Globalization has many countering connotations. It pros include knocking down distance barriers, reduced cost in advertising, increased travel revenues, shared medical expertise, enabled distance learning, and increased global transactions. These arguments are countered by the reality that digital globalization, which forms the common conception of the idea, only stretches so far as its technological boundaries (Norris 1). Because of these facts, it is important to expand one’s concept of globalization beyond the northern hemisphere and to not mistake globalization for westernization. If Americans merge the ideas of globalization with Westernization, the developing nations are at risk of progressing under the confines and expectation of those dictating the playing field (Curran 4-5).
True globalization “recognizes the value of cultural niches and local abilities” (Curran 8). As discussed in class, globalization is not just the meshing of cultures, the increasing ability to trade, or the sharing of knowledge. It is an interdependence of one nation upon another (Fischer Class Lecture). Globalization currently exists through the trade of information, resources, and work. It exists inefficiently because until there is an attempt to close the social divide there can not be an even distribution or a total capturing of skills and abilities (Norris 4-5).
Curran, James and Myung-Jin Park. De-Westernizing Media Studies: Beyond
Globalization Theory. London and New York: Routledge, 2000. Print.
Norris, Pippa. Editorial: Information Poverty and the Wired World. Massachusetts.
Fellows of Harvard College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2000.
No comments:
Post a Comment