Module 4 Lesson 1.

Global Media Culture

Globalization and Media: Creating a Global Village (Jack Lule)

Partnership of Media and Globalization:

 Globalization could not occur without media
 Globalization and Media act in concert and cohort and have partnered throughout the
whole human history
 This does not suggest that the media have always been positive and progressive in their
influence
 The media industry is, in many ways, perfect for globalization, or the spread of global
trade without regard for traditional political borders.
 The global reach of media allows it to be relevant in many different countries

What do we mean by “the media”?

Definitions of Media:
 Content?
 Professionals who produce the content?
 Organization who pay professionals to produce the content?
 Technology?
Formal Definitions:
 Media is the plural version of the term medium that describes any course of
communication or as channel of communication.
 Media is the main means of mass communication (broadcasting, publishing, and the
Internet), regarded collectively
Mass Media and Globalization:
 The mass media are seen today as playing a key role in enhancing globalization,
facilitating culture exchange and multiple flows of information and image between
countries through international news broadcasts, television programming, new
technologies, film and music.
Modern Digital Media:
 In modern times, media are further drifting towards the digital aspect of this domain
 Modern digital media consists of all sorts of communication broadcasted electronically
via computer networks and other such fiber optic cables.
 Some modern forms of media, such as the internet media or social media (like Facebook,
Instagram, Twitter, WhatsApp, etc.), have totally transformed our world over time.
Advantages of Media:
 Education: Media educates the mass. With the help of television or radio shows, the mob
discovers various facts about health affairs, environmental preservation, and many more
topics of relevance
  Updates: People receive the latest news in a short time. Distance does not make a barrier
in distributing information to people from any place on earth. People get daily news
updates from media outlets, which keeps them updated on the current trends and
happenings worldwide.
 Exercise innate potentialities: People get to exercise their hidden talents through media.
Media helps to showcase their hidden skills such as comedy, performing, singing,
recitation, etc.
 Gather knowledge: Media helps to increase knowledge about various subjects
 Mass production: Media acts as a great tool in promoting mass consumer products,
increasing sales of the assets
 Entertainment: Serves as a good source of entertainment. People get entertained through
music and television programs
 Cost reduction: Electronic media promotes electronic duplication of information,
reducing the production cost and making mass education achievable
 Cultural immersion: Media allows the diffusion of diverse cultures by showcasing
different cultural practices. It helps people around the world to be understanding of each
other and welcome their differences
Disadvantages of Media
 Easy Access: Some media topics are unsuitable for children; limiting access to such
content can be challenging for elders in specific scenarios
 Individualism: People spend an excessive amount of time on the internet, watching or
binging content. As a result, their relationship with friends or family and neighbors may
be affected
 Fraudulence and Cybercrime: The Internet opens up avenues for imposters, criminals,
and hackers, or such predators with the possibility to commit criminal acts without any
knowledge of the victims
 Addiction: Some television programs and internet media can be very addictive to most
children and adults, leading to a drop in productivity
 Health Concerns: Prolonged television watching or internet binging can lead to vision
problems, and exposure to loud noises by using headphones or earphones can lead to
hearing defects
 Faulty advertisement tactics: It often makes the use of drugs and alcohol appear cool,
which can be harmful to the nations’ youth
 Personal Injury: Some people decide to try the stunts that have been showcased in the
media, which lead to severe injuries
 Malware and Fake Profiles: An individual can create an anonymous account and
pretend to be someone else. Anyone can use such profiles for malicious reasons, such as
spreading lies, which can ruin the reputation of any targetted individual or company
Marshall McLuhan “The Medium is the Message”
 McLuhan believed that it was not what we said, but the way we said it that mattered most
 This theory helps to explain why we communicate through more than one medium
 Media messages carry meanings and representations of the nation, allowing for
conversations that make it sensible to its citizens, articulate its characteristics, and discuss
the prospects
 Consider the role of media in the imagination and promotion of nation

Stereotype
 A stereotype “is a fixed, over generalized belief about a particular group or class of
people”
 Masculinity and femininity is defined and restricted by boundaries that are created by
images found in the media
Why do Media Stereotype?
 Targets a specific audience – it is what the majority of society wants to see – media
shows us what we want to see
 Media also breaks the stereotype … sometimes, it is the most effective tool to do so!
 When considering media and globalization, we should consider whether or not the
developments have promoted social justice and equality or have replicated or intensified
between haves and have-not’s

Guy DeBord
Society of the Spectacle:
 Social values become equated or blurred with the values of capitalism: commodification
and consumption.
 Example: Love becomes equivalent to the purchase of goods and service
 Public interest becomes blurred with profit

Benedict Anderson
 The impact of print capitalism in facilitating the ‘imagination’ of nation
 As local markets for publications emerged during the age of empire, novels and
newspapers were written not in the language of the colonial master but in the language of
the colonized
 Allowed the emergence of national rather than colonial, consciousness

Michael Billig
Banal Nationalism
 Refers to the unnoticed, taken-for-granted, ordinary signs of nationalism
 The everyday, almost unconscious intake of socially and
psychologically loaded signs, symbols and signals can be one factor in
explaining how easily people come to adopt nationalist ways of
 thinking, feeling and belonging in ordinary times when everything is in
track in addition to times of crisis, such as wars and national
mobilization
 Media carry discourses that demarcate the boundaries of the nation,
defining its characteristics and indicating who is included and excluded
within the national space

Global Imaginary and Global Village

 The most important consequence of communication media for
globalization has been—through MEDIA, the people of the world came
to know of the world
 For globalization to proceed, people needed to be able to truly:
1. Imagine the world, and
2. Imagine themselves acting the world

Global Village and its Downside:

 Lewis Mumford (1970) found utopian hope in media technology but he
was dismayed as it was used for capitalism, militarism, profit and
power
 Globalization and media have produced a marriage of the visions of
McLuhan and Mumford: McLuhan predicted media and globalization
have connected the world and its people from end to end so that we
can imagine the world as a village
 The connection, closeness and interdependence of the global village
have no collective harmony or peace; but combined to create the dark
dystopian world that Mumford dreaded

Media and Economic Globalization

 Media have made economic globalization possible by creating the
conditions for global capitalism
 Media have been essential to the growth of economic globalization in
the world
 By promoting the conceptual foundation of the world’s market
economy
 Economic globalization is about story and myth—narratives that make
natural the buying and selling of products across borders and
boundaries and mythic celebrations of products and consumption
 The media foster the conditions for global capitalism (they invite us to
buy and consume, from ceaseless commercials on radio and TV, to
product placement in films, to digital billboards, etc.)
Media and Political Globalization
 Globalization has transformed world politics in profound ways;
overthrow of kingdoms and empires—creation of nation-state; now
some argue that the nation-state deteriorates as people and borders
become more fluid
 Though media corporations are powerful political actors, individual
journalists are subject to brutal and intense intimidation as more actors
contend for power (journalists die in the line of duty and without justice
- ultimate form of censorship)
 In our age of globalization, the entire world can be a war zone;
numerous forces compete for wealth and power within and across
borders
 All these groups threatened by the work of a crusading reporter; all
have targeted reporters, thus globalization has made the world a
harrowing place for journalists
 Officials around the world are extremely successful at influencing the
world and molding the news so that it builds support for their domestic
and foreign policies
 The opposite hypothesis appears to be true: governments shape and
manipulate the news
 Herman and Chomsky (1988) charge the news media with being
complicit in ‘manufacturing consent’; challenge the standard concept
of Western journalists as ‘watchdogs’ on the powerful
 Journalists and media houses accept bribes and paid material disguised
as news stories; extorting money either for publishing favorable stories
—or for not publishing damaging ones (Ristow, 2010) Brown Envelope
Journalism in Africa

New Media and Political Globalization

 Scholars have suggested that new media—digital media: Have the
potential to invigorate and transform political life
 It can allow alternative voices within and across borders
 They feel that the new media can offer opportunity for more people to
be involved with political action and civil society
 They hope that new media will enlarge the public sphere
Limitations of the New Media
 Unfortunately, new media voices can all too easily be silenced; some
governments own the Internet service provided and can simply shut
down the internet to prevent organizing thru social media sites
 Governments can use Facebook and other SMS to spy upon and track
down and arrest protest leaders
 New media can also be silenced in more primitive ways—by
threatening people, by arresting them, and by killing them

Conclusion
 According to Jack Lule, globalization and media have done wondrous
deeds
 They have succeeded in bringing the world closer together
 They have removed the shackles of time & space
 They have given us the ability to truly imagine the world as a global
village
BUT…
 When McLuhan conceived the term, he had the highest hopes and
even today, the term global village still evokes community, kinship,
cooperation and fraternity
 Mumford was not fooled, his cold, clear vision of human weakness saw
the emerging dark contours of global village; he saw media technology
used not to better the world but to exploit it in pursuit of property,
profit, and power.