Culture and Globalization Lesson 11

Four important themes Culture and globalization Much older than modernity… but now more free and wide circulation CULTURE: symbolic construction, articulation and dissemination of meanings. 1) Sameness/difference 2) Role of the Media 3) global languages 4) consumerism and ecology Four important themes

Americanization = Western values = Cultural Imperialism G. Ritzer: «MacDonaldization» B. Barber: «MacDonald against Jihad» F. Fukuyama: «End of History» R. Robertson: «Glo-calism» No clear-cut division of sameness and difference Less stable post-modern framework, creativity and commodification Difference/sameness

Structural changes and new trends New trends in newspapers: Post WWII : 1) Changes in ownership, loss of younger readers, loss of market share to electronic media and TV. But. Although, in most post-industrial societies newspapers are still important, without significant reduction of sales. 2) Newspapers (and TV) are associated with basic patterns of socio-economic development: affluent, educated readership with greater leisure time.(Nations and regions: tv-centric vs. newspaper centric) Structural changes for technological, economic and political innovations changed the interactive process. Introducing new trends. What is the nature of this trends. Structural changes and new trends

Structural changes and new trends 3) Growth of “infotainment”: increased focus on sex, crime and entertainment. IT portable devices: a further push. A contradictory picture: increased competition brings about “tabloidization” but political coverage does not diminish. Diversification of the market: more politics and less politics at the same time. Post industrial societies: largely stable circulation of papers but number of newspapers has contracted. Media merging, acquisitions, multi-media empires. Consequences? Debate the issue. Dangers of concentration of readership on fewer outlets? Can economic competition change the situation? Local monopoly more dangerous than world monopoly? Some countries have witnessed an increase in the range of newspapers (post-soviet) Structural changes and new trends

Structural changes and new trends New trends in broadcasting Similar concerns for TV and Radio standards: under threat? (technology and economy) Critical factors: proliferation of channels and fragmentation of the audience (cable, satellite, digital, broadband, etc.); breaking down boundaries between audio-visual industries, telecommunications and computers. Structural changes and new trends

Structural changes and new trends . Role of privatization policies and deregulation in the TV market development However… public channels remain popular in many OECD countries. Broadcasting systems seem to maintain a distinct imprint of their origins. The rise of Internet Post-industrial societies move towards information society model. World’s online community lives in highly developed nations. Structural changes and new trends

Structural changes and new trends The rise of Internet Above the average internet users: Nordic democracies, Anglo-American countries, Asian “tigers”, smaller European nation. At the bottom of the ranking sub-Saharan African countries. Possible leapfrog? Development brings internet but does internet enhance development? Structural changes and new trends

Consequences for social-political-economic environment Consequences for democracy: is democracy endangered by the rise of IT? Who owns technology? Who controls the web? Who are the new gatekeepers, if any? Is democracy reinforced by IT? Alternative channels of civic engagement? Better information? Possibility to challenge global problems? Consequences for dictatorships (dilemmas): Consequences for social-political-economic environment

Cyber-pessimism or cyber-optimism Internet is a Pandora’s box: new inequalities, deeper divisions, benefits to the elite with poorer dropping even further behind Cyber-optimism: New possibilities of development, end of censorship, grouping and working together much easier, breaking down hierachy. Cyber-pessimism or cyber-optimism