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Lesson 1: Global Media Cultures

Lesson Objectives:

• Analyze how various media drive various forms of global integration.

• Compare the social impacts of different media on the processes of
globalization.
• Explain the dynamics between local and global cultural production.

Getting Started:

In this lesson, you will learn about the role of media as an important tool in
the spread of cultures globally. Before reading the discussion, take time to read
the following key words related to this lesson:
• Audience Studies. Audience studies is a broad and multifaceted area of
communication research. It encompasses a wide range of theoretical perspectives, as
well as a diversity of methodological approaches, that all share a concern with
understanding how and why audiences engage with media, and the broader political,
cultural, and economic implications of the media––audience relationship. (Link:
https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780199756841/obo-9780199756841-
0135.xml)

• Communication Network. A communication network is the pattern of directions in which

information flows in the organization. Channels of communication (networks by which
information flows) are either formal networks or informal networks. Formal networks follow
the authority chain and are limited to task-related communications. The informal network
(grapevine) is free to move in any direction, skip authority levels, and is as likely to satisfy
group members' social needs as it is to facilitate task accomplishments.
(Link:https://www.wisdomjobs.com/e-university/principles-of-management-and-organisational-
behaviour-tutorial-366/communication-networks-12761.html)

• Cultural imperialism. Cultural imperialism is the imposition by one usually politically or

economically dominant community of various aspects of its own culture onto another
nondominant community. It is a form of imperialism in that the imposing community
forcefully extends the authority of its way of life over the other population by either
transforming or replacing aspects of the nondominant community’s culture. (Link:
https://www.britannica.com/topic/cultural-imperialism)

• Cultural products. Cultural products are goods and services that include the arts
(performing arts, visual arts, architecture), heritage conservation (museums, galleries,
libraries), the cultural industries (written media, broadcasting, film, recording), and
festivals. (Source: www.igi-global.com)
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• Cyberghetto. The equivalent of a ghetto in cyberspace; a place on the Internet etc. where
a social group is marginalized. (Link: https://www.yourdictionary.com/cyberghetto)

• Hegemony. The social, cultural, ideological, or economic influence exerted by a

dominant group. (Link: https://www.merriam webster.com/dictionary/hegemony)

• Social Structures. Social structures are the internal institutionalized relationships built up
by persons living within a group (such as a family or community) especially with regard
to the hierarchical organization of status and to the rules and principles regulating
behavior. (Link: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/social%20structure)

• Splinternet. This is a word made up of “split” and “internet”. It refers to the balkanization of
the internet, one that is fragmented and divided as a result of technology, commerce,
politics, nationalism, religion and particular interests.

The New Generation Media

Tools: How often do you use
this platform to deliver your
message?

Discussion:
Globalization relies on media as its main instrument for the spread of global
culture and ideas. There is a close relationship between globalization and media
which must be revealed to further understand the contemporary world.
A. Media and Its Functions.

Dr. Jack Lule, professor of global studies and professor and chair of
journalism and communication at Lehigh University, describes media as a “means
of conveying something, such as a channel of communication.” For media
commentators, “media” refer to technologies of mass communication.
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The human speech is the oldest and most enduring of all media; this is
referred to as oral communication. Meanwhile, script is the very first writing that
allowed humans to communicate and share knowledge and ideas over much
larger spaces and across much longer times. The printing press started the
information revolution and transformed markets, businesses, nations, schools,
churches, governments, armies and more. In 1979, Elizabeth Einstein surveyed the
many profound influences of the printing press. These influences include the
preservation and standardization of knowledge and the challenge of political
and religious authority. Newer forms of media include electronic and digital
media. Electronic media are forms of media that require electricity to use.
Telegraph, telephone, radio, film, and television are the usual media collected
under this. Digital media, on the other hand, are electronic media that rely on
digital codes. (Steger et. al., 2014)

Johannes Guttenberg and the invention of the

printing press. History recounts that the first ever
printed book in this machine was the Bible.

While it is relatively easy to define the term “media,” it is more difficult to

determine what media do and how they affect societies. It might be simple to
define what media is; however, their functions and effects in society are more
complex. Media theorist Marshall McLuhan asserted the famous line – “the
medium is the message.” He did not mean that ideas or messages are useless
and do not affect people. The statement tries to draw attention to how media
reform societies as a form of technology. The media used to convey a message
in itself influence how people live. Since the introduction of the television in the
1960s, it steered people from the dining table where they eat and tell stories to
each other. It also drew most people away from other meaningful activities such
as playing games or reading books. The television is not a simple channel of
communication; it changed viewer’s social behavior and family behavior. This is
the same in the case of smart phones today. Smart phone users can now
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keep in touch quickly with multiple people at the same time which was impossible
in the previous years. It can be concluded that technology (medium), and not
the message, initiate social change.
McLuhan also asserted that the various forms of new media extend human
senses and dumb them at the same time. New media may have increased the
extent of communication but they also dull the communicative capacities of
humans. For example, before people wrote things down on paper, stories were
done orally. To be able to transmit stories verbally, storytellers had to have sharp
and retentive memories. When paper was invented and widely used, people
acquired the ability to write down their stories. According to some philosophers,
this decreased the capacity of people to remember.
This is the same case in the use of cellular phones. Though they expand
people’s senses because they provide the capability to communicate to more
people instantly at the same time, they also limit human senses because they
make users easily distracted and more prone to multi-tasking. This is not necessarily
a bad thing; it is merely a social change with a trade-off. (Abinales and Claudio,
2018)

B. Global Media Cultures and the Global Village

The media have a very important impact on cultural globalization in two
mutually interdependent ways. First, the media provide an extensive
transnational transmission of cultural products and second, they contribute to the
formation of communication networks and social structures. 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. (Ariola, 2018)

McLuhan analyzed the social changes brought about by electronic media,

particularly, television. He declared that the television was turning the world into
a “global village.” This concept was regarded by Marshall McLuhan as a
phenomenon that connected the world. Drawn closely together, by media,
people would be like neighbors living in an ideal condition of universal
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understanding and unity. (Steger et. al, 2014). As more people watch the
TV, they gradually perceived the world as a smaller community. Global media
has
the tendency to homogenize culture. As global media spread, people from all
over the world would begin to watch, listen to, and read the same things. People
will never meet face to face with all or even most of the other members of their
nation, but they can imagine themselves as one. Imagination is a social fact and
a staging ground for action (Arjun Appadurai, 1996). However, Lewis Mumford
thought that media technology was instead used as a tool for capitalism,
militarism, profit and power. (Steger et. al, 2014).

JFK and MJ. Political

turmoil of the Cuban
Missile Crisis year 1962
and the Be Like Mike
commercial 1992. Can
you identify the effect of
this event to the public?

Commentators believed that media globalization coupled with American

hegemony would create a form of cultural imperialism whereby American values
and culture would overwhelm all others. Herbert Schiller, media critic, argued
that not only was the world being Americanized, but this process also led to the
spread of “American” capitalist values like consumerism. Meanwhile, John
Tomlinson, considered cultural globalization as simply a euphemism for “Western
cultural imperialism” since it promotes “homogenized, Westernized, consumer
culture.” (Abinales and Claudio, 2018)

C. Cultural Imperialism through Media

In the 1980’s, media scholars began to pay attention to the ways in which
audiences understood and interpreted media messages. The field of audience
studies emphasizes that media consumers are active participants in the meaning-
making process, who view media “texts” (in media studies, a “text” simply refers
to the content of any medium) through their own cultural lenses. In 1990, Elihu
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Katz and Tamar Liebes argued that “texts” are received differently by
varied interpretive communities because they derived different meanings and
pleasures from these texts.
Apart from the challenge of audience studies, the cultural imperialism thesis
has been contradicted by the renewed strength of regional trends in the
globalization process. Asian culture, for example, has proliferated worldwide
through the globalization of media. Japanese brands – from Hello Kitty to the
Mario Brothers to Pokémon – are now an indelible part of global popular culture.
Given these patterns, it is no longer acceptable to insist that globalization is a
unidirectional process of foreign cultures overwhelming local ones. Globalization,
as noted in Lesson 1, will remain an uneven process, and it will produce
inequalities. Nevertheless, it leaves room for dynamism and cultural change. This
is not a contradiction; it is merely a testament to the phenomenon’s complexity.
(Abinales and Claudio, 2018)

The Best from the

Decades. Are you
familiar with these?

F. Social media and the Creation of Cyberghettos

The internet and the social media are proving that the globalization of
culture and ideas can move in different directions. The internet, particularly the
social media, is challenging previous ideas about media and globalization. As
with all new media, social media have both beneficial and negative effects. On
the one hand, these forms of communication have democratized access.
Anyone with an internet connection or a smart phone cane use Facebook and
Twitter for free. These media have enabled users to be consumers and producers
of information simultaneously. (Abinales and Claudio, 2018)
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However, social media also have their dark side. In the early 2000s,
commentators began referring to the emergence of a splinternet and the
phenomenon of cyberbalkanization to refer to the various bubbles people place
themselves in when they are online. As such, being on Facebook can resemble
living in an echo chamber, which enforces one’s existing beliefs and opinions. This
echo chamber precludes users from listening to or reading opinions and
information that challenge their viewpoints, thus, making more partisan and
closed-minded. (Abinales and Claudio, 2018)
Summary of the Lesson:
Media is the primary tool of globalization in the contemporary world. For
media experts, “media” refer to technologies of mass communication. These
include traditional media such as oral communication through human speech,
script and printing press and newer forms of media such as electronic and digital
media. These technologies are not merely vehicles of messages but rather, as
McLuhan asserted, the messages themselves. The statement tries to draw
attention to how media reform societies as a form of technology. The media used
to convey a message in itself influence how people live. McLuhan also asserted
that the various forms of new media extend human senses and dumb them at the
same time. Though they expand people’s senses because they provide the
capability to take to more people instantly at the same time, they also limit human
senses because they make users easily distracted and more prone to multi-
tasking. This is not necessarily a bad thing; it is merely a social change with a trade-
off.
The media have a very important impact on cultural globalization in two
mutually interdependent ways. First, the media provide an extensive
transnational transmission of cultural products and second, they contribute to the
formation of communication networks and social structures. However, Lewis
Mumford thought that media technology was instead used as a tool for
capitalism, militarism, profit and power. John Tomlinson, considered cultural
globalization as simply a euphemism for “Western cultural imperialism” since it
promotes “homogenized, Westernized, consumer culture.”

In the 1980’s, media scholars began to pay attention to the ways in which
audiences understood and interpreted media messages. The field of audience
 61

studies emphasizes that media consumers are active participants in the meaning-
making process, who view media “texts” (in media studies, a “text” simply refers
to the content of any medium) through their own cultural lenses.

Apart from the challenge of audience studies, the cultural imperialism thesis
has been contradicted by the renewed strength of regional trends in the
globalization process. In the early 2000s, commentators began referring to the
emergence of a splinternet and the phenomenon of cyberbalkanization to refer
to the various bubbles people place themselves in when they are online. This echo
chamber precludes users from listening to or reading opinions and information
that challenge their viewpoints, thus, making more partisan and closed-minded.