Globalization

When doing the readings on Globalization, I firstly needed to understand fully what Globalization actually is.

 “Globalization is the direct consequence of the expansion of European culture across the planet via settlement, colonization and cultural mimesis… However, it does not imply that every corner of the planet must become westernized and capitalist, but rather that every set of social arrangements must establish its position in relation to the capitalist west…” [Waters, M, 1995;p3]

 Globalization is only one theory to how the industries have expanded globally. It has different arguments to the concept of Globalization and an argument which I repeatedly came across was the idea of Globalization being a way to westernize the world.

Globalization is when a company, for example Mcdonalds, expands its business to other countries, still producing the same products. An example of this in New Media or Photography would be the company Cannon. They produce their products all over the world and have the same store. Also, Facebook is a perfect example of Globalization. It began in America and is now used by people all over the world. Glocalisation is when the products are adjusted to the countries preferences culturally. For example, Mcdonalds may sell the same products all over the world but in some countries such as India, due to cultural differences, they would not sell beef products. Facebook too also has the option for the user to change its language preference so that it’s more user friendly for people who don’t speak English. Glocalisation may be a way in arguing that Globalization is not a form of westernising the world. This is because the companies are not thrusting upon the audiences with their original western idea but adjusting their services to suit those with a cultural difference.

 I read Malcolm Waters book of Globalization and found it very useful for explaining the concept of Globalization. He quotes:

“Post Modernism was the concept of the 1980’s. Globalization may be the concept of the 1990’s, a key idea by which we understand the transition of human society into the third millennium” [Waters, M, 1995;p1]

 
This quote furthermore explained that maybe Globalization is even more of a current thing as it only started to develop in the 60’s but the progressed later into the 90’s when it actually started to become more of a key idea.

Globalization within the world of Photography comes in with NewsPapers.
"While the internet is perhaps the most instantly recognisable of global media forms, in fact it was news production that was the first truly global media enterprise" [Long, P and Wall, T, 2012;p238]
Newspapers being the first to become globally recognised means that photos were progressing across the world originally.

Waters, M (1995). Globalization. London: Routledge. 1-3.

Paul Long Tim Wall (2012). Media Studies, Text, Production, Context. 2nd ed. Essex, England: Pearson Education Limited. 238.