Student Number: 110113731 Define globalization and discuss the extent to which media are globalized.

Tracing the origin of globalization through history leads us to several key momentums, but through this analysis, pressing the matter on those key points that best exemplifies how the world we live in today has benefitted from the development of technology and media through time, this essay will attempt to define Globalization and how it may help us understand the world we live in.

Already in the 1960s Marshall McLuhan predicted the type of globalization that exists in todays world. He foresaw a world where we were all linked together in what he called a global Village. In many ways this global Village is what we today know as social networking. But globalization stretches way beyond the boundaries of social networking. We see a world being connected, now more than ever before. Globalization is a definite trend that is changing everything and against which national states or trade unions can do very little or even nothing. (Went, 2000, p.7)

At a general level "globalization" can be seen as "an inexact expression for a wide array of worldwide changes in politics, communications, business and trade, life styles, and culture," or it can be understood as "a multidimensional set of social processes that create, multiply, stretch, and intensify worldwide social interdependencies and exchanges while at the same time fostering people a growing awareness of deepening connections between local and the distant." (Gorman L, & McLean D, p. 264-265)

Student Number: 110113731 The world is getting smaller is something we hear people say when they experience something like being able to talk to relatives on Skype on the other side of the planet. Globalization has a direct effect on this saying, and in some sense it`s true. This idea of the world getting smaller, or globalization sprung up in the beginning of the 1990s. The cold war between The United States and The Soviet Union had just ended and for that reason more information could be passed on more easily across foreign borders. But by taking for granted that the idea behind globalization started out in the 90s gives a false account of the developing process.

Interdependence is what used to describe what is now known as globalization. The dependence countries had to each other where not as prominent in the past as it is today, but none the less its vital to know how interdependence worked in the past in order to know how globalization work today. Although interdependence didnt cover nearly as much as globalization does, it has in fact shaped our world. A historic event that really changed a lot was the forming of the UN in 1945 after world war ll. In the cold war the whole fundamental idea of interdependence was threatened. The Soviet Union threatened the United States using scare propaganda, saying they would launch missiles from Cuba directed at The US. This is only a brief account on how interdependence was threatened during this time.

Through the 1980s a boom of American television being broadcasted through out countries around the world meant that borders between countries were being cut and globalization could take place. 'Insofar as media are concerned, the developments in communications technologies and infrastructure (including satellite broadcasting and the

Student Number: 110113731 internet) have been fundamental to globalization, as they have made previous "boundaries" irrelevant.' (Gorman L, & McLean D, p. 265)

Seeing as the cold war ended in the early 90s meant that The United States and The Soviet Union no longer dominated global affairs. Communism and the soviet union proved to the world not to have worked as a potentially gathering political rule, full of propaganda against its citizen, also contact with western societies were virtually cut all together as they put up the iron curtain to prevent western influences to infiltrate. The end of this cold war meant that information could now flow more easily across borders, and globalization could begin to fully root itself.

With a world in constant change, the uprising of the Internet was something that had long been only of interest to the few, but as the potential for transnational connection came through, so did the number of web sites. The late 90s a whole world was being introduced to the power of the Internet and the ultimate communication platform for practically anyone to take advantage of it.

As with what had been taken place in the 80s, with what was know to be Americanization, the major media companies were mostly American. Such as Microsoft which had most of its interest in computing, but some in digital media, Time Warner, and Disney. Japanese companies had interest in this type of market with Sony; even French companies had a big interest. The reach of such corporations can be illustrated by data for News Corporation, which, by the late 1990s, reached approximately 75 percent of the worlds population. (Gorman L, & McLean D, p. 269)

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With these and other companies using the web to their advantage in order to reach out to the world was far greater than any point in history before. The companies could now more than ever cross promote their products throughout the world. For Disney this meant that they could earn more money by launching their movies and their movie spin-offs in practically every language. The golden age of Hollywood, which had its boom in the 30s and 40s, had at the end of the 1990s and in the early 2000s been revived with emerging technologies, such as the Internet and CGI. Despite the fact that people where able to illegally download films, the emerging Internet gave the whole world access to material previously unobtainable. The Hollywood studios saw a chance to advertise and use the Internet as a whole new platform to make sure that people saw their films.

The Internet gave the mass-communication a whole new meaning. Masscommunication in a more traditional sense meant that the people within a country was able to read the same news papers relatively at the same time, and or watch the same TV-shows. With the Internet emerging, this set a new standard and meaning for masscommunication. What had earlier been concentrated around a country gave now the possibility for a whole world to enjoy the news broadcasts or movies, all with the ever-emerging World Wide Web.

Globalization as an emerging entity holds various sub categories, and maybe the one that constitutes the word best is, New Media. Online newspapers or web sites, in which everyones able to enter, bare the description of new media. The use of the Internet opened up massive possibilities, and in the case of news it had a profound

Student Number: 110113731 effect. Being able to access most of the worlds newspapers from anywhere on the globe highly indicates what globalization is all about.

Also a factor that gives proof to the globalization of media is how the world through the Internet is changing. With sites such as Facebook, one can contact old friends and make new ones, update statuses to let the world know whats going on. The emerging of Facebook in 2004 gave the world the possibility to stay in touch like never before, and a new type of socializing was born. Media in earlier days, only taking it back 10 years, this type of interactivity was not possible, one could argue that media was a static system, of such complexity that made the users mere audiences to the content. Whereas today its a whole other ballgame, we see Facebook growing rapidly and its by todays date a place for everyone to participate. The world is getting smaller, what we knew about cultures across the globe ten years ago is far beneath the understanding we have today. Now we can get to know someone from the other side of the globe without ever having to meet the person face to face, and still have what would be called a real relationship with that person. Sharing information, sharing videos etc, creates a whole new way to look at a community. What the Internet has ultimately done is creating one big worldwide community.

This new way of being interactive and getting a voice out into the world has never been easier. Though Facebook is a popular site, Twitter is the one site that has the most growth and the number of users keeps flourishing. On Twitter weve seen through the past couple of years this platform where the users can only type in a limit of 1400 characters in one message save lives. As Alex Leff reported in January, Costa Ricans used Twitter to communicate

Student Number: 110113731 damage reports and create emergency networks following the biggest earthquake in nearly two decades. Twitter made an impact in Madagascar, too. When the country erupted into political violence in March, a journalist in West Lafeyette, Indiana kept the world informed by collecting and translating tweets from the isolated island nation. (Mucha, T. 2009) This change in Internet interactivity is called web 2.0, a predecessor from web 1.0. This new 2.0 has changed how people interact with each other online, and is the root to Facebook and Twitter. Also You Tube is categorized as a product of web 2.0. Essentially what it does to the web is making it more interactive, people are able to participate through what they write, what we say in videos we post. Everyones able to state his or her opinions online, and with that possibility what is written can change the world. These changes some say brought about President Barack Obamas win for President in the 2008 presidential election in United States. The way voters used their voices online ultimately led to his Presidency. On that note, its prudent to point out the fact that a lot of politicians use platforms such as Twitter to reach out to a broader reach of voters.

Politically, one may look back in history and find that with change within the media sector ultimately changes can be found in society as a whole, and then also in politics. Its by no doubt that politics do change in accordance with media, and it clearly happened as a result of the television, where politicians now had to be rightfully presented in order to come across as a leader worth voting for. Every previous innovation in communications, from the emergence of the mass circulation press through the development of radio and television, has profoundly altered not only how 6

Student Number: 110113731 politics is understood in societies, but the nature of political negotiation itself. (Curran J, Seaton J, p. 194)

The way people perceive celebrities changes as the web and globalization to changes. Being able to follow their every move has created a whole new way of being a celebrity, because now everyone can become one, online.

Its not only the Internet that has flourished as an expense of globalization, the widening of the telecommunication has drastically changed in the last 20 years. Between 1990 and 2000, the number of independent national telecommunications Regulatory agencies multiplied from 12 to 101. (Chakravartty P, Sarikais K, p. 54)

The global evolution in satellite technology, fiber optics and new wireless communication methods has provided not only large companies, but also individuals to communicate effortlessly across borders, and also continents. The traditional method of long-distance calls has gradually eroded as an aftermath of these new technologies emerging.

Despite all the definite, remarkable things that have come, thanks to the world being globalized, ultimately what is happening is the big companies get larger, stronger and richer. There are only a few major companies working the business around the world.

Many media businesses became part of global conglomerates producing entertainment and media products, and computing software, with global distribution networks. Some large media concerns in turn became part of even

Student Number: 110113731 larger corporations whose interest extended far beyond media (Gorman L, & McLean D, p. 269)

Another feature of globalization of the media is that though most of the western world is benefitting from the developing of new technologies. Seeing as the western world is benefitting from it, third world countries are starting to receive some of the benefits we see here in the western world, western style cloths, our TV shows etc. This will in the end only benefit the west, seeing as its here the money in the end will end up. What the third world countries end up with are the picture of what the west is all about, theyre left with our entertainment, but what they sorely need is our expertise in technology. In order for them to lose the status as a third world country, and become part of a globalized world, its in the field of technology where the west can help them out. Schiller suggested that traditional, local cultures are destroyed by the external pressure of more powerful countries, especially media and other cultural exports. (Branston & Stafford, 2010, p. 145).

What the world has experienced over the past 20 years has surpassed any previous years. Were passing the barriers to a world united. Previous borders are being opened up; we see a world constantly changing in every way. For globalization these changes are hopefully for the better, and future developments in the media industry hopefully looks bright.

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Bibliography - Ashton J. Nigel, (2002), Kennedy, Macmillan and the Cold War, (Chippenham and Eastbourne) - Chakravartty Paula, Sarikais Katharine, (2006), Media Policy and Globalization, (Edinburgh University Press) - Curran James, Seaton Jean, (2003), Power Without Responsibility The Press, Broadcasting, and new media Sixth Edition, (Routledge) - Gorman Lyn, McLean David, (2009), Media and Society 21st Century A historical Introduction 2nd Edition, (Wiley-Blackwell) - (Mucha, Thomas. (2009) The globalization of social media. Available at: http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/commerce/090528/social-media (Accessed: 7 January 2012) - Went Robert (2000) Globalization: Neoliberal Challenge, Radical Responses London, (Sterling) - Branston, G and Stafford, R (2010) The Media Students Book 5th edn. London, (Routledge)