Theories of Globalization in Communication - Essay Example

Theories of Globalisation in Communication Introduction Mass Media and communication has gone through major changes because of globalisation. Theories of communication have to be viewed along with the impact of globalisation to realise the complete effect of the communication psychology. Globalisation theories support communication and develop them to judge the effect on the masses. Naturally, this also impacts upon the culture and the life style of the people. They adopt varying life styles depending up on their own perceived impact due to the mass media. This paper briefs about the communication theories and the globalisation theories that are in vogue and the way they impact upon one another. Subsequently, the impact of the mass media and communication on the culture of people is also presented. The impact is surmised and given in the conclusion of the paper. Communication Theories A number of theories have come about linking the communication, specifically media, the culture and the society at large. While the media was thought to have cast an alter personality who would be forced to behave in a specific way. The altercast theory do have supporters and some of the behavioural traits generated go in line with this. A development of the altercast theory is the cultivation theory which says that the thought processes in the people who are watching the media can be cultivated over a period of time. Like a plant or stalagmites on the roofs of the cave, they are slowly and steadily built over a period of time. This also meant that the presence in the media is needed and continuously too. The domestication theory, on the other hand, looks at the entire society to be a network of households; a network that runs on cultural, social and technological creations. Miller (1988) defined the concept of domestication theory into four phases; from appropriation, objectification, incorporation and conversion starting from the creating a product to objections to its usage and then on to incorporating into the daily lives. Incorporation would also involve converting the technologies and products to suit the cultural style of the locale. This also includes the environment. The final stage is when the household converts itself in line with the trends that is happening in the society and tries to be in line with the outside world. While the gatekeeper theory, pushes forward the much observed, head of the family concept, where one of the members of the family, the mother or the wife wields more strength in deciding on what gets bought (Golding & Harris 1997). What kind of food and clothing is worn by the people is decided more by them rather than by the other members of the family. A person who wants to push need to ensure that the deciding person is the one addressed in their media ads. Gatekeeping concepts have been developed subsequently, so that many organisations even use gatekeeping in their organisational setup (Mattelart A 1998). Even these decisions by the gatekeepers are decided based on the mental models that they have in their mind. Most of the decisions made by the people depend on the mental pictures that they have of the product in their mind, according to Thussu (2000). He also stressed that reasoners build models of truth rather than models of false. Therefore, it is easier for people to make mistakes during such model building exercises. Modernisation theory came up in three waves. Modernisation invariably brings in the western culture under focus and its spread in the world. The first wave of the theory accepted the influence of modernisation with the western culture and technologies at its core. It dominated the entire world and was part of the globalisation agenda. During the second wave that happened in the 1970s and 1980s, the cultural impacts were more widespread. But at the same time, there were very few supporters of the western influence in the cultures of the world. Modernisation was noticed and continued to happen but there was opposition even among the western society, specifically the English. The final wave happened in the 1990s and involves the late, high and post modernity theory. In the final stages, the theory tries to see how the communication in the globalising world impacts the individual and his performance (Giddens 1991). While interactions between people in the traditional world had to be face to face, now the interactions are more spread across time and space. The mass media as well as the interactive Medias like the internet bring about a large change in the way work is done and the interaction between people happens. Benjamin Barber (1996) explains how the world is both falling apart because of the cultural differences that exist across the world and is also coming together with one single large scale lingua franca, 'English' and the internet uniting the world. Van Dijk (1999) explains how the bringing together that happens in the world due to the internet and the mobile systems also develop and individuality by evolving what he calls the 'networked individual'. The person is available all twenty four hours of the day but at the same time isolated. The spiral of silence is primarily an off shoot of the research that was carried out on the instance of a mass behaviour when wrong and publicly unacceptable ideas are sold to a majority. It presupposes that the people tend to behave in a way so as to support the majority of the people in the society. This would create a spiral. From a small minority who 'think' that they are a losing 'minority' keep quiet assuming that the majority of the people support the cause. However, over a period of time this minority grows as an expanding spiral bringing under it a large number of people who think that they are part of the minority and do not express their ideas or opinions on the cause. Noelle-Neumann (1991) suggests that most of the people do not want to discuss a contra opinion to what is held by the public. This becomes more pronounced with large scale media interactions, particularly in a global economy and global culture. The impact of the media in the communication is profound and hurts the global scenario to a large extent. This is seen in a number of large scale mass media campaigns particularly let loose during a war or a pre war campaign to turn the public mind away from the other happenings while at the same time trying to promote the specific view of the government that is driven towards war. Globalisation Theories The globalisation theories take up three forms; one, the World System theory, two, the World Polity Theory and three, the World Culture Theory. The world system theory looks at the globalisation as an economic and capitalist system that started way back in sixteenth century and reached its culmination in the twentieth century (Wallerstein 1974, 1995). This has led to a large scale polarisation of the world. But at the same time, has brought in an economic interdependence across all societies in the world. If this is the basis of the world system theory, globalisation according to world polity theory is a cultural amalgamation. This started happening when mankind started. But then, when men separated and formed their own civilisations, they developed cultures that are different and not in sync with the others. Globalisation is the one that brought about a cultural amalgamation across the world (Meyer et al, 1997). The increase in communication, speed of transportation and interdependence of people economically has all lead to creation of a culturally interdependent and modified global village. According to the culture theory of globalisation, the world is moving together or decreasing in its virtual size because of the consciousness of the world as one. This has increased the nature of work that is done by the people when they perceive the world to be one and integrated. International communication has made it possible for people to realise the greatness of the individualism. There was difference in thought and process across society but the consciousness that world is one, permeates everything else. The globalisation according to this theory is a conscious compression of the world into a smaller entity, virtually (Robertson 1992). Technology drives the globalisation process. European supremacy in the military technology and in the transportation was the major advantages that they had to claim supremacy over the rest of the world. The European core that conducted its business using a globally split economic structure was the precursor the economic globalisation. The same way, movement of people across the globe and later over the sea or air was the major cause for cultural integration. But this movement of people preceded and was succeeded also, by printed media and later by the mass media that carried information on one culture to the other. The social customs of one impressed the other and vice versa. The acceptance of the European culture and their domination across the world could easily be seen. This was also the reason for the globalisation to take root. In the case of bringing down the size of the world, the communication industry has played its role in all forms. From individual communication to mass media, the happenings at one end of the world could affect and have ramifications for the people in the other end; whether it is the price rise of fuel or a war. It had an impact and the feeling that the world has been reduced in size hits every user. Impact of Globalisation on communication From the theories laid out earlier, it is clear that the impact is mutual. Globalisation has been accelerated and developed using communication. So did communication. Without globalisation communication would not have developed to such a great extent. Unless the need for it was not created, the inventions to develop communication would not have happened (Robertson 1992). The theory of communication clearly states that the globalisation of the world has lead to an increased communication use. While the divergence of culture and ethnic regions should really be bringing about destruction and falling apart of the world, the world on the other end is coming together. This primarily is happening because of the large scale communication that has set in. When the European adventurers set out to new frontiers of land, communication was one of the major handicaps that were faced by them. This meant that with communication changes that should happen in the world, managing of such large diverse 'empires' would become easier (Tomlinson 1991). The major inventions of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries were aimed at making managing-the-empires easier. These empires are not necessarily political or military, they could also be economical. Large scale increase in business across the world increased the need for improving communications and therefore, the media also developed. With the interest of the people increasing in all places across the world, the need for collecting and disseminating business has increased. One would get the instant news over different media. Communication has aided and has brought about large scale increase in globalisation in all forms. Communication according to theories has also modified itself to suit the growing needs and changing demands of its users. From a single-sided one way communication, mass media has turned into interactive and multi media to suit the demands of the new era. Similarly, the globalisation has been aided and supported by communication in its growth. The globalisation theories all connect up to the networking phenomenon that is communication. Whether it is the system theory or the polity or the cultural theory of globalisation, all of them put forth the concept that it is the communication and the increase in transportation systems that has led to globalisation of the world. Whether it is the culture or the political integration that has brought in globalisation, it is found that communication is at the root of the entire exercise (Hamelink 1994). In the case of those systems that spread disenchantment with working together, it is again communication that aids them. However, the effort to unite the world is much stronger with the communication and therefore, the global village has occurred and is still continuing to shrink in its size. This would increase further in due course as the technological developments and marvels would bring about major changes in the world of communications. With the increase in personal communication and interactive communication too, it is only normal to find that the globalisation has taken the more personal turn in line with the culture theory. Conclusion From the arguments presented earlier in the paper, it is clear that the communication theory bases itself on the globalisation. Globalisation of the culture has aided shift development of mass media cultural integration. The fashion world across the world seems to have similar thoughts even though there are culturally independent views of societies existing everywhere. Globalisation has also helped in bringing out newer and stronger needs to the communication industry thereby footing most of the developmental efforts and research efforts in the industry. Globalisation theories support this concept. So do the culture theories which in turn accept and support the fact that the globalisation is the prime driver for the communication growth and communication theory. The underlying factor in communication theory is societal living. The society itself has gone global with the global village coming of age. This would mean the media produces output not for a small market but for the global market as a whole. References 1. 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