• Media

• The word is plural for medium – a means of conveying something, such as

a channel of communication. The plural form – media – only came into
general circulation, however, in the 1920s. Like globalization, the word
‘media’ came into popular usage because a word was needed to talk about
a new social issue. In the 1920s, people were talking about their fears over
the harmful influence of comic books, radio, and film. They were worried
about young people reading violent comics, voters hearing propaganda
over the radio, couples disappearing into dark movie theaters. They
grouped these phenomena together with debates over ‘the mass media’.
• Though the word is relatively modern, humans have used media of
communication from their first days on earth, and, we will argue, those
media have been essential to globalization.
• five time periods usefully capture the study of globalization
and media:oral, script, print, electronic, and digital. We will
look at the different time periods and point out how the
media of each time period contributed to the globalization
of our world. This accounting isolates and highlights the
essential role of media in globalization over time and firmly
establishes the centrality of media for studies of
globalization. However, it is important to stress that
globalization and media do not proceed along an inevitable,
inexorable path of progress. Media – and globalization as
well – have developed sporadically, erratically, in fits and
starts, driven by human needs, desires, and actions, resulting
in great benefits and sometimes greater harm. Charting
history is not necessarily charting progress. The history of
media and globalization is the history of humanity itself.
• Appadurai argues that the act of consumption
represents a convergence of global and
cultural processes. He further added that what
we have now is something beyond a consumer
revolution (revolution of consumption) in
which consumption has become the principal
work of late industrial society.
• Today we see the availability of almost all
kinds of goods and services in anywhere in the
world with respect to literature, cinema,
music, food, clothing, accessories etc. Western
culture has diffused to all parts of the world to
a considerable degree.
• Anyhow the cultural transmission is not a one
way process. The popularity of Islam and
cuisines of Asian, Latin American and African
in western countries is an example of two way
process.
• When we talk about cultural globalization the
role of media and communication is also often
discussed under this title. Globalization and
communication are deeply tangled. There is a
common agreement among the scholars that
practically, there would be no globalization
without media and communication. Media
have a central place in globalization for three
reasons.
• Media corporations have increasingly
globalized their operations
• Global communication infrastructure
facilitates global information flows.
• Global media play a key role in how we view
events across the world in developing shared
system of meaning.
• The breaking up of space and time as a result
of electronic media has a lot to do with the
global interaction regardless of the disparities.
The contemporary method of communication
was altered by the new phenomena such as
participatory journalism, online communities
and transnational activism organized through
online networks.
• Globalization has resulted in a rapid growth of
social relations and social organizations on the
internet. The emergence of new
communication through online has been
influencing the minds and brains of people
through social networks, movies, blogs, online
open debate forum etc. Thus mass media
plays a larger role in cultural diversity than in
cultural standardization.
• The emergence of an Americanized World is
something that we saw with the growth of
globalization. A converging consumer behavior
and tastes with the American model as a blue
print for global culture can be traced as one of
the major impact of globalization on culture.
• The emergence of English as the dominant
language in business and academic works is
another example of how one culture can gain
dominance in the world with power and
legitimacy when economic and political forces
enable the spreading of cultures and values.
• Ulf Hannerz used the term ‘creolization’ to
symbolize the process of western cultures
being transformed and re - conceptualized
outside the Western world.
• There are positive aspects for cultural globalization that
will foster diversity when there is an interaction between
boundaries leads to mixing of culture which results in
pluralization. There is condensation and differentiation
on ideas which brought many unique aspects of certain
culture into lime light. The concept of glocalization has
gained popularity which would help in improving
standards of life, without hampering the local tradition.
Diversity itself has become a global value now which is
been promoted by international organizations and
movements.
• Global Imaginary and Global Village
• As we have seen, one of the most important
consequences of communication media for
• globalization has been: through media, the
people of the world came to know of the world.
• That is, people have needed to be able to truly
imagine the world – and imagine themselves
• acting in the world – for globalization to proceed.
• In this perspective, the media have not only physically linked the globe
with cables,
• broadband, and wireless networks, but have also linked the globe with
stories, images,
• myths, and metaphors. The media are helping to bring about a
fundamentally new imaginary,
• what scholar Manfred Steger (2008) has called a rising global imaginary –
the globe itself as
• imagined community. In the past, only a few, privileged people thought
of themselves as
• ‘cosmopolitan’ – citizens of the world. Cosmopolitanism is now a feature
of modern life.
• People imagine themselves as part of the world.
• Dark Contours of the Global Village
• Globalization and media have done wondrous deeds. They have succeeded in bringing
the
• world closer together. They have removed the shackles of time and space. They have
given
• us the ability to truly imagine the world as a global village. When McLuhan first
conceived the
• term, he had the highest hopes and, even today, the term global village still evokes
• community, kinship, cooperation, and fraternity. But Lewis Mumford was not fooled.
His cold,
• clear vision of human weakness saw emerging the dark contours of the global village.
He saw
• media technology used not to better the world but to exploit the world in pursuit of
property,
• profit, and power.
• Our discussion here shows globalization and media too
often have fulfilled Mumford's worst
• fears. They have built a village with large tracts of
economic injustice, political repression, and
• cultural conflict. They have sewn seeds of bitter and
deadly discord between nations, classes,
• political parties, ethnic groups, religions, and neighbors.
They have pit humans against
• nature. They have despoiled the very globe they
encircle. We should expect better.