CONTEXT

Question 1

Define globalisation thoroughly

Answer 1

1. Poutney argues globalisation is a process which dates back thousands of years and it’s used to describe the process of migration of tribes and the spread of religion
2. globalisation is things like goods, services, money, people, drugs
3. digital technology has brought more global change in the last 30 years than in the last 300 years

Question 2

what are the problems with defining globalisation?

Answer 2

1. some sociologists see the process as positive which will produce tolerant and responsible world citizens and raise the living standards in society/ countries (functionalsits)
2. some sociologists see the process as negative because of cultural homogenisation so decrease in cultural diversity
3. The spread of globalisation happens at different speeds across the world so it’s hard to research globalisation world because of countries in Africa which are still less developed

Question 3

explain digital revolution thoroughly

Answer 3

1. huge shift in communication over the past 2 decades in ways in which information is stored and shared
2. all the info regardless of format can be converted into binary codes which created an explosion of new types of digital communication
3. cheap laptop, computers, phones, digital tele
4. digital communication allows information to be fast delivered immediately
5. poutney argues DR created a new type of program called apps which helps to communicate and manage lives easily

Question 4

Explain global village

Answer 4

1. Mcluhen
2. predicted the emergence of the global village
3. linked communication and media to a giant central nervous system or matrix which connects everybody in the world as part of one super-culture
4. poutney observes digital global village technology like social media FB, Insta and apps like WhatsApp and Skype increased peoples ability to maintain and create online relationships
5. makes it easier to find others with similar interests like fans of popular movies
6. poutney once again argues relationships people have online may be just as significant as those offline relationships

Question 5

Explain Networked Global Village.

Answer 5

1. Marxist castells
2. western societies have entered a late-modern period of capitalism in which the main resource is information
3. in the past communication and information were organised by vertically-capitalist elites that ran society to those below
4. now in late-modern society its horizontal communication due to the emergence of digital technology making it easily available
5. ordinary people can manage a political event and influence in the world politic through social media = all eyes on Rafah
6. castells argues digital forms of communication have decentralised power and given more power in the hands of people

Question 6

explain media convergence thoroughly.

Answer 6

1. digitalisation has led to the combination of different types of information - texts, photographs, video, film and email into a single delivery system
2. like all information can now be stored and accessed on smartphones or laptops whereas in the past music was mainly on the radio
3. also refers to social media platforms coverage and can communicate with one another to share contacts like on FB users can access information about their friends or contacts on Instagram

Question 7

explain social media thoroughly.

Answer 7

1. A major feature of the digital age is the appearance and rapid global spread of social media platforms
2. social media refers to a participatory culture or network or websites and applications which enable a community of users to interact and collaborate
3. this participatory culture enables users to create and share content to engage in social networking and spread the news
4. The most popular social networking site in the world is Facebook. In the USA web users spend more time on FB than any other
5. in Jan 2017 there were over 1.86 billion people worldwide who register
6. another popular social platform is Linked In, which aims to help people find work by sharing their professional skills and has over 20 million users globally
7. microblogging social media platform Twitter has about 500 million users worldwide
8. In 2017, Snapchat had over 100 million users, WhatsApp had over 1 billion users in 180 million countries and insta had 600 million users

Question 8

define virtual communication thoroughly

Answer 8

1. before digital communication there were only letters or expensive telephones to connect with people who wished to share their interests, ideas or opinions with those in another part of the world becasue they were constricted by geographical location and time zones
2. Through digital communication it produced virtual communities in which globally dispersed people with common interests are no longer constricted by time zones and location
3. A virtual community is a social network of like-minded individuals who create an online community

Question 9

explain what virtual communication is in detail

Answer 9

1. social networking of like-minded individuals who create an online community
2. people who take part normally adopt anonymous digital identities
3. face-to-face interactions often involve judgements which stem from social class, gender, ethnic and age inequalities but in virtual communities they its impossible to preeven the inequalities lie women posing as men

Question 10

examples of virtual communities

Answer 10

1. cybercity, secondlife, and World of Warcraft enable individuals to live in alternate virtual worlds
2. carter = cybercity
3. cybercity had over one million registered users and over 3 1/2 years, visited the site every using participant observation, questionnaires and offline semi-structured interviews
4. concluded that just as much effort is expended on maintaining relationships in cyberspace as just it is real face-to-face and people who meet online also meet offline
5. boellstorf spent 2 years conducting ethnographic research on the residents of a virtual world called Second Life and explored issues with sex, money, gender and race.
6. concluding that the virtual world can change ideas about identity and society
7. boellstrof also observes virtual words involve immoral and criminal actions there is little regulation of avatar behaviour some users have constructed prostitutes and rapists that attack other avatars

Question 11

explain digital social networks.

Answer 11

1. digital networks have dramatically changed the face of social networking
2. we can follow the activities and current opinions of friends and colleagues by friending them on Facebook
3. people no longer have to leave their houses to look for jobs, transfer money, shop or see someone they can conduct all these online

Question 12

explain big digital data

Answer 12

1. past stored on papaer and found info through books and a certain level of literacy was required
2. since the digital revolution info/ data is a few clicks away
3. massive amounts of information online because of DR
4. Big data refers to extremely large data sets that can be analysed digitally using logarithms to reveal trends like buying and selling habits
5. Pountney found 5 features to differentiate big data from other types of data

Question 13

who and what were the things that different the big data from other types of information

Answer 13

Pountney
1. Volume - easier and cheaper to tore info online, with no time limits
2. velocity - data can be accessed instantaneously
3. variety - data comes in many varied formats
4. variability - data may be subjected to peaks and roughs - trends
5. complexity - data comes from diff sources and diff to sort in reliability and validity