as it allows greater understanding and cooperation
between different cultures. Others see the loss of
language as an example of powerful (and often
wealthier) language groups forcing others to
change. It is not English, however, that has this
power. In East Africa, the Swahili language is
rapidly replacing the many local languages of the
region, and in China, Mandarin has replaced many
languages spoken by China’s minority tribal
communities.
 

As we move into the opening decades of the

21stcentury, the state of the world’s languages
will give a good indication of the impact of
globalization on the world’s culture. If languages
continue to decline, as predicted, the evidence
will support those who believe that globalization
is leading to a more uniform global culture. If
languages survive, however, then those who suggest
that globalization preserves and promotes cultural
diversity may be proven right, only time can tell.
(GLOBALIZATION: The Impact on our Lives, pp 41-42)
 
POINT TO PONDER
 

“…At least 50 per cent of the world’s languages,

some as high as 95 per cent, will disappear within
the next century, pushed into oblivion by the
spread of the big languages.” (Eileen Moore Quinn,
Linguistic Anthropologist College of Charleston,
South Carolina)