Globalization theory offers a conceptual map for understanding the rapid shifts in the global flow of goods, labor, capital, and resources across national boundaries. One strand of globalization theory taps into the technological innovations and shifts in mediatized interconnections that have been attached to rapid time-space compression and interpenetration of cross-cultural communication embodied in cross-border movements. In health communication, this strand has been manifest in conversations about global technologies of health, mobile health, development communication for underserved global populations, and health communication for immigrant communities.

Another strand of globalization theory depicts the political and economic shifts attached to the Washington Consensus, reflected in the privatization of resources, liberalization of economies, minimization of subsidies and trade-related tariffs, and depletion of the public sector. Referred to as neoliberalism, ...