Sunday, February 6, 2011

Globalization is all about speed

Globalization is a process that heavily relies on immediacy and the ability to communicate and react quickly. The internet allows users to interact at a real time level while being many miles apart. On a national scale this interaction affects a much wider area, as David Held mentions in "Global Transformations" that:

The growing extent and intensity of global interconnectedness can be linked to a speeding up of global interactions and processes, as the evolution of world-wide systems of transport and communication increases the velocity of the diffusion of ideas, goods, information, capital, and people. [1]

This diffusion benefits countries with the most access to global methods of communication; this is shown on the number outline of figure 2 of Pippa Norris’ “Information Poverty and the Wired World”. [2] The United States, the country with the most access to the internet is one that has the most influence over the rest of the world by means of exportation of ideas and influences, such as the exportation of American businesses. In addition America is one of the largest importers of goods, mostly consumer products for our large population. Two eastern nations that have internet access on par with the U.S. are China, an industrializing nation, and Japan a technological juggernaut. In the future we will see these nations to utilize these global systems even more as they move further into the center of the global spotlight.

[1] Held, David, McGrew, Anthony "Global Transformations" ReVision Fall 99 , Vol. 22 Issue 2

[2] Norris, Pippa "Information Poverty and the Wired World" The Harvard International Journal of Press/Politics 5 (2000): 2

1 comment:

  1. There is no stopping evolution, whether it changes by the years, or by the second. So, its not whether something will or will not evolve, but more when and how quickly. You bring a great point, and SPEED is a very important variable in globalization and the media within.

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