What is Globalization?

Globalization is broadening the world-wide connectedness. Since the Internet, it has given way for globalization as it opened doors for economies and communication. With the Internet, small businesses in developing country can sell their products outside of their own country which can gain more profit (Norris, 1). The Internet has also made communication and information transmission faster. With a powerful search engine like Google, information and pictures can be easily retrieved. But the problem is that not everyone has Internet

Accessibility to Internet have split between the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. Statistics have shown that “almost two-thirds of the world’s on-line community is located in just five countries: the United States, Japan, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Germany” (Norris,3). But what happens to the other countries? Let’s take Africa for an example. According to Norris’ findings, “the whole of sub-Saharan Africa contains only 2.5 million Internet users, or less than 1 percent of the world’s online community” (Norris,2). Internet serves as a plug for media as many people use CNN, youtube, and etc to know about what happens in different parts of the world. Being cut off of internet would mean not being able to access this kind of information. In Curran and Park’s book, they mention that “the media inform people of things outside their village, encourage them to have opinions about public affairs, and convert them into a participant public” (Curran & Park, 4-5). It shows that having access to the Internet can help people voice their concerns and opinions. Since America has the most internet users, the web “promotes American capitalist values and interest, and erodes local culture...” (Curran & Park, 5). But for the countries in the Southern Hemisphere, they are at a disadvantage because they don’t have much Internet access to voice their opinions or most importantly, information transmission. Not only that, the developing countries are also disadvantaged in an economic sense. The WTO (World Trade Organization) have been criticized for many years because of the unequal representations of many countries. It has more than 100 countries in the organizations but “while all countries are entitled to have a representative on the General Council of the WTO many poor countries cannot always afford adequate representation” (Pollock). It shows the gap of countries which is caused globalization.

Internet has helped globalization but there were also many consequences. It helped countries become interconnected with each other and the global market helped developing countries’ economy boom. But in return, these countries also weren’t on par with the other countries because they don’t have much access to information which is important nowadays.

Works Cited:
Curran, J., & Park, Myung-Jin. (2000). De-Westernizing Media Studies. Location: Routledge. Norris, P. (2001). Digital Divide: Civic Engagement, Information Poverty, and the Internet Worldwide. Location: Cambridge University Press.
Pollock, R. (2002). Criticism of WTO Practices and Structures. http://www.rufuspollock.org/wto/wto_crit_prac.htm. 10/03/10.