MODULE 2:

A World of Ideas:
Cultures of Globalization
This second unit focuses on how the globalization structures discusses in Module 1 affect
various forms of cultural life.
“Culture” is used here in the broadest possible sense, referring to the daily practices of
people.
At the end of this Module, the student will be able to explain the role of global processes
in everyday

Lesson 8: Media and Globalization

At the end of the lesson, students should be able to:
1. Analyze how various media drive different forms of global integration;
2. Compare the social impacts of different media on the processes of globalization;
3. Explain the dynamic between local and global cultural production; and,
4. Define responsible media consumption.

TERM BANK:

Media
Global Village
Cultural Imperialism
Splinternet
Cyberkalanization

Study Guide Questions:

1. What is media?
2. What are the different kinds of media?
3. What is a global village?
4. What are the negative and positive effects of television?
5. What is cultural imperialism?
6. What are the critiques against cultural imperialism?
7. What are the beneficial and negative effects of social media?
8. What is splinternet?

Required Reading(s):

Chapter 6:g lobalization of Religion

Pages 62 - 71
Abinales & Caludion (2018). The Contemporary World. Quezon City: C & E Publishing, Inc.

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Introduction:

Globalization involves the spread of ideas, and cultures. Globalization relies on media as its main
conduit for the spread of global culture and ideas.

The notion of the rights of lesbian, gay, The spread of Korean culture to the world is
bisexual, transgender (LBTQ++) communities is attributed to its strong Korean pop and film.
spreading across the world and becoming more
widely accepted. All thanks to the massive
campaign waged in the media platforms.

MEDIA AND ITS FUNCTIONS

“Could global trade evolved without a flow of information on markers, prices,

commodities, and more? Could empires have stretched across the world without
communication throughout their borders? Could Religion, music, poetry, film, fiction,
cuisine, and fashion develop as they have without the intermingling of media and
culture?”
Jack Lule

What is media?

Technically speaking, a person’s voice is a medium (singular of media). However, the media that
we refer to in this lesson is “a means of conveying something, such as a channel of
communication” (Jack Lule). This is a term which covers all the means of communication which have
functions such as informing, raising awareness, education, socialization, entertainment and agenda setting,
including all kinds of oral, written and visual images.

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 There are different kinds of Media which are as follows:

1) Print media – refers to books, magazines, and newspapers including flyers, newsletters, and
scholarly journals.

Juhannes Guttenberg and the first Printing Press

Johannes Gutenberg, in full Johann Gensfleisch zur Laden zum Gutenberg, (born 14th century,
Mainz [Germany]—died probably February 3, 1468, Mainz), German craftsman and inventor who
originated a method of printing from movable type. Elements of his invention are thought to have included
a metal alloy that could melt readily and cool quickly to form durable reusable type, an oil-based ink that
could be made sufficiently thick to adhere well to metal type and transfer well to vellum or paper, and a
new press, likely adapted from those used in producing wine, oil, or paper, for applying firm even pressure
to printing surfaces. None of these features existed in the European technique used up to that time for
stamping letters on various surfaces or in woodblock printing. Gutenberg’s printing press was considered
a history-changing invention, making books widely accessible and ushering in an “information revolution.”

2) Broadcast Media included radio, film, and television.

The Invention of the first Radio

In 1895, a young Italian named Gugliemo Marconi invented what he called “the wireless
telegraph” while experimenting in his parents’ attic. He used radio waves to transmit Morse code and the
instrument he used became known as the radio. In 1906, Marconi shared the Nobel Prize for physics
with Ferdinand Braun, a German, in recognition of their contributions to the development of wireless
telegraphy. Radio works by changing sounds or signals into radio waves, which travel through air, space,
and solid objects, and the radio receiver changes them back into the sounds, words, and music we hear.

A radio broadcast is a one-way transmission, originating from a radio station. In the early 1920s,
radio played an important role in people’s lives, and over 500 stations were broadcasting news, music,
sports, drama, and variety shows. By the 1930s, most households in the U.S. and Europe had at least
one radio. In the evening, the family gathered around a big “console” that was usually located in the living
room, where they might spend hours listening to variety shows or comedies from favorites like Jack
Benny or Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy.

Everyone used their imagination to visualize all of the characters in their favorite shows. This
was the beginning of the “Golden Age of Radio.” The Radio Corporation of America (RCA), parent
company of the National Broadcasting Company (NBC), Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) and the
British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) produced and commissioned shows like “The Lone Ranger”,
“The Shadow”, “BBC Dramas”, “I Love a Mystery,” and there were even plenty of shows for children,
such as “Let’s Pretend” and “Hop Harrigan.”

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 3) Digital Media included internet and mobile mass communication.

The DynaTAC 8000x: First Mobile Phone

The first portable cell phone was invented in 1973 by Motorola. On April 3, 1973, Motorola
engineer Martin Cooper made the first-ever cell phone call on the DynaTAC 8000X. The prototype he
used weighed 2.4 lb (1.1 kg) and measured 9.1 x 5.1 x 1.8 in (23 x 13 x 4.5 cm). This clunky device
offered a talk time of just 30 minutes and required 10 hours to recharge. Before this, the closest that one
could get to not being tied to a landline was owning a car phone. The DynaTAC phone was priced at
$3,995, which is the equivalent of $10,000 today.

Source:https://versus.com/en/news/cell-phone-
history#:~:text=The%20first%20portable%20cell%20phone,x%2013%20x%204.5%20cm).

4) Internet media – e-mail, internet sites, social media, internet – based video and audio.

SIX Degrees: First Social Networking Site

Six Degrees is widely considered to be the very first social networking site. Founded by Andrew
Weinreich in May 1996, the site launched the following year and combined popular features such as
profiles, friends list and school affiliations in one service. While the site had millions of registered users,
due to the lack of people connected to the Internet, networks were limited. It would be a few years before
the Internet's infrastructure could catch up with the concept of social networks. The site was sold in
December 2000 to YouthStream Media Networks.

Source: https://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/then-and-now-a-history-of-social-networking-sites/2/

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 THE GLOBAL VILLAGE AND CULTURAL IMPERIALISM

Marshall McLuhan wrote about the social changes brought about by television (Since he was writing
around 1960s when the television became very popular).

A. How does television impacts society?

• Marshall Mcluhan declared that the television was turning the world into a “global
village”.
• Watching TV have shaped the behaviors of users and reorient family behavior.
(Family in dinner – telling stories, family in living room –watching and munching
their food).
• Watching TV has drawn away people from other meaningful activities such as
playing games and reading books.

B. The Global Media Culture

• As the global media spread, people from all over the world begun to watch, listen to,
and read the same things.

• Cultural Imperialism – occurs because of media globalization coupled with American

Hegemony. It was even predicted that the American culture will overwhelm others.
o Some views:
A. Herbert Schiller argued that not only was the world being
Americanized, but this process also led to the spread of “American”
capitalist values like consumerism.
B. John Tomlinson writes “cultural globalization is simply a emphesism
for “Western cultural imperialism” since it promotes “homogenized,
westernized, consumer culture.”

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 CRITIQUES OF CULTURAL IMPERIALISM

Supporters of cultural imperialism have neglected the other global flows of information that media
can enable.

1. Media messages are not just made by producers; they are also consumed by the
audience.
• Viewers put “a lot of emotional energy” into the process and they experienced pleasure
based on how the program resonated with them (Ien Ang).

2. Audience view media texts in their own cultural lenses (Elihu Katz and Tamar Liebes,
1990). Katz and Liebes argued that texts are received differently by varied interpretive
communities because they derived different meanings and pleasures from these texts.

The Japanese anime entitled, “Attack Another example, the 2019 Spanish
on Titan”, the Titans were originally naked computer-animated film entitled, “Elcano and
(with no genitals). However, in Malaysia the Magellan: The First Voyage across the World”,
Titans wear shorts since majority of the directed by Angelo Alonso and written by Jose
Malaysian are conservatives. Antonio Vitoria and Garbine Losana retells the
story of the 1519 circumnavigation led by
Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan and
Spanish Navigator Juan Sebastian Elcano.
The film was highly criticized by the
Filipino audience for its wrong depiction of the
Filipino hero – Lapu-Lapu.

3. The cultural imperialism thesis has been belied by the renewed strength of regional
trends in the globalization process.

Case in point: The rise of Asian culture

In 2015, Oda broke the The 'Squid Game' becomes Sushi has quickly become one
Guinness World Record for most most-watched Netflix (American- of the most popular international
printed comic series by one author owned) show with record 1.65b dishes over the last century or so,
(via Guinness World Records). hours. The South Korean and it's easy to find a sushi
According to Guinness, by that sensation has posted a total of restaurant anywhere in the world
point, the "One Piece" manga had 1.65 billion hours of streaming in – especially in the United States,
sold an astonishing number of the first four weeks of release,

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 320,866,000 copies. The manga becoming the most-watched where there are over 4,000 sushi
sales haven't slowed down in the Netflix content of all time. restaurants.
slightest since Oda broke the
record.

Given these patterns, it is no longer tenable to insist that globalization is unidirectional

process of foreign cultures overwhelming the local ones.

SOCIAL MEDIA AND CREATION OF CYBER GHETOES

The internet and the social media are proving that globalization of ideas and culture
and can move in different directions.

BENEFITS OF SOCIAL MEDIA

1) It has a democratized access – free access

Case in point: Arab Spring Uprising Arab Spring, wave of pro-democracy protests and
uprisings that took place in the Middle East and North Africa beginning in 2010 and 2011,
challenging some of the region’s entrenched authoritarian regimes.

Tunisia’s Jasmine Revolution

The first demonstrations took place in central Tunisia in December

2010, catalyzed by the self-immolation of Mohamed Bouazizi, a 26-year-
old street vendor protesting his treatment by local officials. A protest
movement, dubbed the “Jasmine Revolution” in the media, quickly spread
through the country. The Tunisian government attempted to end the
unrest by using violence against street demonstrations and by offering
political and economic concessions. However, protests soon overwhelmed
the country’s security forces, compelling Pres. Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali to
step down and flee the country on January 14, 2011. In October 2011,
Tunisians participated in a free election to choose members of a council
tasked with drafting a new constitution. A democratically chosen president
and prime minister took office in December 2011, and a new constitution
was promulgated in January 2014. In October–November 2019, Tunisia
became the first country of the Arab Spring protests to undergo a peaceful
transfer of power from one democratically elected government to another.

Source: https://www.britannica.com/event/Arab-Spring

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 2) Users can be consumers and producers of information simultaneously

Case on point: News reports, vlogging (producer) and Streaming (consumer).

DISADVANTAGES OF SOCIAL MEDIA

1. Splinternet – and the phenomenon of cyberalkankanization which refers to various bubbles

people place themselves in when they are online. This segmentation, notes an article in the journal
of Science, has been exacerbated by the nature of social media feeds, which leads users to read
articles, memes, and videos shared by like-minded friends.

2. Social Media Bubbles (segmentation) can produce herd mentality –

a. Herd Mentality – reads on what ones believe is true and its group believes as well.
b. It is used by politician for a cheap political propaganda. Example: Paid Trolls.

3. Fake Information can spread easily through social media since they have few content
filters.

The Facebook dilemma:

Unlike newspapers, Facebook does not have a team of

editors who are trained to sift through and filter
information. If a news article, even a fake one, gets a lot
of shares, it will each many people with Facebook accounts.

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 FAKE NEWS AND MISINFORMATION

“Fake news” is a term that has come to mean different things to different people.
At its core, we are defining “fake news” as those news stories that are false: the story
itself is fabricated, with no verifiable facts, sources or quotes. Sometimes these stories
may be propaganda that is intentionally designed to mislead the reader, or may be
designed as “clickbait” written for economic incentives (the writer profits on the number
of people who click on the story). In recent years, fake news stories have proliferated via
social media, in part because they are so easily and quickly shared online.

Misinformation and Disinformation (other types of "fake news")

The universe of “fake news” is much larger than simply false news stories. Some
stories may have a nugget of truth, but lack any contextualizing details. They may not
include any verifiable facts or sources. Some stories may include basic verifiable facts,
but are written using language that is deliberately inflammatory, leaves out pertinent
details or only presents one viewpoint. "Fake news" exists within a larger ecosystem of
mis- and disinformation. Misinformation is false or inaccurate information that is
mistakenly or inadvertently created or spread; the intent is not to deceive. Disinformation
is false information that is deliberately created and spread "in order to influence public
opinion or obscure the truth"

Conclusion:

“Societies can never be completely prepared for the rapid changes in the systems of
communication”, as every technological change, after all, creates multiple unintended consequences.

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