CONTEMPORARY WORLD

FINALTERM

LESSON 6: THE GLOBALIZATION OF contributing to the general progress of the

RELIGION
INTRODUCTION
Religion, much more than culture, has the most
difficult relationship with globalism (remember
the distinction between "globalization" and
"globalism", they are in contrast from each other.
 RELIGION is concerned with the sacred.
 GLOBALISM places value on material
wealth.
Religion follows divine commandments, while
globalism abides by human-made laws. Religion
assumes that there is "the possibility of
communication between humans and the
transcendent". This link between the human and
the divine confers some social power on the latter.
"God," "Allah," or "Yahweh" defines and judges
human action in moral terms (good vs. bad).
Globalism's yardstick, however, is how much of
human action can lead to the highest material
satisfaction and subsequent wisdom that this
new status produces.
GLOBALIZATION vs. GLOBALISM
 GLOBALISM is an ideology based on
belief.
 GLOBALIZATION demands the
standardization or homogenization of
nearly everything and everybody.
RELIGIOUS PEOPLE are less concerned with
wealth and all that comes along with it (higher
social status, a standard of living similar with
that of the rest of the community, exposure to
"culture" top-of-the-line education for the children).
They are ascetics precisely because they shun
anything material for complete simplicity-from
their domain to the clothes they wear, to the food
they eat, and even to tge manner in which they
talk (lots of parables and allegoriez that are
supposedly the language of the divine).
community, the nation, and the global economic
system.
 Religious aspire to become a saint;
 Globalist trains to be a shrewd business
person.
The religious detects politics and quest for
power for they are evidence of humanity's
weakness;
The globalist values them as both means and
ends to open up further economics of the world.
RELIGION AND GLOBALISM CLASH OVER
R - Religion and globalism clash over the fact that
religious evangelization is in itself a form of
globalization.
G - The globalist ideal, on the other hand, is
largely focused on the realm of markets.
R - The religious is concerned with spreading holy
ideas globally.
G - The globalist wishes to spread goods and
services.
The "missions" being sent by American Born-
Again Christian churches, Sufi and Shiite Muslim
orders, as well as institutions like Buddhist
monasteries and Catholic, Protestant, and
Mormon churches are efforts at "spreading the
word of God" and gaining adherents abroad.
Religions regard identities associated with
globalism (citizenship, language, and race) as
inferior and narrow because they are earthly
categories. In contrast, membership to a
religious group, organization, or cult represents a
superior affiliation that connects humans
directly to the divine and the supernatural. Being
a Christian, a Muslim, or a Buddhist places one in
a higher plane than just being a Filipino, a Spanish
speaker, or an Anglo-Saxon.

A RELIGIOUS PERSON'S MAIN DUTY is to live a

virtuous, sin-less life such that when he/she is
assured of a place in the other world.

GLOBALISTS are less worried about whether

they will end up in heaven or hell. Their skills are
more pedestrian as they aim to seal trade deals,
raise the profits of private enterprises, improve
government revenue collections, protect the
elites from being excessively taxed by the state,
and, naturally, enriched themselves. If has social
conscience, the globalist sees the work as
Communities justify their opposition to
government authority on religious grounds.
Priestesses and monks led the first revolts
against colonialism in Asia and Africa, warning
that these outsiders were out to destroy their
people's gods and ways of life. Similar arguments
are being invoked by contemporary versions of
these millenarian movements that wish to break
away from the hold of the state or vow to
overthrow the latter in the name of God. To their
"prophets," the state seeks to either destroy their
people's sacred beliefs or distort religion to serve
non-religious goals.
REALITIES
In actuality, tye relationship between religion and
globalism is much more complicated. Peter
Berger argues that far from being secularized, the
"contemporary world" is... furiously religious. In
most of the world, there are veritable explosions
of religious fervor, occurring in one form of
another in all the major religious traditions -
Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism,
and even Confucianism (if one wants to call it a
religion) - and in many places in imaginative
syntheses of one or more world religions with
indigenous faiths. Religions are the foundation of
modern republics.
The MALAYSIAN GOVERNMENT places religion
at the center of the political system. Its
constitution explicitly states that "Islam is the
religion of the Federation," and the rulers of each
state was also the "Head of the religion of Islam."
The late Iranian religious leader, AYATOLLAH
RUHOLLA KHOMEINI, bragged about the
superiority of Islamic rule over its secular
counterparts and pointed out that "there is no
fundamental distinction among constitutional,
despotic, dictatorial, democratic, and
communistic regimens." To Khomeini, all secular
ideologies were the same-they were flawed-and
Islamic rule was tge superior form of government
because it was spiritual. Yet, Iran calls itself a
republic, a term that is associated with the
secular.
AYATOLLAH RUHOLLA KHOMEINI led the Iranian
revolution that turned the country into a theocracy.
Religious movements do not hesitate to
appropriate secular themes and practices. The
moderate Muslim association NAHDLATUL
ULAMA in INDONESIA has Islamic schools
(pesantren) where students are taught not only
about Islam but also about modern science, the
social sciences, modern banking, civic education,
rights of women, pluralism, and democracy.
In other cases, religion was the result of a shift in
state policy.
The Church of England, for example, was "shaped
by the rationality of modern democratic (and
bureaucratic) culture. King Henry VIII broke away
from Roman Catholicism amd established his
own Church to bolster his iwn power.
In United States, religion and law were fused
together to help build this "modern secular
society." It was observed in the early 1880s by
French historian and diplomat Alexis de
Tocqueville who wrote, "not only do the
Americans practice their religion out of self-
interest but they often even place in this world the
interest which they have in practicing it. Jose
Casanova confirms this statement by noting that"
historically, religion has always been at the very
center of all great political conflicts and
movements of social reform. From independence
to abolition, from nativism to women's suffrage,
from prohibition to the civil rights movement,
religion had always been at the center of these
conflicts, but also on both sides of the political
barricades. It remains the case until today with
the power the Christian Right has on the
Republican Party.
RELIGION FOR AND AGAINST
GLOBALIZATION
There is hardly a religious movement today that
does not use religion to oppose "profane"
globalization. The two of the so called "OLD
WORLD RELIGION" -- CHRISTIANITY and ISLAM -
- see globalization less an obstacle and more as
an opportunity to expand their reach all over the
world. Globalization has "FREED" communities
from the "CONSTRAINTS OF THE NATION
STATE," but in the process, also threatened to
destroy the cultural system that bind them
together. Religion seeks to take the place of
these broken "TRADITIONAL TIES" to either help
communities cope with their new situation or
organize them to oppose this major
transformation of their lives. It can provide the
groups "MORAL CODES" that answer problems
ranging from people's health to social conflict to
even "PERSONAL HAPPINESS."
Religion is thus not the
"REGRESSIVE FORCE" that stops or slows down
globalization; it is a
"PRO-ACTIVE FORCE" that gives communities a
new and powerful basis of identity.
It is an instrument with which religious people
can put their mark in the reshaping of this
globalizing world, although in its own terms.
Religious FUNDAMENTALISM may dislike
globalization's MATERIALISM, but it continues to
use "THE FULL RANGE OF MODERN MEANS OF
COMMUNICATION AND ORGANIZATION" that is
associated with this economic transformation. It
has tapped "FAST LONG-DISTANCE TRANSPORT
AND COMMUNICATIONS, THE AVAILABILITY OF
ENGLISH AS A GLOBAL VERNACULAR OF
UNPARALLELED POWER, THE KNOW-HOW OF
MODERN MANAGEMENT AND MARKETING"
which enabled the spread of "ALMOST
PROMISCUOUS PROPAGATION OF RELIGIOUS
FORMS ACROSS THE GLOBE IN ALL SORTS OF
DIRECTIONS." It is, therefore, not entirely correct
to assume that the proliferation of "BORN-AGAIN"
groups, or in the case of Islam, the rise of
movements like DAESH (more popularly known
as ISIS, or Islamic State in Iraq and Syria) signals
religion's defense against the materialism of
globalization. It is, in fact, the opposite. These
fundamentalist organizations are the result of the
spread of globalization and both find ways to
benefits or take advantage of each other.
While religions may benefit from the processes of
globalization, this does not mean that its tensions
with globalist ideology will subside. Some
MUSLIMS view "GLOBALIZATION" as a TROJAN
HORSE HIDING SUPPORTERS OF WESTERN
VALUES LIKE SECULARISM, LIBERALISM, OR
EVEN COMMUNISM ready to spread these ideas
in their areas to eventually displace Islam.
The WORLD COUNCIL of CHURCHES -- an
association of different PROTESTANT
CONGREGATIONS-- has criticized economic
globalization's negative effects. It vowed that
"WE AS CHURCHES MAKE OURSELVES
ACCOUNTABLE TO THE VICTIMS OF THE
PROJECT OF ECONOMIC GLOBALIZATION," by
becoming the latter's advocates inside and
outside "THE CENTERS OF POWER."
With the exception of militant ISLAM, religious
forces are well aware that they are in no position
to fight for a comprehensive alternative to the
globalizing status quo. What CATHOLICS call
"THE PREFERENTIAL OPTION FOR THE POOR" is
a powerful message of mobilization but lacks
substance when it comes to working out a
replacement system that can change the poor's
condition in concrete ways. The
TRADITIONALISM of FUNDAMENTALIST
political Islam is no alternative either. The
terrorism of ISIS is unlikely to create a
"CALIPHATE" governed by justice and stability. In
Iran, the unchallenged superiority of a religious
autocracy has stifled all freedom of expressions,
distorted democratic rituals like elections, and
tainted the opposition.
CONCLUSION
For a phenomenon that "IS ABOUT
EVERYTHING," it is odd that globalization is seen
to have very little to do with religion. As PETER
BAYER and LORI BEAMAN observed, "RELIGION,
IT SEEMS, IS SOMEHOW 'OUTSIDE' LOOKING AT
GLOBALIZATION AS PROBLEM OR POTENTIAL."
The association of globalization with
modernization, which is a concept of progress
that is based on science, technology, reason, and
the law. One will have "TO LOOK ELSEWHERE
THAN TO MORAL DISCOURSE FOR FRUITFUL
THINKING ABOUT ECONOMIC GLOBALIZATION
AND RELIGION."
RELIGION - being a BELIEF SYSTEM that cannot
be empirically proven is, therefore, anathema to
modernization. The thesis that modernization will
erode religious practic is often called
secularization theory.
HISTORIANS, POLITICAL SCIENTISTS and
PHILOSOPHERS have now debunked much of
secularization theory.
SAMUEL HUNTINGTON - one of the strongest
defenders of globalization. He admits in his book,
THE CLASH OF CIVILIZATIONS, that civilizations
can be held together by religious worldviews.
This belief is hardly new. As far back as the 15th
CENTURY, JESUIT and DOMINICANS used
religion as an "IDEOLOGICAL ARMATURE" to
legitimize the Spanish Empire.
MAX WEBER - one of the greatest
SOCIOLOGISTS of all time. He also observed the
correlation between religion and capitalism as an
economic system.
CALVINISM - a branched of Protestantism,
believed that God had already decided who would
and would not be saved.
CALNIVALISTS - made it their mission to search
for clues as to their fate, and in their pursuit, they
redefined the meaning of profit and its
acquisition. This "INNER-WORLDLY
ASCETICISM" -- As Weber referred to this
Protestant ethic -- contributed to the rise of
modern capitalism.
"Moral" arguments that religious people were
able to justify their political involvement. When
the Spaniards occupied lands in the Americas and
the Philippines, it was done in the name of the
Spanish King and of God, "FOR EMPIRE COMES
FROM GOD ALONE."
Then over 300 years later, AMERICAN
PRESIDENT WILLIAM MCKINLEY claimed "THAT
AFTER A NIGHT OF PRAYER AND SOUL-
SEARCHING, he had concluded that it was the
duty of the UNITED STATES 'to educate the
Filipinos, and uplift and civilize and Christianize
them, and by God's grace do the very best we
could by them'".
Religious leaders have have used religion to wield
influence in the political arena, either as outsiders
criticizing the pitfalls of pro-globalization regimes
or as integral members of coalitions who play key
roles in policy decision-makings and the
implementation of government projects.
In short, despite their inflexible features -- the
warnings of perdition ("Hell is a real place
prepared by Allah for those who do not believe in
Him, rebel against His laws, and reject His
messengers"), the promises of salvation ("But
our citizenship is in Heaven"), and their obligatory
pilgrimages (the visits to Bethlehem or Mecca) --
religious are actually quite malleable. Their
resilience has been extraordinary that they have
outslated secular ideologies (e.g., communism).
Globalist, therefore, have no choice but to accept
this reality that religion is here to stay.
LESSON 7: MEDIA AND
GLOBALIZATION
INTRODUCTION
GLOBALIZATION entails the spread of various
cultures. When a FILM is made in HOLLYWOOD, it
is shown not only in the UNITED STATES, but
also in other cities ACROSS THE GLOBE.
 PSY - Is a South Korean rapper who is
known for his hit song "GANGNAM
STYLE" about wealthy suburb in SEOUL,
bit its listeners included millions who have
never been or may never go to Gangnam.
GLOBALIZATION also involves the spread of
ideas.
 The NOTION OF THE RIGHTS of Lesbian,
Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT)
communities is spreading across the
world and becoming more widely
accepted.
 The CONSERVATIVE CHRISTIAN
CHURCH that opposes the rights moves
from places like South America to Korea
and to Burundi in Africa.
BEFORE - People who travel the globe teaching
amd preaching their beliefs in universities,
churches, public forums, classrooms, or even
ideas.
TODAY - Television programs, social media
groups, books, movies, magazines, and the like
have made it easier for advocates to reach larger
audience.
GLOBALIZATION relies on media as its main
conduit for the spread of global culture and ideas.
 JACK LULE - was ask
1. "COULD GLOBAL TRADE HAVE
EVOLVED WITHOUT A FLOW OF
INFORMATION ON MARKETS, PRICES,
COMMODITIES, AND MORE?"
2. "COULD EMPIRES HAVE STRETCHED
ACROSS THE WORLD WITHOUT
COMMUNICATION THROUGHOUT
THEIR BORDERS?"
3. "COULD RELIGION, MUSIC, POETRY,
FILM, FICTION, CUISINE, AND
FASHION DEVELOP AS THEY HAVE
WITHOUT THE INTERMINGLING OF
MEDIA AND CULTURES?"
There is an INTIMATE RELATIONSHIP between
GLOBALIZATION and MEDIA which must be
unraveled to further understand the contemporary
world.
MEDIA AND ITS FUNCTIONS
LULE - Describes MEDIA as "A MEAN OF
CONVEYING SOMETHING,... CHANNEL OF
COMMUNICATION."
 Technically speaking, a PERSON'S VOICE
IS A MEDIUM.
 COMMENTATORS refers to "MEDIA"
(plural of medium) - mean the
technologies of mass communication.
CATEGORIES OF MEDIA
1. PRINT MEDIA - Books, magazines, and
newspapers.
2. BROADCAST MEDIA - Radio, film, and
television.
3. DIGITAL MEDIA - Cover the internet amd
mobile mass communication. Category of
internet media, there are e-mail, internet
sites, social media, and internet-based
video and audio.
MEDIA is easy to define the term but it is more
difficult to determine what media do and how
they affect societies.
 MCLUHAN (McLuhan) - He is a Media
Theorst, once declared that "THE
MEDIUM IS THE MESSAGE."
 He did not mean that ideas ("messages")
are useless and do not affect people.
Rather, his statement was an attempt to
draw attention to how media, as a form
of technology, reshape societies.
 Television is not a simple bearer of
messages, it also shapes the social
behavior of users and reorient family
behavior. It was introduced in the 1960s,
television has steered people from dining
table where they eat and tell stories to
each other.
 Television has also drawn people away
from other meaningful activities such as
playing games or reading books.
 Smart Phone allows users to keep in
touch instantly with multiple people at
the same time. Consider the effect of the
internet on relationships. Prior to the
cellphone, there was no way for couples to
keep constantly in touch, or to be updated
on what the other does all the time.
 The Technology (medium), and not the
message, makes for this social change
possible.
McLuhan - added that different media
simultaneously extend and amputate human
senses.
NEW MEDIA may expand the reach of
communication, but they also dull the users'
communicative capacities.
MEDIUM OF WRITING - Before people wrote
things down on parchment, exchanging stories
was mainly done orally.
PAPYRUS - started becoming more common in
EGYPT after the fourth century BCE, which
increasingly meant that more people could write
down their stories. Storytellers no longer had to
rely completely on their memories.
PHILOSOPHERS once said that the development
dulled the people's capacity to remember.
CELLPHONE
 ADVANTAGE - it expand people's senses
because they provide the capability to talk
to more people instantaneously and
simultaneously.
 DISADVANTAGE - limit the senses
because they make users easily
distractable and more prone to multi-
tasking. Not necessarily a bad thing but a
merely change with a trade - off.
MCLUHAN said that the question of what new
media enhance and what they amputate was not
a moral or ethical one.
NEW MEDIA are neither inherently GOOD or BAD.
THE GLOBAL VILLAGE AND CULTURAL
IMPERIALISM
MCLUHAN uses his analysis of technology to
examine the impact of electronic media.
CULTURAL IMPERIALISM - A specific country
dominate other countries cultures. E.g. American
movies dominated the world which made the
local movies of a certain countries become less
priorities by its countrymen.
Around 1960s he was writing and mainly analyze
the social changes brought about by television.
He declared that television was turning the world
into a "GLOBAL VILLAGE". He meant that, AS
MORE AND MORE PEOPLE SAT DOWN IN
FRONT OF THEIR TELEVISION SETS AND
LISTENED TO THE SAME STORIES, their
perception of the world would contract.
In the years after McLuhan, scholars further
grappled with the challenges of a GLOBAL MEDIA
CULTURE. A lot of these early thinkers assumed
that GLOBAL MEDIA had a 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. This thinking arose at a time
when AMERICA'S POWER had turned it into the
world's cultural heavyweight.
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.
In 1976, media critic HERBERT SCHILLER argued
that not only was the world being AMERICANIZED,
but that this process also led to the spread of
"AMERICAN" CAPITALIST values like
CONSUMERISM.
JOHN TOMLINSON - for him, cultural
globalization is simply a EUPHEMISM for
"WESTERN CULTURAL IMPERIALISM" since it
promotes "HOMOGENIZED, WESTERNIZED,
CONSUMER CULTURE."
SCHOLARS who decry cultural imperialism, have
a top-down view of the media, since they are
more concerned with the broad structures that
determine media content. Their FOCUS ON
AMERICA has led them to NEGLECT OTHER
GLOBAL FLOWS of information that the media
cam enable. This MEDIA/CULTURAL
IMPERIALISM theory has, therefore, been subject
to significant critique.
CRITIQUES OF CULTURAL IMPERIALISM
PROPONENTS - The idea of cultural imperialism
ignored the fact that media messages are not
just made by producers, they are also consumed
by audiences.
In 1980s, media scholars began to pay attention
to the ways in which audiences understood and
interpreted media messages.
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 1985, Indonesian cultural critic LEN ANG
studied the ways in which different viewers in
the Netherlands experienced watching the
American soap opera Dallas.
Through letters from 42 viewers, she presented a
detailed analysis of audience - viewing
experiences... Receiving American culture in a
"PASSIVE AND RESIGNED WAY, " she noted that
viewers put "A LOT OF EMOTIONAL ENERGY"
into the process and they experienced pleasure
based on how the program resonated with them.
In 1990, ELIHU KATZ and TAMAR LIEBES
decided to push Ang's analysis further by
examining how views from distinct cultural
communities interpreted Dallas. They argued
that texts are received differently by varied
interpretive communities because they derived
different meanings and pleasures from these
texts.
People from diverse cultural backgrounds had
their own ways of understanding the show.
Russians were suspicious of the show's content,
believing not only that it was primarily about
America, but that it contaiAmericaned American
propaganda. American viewers believed that the
shows, though set in , waa primarily about the
lives of the rich.
CULTURAL IMPERIALISM thesis has been belied
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 - indelible part of global
culture.
 Hello Kitty - remains proof of Japan's
continued influence over global culture.
 Mario Brothers
 Pokémon
KOREAN POP (K-pop) and Korean telenovelas -
widely successful regionally and globally. The
observation even applies to culinary tastes.
SUSHI - Globalized Asian cuisine.
MCDONALD'S - True that has continued to spread
across Asia, it is also the case that Asian brands
have provided stiff competition.
JOLLIBEE - Philippines' Jollibee claims to be the
number one choice for fast food in Brunei.
Given these patterns, it is no longer tenable to
insist that globalization is a unidirectional
process of foreign cultures overwhelming local
ones. GLOBALIZATION will remain uneven
process, and it will produce inequalities.
Nevertheless, it leaves room for dynamism and
cultural change. Not a contradiction; it is merely
a testament to the phenomenon's complexity.
SOCIAL MEDIA AND THE CREATION OF
CYBER GHETTOES
VERY FEW SCHOLARS argue that the world is
becoming culturally homogenous. Apart from the
nature of diverse audiences and regional trends in
cultural production, the internet and social media
are proving that the globalization of culture and
ideas can move in different directions. WESTERN
culture remains powerful and media production
is still controlled by a handful of powerful
WESTERN CORPORATIONS, the internet,
particularly the social media, is challenging
previous ideas about media and globalization.
ALL NEW MEDIA
 SOCIAL MEDIA have both beneficial and
negative effects. These forms of
communication have democratized
access. Anyone with an internet
connection or a smart phone can use
FACEBOOK and TWITTER for free. These
media have enabled users to be
consumers and producers of information
simultaneously.
 The DEMOCRATIC POTENTIAL of social
media was most evident in 2011 during
the wave of uprisings known as the Arab
Spring. Without access to traditional
broadcast media like TV, activists
opposing authoritarian regimes in
TUNISIA, EGYPT, and LIBYA used Twitter
to organize and to disseminate
information. Their efforts toppled their
respective governments. More recently,
the "WOMEN'S MARCH" against newly
installed US PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP
began with a tweet from a HAWAII
LAWYER and became a national, even
global, movement.
THE MASSIVE PROTESTS OF THE ARAB SPRING
WERE LARGELY ENABLED BY SOCIAL MEDIA.
DARK SIDE OF SOCIAL MEDIA - 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. In the United
States, VOTERS OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY
LARGELY READ LIBERAL WEBSITES, and voters
of the REPUBLICAN PARTY LARGELY READ
CONSERVATIVE WEBSITES. This segmentation,
notes an article in the journal Science, has been
exacerbated by the nature of social media feeds,
which leads users to read articles, memes, and
videos shared by like-minded friends.
Being on FACEBOOK can resemble living in an
echo chamber, which reinforces 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 them more partisan and
closed minded.
In places across the world, PUTIN IMITATORS
replicate his strategy of online trolling and
disinformation to clamp down on dissent and
delegitimize critical media. Critics of the
increasingly DICTATORIAL REGIME of TURKISH
PRESIDENT RECEP TAYYIP ERDOGAN are
threatened by online mobs of pro-government
trolls, who hack accounts and threaten violence.
Some of their responses have included threats of
sexual violence against women.
As the preceding cases show, FAKE
INFORMATION can spread easily on social
media since they have few content filters. Unlike
newspapers, FACEBOOK does not have a team of
editors who are trained to sift through and filter
information. If a news article, even a fake one,
gets a lot of shares, it will reach many people with
FACEBOOK ACCOUNTS.
This dark side of social media shows that even a
seemingly open and democratic media may be
co-opted towards undemocratic means.
GLOBAL ONLINE PROPAGANDA will be the
biggest threat to face as the globalization of
media deepens. Internet media have made the
world so interconnected that a Russian dictator
can, for example, influence American elections on
the cheap.
As CONSUMERS of media, users must remain
vigilant and learn how to distinguish fact from
falsehood in a global media landscape that allows
politicians to peddle what President Trump's
senior advisers now call "ALTERNATIVE FACTS."
People must remain critical of mainstream media
and traditional journalism that may also operate
based on vested interest, we must also insist that
some sources are more credible than others. A
NEWSPAPER STORY that is written by a
professional journalist and vetted by
professional editors is still more CREDIBLE than
a VIRAL VIDEO produced by someone in his/her
bedroom, even if both will have their biases.
People must be able to tell the difference.
CONCLUSIONS
DIFFERENT MEDIA HAVE DIVERSE EFFECTS ON
GLOBALIZATION PROCESSES.
GLOBAL TELEVISION was creating a global
monoculture.
SOCIAL MEDIA will splinter cultures and ideas
into bubbles of people who do not interact.
SOCIETIES can never be completely prepared for
the rapid changes in the systems of
communication.
Every technological change, after all, creates
multiple unintended consequences. CONSUMERS
and USERS of media will have a hard time
turning back the clock. Though people may
individually try to keep out of FACEBOOK or
TWITTER, for example, these media will continue
to engender social changes. Instead of fearing
these changes or entering a state of moral panic,
everyone must collectively discover ways of
dealing with them responsibly and ethically.
LESSON 8: THE GLOBAL CITY
INTRODUCTION
Not all people have been to global cities, but most
know about them. Their influence extends even to
one's imagination. What are these places? Why
are they important? And how are they relevant to
you?
GLOBAL CITY
 It is a CENTRAL CITY which serves as a
center within a globalized and an urban
centre that enjoys significant competitive
advantages and that serves as a hub
within a globalized economic system. The
term has its origins in research on cities
carried out during the 1980s, which
examined the common characteristics of
the world’s most important cities.
WHY STUDY GLOBAL CITY?
INTERNATIONALISM - shaped modern world
politics.
CULTURAL MOVEMENTS - Kpop how they spread
through media like the internet.
GLOBALIZATION is spatial. This statement
means two things.
First, globalization is spatial because it occurs in
physical spaces. Foreign investments and capital
move through a city can be seen, and when
companies build skyscrapers.
Advantage: People who are working in these
businesses or Filipinos working abroad start to
purchase or rent high-rise condominium units and
better homes.
Disadvantage: As all these events happen, more
poor people are driven out of city centers to make
way for the new developments.
Second, globalization is spatial because what
makes it move is the fact that it is based in
places.
LOS ANGELES - the home of Hollywood, where
movies are made for global consumption.
TOKYO - Main headquarters of Sony, and from
there, the company coordinates the sale of its
various electronics goods to branches across the
world.
CITIES act on GLOBALIZATION and
GLOBALIZATION acts on CITIES. They are the
sites as well as the mediums of globalization. The
internet enables and shapes global forces, so too
do cities.
In the years to come, more and more people will
experience globalization through cities.
 1950 - only 30% of the world lived in
 urban areas.
 2014 - that number increased to 54%.
 2050 - expected to reach 66 percent.
DEFINING THE GLOBAL CITY
Sociologist Saskia Sassen
 Popularized the term “global city” in the
1990s.
 Her criteria for what constitutes a global
city were primarily economic.
 In her work, she initially identified three
global cities: New York, London, and
Tokyo, all of which are hubs of global
finance and capitalism.
HOMES FOR WORLD'S TOP STOCK
EXCHANGES
 Investors buy and sell shares in major
corporations.
NEW YORK - New York Stock Exchange(NYSE)
LONDON - London Financial Times Stock
Exchange(FTSE)
TOKYO - Tokyo Nikkei
The amount of money traded in these markets is
staggering. The value of shares traded in the
NYSE, for example, is 19,300 billion, while that of
the share in the Philippine Stock Exchange is only
231.3 billion.
Limiting the discussion of Global Cities to these
three metropolises, however, is proving more and
more restrictive. The global economy has
exchanged significally since Sassen wrote her
book, and any account of the economic power of
cities today must take note of the latest
developments. Recent commentators have
expanded the criteria that Sassen used to
determine what constitutes a global city.
NEW YORK - Big Apple's Culture influence
LOS ANGELES - Movie Making Mecca
SAN FRANCISCO - home of the most powerful
internet companies. Facebook, Twitter, and
Google.
CHINA - Chinese economy has turned cities like
Shanghai, Beijing, amd Guangzhou into centers of
trade and finance.
Chinese government reopened the Shanghai
Stock Exchange in late 1990, since then, it has
grown to become the fifth largest stock market in
the world.
Some cities are considered "GLOBAL" because
they are great places to live in.
AUSTRALIA, SYDNEY - commands the greatest
proportion of capital.
MELBOURNE - described as Sydney's rival
"GLOBAL CITY" because many magazines and
lists have now referred to it as the world's "MOST
LIVABLE CITY" a place with good public
transportation, a thriving cultural scene, and a
relatively easy pace of life.
INDICATORS FOR GLOBALITY
Multiple attributes of the global city
1. ECONOMIC POWER - The foremost
chcharacteristic. Sassen remains correct,
Economic power largely determines which
cities are global. New York have the
largest stock market in the world but
Tokyo houses the most number of
corporate headquarters. Tokyo have 613
company headquarters against 217 in
New York. Shanghai have a smaller stock
market compared to New York and Tokyo.
China plays a critical role in the global
economic supply chain ever since it has
become the manufacturing center of the
world. Shanghai has the world's busiest
container port, moving over 33 million
container units in 2013.
2. ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES - global city
make it attractive to talents from across
the world. It refers to personal potential.
Since 1970s, many of the top IT
programmers and engineers frfr Asia have
moved to the San Francisco Bay Area to
bebeco some of the key figures in SiSilic
Valleys technology boom.
London remains a preferred destination
for many Filipinos with nursing degree.
 3. ECONOMIC COMPETITIVENESS - the
economist Intelligence Unit has added
other criteria like market size, purchasing
power of citizens, size of the middle class,
and potential for growth.
Based on these criteria, "tiny" Singapore is
considered Asia's most competitive city
because of its strong market, efficient and
incorruptible government, and liability. It
also houses the regional offices of many
major global corruptions.
GLOBAL CITIES ARE ALSO
1. CENTERS OF AUTHORITY - Washington
D.C. may not be as wealthy as New York,
but it is the seat of American state power.
People around the world know its major
landmarks: the White House, the Capitol
Building(Congress), the Supreme Court,
the Lincoln Memorial, ana the Washington
Monument.
Similarly, compared with Sydney and
Melbourne, Canberra is a sleepy town and
thus is not as attractive to tourists. Butas
Australia's political capital, it is home to
the country's top politicians, bureaucrats,
and policy advisors.
2. CENTERS OF POLITICAL INFLUENCE -
The headquarters of tht United Nations:
NEW YORK
European Union: BRUSSELS
Association of Southeast Asian Nations
(ASEAN): JAKARTA
The European Central Bank: FRANKFURT
3. CENTERS OF HIGHER LEARNING AND
CULTURE - A city's intellectual influence is
seen through the influence of its
publishing industry. Many of the books
that people read are published in places
like NewYork, London, or Paris.
The New York Times carries the name of
New York City, but it is far from being a
local newspaper. People read it not just
across America, but also all over the world.
One of the reasons for the many tourists
visiting.
Boston is because they want to see
Harvard University-the world's top
university. Many Asian teenagers are
moving to cities in Australia because of
the leading English-language universities
there.
4. SOUTH ASIA - Singapore is evolving into a
cultural hub in Southeast Asia, hosting top
television stations like MTV Southeast
Asia and news organizations like Channel
News Asia.
Singapore's art galleries and cinemas
showcase works from artists and
filmmakers in the Philippines and Thailand,
making it sometimes easier to access
Filipino indie films in Singapore than in
Manila.
Singapore, with its modern skyline,
symbolizes Asian modernity.
The cultural influence of global cities is
tied to the imagination, with numerous
songs and references portraying cities like
New York as places where dreams can
come true.
Global cities are increasingly culturally
diverse, offering a variety of cuisines from
around the world. For instance, Berlin and
Tokyo are known for excellent Turkish
food due to their large Turkish populations.
Manila is not very global because of the
dearth of foreign residents (despite the
massive domestic migration), but
Singapore is, because it has a foreign
population of 38%.
THE CHALLENGES OF GLOBAL CITIES
Global cities conjure up images of fast-paced,
exciting, cosmopolitan lifestyles. Global cities
also have their undersides.
1. INEQUALITY AND POVERTY,
TREMENDOUS VIOLENCE
The broader processes of globalization,
global cities create winners and losers.
2. ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY
 3. CARBON EMISSIONS cleaners, nannies, maids, waitresses, etc.)
that will attend to their increasing needs.

 Meanwhile, many middle-income jobs in

manufacturing and business process
outsourcing (call centers, for example) are
moving to other countries.

This hollowing out of the middle class in global

cities has heightened the inequality within them.
In places like New York, there are high-rolling
American investment bankers whose children are
4. TERRORISM raised by Filipina maids. A large global city may
thus be a paradise for some, but a purgatory for
others.

CONCLUSION:

Global cities, are sites and mediums of

GLOBAL CITIES AND THE POOR
We have consistently noted that economic
globalization has paved the way for massive
inequality.
globalization. therefore, material representations
of the phenomenon. Through them, we see the
best of globalization; they are places that create
exciting fusions of culture and ideas. They are
also places that generate tremendous wealth.
However, they remain sites of great inequality,
where global servants serve global entrepreneurs.
The question of how globalization can be made
more just is partly a question of how people make
their cities more just.

This phenomenon is thus very pronounced in

cities. Some large citie, particularly those in
Scandinavia, have found ways to mitigate
inequality through state-led social redistribution
programs. Yet many cities, particularly those in
the developing countries, are sites of
contradiction. In placeslike Mumbai, Jakarta, and
Manila, it is common to find gleaming buildings
alongside massive shanty towns. This duality
may even be seen in rich, urban cities.

In most of the world's global cities, the middle

class is also thinning out.

 Globalization creates high-income jobs

that are concentrated in global cities.
These high earners, in turn, generate
demand for an unskilled labor force (hotel