Global Media

L.O: To cement our understanding of the terms Globalisation & the ‘global village’; consider the pros and cons of each.

What manner of beast is this?

“Globalisation” = when available goods and services, or social and cultural influences, gradually become similar in all parts of the world (Cambridge dictionary)

Read the article handed out and pick out 3/4 key points made by the writer about Globalisation.

What is the role of the internet and communications technology in Globalisation?

The pioneering thinker about the media, M_________ Mc_______, coined the term, "the global village" in the ____’s to express his belief that electronic communication would unite the world.

The advent of the internet over the past 10 years has paralleled the emergence of globalisation as a concept. Proponents and critics of globalisation have very different perspectives on the internet’s role.

Pro-GlobalisationMany within developing countries see the internet as an opportunity to gain access to knowledge and services from around the world in a way that would have been unimaginable previously. Internet kiosks, mostly facilitating email with overseas relatives, for example, are springing up in many parts of Africa.

The internet and technologies such as mobile telephony allow developing countries to leapfrog steps in their development of infrastructure. A poor land line telephone system in the Philippines, for example, is being rapidly bypassed by mobile phones with internet access.

Globalization has drastically improved access of technological latecomers to advanced technologies and, to the extent that technological upgrading is important for development, it provides a unique opportunity for low-income countries to raise per capita income. Research shows that improved access to technology imports is improving the demand for skilled labour in many low-income countries.

The internet may also facilitate opportunities for economic development in industries such as tourism.

Anti-globalisationAlthough the internet started off as a communal medium for sharing information, principally among academics, it is increasingly becoming the tool of transnational corporations to market their information products around the world.

As it is rich countries generating most of the content on the internet, it becomes a form of cultural imperialism, in which western values dominate.

English is the language of the internet.

The internet is also creating new gaps between the rich and the poor. Rich countries have much greater access to the internet and communications services generally. We are moving from an industrial age, in which wealth was created by manufacturing, to an information age in which wealth is created by the development of information goods and services, ranging from media, to education and software.

Poor countries are not taking part in this information revolution and are falling further behind.

Marshall McLuhan – revisited!

The underlying concept of McLuhan's view of electronic technology is that it has become an extension of our senses, particularly those of sight and sound.

The telephone and the radio become a long distance ear as the television and computer extend the eye by projecting further than our biological range of vision and hearing.

But in what way does McLuhan suggest how this has happened?

His argument!

Through media such as the telephone, television and more recently the personal computer and the 'Internet', we are increasingly linked together across the globe and this has enabled us to connect with people at the other side of the world as quickly as it takes us to contact and converse with those who inhabit the same physical space (i.e. the people that live in the same village).

The rapidity of communication through electric media echoes the speed of the senses.

We can now hear and see events that take place thousands of miles away in a matter of seconds, often quicker than we hear of events in our own villages or even families, and McLuhan argues that it is the speed of these electronic media that allow us to act and react to global issues at the same speed as normal face to face verbal communication.

The effect of this McLuhan suggests is a new ability to experience almost instantly the effects of our actions on a global scale, just as we can supposedly do in our physical situations.

Consequently he concludes we are forced to become aware of responsibility on a global level rather than concerning ourselves solely with our own smaller communities.

He writes: ‘As electrically contracted, the globe is no more than a village. Electric speed at bringing all social and political functions together in a sudden implosion has heightened human awareness of responsibility to an intense degree’ 

Mr. McLuhan continued…

Globalisation

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZjRJeWfVtY&feature=related

What does this mean for us in Media Studies?

McLuhan predicted this information explosion way back in the day – well the 1960’s & that’s why he’s so important for our studies of Global Media.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faK9HUvH2ck&feature=fvst