The Contemporary World 1

Chapter 7 | Globalization and Media

“The internet is becoming the town square for the global village of tomorrow.”
-Bill Gates

SUGGESTED TIME ALLOTMENT: 3 Hours

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

At the end of the lesson, you should be able to:

1. recognize the role of media as an instrument for
globalization;
2. examine conception of globalization through media; and
3. identify and discuss the various media channels or outlets.
 INTRODUCTION

This chapter deals with the fact that there can be no globalization
without media. That the media of communication is one powerful tool or
medium so messages can be conveyed mobilizing people into action
across regions, nations, and continents. This chapter will also examine
how media and globalization affect each other particularly in the tracing of
media channels' episodic evolution and how it comes into fruition with the
said contemporaneous phenomenon (Quiñanola & Fernandez, n.d.).

ABSTRACTION

A. DEFINITION OF TERMS

The Oxford Living Dictionaries as cited in Quiñanola and Fernandez (n.d.)

define the following terms:

1. Media The main means of mass communication

(broadcasting, publishing, and the internet)
regarded collectively.
2. Communication The imparting or exchange of information by
speaking, writing, or using some other medium; the
successful conveying or sharing of ideas and
feelings.
3. Script Handwriting as distinct from print; written
characters; writing using a particular alphabet; an
automated series of instructions carried out in a
specific order.
4. Broadcast Media Media channels which transmit information
basically through radio or television and recently,
the internet through social networking sites and
other search engines and web explorers.
5. Digital Relating to, using, or storing data or information in
the form of digital signals; involving or relating to the
use of computer technology.
 6. Electronic Having or operating with components such as
microchips and transistors that control and direct
electric currents.
7. Print Media Means of mass communication in the form of
printed publications, such as newspapers and
magazines.
8. Press Newspapers or journalists viewed collectively.
9. Performing Arts Media channels that convey a message/s through
Media creative activity that are performed in front of an
audience, such as drama, music, and dance.

B. THEORIES AND ETYMOLOGIES: PROCESSES AND OUTCOMES

When people argue about globalization, they may be arguing about two
different things - a completed outcome or an ongoing process (Lule, 2012).
Nonetheless, globalization is both a process and an outcome. The outcome of
the still ongoing process is appropriately referred to as the condition that is
globality. This can be manifested in the globality or interconnectivity of
economics, culture, and politics and such are undeniably, a condition of
contemporaneous reality. Globalization is a process that simultaneously
draws an outcome. To maintain the good outcome and sustain the process
requires a medium (Quiñanola & Fernandez, n.d.).

Media is the plural form of medium that etymologically originated from the Latin
word 'medius' which, true to its crucial role in both the outcome and process of
globalization, means an "intervening agency", a "means", or an "instrument".
Media indeed is the instrument for globalization (Quiñanola & Fernandez, n.d.).

It depicts an imaginary reality of the whole world

being a global village as coined by Marshall
McLuhan, where everything shrank and reduced
into tiny accessible existence in just a press of a
button establishing the famous phraseology "what
a small world". All these are made possible in a
Herbert Marshall McLuhan
blink of an eye through media channels like social Canadian Philosopher

media and social networking sites in particular

(Quiñanola & Fernandez, n.d.).
C. HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE

The origins of the word globalization and the many

perspectives for its conception was quite a variety in
presentations as concerns this reference. Indian
contemporary social-cultural sociologist, Arjun
Appadurai asserted that technological boost in
media such as computers, cellphones, and
Arjun Appadurai
Indian-American Anthropologist
television is fused with patterns in global
migrations or the convenient 'hereto forth’ flow of people around the world.
Those two 'diacritics' –media and migration– fundamentally changed human
life and proved very instrumental to the beginnings of globalization
(Appadurai, 1996).

Other historians would argue that globalization actually has been coterminous
with human existence. It has been there since the time of man even in the
absence of the appropriate vocabulary or word to describe it because
humans were never sedentary. There has always been this invisible thread
that globally connects human beings since time immemorial. We just don't
have the right word for it (Quiñanola & Fernandez, n.d.).

Indian national, Nayan Chanda, the founder and

editor-in-chief of Yale Global Online, an online
magazine that publishes articles about globalization,
posited that globalization ‘is a process that has
worked silently for millennia without having been
Nayan Chanda
Editor of Yale Global
Online
given a name’ and that, as a trend, 'globalization has
been with us since the beginning of history'
(Quiñanola & Fernandez, n.d.).

Jack Lule, an American professor in journalism

at Lehigh University, assumed that globalization
has worked in concert with media from the dawn
of time to our present day, and that globalization
Jack Lule
Professor at Lehigh University
and media capture practices that have roots deep
in the history of humanity. Humans have always
been globalizing, though they have not used that.
The earliest system of communication that can cover vast distances was
through letters. This was a written correspondence made possible through
hand delivery (Quiñanola & Fernandez, n.d.).

The telegraph was invented in 1792. At

the time, it neutralized the time-issue
element of communication transmission
as telegraph can be transmitted and
reach the receiver faster than a speeding
horse and its carrier. The only downside
was that telegraph messages were
unfortunately short. Still it was a
revolutionary conveyance of information
(Quiñanola & Fernandez, n.d.).

This was further revolutionized by the

creation of pneumatic post which
operates through an underground
pressurized air tubes carrying
information capsules from one point to
another which delivered letters quickly
between recipients (Quiñanola &
Fernandez, n.d.).

In 1890, the telephone was discovered and the radio the following year.
Both technologies are still present in the communication world today
(Quiñanola & Fernandez, n.d.).

Rapid technological changes in communication happened in the twentieth

century. This was highlighted by the creation of super computers and to
respond to the demands of globalization, scientists and engineers innovated
it by creating international networks for computers which gave birth to the
internet (Quiñanola & Fernandez, n.d.).

The advent of the internet modified the face of communication. Media now is
very closely associated with the worldwide web which we come to know as
social media (Quiñanola & Fernandez, n.d.).
 In 1997, Six Degrees, the first known social media site,
came into web existence, enabling patrons for profile
uploading and friends-making with other users (Quiñanola &
Fernandez, n.d.).

Blogging indeed became a social

media hit that transformed the lives of its
users affected significantly the non-
users, and shaped the course of human
history. YouTube started making noise
at its inception in 2005. Revolutionizing
once again the means of communication
through online sharing of experiences
and outlooks in life particularly through
videos. Facebook and Twitter followed
suit in 2006, and not to be outran in this
social media race, Facebook catered to
specific needs of its users by frequent
innovations and responding to customer'
concerns. Those which were

not able to adjust and adapt went to oblivion like Friendster. Specific social
networking niches that needed to be filled were currently addressed by the
new generations of networking sites like, Spotify, Tumblr, Foursquare, and
Pinterest (Quiñanola & Fernandez, n.d.).

D. MEDIA AND GLOBALIZATION TRANSFORMATION

Globalization came into conception through media evolution. Based on the

foregoing, media channels or outlets may be classified as the speech
medium, the script medium, broadcast media, print media, and
performing arts media (Quiñanola & Fernandez, n.d.).

Speech Script Broadcast Performing

Print Media
Medium Medium Media Arts Media
1. The Speech Medium
• According to Lule (2012), the oral
medium –human speech– is the oldest
and most enduring of all media. Over
hundreds of thousands of years,
despite numerous changes undergone
by humans and their societies, the
very first and last humans will share at least one thing – the ability
to speak. Speech has been around for about 200,000 years and
counting. Compared to the script medium which is only less than
7,000 years, print medium for less than 600 years, and digital
media for less than 50 years (Quiñanola & Fernandez, n.d.).

• Language was born out of oral communication which consequently

gave homo-sapiens the ultimate edge over other creatures on
earth. Language has given people peculiar culture and distinct
identity which eventually is one race' source of pride and
momentum towards international relationship, interconnectedness,
and eventually globalization (Quiñanola & Fernandez, n.d.).

• At present, English has become the universal language because

just like French, it has class and vocabulary completeness and
has more global exposure as its introduction to foreign land proved
to be more frequent and enduring with profound connections with
the locals as evidenced by the multitude of British and American
colonies around the world. The Americans, who are by origin and
history, British, are the current propagators of the English
language, which keeps the language on top of the rest in global
usage (Quiñanola & Fernandez, n.d.).

• How did the medium of language aid

globalization? Language allowed humans to
cooperate. During a hunt, the ability to
coordinate was a considerable advantage.
And there were other advantages. Sharing
information about land, water, climate, and
weather aided humans' ability to travel and adapt to different
environments. Sharing information about tools and weapons led to
 the spread of technology. Humans eventually moved to every
corner of the world, encountering new environments and
experiences at each turn. Language was their most important tool
(Ostler, 2005).

• Language transmitted and stored significant information on

agriculture across time and space through migrations and word of
mouth passing down the knowledge from one generation to the
next creating consequently the town and villages that sufficiently
received and successfully decoded the transmitted information
through a series of vital messages. Language also opened up
markets, facilitated goods trade and other labor and commercial
services and later on, establishing cross-continental trade routes
and exchanges. Language also created permanent centers for
trade and investments which eventually organized into cities
(Quiñanola & Fernandez, n.d.).

2. The Script Medium

• Between the time of the utilization of oral communication and the
emergence of printing press is the script. Although language was
very instrumental and takes pride probably the pioneering form of
media, it has imperfections as well. Time and space which are
indispensable to universal existence, are language impediments
(Quiñanola & Fernandez, n.d.).

• Time as an obstacle to language utility causes difficulty since

language rely on human memory which is not absolute or infinite
in capacity. The script, the very first form of writing, enabled
human beings to transmit messages and import revolutionary
ideas and unique knowledge across huge time and in much
humungous space (Quiñanola & Fernandez, n.d.).

• Writing evolved and developed from simple writings in the caves, to

hieroglyphs and petroglyphs, to cuneiform and the Philippines
very own ancient system of writing – Alibata. Early system of writing
in the world began to arrive after 3000 BCE with carvings of symbols
on clay tablets to retain early trade accounts. These are popularly
known in history as cuneiform. Its markings later developed into
symbols and the latter into alphabets representing the syllables of
the different languages (Quiñanola & Fernandez, n.d.).
 A hieroglyph (Greek for "sacred carvings") was a character of the ancient
Egyptian writing system. Logographic scripts that are pictographic in form in a
way reminiscent of ancient Egyptian are also sometimes called "hieroglyphs"
(Allen 2001).

A petroglyph is an image created by removing part of a rock surface by

incising, picking, carving, or abrading, as a form of rock art. Outside North
America, scholars often use terms such as "carving", "engraving", or other
descriptions of the technique to refer to such images ("Petroglyph", n.d.).

A cuneiform is a logo-syllabic script that was used to write several languages

of the Ancient Near East (Jagersma, 2010). The script was in active use from
the early Bronze Age until the beginning of the Common Era (Kimball &
Slocum, n.d.). It is named for the characteristic wedge-shaped impressions
which form its signs ("Cuneiform", n.d.).

Baybayin is occasionally referred to as Alibata. It is an old writing system that

was used in the Philippines. It is an alphasyllabary belonging to the family of
the Brahmic scripts. It was widely used in Luzon and other parts of the
Philippines during the 16th and 17th centuries before being supplanted by the
Latin alphabet ("Baybayin", n.d.).

• The English word paper originated from the

Egyptian Nile river – plant, the papyrus
which the Egyptians themselves used. With
script on sheets of papyrus and parchment,
humans had a medium that catapulted
globalization. Script facilitated for the writing
and permanent codification of political, economic, cultural, social
and on religious practices. These language codes could be spread
out over large distances and can be handed down over long
period of time (Quiñanola & Fernandez, n.d.).

3. Broadcast Media
• Electronic and digital media comprised the
broadcast media. The usual media channels
collected under this aspect are the telegraph,
telephone, radio, film, and television. Those
 which firstly require electricity or
electromagnetic energy are classified
under electronic media. Electronic
media that developed and utilized the
digital codes – the long secretive
combinations of 0s and 1s are called
digital media. Many forms of early media like phones and
televisions are now digitalized. The most recent and most advance
form or channel of digital media is undoubtedly the world wide
web or the internet which conquers and caters to every aspect of
human communication needs specially dominating in the social
networking arena which is the hottest communication commodity in
the contemporary period (Quiñanola & Fernandez, n.d.).

4. Print Media
• Great societies, paramount
organizations, complex relationships,
even life's goals and individual
mindsets have been somehow
affected by information revolution.
This touchstone for reaching mass of
people truly gave rise to the mass media concept facilitating the
arrival of another concept which is mass communication
(Quiñanola & Fernandez, n.d.).

Mass Media is used to refer to technologies that are intended to reach a

mass audience. It is the basic means of communication tapped to reach
the vast majority of the general public. The most common mass media
platforms are television, radio, newspapers, magazines, and the currently
dominant of all, the internet. On the other hand, mass communication is
used to refer to the process in which an individual, group of people, or an
organization sends a message through channels of communication to a
large group of anonymous or identified and heterogeneous or
homogeneous people and organizations (Quiñanola & Fernandez, n.d.).

• Long before printing press' inception to human society, information

was a privilege of the few. Away from the light of truth and
understanding. Knowledge was dangerous and those who possess it
were deemed threats to the crown (Quiñanola & Fernandez, n.d.).
• In Philippine colonial period, this can be associated with the
famous line, "to close the eyes, to cover the ears, and open the
purse" which clearly implies the colonial malicious dictum of
absolute subjection without opposition, otherwise, the ultimate
consequence was death (Quiñanola & Fernandez, n.d.).

• The intellectual Filipinos, those who pondered on

truth and walked on knowledge were either
executed or exiled. Our national hero, Dr. Jose
Rizal himself is a classic example of this dark
contour of information in Philippine history. Knowledge is indeed
power, and those who possess it, wields a potent weapon capable
of dethroning an emperor or abdicating a king. Hence, information
and its mediums were the insidious maneuver of the elite and
powerful. In other words, to be powerful, is to acquire information,
and to control the same is to control the world (Quiñanola &
Fernandez, n.d.).

• The only way to disentangle the world

from this ugly reality is to unleash
information from the clutches and
slavery of the oligarchs which later
indeed came into fruition at the onset
of the information revolution through
printing press' inception (Quiñanola & Fernandez, n.d.).

• Ideologies particularly those containing democratic principles and

revolutionary thoughts crossed borders and penetrated the once
dark alleys of imperial jurisdictions causing intellectual and to
some extent spiritual enlightenment among the locals bringing
them closer if not to the light itself which they were deprived of by
their colonial masters (Quiñanola & Fernandez, n.d.).

• People learned of other cultures from other lands beyond their

shores across time and space. Indeed, the printing press not only
change the concrete things as we see them and rearrange their
forms and settings but also change the way we see things and
improve our perspectives in life (Quiñanola & Fernandez, n.d.).
5. Performing Arts Media
• Performing arts is an art form that utilizes the artists' physique or
body to express their projected feelings or emotions. The artists'
voice is one of the vital components that amplify such expression
by way of public performance since this is undeniably, live.
Performing arts origins dates back in the early histories of the
eastern territories like the Middle East, Iran, India, Pakistan China,
Thailand, Cambodia and Japan. And the Western territories'
renaissance, modern era, and postwar performing arts media
which may have the following general inclusions such as theater,
dance, and music (Quiñanola & Fernandez, n.d.).

• Theater is one of the branches of

performing arts that deals with acting.
By way of expressing the self through
feelings and emotion, the performers'
actions tell a story and unfold the plot
and sequence in front of an audience.
It utilizes a blend of dance, sound, and music spectacle giving
meaning and significance through speech and gestures. The
mixture or lone execution of anyone of these elements constitutes
performing arts. Theater itself takes many forms such as, opera,
illusion, ballet, classical Indian dance, mime, improvisational
theaters, musical theater, mummer's play, kabuki, pantomime,
stand-up comedy, magic, puppetry, spoken word, circus art,
recitation, and public speaking aside from the very standard
conventional theatrical presentations, plays, and musicals
(Quiñanola & Fernandez, n.d.).

• Dance which is another branch of

performing arts has always been
associated primarily with locus of
performance which is the artists'
graceful physique or body language
that are harmoniously showcased in
the dance execution itself. In order to radiate a specific message to
the audience, the infusion of a story-line becomes significant and
necessary in the choreography. Human movement is therefore the
 province of dance. Human movement should typically succumb to
appropriate rhythms and in perfect harmony with music in a
performance level to entertain audience (Quiñanola & Fernandez,
n.d.).

• Music is as universally accepted as

dance being an art form. Music being a
volatile art, can easily synchronize with
words to masterfully create that song of
varied expressions to the heart and soul
as body movements do in dance.
Just like any other forms and types of preforming arts which are used
as human self-expressions, such assertion of the soul and spirit,
frustrations and disappointments, joys and happiness could be in the
internal or external aspects (Quiñanola & Fernandez, n.d.).
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