The statement at the head of the page assumes that Globalization creates both winners and losers. This is a view shared by many, but not all, theorists and commentators. There are many trends of thought regarding exactly who the winners and losers may be as well as what may be considered a prize or a punishment (e.g. some may sight the availability of McDonalds fast food throughout France an enrichment and some may see it as an unwelcome and unsavoury invasion.) Comparison between these opinions paints an interesting picture of what Globalization is, what certain parties want it to be seen as and what kind of world it could create. Anthony Giddens says “Globalization, some argue, creates a world of winners and losers, a few on the fast track to prosperity, the majority condemned to a life of misery and despair.” This is a view shared by many theorists, however positive Globalists (perhaps naively) claim Globalization will lead to winnings for all and extreme pessimists exist who see ‘Globalization’ as the path to mass ruin and exploitation and as a vague buzzword umbrella from und

Howard Rheingold, a leading figure in WELL (Whole Earth ‘Lectronic Link), a San Francisco electronic community, promotes the progressive possibilities of the Internet. Rheingold’s work is based on the arguments of Jurgen Habermas who discusses the notion of the ‘Public Sphere’. The Public Sphere is a space free from state control where citizens without censorship or recording by Governments and other official bodies can debate politics and policy. Rheingold and Habermas see the Public Sphere as playing an intrinsic part in modern democracy. Rheingold’s arguments focus on the structure of domination. We can see, by his rationale, that compared to the highly structured, power concentrated mass media the new electronic structures e.g. Internet, Telephone text messaging, offer a high degree of freedom of speech and expression. (Although this is not always the case: computer hacking, ISP parental controls and police intervention (e.g. in suspected paedophile cases) can ‘threaten’ these channels of free communication.) Rheingold says that where CMC (Computer Mediated Communication) is accessible to people, virtual communities emerge therefore reflecting a demand for community (Rheingold, 1995, p6).

Cultural Imperialism is one theory behind what Globalization is and what it’s principle players’ motives are. The argument is based on work carried out by the Frankfurt School of sociology (particularly by Adorno and Horkheimer). Cultural goods are seen as flowing to the rest of the world from America or the West as a whole, cultivating Western or US values in those recipient nations and paving the way for even more goods to arrive therefore more capital to flow back to US or West as a whole. Cultural flows are seen as imbalanced where dominant cultures e.g. US culture overpowers more vulnerable cultures e.g. Russian culture. An example of Cultural Imperialism is the structure of world news. The five major western news agencies are responsible for producing 80% of world news and only a quarter of all world news focuses on the developing world. Therefore the dominant culture is focussed on and given precedence over the weaker. One argument, which could be raised to this Pessimistic view, is that Western countries are the highest consumers of news and media in general and perhaps the ratio of television receivers may also be a lot higher in developed countries as opposed to developing countries, in which case the supply reflects the demand.

Globalists generally fall into two categories; Pessimists (whose views will be explored later) and Optimists, who suggest, in terms of cultural globalization, that the world is moving towards a ‘global village’ and in terms of economic globalization, that the poor people of the world can only benefit from globalization, that what globalization brings to them, although it is not the full western lifestyle with all the trimmings and priviledges, that it is better than current and past conditions. The Optimists (or Positive Globalizers) have a clear and positive take on what Globalization is and what affect it w

Some topics in this essay:
Anthony Giddens, Northern Territories, Rupert Murdoch’s, Governments Companies, Cultural Imperialism, Mediated Communication, , G8 Keeoto, Information Poor, Positive Globalizers, winners losers, ‘global village’, rupert murdoch’s, mass media, global local, own countries, view shared theorists, global communications, shared theorists, view shared, media power,