What is globalization? What is information poverty?

What is globalization?

When thinking about the modern definition of globalization, Chatroulette comes to mind. The website gained notoriety for obscenity, however it is also a remarkable tool for instantly conversing with anyone in the world. Chatroulette represents the “weaken[ing] of the nation” that could be a positive outcome of cultural globalization (Curran and Park 11).[1] One doesn’t need their “ticket, passport, handbag” to have a conversation with someone else in a different country. There are no borders, no time zones. Chatroulette, representing what new technology is capable of, “compresses time and space…” and creates a “global village.” (Curran and Park 7).[2] What is interesting, however, is that although Chatroulette is a Russian website with global users, the language used is English. As Stuart Hall says, “global mass culture… remains cenetered in the West… and it always speaks English.” (Curran and Park 6)[3]. When talking to someone in Germany, the language is English. Friends of mine spoke for a long time to a group of students from India. They were shocked that they had never seen a game of cricket, and they were shocked that they said everyone goes to see American movies. Despite the forms of “bonding and solidarity” globalization creates (Curran and Park 7),[4] it does reveal an Americanization of culture in countries such as India.

There are some people that one would not have access to through Chatroulette. The website requires a video camera and microphone attached to a computer. Without access to that, or a computer in general, or Internet access fast enough to show video, one cannot participate. Perhaps the “global village” is exaggerated because it doesn’t include the nations that do not have the necessary materials. When Norris wrote “Information Poverty and the Wired World,” only one percent of the world’s Internet users lived in Sub-saharan Africa.[5] There were, and probably still are, more Internet users in Sweden than in the whole of Africa (Norris 2).[6] Information poverty means that these people and their nations are at a severe disadvantage, especially because ideas are developing in terms of the new technology. On The Colbert Report, Jane McGonigal spoke about the development of a video game to teach young people in developing nations about social enterprise. [7]There is barely a mention about how these people are supposed to be playing this game. Information poverty is largely omitted from thought, as are the parts of the world it affects that aren’t included in the “global village.”

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[1] Curran, James, and Myung-Jin Park. De-Westernizing Media Studies. London: Routledge, 2000. Print.

[2] Curran, James, and Myung-Jin Park. De-Westernizing Media Studies. London: Routledge, 2000. Print.

[3] Curran, James, and Myung-Jin Park. De-Westernizing Media Studies. London: Routledge, 2000. Print.

[4] Curran, James, and Myung-Jin Park. De-Westernizing Media Studies. London: Routledge, 2000. Print.

[5] Norris, Pippa. Digital Divide: Civic Engagement, Information Poverty, and the Internet Worldwide. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2001. Print.

[6] Norris, Pippa. Digital Divide: Civic Engagement, Information Poverty, and the Internet Worldwide. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2001. Print.

[7] February 3, 2011. Comedy Central. New York, New York, 3 Feb. 2011. The Colbert Report. Colbert Nation, 4 Feb. 2011. Web. 4 Feb. 2011. .