Globalisation and Media

The Handout

Globalisation & the Media Richard Miles 2013

'Covering a wide range of distinct political, economic, and cultural trends, 

the term “globalization” has quickly become one of the most fashionable 

buzzwords of contemporary political and academic debate. In popular 

discourse, globalization often functions as little more than a synonym for one 

or more of the following phenomena: the pursuit of classical liberal (or “free 

market”) policies in the world economy (“economic liberalization”), the growing 

dominance of western (or even American) forms of political, economic, and 

cultural life (“westernization” or “Americanization”), the proliferation of new 

information technologies (the “Internet Revolution”), as well as the notion that 

humanity stands at the threshold of realizing one single unified community in 

which major sources of social conflict have vanished (“global integration”)'

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/globalization/

'If we are talking about the “cultural”, we are concerned with the symbolic 

construction, articulation, and dissemination of meaning. Given that 

language, music, and images constitute the major forms of symbolic 

expression, they assume special significance in the sphere of culture … Yet 

cultural globalization did not start with the worldwide dissemination of rock „n‟ 

roll, Coca-Cola, or football'

Manfred B. Steger, Globalization: A very Short Introduction, page 69

American sociologist George Ritzer coined the term “McDonaldization” to 

describe the wide-ranging sociocultural processes by which the principles of 

the fast-food restaurant are coming to dominate more and more sectors of 

American society as well as the rest of the world'

Manfred B. Steger, Globalization: A very Short Introduction, page 71

'Does globalization make people around the world more alike or more 

different? … A group of commentators we might call “pessimistic 

hyperglobalizers” argue in favour of the former. They suggest that we are not 

moving towards a cultural rainbow that reflects the diversity of the world‟s 

existing cultures. Rather, we are witnessing the rise of an increasingly 

homogenized popular culture underwritten by a Western “culture industry” 

based in New York, Hollywood, London and Milan'

Manfred B. Steger, Globalization: A very Short Introduction, page 70

Key Concepts

Global Village

Globalisation

Cultural imperialism

Ecologism / Deep Green ideology

Multi national corporations have become the dominant force, more powerful than countries.

Globalisation: growth to a global or worldwide scale; "the globalisation of the communication industry".

The access to worldwide communication has made us more globalised.

All workers contribute to a larger machine. 

Mcluhan was writing about the social effects of the mass media before the introduction of the internet:

The state we have is a capitalist western world trying to take over, this brings a variety of resistance:

Does globalization make people around the world more alike or more different?

Key point from these writers:

Imperialism isn't bought by war, it is done by forcing politics and culture upon others so that they become like you.

One of the illusions people have is that somehow the mass media is a giant free market where independent companies are competing with each other, When in reality they are all owned by bigger corporation.

Culture is made in the west and then repackaged and sold all around the world. 

Chomsky knew that the news is fabricated 'facts' that push the interests of the wealthy,

Murdoch once boasted that The Sun has the power to determine the result of elections, which causes politicians to pander to Murdoch in order for the media to portray them in a good light.

IT becomes popular because everyone wants to be more like the culture they are consuming. The biggest selling product in India last year was skin whitening cream because the buyers wanted to appear more western and fit in more with the culture they consume.

Advertisers dominate the media and take precedence over the content:

Global climate coalition: manufactured propaganda stories saying that global warming wasn't happening- the people that started it was texaco, exxon and ford.

By demonising others it can portray the interests of ourselves as just:

An Inconvenient truth:

Al Gore suggests that to stop global catastrophe we need to buy more things to live greener which is a very Capitalist solution. 

In comparison:

Politicians wont stamp down on emissions because it will lower profits for the big corporations which will cause them to lose support from them big corporations.