Week Two - Global Flows and Scapes

There are many different interpretations of what globalisation means, my interpretation of the term is an evolution of a global community that is connected in more ways than ever before. The idea of globalisation is in no way new, its history spans for decades, but the rapid increase of new technologies has meant the global community is shifting and connecting faster than ever before.

A definition of globalisation that I found most interesting in this week’s reading came from Albrow. He defined globalisation as:

“Globalization refers to all those processes by which the people of the world are incorporated into a single world society, global society” (Rantanen, 2005).

The idea of a global society seems truer today than ever before, as more and more people connect on various platforms, enabling a global society to be formed. The formation of this global society has been helped with the increased movement of people, cultures, traditions, food, fashion and trade. The advanced technologies that have become common place all over the world have also had a massive impact on connecting the world.

Another way of looking at the formation of a global community is the various “scapes” of globalisation, introduced by Appadurai in this week’s reading. Appadurai explains that globalization consists of the junctures and disjunctures of five scapes: ethnoscape, mediascape, technoscape, financescape and ideoscape (Appadurai, 1998: 33-6 in Rantanen, 2005, pg. 13). The “scapes” of globalisation overlap as well as interconnect with each other, indicating that each “scape” has helped shape the world we live in today. Two “scapes” that rely heavily on each other are technoscape and mediascape.

Technoscape refers to both mechanical and informational technology that moves at high speeds across various kinds of previously impervious boundaries (Rantanen, 2005, pg. 13). While on the other hand, mediascape refers to the ability and availability of electronic devices to share information instantly. The use of smart devices such as mobile phones, laptops and tablets has increased; therefore the technology of these devices has needed to develop, enabling the consumer to have the very latest and greatest in technology.

Image by: (http://www.bil-lander.com/?attachment_id=268)

 

The more we rely on the internet and our smart devices that offer us everything at the touch of a button, how is our life away from our iPhones, laptops, tablets etc. being affected? Is the next generation going to be able to communicate without a screen in front of them?

References:

Rantanen, T 2005, ‘Theorizing media and globalization’, Media and globalization 2005, Sage Publications, London, pp. 1-18

Hello!! And welcome to my blog for ALC215, my name is Emily and for the next few months I will be posting what I think about Globalisation and the Media.

I am a second year Media and Communications student at Deakin University who is very interested in journalism and the inner workings of the media. So far, I have thoroughly enjoyed the course and hope that feeling continues.

This blog will be where I will express my views on the ever changing world that we live in and also where I will respond to various topics covered within this unit.

Thanks for visiting!

Emily :)