Media, Global

If globalization is defined as a stretching out of social relations across space, then communication media provide some of the most important means for doing so. Globalization in this sense is most commonly understood through media representations, as most people experience it not through travel but instead by the expansive flow of images and ideas brought to their homes and workplaces via electronic media. Indeed, television viewing is a common experience among the vast majority of the world's population, especially during significant moments in recent history, such as the fall of the Berlin wall or the attack on the World Trade Center. At such times, huge audiences turn to television, thereby participating in a global experience.

Moreover, film and television generate a stunning array of cultural products, and, in a globalized world, these products flow easily across borders. Hollywood films have circulated in theaters around the world since the 1910s, and, more recently, Indian and Nigerian films have drawn the attention of global audiences both in theaters and via television and home video. Music likewise circulates transnationally over radio, TV, and the Internet, making it possible for far-flung listeners to enjoy popular singers and songs. Moreover, global media have helped to make audiences increasingly aware of cultural styles, formats, and genres from afar. African juju music, Brazilian telenovelas, Chinese martial arts, Mumbai musicals, and European reality shows now share the global stage with Hollywood action films.

Meanwhile, the Internet has expanded at a rapid rate, facilitating connections across space and evading national and local forms of regulation and censorship. The Internet not only challenges barriers to media flow but also reduces the cost of communication: Connections to correspondents on the other side of the world are no more expensive to the user than connections to neighbors in the same building. Although Internet usage requires literacy, a phone connection, and a reliable electricity supply, it is estimated that 21% of the world's population makes regular use of the Internet, and that figure continues to grow rapidly.

An even great share of the global population, more than 80%, have access to telephone service. A dramatic increase in usage occurred in the first decade of the 21st century, brought about largely by the spread of mobile phone technology, which helped to make the telephone a global medium. One study of New York City phone traffic showed that the dominant users of transnational telephony were those at the top and bottom of the social ladder. Financial and corporate executives made extensive use of voice and data services to coordinate global investment, manufacturing, and marketing operations, while at the other end of the social scale, immigrant populations in the city were also robust users, keeping in touch with friends, family, and business partners in their countries of origin. New immigrants also made use of wire services for money transfers, repatriating more than US$300 billion annually, far more than the foreign aid contributions made to the developing countries each year by wealthy governments.

On the one hand, communication media have made it possible for huge corporations to build global empires and for media conglomerates to extend their reach around the globe. On the other hand, common citizens have embraced media technologies so as to create, sustain, and extend connections with others around the world. Communication media have furthermore facilitated the growth of transnational political movements organized around such concerns as ecology, feminism, and fair trade. Moreover, media have played a role in altering everyday perceptions and consciousness, so that people are able to think and talk about the world as one place. Sociologist Roland Robertson suggests that, rather than understanding the world as just being itself, we [Page 1134]increasingly imagine the world being “for itself.” We speak of global order, human rights, and nuclear disarmament as shared projects. We reflect on information from near and far, and we often deliberate as if we have a stake in both local and global events. Not everyone joins these conversations and certainly all voices are not equal, but these discussions nevertheless span great distances and include a vast number of people, and the outcomes of these interactions often have effects that transcend local and national societies.

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