How have particular media inventions/technologies* driven and been driven by globalization?
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How have particular media inventions/technologies* driven and been driven by globalization?
Media/technological inventions go hand in hand with globalization and one way or the other their relationship is symbiotic (one improve the other and vice versa). Several theories have been developed to try and explain these relation with respect to the time, space and places. Of course as globalization concepts change, so do media technologies, which occur at specified time, place and over a specific space. Since globalization translates to the growing international interdependence and influence, media inventions/technologies have aided in making the globe a smaller place because people are now able to interact with one another all over the world. When people can interact and share goods and services, cultures and economic prospects, they also share ideas, development, and information that is crucial in advancing these media technologies. Two theorist Giddens and Harvey in their acknowledgement of time space and place as social construct, they discussed media and communication in relation to globalization. “New communication technologies ensure that trans-global social relationships are becoming more intense and robust rather than stretched and attenuated.” (Waters, 1995; Quoted by Rantanen, 2005). Media inventions has driven globalization by aiding in creation of a uniform standard time that has been able to allow some partial coordination beyond the local level via invention of a national communications network. Second, in relation to place, mass communications results in growing uniformity of landscapes and lessening of places through encouragement and transmission of standardized but general fashions and tastes (Relph, 1976; quoted byRantanen, 2005). Thirdly in terms of space, Media and communications have transformed places and space via connection of places to each other and creation of new spaces within and outside places not
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formally known. On the other hand through improvements in communication media and technological methods globalization is enhance as the world becomes a virtually small village where information can be share in conveniently and promptly.
Time invention started with the introduction of clocks and calendars. Calendars are organized into annual, monthly and weekly time periods where people marked themed and religious holy days. Mechanical clocks on the other hand have daily circles (Ong, 1982: pg 76 Quoted byRantanen, 2005). Revolution in communication technologies created indispensable uniform and standard time system that made it possible for supra-local level type of coordination as a result of introduction of a national communication network. This enabled synchronization of different global communities and countries in relation to one another. By mid-19thcentury, due to national communication network time had been standardized to the local time where each village, city or town had its own time zone. Mailing services and the introduction of railway transportation promoted the standardization of time via use of strict schedules that concurred with the national communication networks. Trains brought different communities within immediate reach to one another and made these people more aware of the fact that local times of other communities differed from theirs and were coordinated according to each place local time. For example, the Great Western Railway used Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) which was also integrated by other stations in their time table. Developments in telecommunication such as telegraphs were built along railway lines and they used the standard local time system. Telegraph were a development where people passed information through telegraph networks to each other around the world that would later develop the global time. The networks also connected news and time close together making it easy to access information in real time. Through the national communication networks
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globalization was enhanced as communities were accessing information from others as they integrated in commerce and trade.
Secondly, Media role in enhancing globalization the different between place and space became more imminent. Media inventions/technologies enabled mass communication that led to growing uniformity of landscape and making place locality insignificant due to encouragement and transmission of general/standardized tastes and fashions globally. Mass communication and media as a whole changed places into non-places because, electronic media affected people through their contents and changing the situational geography of the social life. Through communication technologies such as telephone, radio, TV, and computers, people are no longer physically determined by the places they are or rather in regard to who they are socially (Rantanen, 2005). Therefore, mass media has driven globalization via change in identities because connections that existed between places and identity are loosened and rendered not important anymore. We are now a global village.
Space is an abstract term in relation to a place but they have a close connection. Through interaction and communication places are usually transformed into spaces and turn to spaces of communication. Media technologies create new spaces outside and within places where formally there was none according to norms and rules in the community. For example, a space for women in the society. From this example from discussion of women rights and gender equality space, a space therefore, is more liberating, with expanded borders and new possibilities. Spaces can also be closed, hierarchical and very restrictive. People explore new spaces, obtain power over them, and sometimes struggles exist on who will take control over them. People who live in places,
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transforms spaces and also create new combination of places and spaces aid in traversing globalization (Rantanen, 2005).
Thus far, we’ve seen how media has driven globalization through time, place and place. Globalization has also aided in propagating new development in the development of new media technologies. Through interaction and information sharing and access throughout the globe as a result of globalizations, new innovative ideas have brought forward to advancement in the technologies that ease communication (Jin, 2019. Through globalization, the media experience inventions such as objective journalism and language, formation of new communication spaces and empires, and separation of communication from transportation.
In conclusion, globalization and media go hand in hand in the world. Globalization could not happen without media, and media could not have developed into new technologies without globalization. As in the discussion above, media have contributed towards globalization through invention of time zones, connection of places and culture, and creation of spaces in the world community. In return, interactions at the global level made sharing of innovative ideas possible that led to technological advancement in communication media.
References.
Dal Yong Jin. (2019). Globalization and media in the digital platform age. Routledge.
Rantanen, T. (2005). The media and globalization. Sage.