Globalization is an interdependency and an interconnectivity[1] that permeates all spheres of life. Globalization does not only expand economic structures and political realms. Communication structures as well as mediated topics become inter-reliant as well, leading to the merging as well as the co-existing of narratives.[2]
Considering the theory of globalization, Curran/Park state in De-Westernizing Media Studies a clash of globalization(s), concerning the connotation(s)[3] of globalization:
Cultural theorists write with infectious enthusiasm about globalization as a process that is increasing international dialogue, empowering minorities, and building progressive society. Political economists, on the other hand, write about globalization as a capitalist victory that is dispossessing democracies, imposing policy homogenization, and weakening progressive movement rooted in working class and popular political organization.[4]
I limit the definition of globalization in that I do not regard globalization as synonymous to Westernization or Americanization or (US-American Cultural) Imperialism.[5]
Globalization is not always an exchange, but always an interdependency. Technological limits within communication impede communication. The citizens, however, cannot escape the global interdependency of issues in their lives.
The internet is a novel medium that creates not only novel modes of reception, but also, unlike other media (r)evolutions, vaster possibilities of (re)production that revolutionize the common communication model and change the paradigm.[6] Communication in cyberspace involves a virtual and circular transmission of narratives on global issues between a merging sender or receiver, and the dynamics of a narrative. Cyberspace challenges the basic communication model, established by Shannon/Weaver.[7] Traditional senders of mass media merge with the former receiver, i.e. the audience becomes active in producing news. The cyber transmission involves a circulation of unfinished palimpsests on global issues, traditional senders of mass media merge with the receiver, and the cyberspace medium is entirely virtual. A mutually understandable code, notably the English language as the lingua franca in cyberspace[8], forms the basis of communication.
Hamid Mowlana defines the global communication flow as “the transfer of messages in the form of information and data through individuals, groups, governments, and technologies, as well as the study of the institutions responsible” and entails an “examination of the mutually shared meanings which make communication possible”.[9]
Information is the most distributed product within this global flow, with information being defined, according to Mowlana, “as a patterned distribution or a patterned relationship between events, objects, and signs” which “involves activators”.[10]
While a shared code is the crucial part of communication, it is precisely joint global narratives on stories that ground the global code that incite distribution and discourse. However, the global phenomenon is that there is a different de-coding of those narratives. Interpretable refers to the phenomenon that a successful narrative may be a tabula rasa eager to be read, but differently read. Economic power structures, while enabling access to information and discourse, are not the sole causal element for explaining productive vs. un-productive narratives.
Globalization fuels, as an interdependency, global topics and issues. With this emergence and inter-dependency of issues, the maintenance of world-wide communication by ensuring access to the information resource (elevating the digital divide/information gap), and the agenda-setting[11] of inter-reliant issues become vital: Global issues cannot be understood as well as tackled without communication and a global understanding.
I argue that all citizens are global, but some citizens are more global than others.[12] While the means of media production are available, however, resources and technology is accessible for only a part of the global citizenry. A part of the global citizenry becomes active, creates their own forums, and is able to actively communicate global issues, while the Other part is left out on the other side of the information gap. Global open-access forums/virtual communities and international organizations function as stakeholders for establishing the global communication framework. It seeks to be determined if they can ensure the agenda-setting[13] of global issues, and if they are able to elevate the information gap between those who have access to information resources and networks, and those marginalized by and from the information flow.
[1] Thussu, Daya Kishan: International Communication. Continuity and Change. London: Arnold, 2000, p. 76.
[2] Taylor, Philip M.: Global Communications, International Affairs and the Media since 1945. New York: Routledge, 1997, p. 98.
[3] Stieglitz, Joseph E.: Globalization and Its Discontents. New York: Norton, 2002.
[4] Curran, James/Park, Myung-Jin (eds.): De-Westernizing Media Studies. London, New York: Routledge 2000, p. 11.
[5] During my analysis, however, it becomes apparent that some readings are more prone to become the paradigm, and “The Global” is still understood as “The Western”.
[6] Paradigms are defined as “frameworks of thinking” according to Kuhn, Thomas S.: The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. 3rd edition. Chicago, London: University of Chicago Press 1996.
[7] Shannon, Claude: A Mathematical Theory of Communication. Bell System Technical Journal 27 (July and October) 1948, pp. 379–423, 623–656, http://plan9.bell-labs.com/cm/ms/what/shannonday/shannon1948.pdf.
[9] Dor, Daniel: From Englishization to Imposed Multilingualism:Globalization, the Internet, and the Political Economy of the Linguistic Code. Public Culture 16 (1), pp. 97-118.
[8] Mowlana: Global Information and World Communication, p. 26.
[9] Mowlana, Hamid: Global Information and World Communication. London: Sage 1997, p. 25
[10] A variety of global issues is in focus of the Millennium Development Goals, a United Nations effort to meet goals within a timeframe, see the MDGs at http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/, <15.>.
[11] McCombs, Maxwell E./Shaw. Daniel L.: The Agenda-Setting Function of Mass Media. Public Opinion Quarterly, Vol. 36, 1972, pp. 176-187.
[12] This is an adaptation of Orwell’s quote from Animal Farm, which he preceded with a foreword on “The Freedom of the Press”, criticizing the biased news reporting on Russia. Orwell, George: Animal Farm. London: Penguin 2008. With this adaptation, I would like to emphasize that The Global is not an absolute term.
[13] I define agenda setting as the initiation of discourse on themes.
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