The Global

Global agendas are nothing new.

•The Romans (27 BC-1453 AD)

•The Crusades (1095-1200’s AD)

•Genghis Kahn (1200’s)

•Colonialism (1400’s-1900’s)

These efforts in prior centuries used force to gain territory and spread values.

•Globalization today is a process. It is the integration of economic, political, cultural and technological systems across the globe. There is current emphasis on the economy (corporations, markets, free trade), sustainability (environment, health, technology), and universal humanity (identities, cultures, politics, post-colonialism, poverty).

•Globalization of production is the sourcing of goods and services from locations around the world to take advantage of national differences in the cost and quality of components. Think about Boeing or Airbus planes? The Boeing 777 contains over 100.000 major parts produced around the world by over 500 suppliers.

•Globalization of markets is the merging of historically separate national markets into one global marketplace. i.e. McDonalds

•Globalization of information is through advances in telecommunication and technologies but of the 6.8 billion on earth, only 1.6 billion are connected to the internet. That means 80% of the world is disconnected from global communication and e-commerce.

•Some critique that globalization is Westernization but there is evidence like the common American shopping mall food court where you see foreign foods integrated and commercialized, in other words diversity is present but present within a capitalist structure.

In his essay "The Global and the Universal," Baudrillard explains the contemporary obsession with the global. The "Universal" is an idea that has its origin in philosophy, considering all of existence. The "Global" is more recent, born out of capitalism and concerns man made production and a negotiated harmony on earth.

Universal: values, human rights, culture, democracy

Globalization: technologies, the market, tourism, information

Globalization relies on a neutralization of values and decreases the universal. Democracy now circulates like a product and can be even represented by jeans. Singular forms – like culture – are the risk, culture is a form of glory and identity but culture becomes sign.

Baudrillard states, “What if information referred not to an event but information itself," which is the essence of Twitter.

He concludes by explaining that manufactured culture is the opposite of culture as destiny, that in place of the real and tangible world, we have substituted man made products and concepts.

Alan Badiou's essay "Only One World" looks at the global in a different way. Badiou’s emphasis is on humanity. He believes we only think we have globalization but we instead have unbalanced power benefits and serious separation. Democracy is a myth as people live racially and economically separated. He quotes Sarkozy, “If foreigners want to remain in France they have to love France," and explains that as Westerners, we uphold the security state on “otherness.”

District 9 was a science fiction interpretation of Apartheid. During Apartheid in South Africa, from 1948-1994, Africans were under a security state, separated from whites and the media was continually censored. The HRC published a document entitled "Anatomy of Repression" in December 1989 that outlined the forms of media repression.

The Fall 2009 Swiss ban on Minarets is targetted at restricting Islamic worship in Switzerland and has been seriously critiqued.

Global Media

While the above media appear global, there are 3 criteria that reach a global audience

Multi-language

Multi-platform (print, internet, adaptable to software, etc)

Global access / distribution

When we think of global media, we can begin to see the convergence of media in regions such as Europe. Hallin & Mancini summarize Europe and the trend toward homogenization. The 3 regional styles of media (Polarized Pluralist, Liberal and Democratic Corporatist) aremerging into a global media system that resembles the Liberal. There is a general separation of media and politics but decreasing as commerce increases in influence.Secularization is combined with influence from the US and increased technology. Unexpected changes in political parties combined with the multiplication of channels make the future hard to predict. Differentiation is evident in the multiplication of channels and the inetrnet but commercialization has given way to mass de-differentiation in corporate media control.

Global Advertising Media

Key features to global campaigns are multi-language or minimal use of words, multi-platform, and wide spread use.

Click to see Coca Cola's global solution, 2006

In David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest, there is a sponsored future. Advertising's relentless search for new markets has led to a world where years are referred to by the name of their corporate sponsor, such as the "Year of the Whopper." In 2008, Burger King started a global search for "Whopper virgins," taste testing and giving their product away around the globe.

Instead of showcasing the clothes they sell, United Colors of Benetton has been using global issues in its campiagns for over a decade.

1992, reporters contribute images of catastrophes

1994, The blood-stained T-shirt and trousers belonging to the soldier Marinko Gagro, who was killed during the war in former Yugoslavia, become a symbol of peace.

1995, Different kinds of barbed wire from South Africa, former Yugoslavia, Mexico, the Lebanon, Japan, Israel, Hungary, Brazil, Ireland and Germany and from the gardens of various private properties.

2008, Sengalese businessmen who were given micro-credit loans

The "Red" ad campaigns were an effort to help world health issues. Unfortunately, 2007 stats showed Gap, Motorola and Apple invested $100 million in advertising and raised only $18 million for The Global Fund to fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

Global Television Media

In addition to the Olympics, World Cup and other international sporting events, the global ratings rise for pageants. Miss World is the oldest international pageant created in the UK in 1951. Miss Universe was created in 1952 by the US company Pacific Mills and is owned by Donald Trump/NBC. Miss Earth, “Beauties for Cause,” started by a Philippine coutnry in 2001 to promote environmental awareness and had controversy over Miss Afghanistan.

The highest pageant ratings are in Venezuela, the US and Puerto Rico. Miss Universe has excellent US ratings, beating NBA playoffs. Miss Universe makes considerable money off TV ads and international broadcast rights, but it also rakes in franchising fees; countries or states that wish to hold qualifying pageants must pay for the privilege. 2003, Miss Venezuela almost didn't make it to the finals in Panama because her nation's franchise, the Miss Venezuela Organization, couldn't come up with the necessary $80,000 fee. In the United States, state franchises raise the cash by asking hopefuls to pony up a $695 fee, and some franchises additionally require that their families take out a $350 ad in the pageant program.