Media and Globalization: Shaping Our Perception of the World

To start with, this is the role of media in globalization essay in which this topic is considered. An analysis of media in the digital world reveals that media have presented themselves as both an opportunity and a challenge for our rapidly changing world. For a number of reasons, author and researcher Jack Lule’s global village of Babel better describes our world. Introduction of mainstream and social media has revolutionized the world in terms of how we conduct business, run politics and carry our culture. However, it might be too simplistic too say that media has shaped the world into a global village in which everything is interconnected and interdependent and that this global village is free from complications that the media has brought itself with. In order to better understand this dilemma, it is important for us to look at the relationship between the pervasive media environment and the global village. The term global village is described as an idea where the whole world is interconnected and interdependent through use of electronic media. Different opinions, debates, and points of view exist in society regarding this hot topic, however, one thing that cannot be argued anymore is whether globalization is real or not, because it is more actual than ever. In order to better understand the term global village, it is vital for us to study the relationship between media and globalization.

Marshall McLuhan was the first person to describe the global village as a place where everything was connected to each other through the electronic nervous system. Media such as the Internet, computers, mobile phone, etc. were the major force behind the restructuration of social and cultural geography. An example of this is, British news channel, BBC and US news channel, CNN, which are seen all around the world. People are able to communicate with each other across vast distances and also have flexibility in social interaction. Similarly, globalization also gave an opportunity for people to experience different cultures without having the need to be physically present. Media, in essence, shaped the imagination of the masses to look at the world from a completely different view from what they were currently experiencing. This was the world that was both accessible and reachable. Looking at the eras such as oral, script, electronic and digital we can identify one common pattern that is that each era saw experienced direct influences of media on globalization. It not only changed what people listened and saw but also the way they thought. For instance, when Indians were exposed to the western lifestyle and consumer choices the aspirational values of the Indians went up and their minds were liberated through consumption of global media. The same thing was seen in African countries, who when first saw the superior lifestyle of the people in the west, it led to awareness among them and debates in politics, economics, and social sciences began to widen. Through media, the idea of 'One Market under God' was achieved which has helped both the business person and consumers who have more choices and a variety of options to choose from. The global village is also often sometimes related to the theory of all-inclusive oneness which means all are the same and experience the same. This was apparent in the recent mass shooting that was carried out in New Zealand. Through mainstream media and social media such as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram the world was able to experience the grief and sorrow of the people of New Zealand and stay updated about the situation. Without Media, this interconnectedness to one another would have been impossible and thus the idea of the global village could not have been achieved.Events happening all around the world are experienced and viewed by millions of people. Media have not only made communication across vast distances easy but also brought cultures together, helped economies grow by creating more jobs and opportunities and increase political awareness. It has created an environment where everyone is able to speak freely and information can be shared across borders instantaneously. 

The relationship between the pervasive media environment and the global village as explained above raises questions about whether the impact on economics, politics, and culture was all positive or not. This has been a popular debate for quite a few years since people who hold views about this issue are both pro and anti-media.

The impact of media on the economy was revolutionary in terms of how it gave an opportunity to governments and businessman to grow the economy and businesses beyond their maximum capacity. Consumers, now have the ease of finding products and services that best suit them and search costs have significantly reduced as they have the world in their hand. Moreover, with the help of media countries struggling with job creation and poverty were able to tackle both issues head-on and numerous countries were able to bring thousands of people out of poverty. However, it is argued that the media sells the narrative of the capitalists and help them create economic injustice. They sell this by using two tools that is advertising and marketing that help them in promoting and fostering the consumption of goods. In a Capitalist society, the exchange value dominates the use value of products that later become commodities. Media becomes a commodity form and its use value is only available to consumers when they have paid for the exchange price that accumulates money capital in the hands of capitalists. The media as commodities are in relation to money use values that can realize their exchange value, that is the price in money form. Consumers are interested in the use value of the media while capitalists are interested in the exchange value. The use value is only available to the consumers after complex processes, during which capitalists exchange the commodities they control with money. This means that the use value of media and technology is only possible through the exchange value that they have in relation to money. Furthermore, in order to gain a better control on the system, capitalist use horizontal and vertical integration. In vertical integration, they own and control as many stages of production in a factory as possible. They also use horizontal integration by owning and controlling as many companies related to an industry as possible. 

Moreover, Media have also impacted politics in numerous ways such as the political situation in one country has a direct and indirect effect on politics that is carried out in country thousands of miles away. Just like the economy, Media have affected politics in both positive and negative ways. As discussed earlier, with the Introduction of media and globalization, media was at the forefront of changing the minds of the people by letting them experience how people lived their lives elsewhere. Indians and Africans saw the relatively easy lifestyle that the people of the west were living and this proved to be transformational in terms of how politics were conducted inside their country. They were given a chance to change their lives as media created awareness among them. In the current era, the role of Media has however changed tremendously. It is used for purposes such as agenda-setting which sells the ideology of those who control the media itself. The role of media in regards to politics is to act as a watchdog to the government in order to protect the rights of the people. The role, however, is far more complicated then it seems. The media today can either be found as watchdog, lapdog or a guard dog to the capitalists. In simple terms, capitalists who own the means of production use media in order to control the masses. This is done through media by setting an agenda that brainwashes and kills their critical thinking. They not only reflect reality but also filter and shape it. The culture was immensely affected by the Introduction of media. Media is considered to serve as a means of bringing cultures together and defy the geographical barriers. With the huge positives by which the Media have impacted cultures, it has also impacted it in negative ways. 

Media can influence culture in different ways. It is believed that media structure is a definite threat to diversity and sovereignty of any nation. This claim has been rejected by the proponents of globalization. Advertising plays an important role in inundating the local scene by constantly streaming cultural goods. These cultural products are undesirable with the images reflecting cultural values and expectations concordant with the countries of origin and are at odds with the cultural and economic realities of receiving countries. The most important thing to discuss in this issue is what millennium describe as cultural imperialism. Which means that the smaller culture is to be absorbed by the bigger, economically, militarily or politically strong one.  An example of this is Chinese culture taking of Tibetan culture or the actions of the Soviet Union in the former Eastern bloc states.

In the light of the analysis presented above, we are going to look at whether McLuhan's global village or Jack Lule's global village of Babel better describes our world. Marshall McLuhan, described the global village as shrinking of the world and bringing people together. For McLuhan, the unity that was lost before Babel will be restored and division of language will be overcome through globalization. This argument and prediction made by McLuhan received criticism from a lot of theorists having a deep understanding of media and globalization. McLuhan’s view of media is real but too simplistic to define the global village that closely relates to the world even though it is true that global trade evolved with the flow of information and that fashions, cuisines, movies etc. couldn’t have developed without communication. There are a number of claims made by Lule who is Professor and Director of Global Studies. Firstly, he questions the idea of globalization as creating a clash of civilization, cultural convergence or cultural hybridity. He argues, that everywhere in the world we can observe this phenomenon. Moreover, he rejected McLuhan’s prediction of the “imaginary of the technological sublime” and doesn’t follow enthusiasm that followed from McLuhan’s first declination of the global village. Another argument that Lule presented was globalization and media are inseparable. He said that globalization would have never taken place without the help of media.  He also added that media conglomerates profit from economic globalization and provide other kinds of corporations with a wide set of tools to advertise their products effectively on a global scale while ignoring the huge challenges still faced by at least one billion people on the planet. In contrast to McLuhan, Lule argues that media hasn’t allowed people to speak as one but instead media and globalization have created a village where the world is degraded by humankind’s hubris, vanity and greed. He says that unity is nowhere to be found but seeds of division can found everywhere. For instance, when media acts as king breaker and maker they are not actually unite the people but instead divide them. Over the years, we have seen a number of media houses campaigning for some particular candidate cause their narrative matches with that of the candidate.CNN, for example, is blamed to be pro Hillary Clinton and against Donald Trump. While Jack Lule analysis of media is also true, I think McLuhan's global village much better explains the world we today live in. It is world filled with inequality that continues to grow every second and not only among the nations but within nations too. He said that the negative effect of the shift to global communication is that it leaves many people feeling overwhelmed and without personal identity. He further added by saying that this response leads to violence in different forms such as War, torture, terrorism and other violent acts are quests for identity in the global village. This prediction made by Lule is so true because this is what we are experiencing today. Everyone who is feared of losing their identity responds with violence. Extremists, whether it be white supremacists, Muslims, Hindus or of any other race or religion all, are today fighting to save their identity.  In light of these theories and evidences presented it is true that McLuhan was after all not so accurate in predicting about the consequences of globalization even though he was write about globalization. Therefore, it can be concluded that Jack Lule global village of Babel better describes our world.

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