A WORLD OF IDEAS:
GLOBAL MEDIA
CULTURES AND
GLOBALIZATION OF
RELIGION
MEDIA
• Refers to the communication channels through
which we disseminate news, music, movies,
education, promotional messages and other data.
• Lule describes media as “a means of conveying
something, such as channel of communication”.
• The media have a very important impact
on cultural globalization in two mutually
interdependent ways:
1. The media provide an extensive transitional transmission of
cultural products; and
2. It contributes to the formation of communicative network
THREE TYPES OF MEDIA:
1. Print Media
2. Broadcast Media
3. Digital Media
CULTURE
Can be defined as all the ways of life including arts,
beliefs and institutions of a population that are
passed down from generation to generation.
GLOBAL MEDIA CULTURES
o Globalization entails the spread of various cultures.
o Globalization also involves the spread of ideas.
o Globalization relies on media as its main conduit for the spread of
global culture and ideas.
o 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.
o Global media promotes a restructuring of cultural and social
communities.
o Global media supports the creation of new communities.
o The common point of departure is the assumption that a series of
international media constitutes a global cultural supply in itself and
serves as an independent agency for cultural and social globalization,
in which cultural communities are continuously restructured and
redefined.
VARIOUS FORMS OF GLOBAL INTEGRATION
3 FACTORS THAT HAVE AFFECTED THE PROCESS OF
ECONOMIC GLOBALIZATION
1. Improvements in transportation and communication technology
have reduced the cost of transporting goods, services, and factors of
production and communicating economically useful knowledge and
technology.
2. Tastes of individuals and societies have generally favored taking
advantage of the opportunities provided by declining costs of
transportation and communication through increasing economic
integration.
3. The character and pace of economic integration have been
significantly influenced by public policies, although it is not always in
the direction of increasing economic integration.
GLOBALIZATION OF RELIGION
Religion has the most difficult relationship with globalism.
Religious people are less concerned with wealth and all that comes
along with it
Globalist are less worried about whether they will end up in heaven
or hell.
There is the way in which globalization flattens out cultural differences,
erodes local customs and beliefs, and spreads a secular, capitalist way
of life that us at odds with religions of all sorts.
At the same time, there is the way in which religion serves as the source
of globalization’s greatest resistance and as a haven for those standing
in opposition to its ubiquitous yet often subtle manifestations.
In both of these views, the relationship between religion and
globalization is antagonistic—one of struggle and conflict.
WHEN DID GLOBALIZATION STARTED TO INFLUENCE
RELIGION?
• Evolving trade routes led to the colonization of the
Asia, Africa, Central and South America. Religion
became an integral part of colonization and later on
globalization.
THE IMPACT OF GLOBALIZATION
o Flattens cultural differences
o Erodes local customs and beliefs
o Spreads secular, capitalist way of life
WHAT IS RELIGION NOWADAYS?
o It’s no longer a set of beliefs that people arrive by reflection.
o It’s a symbolic system which carries our identity and marks out
social/ethic and other boundaries.
o It marks crucial moments in the life cycle with rituals. It provides
powerful mechanisms for psychological and social tension.
ROLE OF RELIGION IN PROMOTING WORLD PEACE
o The moral principles and values contained in the teachings of great religious
teachers are essential factors for the reduction of and ultimate eradication of
greed, hatred, and delusion which form the root cause of various conflicts and
wars.
o The preamble to UNESCO’s constitution says: “Since wars begin in the minds
of men, it is in the minds of men that the defenses of peace must be
constructed.”
o The world cannot have peace until nations and people begin to reduce their
selfish desires for more and more material possessions, give up their racial
arrogance, and eliminate their madness for worldly power.
o “Religion not only inspires and guides people but also provides them with
the necessary tools to reduce greed with the practice of charity; to
overcome hate and aversion with loving-kindness; and to remove ignorance
with the development of wisdom and insight in order to understand the
true nature of beings and see things as they really are.”
o Differences in religious beliefs and practices should not hinder the progress
of various religious working for a common cause, for world peace.
