ASIAN

REGIONALISM

CWORLD1 MIDTERMS
Regionalization and Globalization (Ehito Kimura)

• Regionalization is defined as the way that an area of

the world containing several countries becomes more
economically or politically important than the
particular countries within that area. Regionalization
also entails “an increase in the cross-border flow of
capital, goods, and people within a specific
geographical area or region” (Hoshiro, n.d.). It is the
process of regional formation (Söderbaum, 2011).  
Regionalization and Globalization
globalization promotes the integration of economies of countries all
around the world while regionalization is considered by some as the
opposite of globalization since it aims to divide a large area into
smaller parts.
Lis and Rzepka (n.d.) pointed out that “the processes of globalization
of the world economy are guided by the requirements of competition
and the searching by the entities of the most favorable forms of
business and business locations.
Regionalization in Asia

International Monetary Fund (2019): Asia remains as the fastest-

growing region in the world, accounting for more than two-thirds of
the global growth in 2019.
This can be attributed to different factors such as:
presence of China in Asia; presence of young and more educated
workforce; abundance of natural resources; and there are several
Asian states which are leaders in innovation which is essential for
globalization to work.
Regionalization in Asia

steps had been taken in order to

strengthen regionalization in Asia:
• the creation of trade agreements that
promote free-trade among member-states
such as the ASEAN-China Free Trade Area
the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC)
 
Challenges of Globalization and Regionalization in Asia
1. Economic growth has mostly benefited the elite and the middle class.
There is a wide gap between the income of the rich and the poor.
2. Brain drain caused by labor export policies of countries specially for
those that are classified as Third World countries. This phenomenon
reduces the capacity of developing and underdeveloped countries to
make use of their human and natural resources for their own
development.
3. Some developing countries became reliant on remittances instead of
strengthening local employment. 
Challenges of Globalization and
Regionalization in Asia
4. Negative balance of payments for importing countries and
neglect of domestic production.
5. Massive environmental destruction and massive extraction
of resources in the name of export-oriented extractive
industries.
6. Free trade usually favors industrialized countries at the
expense of developing and underdeveloped states.
GLOBAL MEDIA CULTURES
 

• Developments in technology, communication, and transportation have

contributed to the growth of international travel; easier and more accessible
transactions regardless of location; and access to Western culture, beliefs,
music, arts, film, etc.
• cultural homogenization and to global integration.
• Media: a means of conveying something, such as a channel of
communication, can build connections and influence societies and it can
contribute to the strengthening of globalization.
• Lule (2014) even claimed that globalization could not occur without media.
Through media, people can now imagine to be a part of one world, or what
Marshal McLuhan call as the “global village”.
Five Periods in the Development of Media that Contributed to Globalization (Lule, 2014):

1. Oral Communication
• Human speech is the oldest and the most enduring communication
media
• Language contributed to globalization since it enabled humans to
cooperate with one another
• It allowed the passing knowledge from one generation to the next,
and from one place to another (Lule, 2014).
Five Periods in the Development of Media that Contributed to Globalization (Lule,
2014):

2. SCRIPTS
• “Early writing systems began to appear after 3000 BCE, with symbols
carved into clay tablets to keep account of trade. These cuneiform
marks later developed into symbols that represented the syllables of
languages and eventually led to the creation of alphabets, the
scripted letters that represent the smallest sounds of a language.
These alphabets, learned now in pre-schools around the world, were
central to the evolution of humankind and its civilizations” (Lule,
2014).
•
Five Periods in the Development of Media
that Contributed to Globalization (Lule,
2014):
2. SCRIPTS
• Early writing surfaces include blocks of wood, bones, stones, and clay.
Ancient Egypt created one of the most popular writing surfaces from
a plant found along the Nile River, the papyrus (from which the
English word paper eventually derived). Script allowed for the written
and permanent codification of economic, cultural, religious, and
political practice. These were then spread across borders and
generations. Thus, contributing to globalization.
Five Periods in the Development of Media
that Contributed to Globalization (Lule,
2014):
3. Printing Press
• The printing press started the information revolution and transformed markets,
businesses, nations, schools, churches, governments, armies, and more.
• All histories of media and globalization acknowledge the consequential role of
the printing press.
• Reading and writing, too, were practices of the ruling and religious elite. The
rich and powerful controlled information until the printing press was created.
• With the advent of the printing press, first made with movable wooden blocks
in China and then with movable metal type by Johannes Gutenberg in Germany,
reading materials suddenly were cheaply made and easily circulated.
Five Periods in the Development of Media
that Contributed to Globalization (Lule,
2014):
• According to Eisenstein (1979), the printing press changed the nature
of knowledge. It preserved and standardized knowledge. Print also
encouraged the challenge of political and religious authority because
of its ability to circulate competing views. It encouraged the literacy of
the public and the growth of schools. It allowed people to learn about
the world.
• The ability to transmit speech over distance was the next
communication breakthrough. Though not always considered a mass
medium, the telephone surely contributed to connecting the world.
Five Periods in the Development of Media
that Contributed to Globalization (Lule,
2014):
4.  Electronic Media
• uses electromagnetic energy (electricity). This includes telegraph,
telephone, radio, film, and television. Because of its accessibility, it
has contributed much to the spread of principles of globalization and
aided globalization itself.
Five Periods in the Development of Media
that Contributed to Globalization (Lule,
2014):
• Alexander Graham Bell is credited with inventing the telephone in 1876. It
quickly became a globally adopted medium.
• By 1927, the first transatlantic call was made via radio. Radio developed
alongside the telegraph and telephone in the late 1890s. The technology
was first conceived as a wireless telegraph.
• By the early 1900s, speech indeed was being transmitted without wires.
• The creation of the cellular phone in 1973 was especially crucial in the
context of globalization and media. Relatively cheap to produce and buy,
and easy to learn and transport, cellular phones have quickly become the
world's most dominant communication device and penetrated even the
world's most remote regions and villages today.
5. Digital Media
• Digital media are most often electronic media that rely on digital
codes, the long arcane combinations of 0s and 1s that represent
information.
• Computers have revolutionized work in every industry and trade.
Some of the largest companies in the world, such as Microsoft, Apple,
Google, Facebook, and more, arose in the digital era and have been
instrumental to globalization.
Global Village
• The most significant consequence of media is that people were able
to know more about the world, people have needed to be able to
truly imagine the world –and imagine themselves acting in the world
for globalization to proceed.
• In the past, only a few privileged people thought of themselves as
cosmopolitan (meaning, citizens of the world).
• Cosmopolitanism is now a feature of modern life. People imagine
themselves as part of the world (Lule, 2014).
Media and Economic Globalization
Media and Political Globalization
• Media and Cultural Globalization