Globalisation And The Digital World

Question 1

What is globalisation

Answer 1

Spread of ideas, resources to becoming more inter connected through technology

Question 2

What is global village and who though of the concept

Answer 2

Mcluhen - a metaphorical village where it is easy to talk and communicate with other people across the world due to technology

Question 3

What is a TNC

Answer 3

A trans national corporation = Apple, McDonalds, Subway

These produce greater technology, jobs are created and gives an insight into other cultures

However, they also widen the gap between rich and poor, exploit 3rd world countries and produce horrible working conditions for cheap labour

Question 4

How did Cochrane and Pain define globalisation

Answer 4

The emergence of a global economic and cultural system which is incorporating the people of the world into a single global society

Question 5

How did Cohen and Kennedy define globalisation

Answer 5

A series of transformations of the world, including changes in the concept of time and space, interdependent economies, increasing cultural interaction and increasingly shared problems

Question 6

How did Giddens define globalisation

Answer 6

Globalisation can be defined as the intensification of worldwide social relations which link distant localities in such a way that local happenings are shaped by events occurring many miles away and vice verca

Question 7

What are some of the problems with defining globalisation

Answer 7

• The definition may assume that globalisation is a positive process when actually it can result in exclusion and marginalisation
• The definition may assume that globalisation occurs everywhere at an even pace when actually it occurs at different rates in different places
• The definition may assume that globalisation results in cultural homogenisation when actually it has brought people together who were spread out across the world
• The definition may assume that globalisation is only an economic, political or cultural process when actually with all these it affects social life in different ways
• The definition assumes that globalisation all results in social change towards postmodern characteristics such as individualism and choice when actually it can result in people wishing to react to defend themselves against change

Question 8

Explain the concept digital revolution and give examples of this

Answer 8

Digital revolution = transition from technical equipment to digital equipment that has taken place over the last 3 decades

Examples of this could be:

• from newspaper to online
• from recipe books to online

Question 9

Explain the concept global village and give a study/example

Answer 9

Global village = People’s ability to create and maintain social relationships both with people they already know and virtual relationships miles away
= People’s virtual relationships maybe just as important as those offline

Study = McLuhen talks about global village and how people can talk to anyone around the world

Question 10

Explain the concept virtual communities and give a study/examples

Answer 10

Virtual communities = Social network of individuals who create an online community which may no reflect their offline lives
= Crosses geographical, political and social lines. They allow people to share interests and create and transform their identities

Study/examples:

• Postmodernism, people have to freedom to choose what life they are going to have
• e.g. Second life = freedom of expression, change themselves
• Carter = cyber city, investing just as much time into online relationships as well as offline relationships

Question 11

Explain the concept digital social networks and give a study/example

Answer 11

Digital social networks = people tend to use different platforms dependent on which social network they are engaging in

Study/examples:

• linked in = sharing job/ career achievements
• Castells = network society, from industrial age into an age defined by information technologies, particularly those for communication

Question 12

Explain the concept social capital and give a study/examples

Answer 12

Social capital = The interactions and connections we have with people with status. The more connections we have, the more social capital we have, which therefore gives hidden advantages

Study/examples:
- Bourdieu = social, cultural and economic capital

Question 13

Explain the concept media convergence and give a study/example

Answer 13

Media convergence = Using one platform to access many different types of media
= Also, the ways social media platforms can communicate with each other

Study/example:
-Using phone to access Facebook that can be connected to twitter and Instagram and vice versa

Question 14

Explain the concept social media and give a study/example

Answer 14

Social media = mass form of communication online, which is shared and interacted with

Study/examples:

• Facebook
• Snapchat
• Twitter

Question 15

What did Boellstorf say and what did he study

Answer 15

Boellstorf studied the use of the virtual community in ‘Second Life’. Millions of people around the world spend a large proportion of their lives on online virtual worlds. Second life is one of the largest virtual worlds; residents of second life create communities, buy properties and build homes, go to concerts, meet in bars, attend weddings and religious services, buy and sell virtual goods and services, find friendship, fall in love and all of these events are experienced through a computer screen.

Question 16

What did Castells say and what did he study

Answer 16

Castells studied network societies and found that.we are moving from the industrial age into an age defined by information. Although society remains capitalist, the focus has shifted from a focus on energy such as oil, gas and electricity, to a focus on information. Power now rests in networks such as that of financial capital, are global in scale.

Question 17

What did Conford and Robins study and what theory did they support

Answer 17

Conford and Robins supported Marxism and argued that digital communication is presented as a new form of open communication which can lead to greater equality in the creation and spread of new ideas and communication. Although in reality they argue that people who own and control the digital media are capitalists who not only want to make profit but also to ideologically control the masses. Today, power and money come from a variety of different sources, the media being one of these.

Question 18

What did Bagdikian study and what theory did they support

Answer 18

Bagdikian supports Marxism and argued that in the general non-digital media where the media is owned by a smaller and smaller number of media moguls who influence the content and organisation of their media with their predominantly conservative values.

Question 19

What did Rupert Murdock study and what theory did he support

Answer 19

Rupert Murdock supported Marxism and argued that Rupert Murdock’s media companies would mean that he controls over a fifth of UK news consumption. Companies such as these (news corp/sky) are now available on a range of different hand-held devices, there is a growing sense that the media is playing a more and more powerful role in people’s lives.

Question 20

What does De-regulation mean and what theory does it support

Answer 20

De-regulation supports Marxism and is one part of the critical argument has been the apparent lack of regulation in relation to digital communication. The fact that digital communication is mediated by private companies rather than the state means that there are few laws governing its moral responsibilities. Marxists argue that the internet and digital forms of communication are yet another method of surveillance, a form of subtle observation as a way to control and regulate people, in the interests of the wealthy.

Question 21

What does Garside study and what theory does he support

Answer 21

Garside supports Marxism and argues that Adults may be spending excessive amounts of time online, to the extent that the balance between sleep and screen based activities has now tipped. The typical adult spends eight hours and 41 minutes each day communicating to consuming media, including books and newspapers, and just eight hours and 21 minutes asleep.

Question 22

What does the Snowden report suggest and what theory does it support

Answer 22

The Snowden report supports Marxism and argues that Widespread misuse of surveillance of digital forms of communication. He provided evidence that the US and British government had been accessing personal and private communications claiming that it was in the interests of ‘national security’. The intelligence agencies say it is essential to meet their overriding aim of protecting the public from terrorist attacks.

Question 23

What are some existing gender patterns and trends within society and what theory do they support

Answer 23

The following patterns and trends support feminism: Feminists interpret the existing patterns in digital communication as well as exploring what they are doing to challenge and change these patterns: women use social media slightly more than men, however, Pinterest and Instagram are overwhelmingly used by female – over 70% of users are women. Only 13% of the contributions to Wikipedia are by women.

Question 24

What does Haraway study and what theory do they support

Answer 24

Haraway supports feminism and suggests that technological advances offer the possibility for women to create new forms of identity not bound by traditional ideas or dominant patriarchal discourses about gender. She felt strongly that women should be included in all forms of knowledge relating to technologically based information which appeared to be produced mainly by men.

Question 25

What does Nakamura study and what theory do they support

Answer 25

Nakamura supports feminism and argues that women from a range of ethnic minorities are gaining an increasing presence in digital communication and this enables their particular interests. For example there are support networks for women who might have been unable to access support previously.

Question 26

What does Arlacci study and what theory do they support

Answer 26

Arlacci supports feminism and argues that exploitation has been one of the most undesirable consequences of globalisation. Regrettably, he stated that this is not currently considered a priority by any country.

Question 27

What does Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre study and what theory do they support

Answer 27

Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre supports feminism and states that CEOP centre play a leading role in protecting children although: 790 children were subject to safeguarding or protection as a result of CEOP activity, 18,887 reports relating to child sexual exploitation and 192 people suspected of online child exploitation were arrested.

Question 28

What does Centre for Social Justice study and what theory do they support

Answer 28

Centre for Social Justice support feminism and state that research carried out by Centre for Social Justice shows that a large proportion of cases, of slaves who are exploited in the sex industry, through forced labour, domestic servitude and forced criminal activity, have never been recognised or reported, and therefore do not appear in any statistics or measures of the size of the problem.

Question 29

What does Hughes argue and what theory do they support

Answer 29

Hughes supports feminism and argues that digital forms of communication can offer new ways in which patriarchal ideology can exert further control over women. The types of sexual exploitation on the internet include: bride trafficking, sex tourism, exchange of information on where to buy prostitutes and live sex shows through videoconferencing.

Question 30

What does Cochrane argue and what theory do they support

Answer 30

Cochrane supports feminism and argues that New forms of digital global communication are being used as tools that are allowing women to build a strong, popular, reactive movement online. E.g. a survey of Mumsnet users found 59% consider themselves feminist.

Question 31

What does Collins argue and what theory do they support

Answer 31

Collins supports postmodernism and argues that to understand society, the chains of interaction between people must be understood. He suggests that by looking closely at how individuals construct their identity through social network sites such as Facebook, it may be possible to learn about how people see the world around them. It is interesting to consider people online and offline lives.

Question 32

What does Bjorklund argue and what theory do they support

Answer 32

Bjorklund supports postmodernism and argues that Until recently, individuals have used autobiographies to describe their lives as they near the end of their life. In a postmodern world, she suggests that people take a different view of defining self. Digital forms of communication offer an ongoing autobiography which can be continually manipulated and updated.

Question 33

What does Hart argue and what theory do they support

Answer 33

Hart supports postmodernism and suggests that individuals today are writing and rewriting their autobiographies on a daily basis, which reflects their own values and the values of their particular society. Identity, is therefore created both online and offline, in multiple ways.

Question 34

What does Case argue and what theory do they support

Answer 34

Case supports postmodernism and suggests that this can present a challenge especially to adolescents who in effect have two adolescences; one online and one offline. She claims that the nature of new social media makes it harder to remove mistakes as every interaction is visible, like a trail.

Question 35

What does Foucault argue and what theory do they support

Answer 35

Foucault supports postmodernism and argues that surveillance is likely to become the most effective means of regulating behaviour, people are controlled through increasing amounts of information being collected, building a profile of their behaviour.

Question 36

What does Miller argue and what theory do they support

Answer 36

Miller supports postmodernism and researched peoples social lives both on and offline and aimed to study on the use and consequences of social media for people all around the world.

Question 37

What does Case argue

Answer 37

Case argues that because people are becoming so embedded in their daily lives, they are becoming cyborgs. People are becoming part human, part machine, she argues that the way that people interact with technology defines their identity. Due to the postmodern era people are able to select and change different identities.

Question 38

What does Ellison argue and what inequality do they discuss

Answer 38

Ellison discusses age and argues that identity is essentially constructed by the user. Individuals can adopt multiple online personalities, and online activities often leave visible traces which can be captured, tracked, packaged and shared. People’s online identities continue to overlap with their offline lives, sometimes with positive or negative effects (Paris Brown).

Question 39

What does Ofcom suggest and what inequality do they discuss

Answer 39

Ofcom discusses age inequality and suggests that more UK adults, especially older adults are now going online and using a range of devices, the number of adults using tablets to go online has almost doubled from 16% to 30% and older peoples use had trebled from 5% to 17%. Ofcom claims that “The millennium generation is losing its voice”.

Question 40

What does Garside argue and what inequality do they discuss

Answer 40

Garside discusses age and argues that the younger generation are shaping digital communication. Children are developing fundamentally different communication habits from older generations.

Question 41

What does Boyle argue and what inequality do they discuss

Answer 41

Boyle discusses age and argues that with each successive generation, the greater the reliance on and use of digital communication. Suggests that there is a ‘digital generation divide’ between the old, who are less likely to use digital communication and the young, who are very proficient and reliant on it.

Question 42

What does Postman argue and what inequality do they discuss

Answer 42

Postman discusses age and argues that the internet exposes children to adult content much more easily than before when children didn’t have access to adult worlds, including access to: sex, violence and disturbing ideas.

Question 43

What does Mertens and D-Haenans argue and what inequality do they discuss

Answer 43

Mertens and D-Haenans discuss class and argue that that lower social class was linked to lower internet usage. Individuals with low social class use the internet for entertainment reasons rather than for knowledge or information.

Question 44

What do gender patterns and trends suggest in terms of digital forms of communication

Answer 44

suggests that younger women are much more likely to use digital forms of communication to maintain social relationships. Younger women spend the least amount of time using social media to find information. In 2014, 40 million more women used twitter than men.

Question 45

What does Li Kirkup argue and what inequality do they discuss

Answer 45

Li Kirkup discusses gender and argues that Men in both Britain and china were more likely than women to use e-mail or chat rooms. Men played more computer games than women interestingly, men were more self-confident about their computer skills than women in both countries.

Question 46

What does Granovetter argue and what topic do they discuss

Answer 46

Granovetter discusses relationships and argues that weak ties in many respects are more important than strong ties. Weak ties connect an individual to people who they have little in common and would likely not be able to connect with through strong ties, such as celebrities.

Question 47

What does Turkle argue and what topic do they discuss

Answer 47

Turkle discusses relationships and expresses concerns about the way we distance ourselves from each other using digital forms of communication. She argues that we are ‘alone together’ meaning that we can be in the same room but using our devices to communicate with others or engage in other tasks.

Question 48

What does Zhao argue and what topic do they discuss

Answer 48

Zhao discusses relationships and argues that activities that connect individuals directly to one another (such as email, chat) tend to have positive correlations to social ties, meaning that they strengthen relationships, while those activities that are more solitary in nature, such as surfing the internet, tend to have more negative correlations to social ties.

Question 49

What does Kraut et al argue and what topic do they discuss

Answer 49

Kraut et al discusses relationships and argues that online social ties tend to be weaker than relationships formed and maintained offline.

Question 50

What does Feld argue and what topic do they discuss

Answer 50

Feld discusses relationships and argues that people use social networks to evaluate both themselves and others. An individual’s identity can be determined by the network of friends they maintain.

Question 51

What does Miller argue and what topic do they discuss

Answer 51

Miller discusses relationships and argues that Facebook has become a place where relationships can be cultivated as well as breaking up relationships even marriages. Facebook can challenge people’s ideas about privacy and create social problems and scandal

Question 52

What does Clayton argue and what topic do they discuss

Answer 52

Clayton discusses relationships and argues that the more active an individual was on Twitter, the more likely they were to report ‘Twitter related’ conflict with partners. This resulted in negative effects on people’s relationships, such as identity or even divorce.

Question 53

What does Shaw & Gant argue and what topic do they discuss

Answer 53

Shaw & Gant discuss relationships and argue that internet use was found to decrease loneliness and depression significantly, while perceived social support and self-esteem increased significantly.

Question 54

What does Howard argue in terms of conflict and change

Answer 54

Howard shows how new communication technologies can both empower and disempower the individuals who use them

Question 55

What does Sutton, Palen and Shklovski argue in terms of conflict and change

Answer 55

New forms of digital communication are increasingly being used to deal with disasters. Used to be collectively resourceful, self-policing, and generate information that is otherwise hard to obtain.

Question 56

What does Kirkpatrick argue in terms of social movement

Answer 56

There is a growing awareness of the role that new social media plays in contributing to and shaping the course of major social movements. There are several reasons why new forms of digital communication are able to mobilise change including: immediate communication with others which can warn them/prepare them of an occurrence, information can reach a huge number of people simultaneously and groups and individuals that are usually unable to speak out are able to do so and do it anonymously too.

Question 57

What is Arab Spring

Answer 57

Arab Spring is a social movement that are a series of anti-government protests among Middle Eastern countries. The aim of the protests were to anger at the brutality of the security apparatus, unemployment, rising prices, and corruption that followed the privatization of state assets in some countries.

Question 58

What does Joyce argue in terms of social movement

Answer 58

There has always been a motion of activists tactically innovating and repressive governments responding, almost seen as a cat and mouse game. Governments are taking significant resources to be put towards responses on digital technology

Question 59

What does Jurgenson argue in terms of social movement

Answer 59

Digital technology is moving people into an augmented reality. People are always finding new ways to gain information. Online and offline experiences are merging together; Facebook is becoming more real and the rest of the world is becoming more virtual

Question 60

What do Internet World Stats 2015 suggest in terms of cultural homogenisation

Answer 60

The majority of internet users are English and Chinese (English 872.9 million users and Chinese 704.5 million users). The top ten languages in the internet in 2015 were: English, Chinese, Spanish, Arabic, Portuguese, Japanese, Russia, Malaysia, French and German.

Question 61

What do Fairweather and Rogerson argue in terms of cultural homogenisation

Answer 61

These aspects are why digital communication is leading to homogenisation of culture: computer software is not localised and therefore programs such as Microsoft word reflect westernised ways of thinking, advertising generated by the west is broadcast globally.

Question 62

What do Park and Curran argue in terms of cultural defence

Answer 62

Local conflicts get international recognition leading to the protection of people’s rights locally and therefore can lead to cultural defence.