reader response draft 2

In Kraidy's article, "Globalization of culture through media (2002)", he explored the global media debate between 'cultural imperialism' and 'globalization'. Kraidy disagreed that audiences especially from developing countries are passive importers and receivers of values, information and products from Western culture. He evaluated and analyzed cultural imperialism and explained how it evolved with the influence of media into 'globalization' and 'hybridization'. Instead of a homogenizing process, he considered cultural globalization as hybridization where different cultures globally transform and adapt to satisfy their local needs while retaining aspects of their traditional culture.

Kraidy mentions that one party of the debate regarding the ‘relationship between media and the globalization of culture’ perceives that “mass media trigger[ed] and create[ed] the globalization of culture”.

I personally feel that the claim is too generalized and fails to take into consideration the other driving factors of cultural globalization that precedes the advent of mass media. Therefore, I believe that the phenomenon of globalization of culture is already prevalent in the past, long before the introduction of mass media.

The advancement of technology and progression into the digital age has invariably increased the speed of culture globalization. Ashdown stated that “Because of the internet”, “Everything is connected to everything [in our modern world]” making nations and people ‘interdependent’ and ‘interlocked’ (Ashdown, 2011). This progression is evident in our everyday life, such as television channels and online news portals supplying news from all over the world to our intimate spaces. Social media platforms increased interconnectivity of people and allowed them to adapt and gain knowledge of different cultures. Mass media truly transforms our cultural experiences in unprecedented ways.

Media is an indisputable force of the globalization of culture, but I would not label it as the sole trigger. The era of the steamboat began in 1787 and bullet train transportation was invented in the early 1960s, such transportation advancements led to increased in the movement of people and migration. These are integral factors of cultural globalization as  “new technologies of transport allow frequent and multi-directional flows of people, ideas and cultural symbols” (Castles, 2006).  Looking beyond the influences of mass media, I consider advances in transportation, migration as early engines of cultural globalization that assisted the assimilation of different culture by various groups of people and generation of cultural activities. Therefore, I do not agree that mass media should be solely culpable for cultural globalization even though it has indeed quickened and escalated the whole process.

(400 words)

References:

Stephen Castles (23 FEB 2006). Migration and Community Formation under Conditions of 

Globalization.

Paddy Ashdown (Jan 2012). The global power shift. 

http://www.ted.com/talks/paddy_ashdown_the_global_power_shift.html

source=facebook#.Uvj0BmChr9I.facebook

Kraidy, M. M. (2002). Globalization of Culture Through the Media. Retrieved from

http://repository.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1333&context=asc_papers