Globalisation Flashcards
Those who study globalisation…
Sociologists who argue that a process of globalisation is occurring are known as globalists and globalists can be further divided into hyper globalists and pessimistic globalists.
Hyper Globalists see globalisation as an overwhelmingly positive feature of contemporary society, while Pessimistic globalists see it as a damaging and dangerous process.
There are also sociologists who question whether globalisation is really happening at all, and those who question the extent to which it is inevitable and irreversible Lechner and Boli (2005).
Strinati…
Strinati (1995) argues that the media today is a global industry, and it is a global industry that promotes (through advertising and the promotion of brands and logos) other global industries.
Together this creates a global culture. Because of the internet, as well as satellite and cable television channels, media content genuinely can be transmitted, almost instantly, to almost everywhere in the world.
McLuhan…
McLuhan (1962) wrote about the global village.
This is the idea that, through global communications (which have clearly developed a great deal since he was writing!) we have neighbours all around the world.
We no longer always need the filter or gatekeeper of a professional media production to hear about what’s happening on the other side of the world: through new media we can hear it instantly and from the source.
Flow…
The internet and its impact on development. It has developed the extent to which we understand a shared global culture.
Increasingly our norms and values are global rather than national, and the news increasingly offers a global outlook rather than just focusing on national issues.
The important question for sociologists is whether these changes are positive or negative.
Have we seen an enrichment of culture around the world through hybridisation, or does the West dominate the globalisation of culture, in a process often described as cultural imperialism?
Cultural imperialism…
A number of sociologists, including Nicola Fenton, have suggested that the globalisation of the media has led to cultural imperialism.
The Western world dominating the rest of the world through the media and the marketing of its own cultural products. It is suggested this happens in a number of ways.
Global conglomerates…
These are companies that combine various business interests and operate on an international level.
Many media companies own businesses across different countries (for example Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, which owns newspaper, television and radio companies In this way, large media companies can dominate the media market in different countries.
Do they need to own local?…
NO, not in order to reach the audience. Through global communications and new media, big media conglomerates do not need to own the local businesses in order to dominate the local schedules or to reach global audiences.
First, media companies like Fox (which is part of News Corp – although this could soon change), Disney, Warner Brothers, etc. make films and programmes that are viewed all around the world. They are aggressively marketed and distributed, made with big budgets and big stars, and allow these companies to completely dominate media production in the world.
Demand for western values…
McBride (1980) suggests this deluge of Western-created media changes the culture and values of countries elsewhere in the world. One impact of that cultural shift is to stoke demand for Western products.
Advertising…
The internet in particular has revolutionised how products are marketed around the world. Through new media such as Google and Facebook, companies who can pay for expensive marketing packages dominate what people see and read on an everyday basis, all over the world.
Companies like Coca-Cola and McDonalds are everywhere.
Cocacolonisation or McDonaldisation…
The term “cocacolanisation” was developed in the post-war period, describing the way American movies and music helped to fuel the sale of Coca Cola around the world, spreading American hegemony with it.
George Ritzer wrote about “McDonaldisation” – a concept that suggests that one impact of globalisation is the world is becoming more-and-more like McDonalds: standardised and low-skilled.
Cultural homogenisation…
Cultural homogenisation- This is the idea that local cultures are killed off by globalisation and the whole world becomes the same, with the same shops, films, television programmes and brands.
This idea was expressed clearly by Naomi Klein (2000) in her book No Logo.
These ideas suggest that the globalisation of media and culture is effectively and simply Americanisation.
Is it just the one way?…
However, some sociologists, including many postmodernists, argue that this pessimistic globalist view is too bleak. They suggest that in fact culture moves in multidirectional flows not just from West to East.
An example which is often used is Bollywood films: not only are they popular in many countries outside India, they have influenced Western culture too, with Hollywood films incorporating Bollywood-style features and some Bollywood stars crossing over into Western culture. Sreberny-Mohammadi (1996) points out that, as well as India, South America has a strong media industry.
Hybridity…
By hybridisation, sociologists mean that local cultures, global cultures and alternative cultures have mixed, sometimes creating something new (a hybrid culture), sometimes existing side-by-side as cultural diversity.
This optimistic hyperglobalist view sees cultural globalisation as a force for good, then, where cultural globalisation adds to our cultural options and enriches culture rather than displaces it.
More on McDonaldisation…
Even Ritzer’s McDonalds example can be criticised, as McDonalds does not actually just export its American menu and experience and replicate it in every other country. In Delhi, the Big Mac is replaced by the Chicken Maharaja Mac, in Egypt you can order falafel.
Hyperglobalists, then, point to McDonalds as an example of a global brand responding to local culture rather than obliterating it.
Hybridisation and Huntington…
Cultural hybridisation is sometimes suggested as a halfway house between the idea of cultural divergence (what Huntington calls a clash of civilisations; the entrenching of mutually exclusive and incompatible regional cultures) and cultural convergence (cultural homogenisation, where the whole world becomes effectively the same).
