What is Globalization?

Globalization is the act of balancing the many aspects of global status such as economy, politics, and technology through means of worldwide interconnection and effort. In her editorial, “Information Poverty and the Wired World,” Pippa Norris provides insight into the technological aspect of globalization, with the internet in particular. With nations like the US having over 100 million users with access to the Internet in spring of 2000 and the entire continent of Africa having less than 2 million at the time, globalization in this case strives to even out such technological imbalances (Norris 4). Because we are in the information age, globalization is crucial in keeping citizens around the world up-to-date with the dissemination of information. In her editorial, Norris states “…countries like Finland, Germany, and Sweden have all announced initiatives to address these concerns, often incorporating a mix of private and public resources” (Norris 5). The extent at which globalization has become a major concern has been exemplified by UN Secretary-General Kofi Ana in a speech, where he stated “People lack many things: jobs, shelter, food, health care and drinkable water. Today, being cut off from basic telecommunications services is a hardship almost as acute as these other deprivations, and may indeed reduce the chances of finding remedies to them” (Norris 5-6).

Globalization is however, met with several issues. For one, many find that globalization actually accentuates the status of poor countries and widens the gap between the wealthy and poor. Moreover, a number of people believe it is an “ideology by the powerful to deceive the people about illusory benefits of a dehumanizing system,” or essentially that it is a “myth” (Lechner). It is seen to, in reality, play the opposite role worldwide in perpetuating the imbalances rather than fixing them (Lechner). Popular belief also has globalization diminishing cultural diversity to the ways in which global marketing campaigns “exploit basic material desire” (e.g. “Coco-Colanization) (Lechner). Thus, while the books define globalization in a positive light, it has actually taken a negative connation in the eyes of many and therefore has diminished in the ranks of global trends.

Lechner, Frank. The Globalization Website: What is Globalization?. The Globalization Website, 2000. http://www.sociology.emory.edu/globalization. 3 October 2010. Web.

Norris, Pippa. "Information Poverty and the Wired World." Harvard International Journal of Press/Politics 2000: 1. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. 3 October 2010. Web.