A few students asked me to say something about cultural globalization.
What is cultural globalization and what kind of trends do we see?
We discussed that culture, and in fact our own perception of reality,
is both formed and maintained by communication.
Cultural communication is basically all communication,
because we always implicitly communicate values and ideas, even when we
are listening to seemingly meaningless music, or watching an entertaining soap opera,
or reading a simple comic book:
they all communicate something about the culture in which they were produced.
Well, cultural globalization is, simply put, an international reach of cultural ideas and values,
as a result of a global communication of messages.
According to most scholars there was always some extent of globalization
as people travelled throughout history.
Historical developments, like wars, colonization, increased international trade,
increased education, increased international tourism. These trends were all reasons for
a growing interest in international affairs and created the context
in which an international communication landscape could develop.
But the rate of globalization has increased with the reach of our mass media
It started slowly with cultural carriers that travellers took home,
like little statues, jewelry or coins.
The globalization pace quickened with the rise of print media.
Books, pamphlets and newspapers made international travel of cultural messages
more widespread.
In the nineteenth century for example,
English and American newspapers were read throughout the world.
Perhaps this is also the start of a dominance of an Anglo American culture
in global communication.
Movies and television programs were again a new step in the globalization trend.
A picture can say more than a thousand words.
Well, these new audio visual media brought pictures and sounds.
And again, they were mostly Anglo-American TV shows and movies
that travelled the world.
These cultural messages did not only travel the world,
they also influenced the people they encountered.
People felt culturally connected through movies and television series and such
with people on the other side of the globe.
The globalization trend has only increased in recent years,
mainly due to the rise of digital and mobile media
that a) give us immediate access to a rich assortment of cultural content
from basically every country in the world
and b) allows us to communicate with people in other countries easily and instantly.
It is quite clear that today we have an international communication landscape
that exists in a variety of media
like books, magazines, newspapers, radio, television, cinema and the internet.
But what exactly is its effect on the formation of culture throughout the world?
As you know, culture creates a feeling of belonging.
That cultural messages are now spread internationally is, according to some,
reason to believe that a ‘global village’ is emerging,
where people feel connected with each other, regardless of their country of origin.
The global culture that is communicated through our mass media is the
binding force of this village. It connects us.
Optimists believe that all this cultural sharing will lead to 1) greater understanding and 2)
a lessening of cultural misunderstanding and conflict.
However, other scholars see a very different trend.
Yes, people are now forming groups with others from other countries,
but at the same time, societal cohesion in general is weakening as a result.
Members of these groups feel more connected to the group than to society.
This trend is called tribalism, and in fact means that as smaller groups become
culturally stronger they become more and more isolated from larger society.
These groups form modern day tribes.
Their strong group culture is carried by their own specific channels
with their own culturally approved content.
The group identity becomes increasingly different from mainstream society
that it in fact starts to oppose it. Therefore, scholars that believe in this new tribalism trend
actually predict more cultural misunderstanding and more conflict as a result of this.