The Contemporary World

Chapter 7

Global Media Cultures

Chapter 7
Global Media Cultures

Introduction

The point of departure is the crucial role played by media in particular electronic and
audiovisual media, in the cultural, political, economic and social process that together
constitute the process of globalization. By globalization is meant a development through
which the constraints of geography on social and cultural structures are reduced, an increased
social and cultural interconnectivity across time and space is created, and a heightened
consciousness is developed about this secession of social and cultural interaction from
geographical constraints. Globalization, however, is neither an unambiguous concept, nor
does it refer to a single and specific sociocultural phenomenon. Similarly, globalization is not
a historically new phenomenon that is only confined to the 20th century. Consequently, one
aim of the research program is to advance a comprehensive understanding and critique of
globalization both as a concept and a sociocultural phenomenon.

The media have an important impact on cultural globalization in two mutually

interdependent ways: Firstly, the media provide an extensive transnational transmission of
cultural products and, secondly, they contribute to the formation of communicative networks
and social structures. The rapidly growing supply of media products from an international
media culture presents a challenge to existing local and national cultures. The sheer volume
of the supply, as well as the vast technological infrastructure and financial capital that pushes
this supply forward, have a considerable impact on local patterns of cultural consumption and
possibilities for sustaining an independent cultural production. Global media cultures create
a continuous cultural exchange, in which crucial aspects such as identity, nationality, religion,
behavioral norms and way of life are continuously questioned and challenged. These cultural
encounters often involve the meeting of cultures with a different socio-economic base,
typically a transnational and commercial cultural industry on one side and a national, publicly
regulated cultural industry on the other side.

Specific Objectives:
At the end of the lesson, the students should be able to:
1. Analyze how various media drive various forms of global integration.
2. Explain the dynamic between local and global cultural production.

Duration: 3 hours
Chapter 7: Role of Media in Globalization
Development and Pattern of Global Communication
Cultural Assimilation and Cultural Convergence
Local and Global Culture
Different Ways of Accepting Culture

Lesson Proper

CHAPTER 7 – GLOBAL MEDIA CULTURES

7.1 ROLE OF MEDIA IN GLOBALIZATION

Media proliferated the growth of mass communication in the 21st century. Though used from
time to time, most people do not exactly know what media means in terms of varying
contexts. Consequently, they use the word interchangeably with network. The latter is
associated with the interconnection; hence it is referred as social network,
“an online service or site through which people create and maintain interpersonal
relationships” (Merriam Webster). Media as the “channel of communication” – a means
through which people send and receive information. In expanded discourse, social network
can actually mean social media since the idea of the term is under the function of the media
itself.

Due to the continuous and rapid changes in the communication mechanisms in the modern age, there
have been three named types of mass media – media that is
“designed to reach the mass of the people”.

a. Print Media – It is said to be the oldest type of mass communication, which includes
newspapers, magazines, booklets, and brochures and billboards. Earliest production of this
type was made possible through woodblock stamped on paper, although later development
includes the invention of the printing press for a more and efficient production.

b. Electronic Media – The usage of electronic media was first established when the
radio was invented by Marconi. Since then, radio was utilized as a source of entertainment
and as a news broadcasting tool. Decades later, another electronic media manifested, the
cinema and television. Overall, electronic media includes: radio, movies, television, and
audio and video records. (Pradeep, 2014)

c. New Age Media – This pertains to the newly applied means of communicating
involving the employment of non-traditional system; the development of the computer as a
universal information carrier (multimedia) and its combination with telecommunications
hence the term new media. Moreover, the term new media includes communication. In fact,
five factors constituting communication as initiator, recipient, vehicle, message and effect,
include the defining characteristics of the new media.

Development and Pattern of Global Communication

The invention of the first printing press by the Chinese became the turning point to elevate
communication beyond national boundary. The use of printing press for mass production of
disseminating information spread like wild fire in different parts of the globe. As a result,
more advanced societies, particularly the European societies, improved the originally
invented printing press, the finest of which was that of Johannes Gutenberg in the mid-15th
century. At this time, the system of writing was not only primarily aimed as a means of
communication. With the use of the printing press, the system of writing was likewise a
means to spread ideas from one to the other parts of the globe.

It was in 1837 when communication started to become global. This is because of the invention
of telegraph that was laid across the English Channel. The first fax machine was invented in
1843. In 1876, the telephone was invented by Alexander Graham Bell. Radio broadcasting
began in Britain in 1922 and immediately thereafter in 1925, television was invented.
Apparently, at this stage of human progress, channels of mass communication were not only
channels for communication – they were also means of spreading ideas and pieces of
information, from one to the other sides of the globe.

As expected, global communication embraces dynamism. In the 21 st century, profound

change in global communication was more than what everyone expects it to be. The internet
became accessible to the public. This paved the way for a better and more expeditious means
of communications to people in different parts of the globe. Electronic mail became the trend
of the time, and in just matters of seconds, one’s mail is being sent to the addressee, wherever
he may be in this part of the world. Because of the internet, people are being informed in real
time, of events and happenings in various parts of the world, surpassing the delivery time of
the traditional mass media.

7.2 CULTURAL ASSIMILATION AND CULTURAL CONVERGENCE

Cultural assimilation is a situation where one society borrows the culture of another society
and uses it as part of its culture. Most of the societies that experienced colonization have
cultural borrowing. In the case of the Philippines, Filipinos’ mode of dressing and speaking
is mostly culturally borrowed from the Spaniards and Americans. Cultural borrowing is not
an overnight process. It is usually goes into the core of the culture if such particular cultural
item becomes beneficial to the majority of a large number of people in the society.

The intriguing question is, “What happens when a particular idea or cultural item is
confronted with idea or cultural item of the same kind in another society”? This situation is
known as Cultural Convergence. In this situation, there are two possible scenarios. The first
scenario is the exportation of superior or dominant culture. This usually happens when a
particular idea or cultural item is being introduced to, and such is being accepted by another
society. For example, basketball as a sport is not a sport of the Filipinos. But with American
influence, Filipinos now become hooked to basketball as a sport.

The other scenario is the hybridization, which is the mixing of two converging culture
resulting to the emergence of the new culture. A typical example of this is the convergence
of two languages in the Philippines, namely Filipino and English. Filipinos eventually
develop the Conyo language, which is an innovative combo of English and Filipino
languages, without necessarily distorting the message conveyed.

7.3 GLOBAL AND LOCAL CULTURE

Culture can also be classified into global and local culture. Global Culture is one which
transcends national borders and exists in many different places around the world (Rettig,
2017). Example of global culture is the food that exists all over the world, the use of English
language, or certain customs which get adopted by various different cultures. This global
culture is most often the result of cultural convergence, where cultures are subject to many
of the same global flows and become increasingly more alike. Without doubt, this cultural
convergence becomes possible because of the ever-increasing utility of new age media that
serve as transmitters of culture.

Local Culture, on the other hand, pertains to set of belief systems that characterize the
experience of everyday life in specific, identifiable localities (Britannica). This set of culture
is what makes the locality unique from the rest of the world. It makes up its own identity and
cultural heritage.

7.4 DIFFERENT WAYS OF ACCEPTING CULTURE: Ethnocentrism,

Xenocentrism, and Culture Shock

While there is inevitably a free flow of ideas and culture in the modern world, the acceptance
of such ideas is not automatic. The degree of acceptance of this culture varies from one
society to another. While some societies may be accommodating of outside culture, and may
even modify its own culture in order to take a new one as part of its own, another society may
be intolerant to other breed of culture and treat its own culture as the absolute truth.

The belief that one’s culture is relatively inferior compared to the culture of another society
is called xenocentrism. People having this kind of belief are apparently more accepting and
accommodating of other culture, and would take outside culture as part of their own.

In the opposite, the belief that one’s own culture is relatively superior compared to the culture
of another is called ethnocentrism. The people who adhere to this belief are apparently more
skeptical to the introduction of another culture, stressing that there is no point to borrow the
culture of another. In fact, they believe that it is not only their culture that is more superior to
others, but their race as well.

A person may experience culture shock at the time he is exposed to the culture of another, and
in which he is not aware of the existence of such culture. Culture Shock is an internal struggle
experienced by an individual who encounters a culture radically different from his own, which
leads to his own confusion and disorientation. This is mostly experienced by a migrant, or by
a person who has a high sense of nationalism.
 Commented [j2]: Add web references to the course syllabus
References

Deocampo, Felix Jr. R., Ramos, Bernardo F., and Llonora, R. L. (2019). Globalization in
Contemporary World. Plaridel, Bulacan: St. Andrew Publishing House
Lisandro E. Claudio and Patricio N. Abinales. (2018). The Contemporary World. Quezon City: C &
E Publishing, Inc.

https://catalog.flatworldknowledge.com/catalog/editions/lule-understanding-mediaand-culture-an-introduction-to-mass-
communication-1-0

https://open.lib.umn.edu/mediaandculture/chapter/1-3-the-evolution-of-media/