A WORLD OF IDEAS:

GLOBALIZATION OF MEDIA,
CULTURES & RELIGION

LOURDES LOBIS-NIEVA, PHD

INTENDED LEARNING OUTCOMES:

• Analyze how various media drive various forms of global

integration
• Explain the dynamic between local and global cultural production
• Explain how globalization affects religious practices and beliefs
A. GLOBALIZATION OF MEDIA

• Media
is the “main means of mass communication (broadcasting,
publishing, and the Internet) regarded collectively.”
It is a cultural product. Transferring such product will likely
influence the recipient’s culture.
RELATIONSHIP OF MEDIA AND
TECHNOLOGY

• Technology allows for quick communication, fast and coordinated

transport, and efficient mass marketing, all of which have allowed
globalization— especially globalized media—to take hold
• It complements and drives media forward. Improvements in
technology has propelled media to greater heights
MEDIA GLOBALIZATION

• – the worldwide integration of media through the cross-cultural

exchange of ideas
MEDIA AND CULTURE:
• Media, which delivers ideas, information, values, etc. across
borders, affects one’s culture. Much globalized media content comes
from the West, particularly from the United States. Some believe
that this will “contribute to a one-way transmission of ideas and
values that result in the displacement of indigenous cultures.”
• Examples: Filipinos subscribing to Netflix and Viu tend to emulate
or adopt the ideas, practices and values show in these media
platform
 MEDIA AND CULTURE:

• Most people who are exposed to Western media content tend to be more
accepting of liberal ideas which originated in the West (e.g. gender
equality, divorce, same-sex relationships, etc.).
• In a way, the globalization of media leads to homogenization or
heterogenization of cultures.
• Just like how we use products and technology from other countries in our
everyday lives, we are able to adopt and personalize the culture that
comes with media.
 MEDIA AND ECONOMY

• Just as media influence culture, media also influences the economy

• Examples: Driven by advertising, U.S. culture and media have a strong
consumerist bent (meaning that the ever-increasing consumption of
goods is encouraged as an economic virtue), thereby possibly causing
foreign cultures to increasingly develop consumerist ideals. Therefore,
the globalization of media could not only provide content to a foreign
country but may also create demand for U.S. products.
B. DYNAMICS OF LOCAL AND GLOBAL
CULTURE
• Global flows of culture tend to move more easily around the globe
than ever before, especially through non-material digital forms

• 3 perspectives on global cultural flows

• 1. Cultural differentialism
• 2. Cultural hybridization
• 3. Cultural convergence
1. CULTURAL DIFFERENTIALISM
• Emphasizes that cultures are essentially different and are only
superficially affected by global flows. “Catastrophic collision”
may potentially occur when different cultures interact.
• Ex: After Cold War, increasing interaction among different
“civilizations” (e.g. Sinic, Islamic, Orthodox & Western) would
lead to intense clashes, especially the economic conflict between
Western and Sinic civilizations.
2. CULTURAL HYBRIDIZATION

• Emphasizes the integration of local and global cultures.

Globalization is considered to be a creative process which creates
hybrid entities that are not either global or local
• Ex: glocalization
3. CULTURAL CONVERGENCE

• Emphasizes homogeneity. Cultures are deemed to be greatly

altered by strong flows.
• Ex: cultural imperialism – this happens when one culture imposes
itself on and tends to destroy at least parts of another culture
 C. THE GLOBALIZATION OF RELIGION
• Today most religions are not relegated to the countries they began.
Religions have, in fact, spread and scattered on a global scale.
Globalization provided religions a fertile milieu to spread and thrive.
Scholte (2005) said:
• “Accelerated globalization of recent times has enabled co-religionists
across the planet to have greater direct contact with one another. Global
communications, global organizations, global finance, and the like have
allowed ideas of the Muslim and the universal Christian church to be
given concrete shape as never before.”
 C. THE GLOBALIZATION OF RELIGION
• Information technologies, transportation means and the media are deemed
important means on which religionists rely on the dissemination of their
religious ideas.
• Countless websites that provide information about religions have been
created. This makes pieces of information and explanations about
different religions ready at the disposal of any person regardless of his or
her geographical location.
• The Internet allows people to contact each other worldwide and therefore
hold forums and debates that allow religious ideas to spread.
 C. THE GLOBALIZATION OF RELIGION
• Media also play an important role in the dissemination of religious
ideas. A lot of TV channels, radio stations and print media are founded
solely for advocating religions.
• Modern transportation contributed considerably to the emergence,
revivalism and fortification of religion. Ex: improvement in
transportation has allowed many Muslims to travel to Mecca and return
with reformist ideas.
• Therefore, modern technology has helped religions of different forms
to cross geographical boundaries and be present everywhere.
 C. THE GLOBALIZATION OF RELIGION
• Globalization has allowed religion or faith to gain considerable significance and
importance as a non-territorial touchstone of identity. Being a source of identity and
pride, religion has always been promoted by its practitioners so that it could reach
the level of globality and be embraced by as many people as possible.
• By paving the way for religions to come in contact w/ each other, globalization has
brought such religions to a circle of competition and conflicts. Globalization
transforms the generic “religion” into a world-system of competing and conflicting
religions. Globalization has paradoxical effect of making religions more self-
conscious of themselves as being “world religions”.
C. THE GLOBALIZATION OF RELIGION
• Such conflicts among world religions exhibit a proof confirming the
erosion and failure of hybridization. Since religions have distinct
internal structures, their connections to different cultures and their
rituals and beliefs contradict. For instance, Islam and Christianity are
mostly incompatible with each other. These religions cannot be
hybridized or homogenized even if they come in contact.
C. THE GLOBALIZATION OF RELIGION
• Though religion is strengthened by globalization, it represents a challenge
to globalization’s hybridizing effects. Religion seeks to assert its identity
in the light of globalization. As a result, different religious identities come
to the fore and assert themselves. Such assertions of religious identities
constitute a defensive reaction to globalization. It has been difficult for
religion to cope with values that accompany globalization like liberalism,
consumerism, and rationalism because such phenomena advocate
scientism and secularism.
 C. THE GLOBALIZATION OF RELIGION
• Globalization is also associated with Westernization and
Americanization. The dominance exerted by these two processes,
particularly on the less developed countries, makes religion-related
cultures and identities take defensive measures to protect themselves.
• Sometimes, extreme forms of resisting other cultural influence are being
done, such as that of Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
“Globalization is not only seen as a rival of Islamic ways, but also as an
alien force divorced from Muslim realities” (Ehteshami, 2007).
C. THE GLOBALIZATION OF RELIGION
• So, while religion takes caution against the norms and the values
related to globalization, it challenges the latter since religion does not
approve its hybridizing effects.
REFERENCES:
• Aldama, P.K.R. (2018). The Contemporary World. Manila, Philippines: Rex Book Store. pp.
10-11. El-Ghadban, Y. “Popular Music and Globalization.” The SAGE Handbook of
Globalization: Chapter 23, pp. 379-398.
• “Global Implications of Media and Technology.” (n.d.). Retrieved from
https://courses.lumenlearning.com/sociology/chapter/global-implications-of-media-and-technol
ogy
/.
• “Globalization of Media.” (n.d.). Retrieved from https://
saylordotorg.github.io/text_understanding-media-and-culture-an-introduction-to-mass-commun
ication/s16-05-globalization-of-media.html
• Lule, J. “Globalization and the Media: Creating the Global Village.” The SAGE Handbook of
Globalization: Chapter 22, pp. 363-378.
• Roudometof, V. “Religion and Globalization.” The SAGE Handbook of Globalization: Chapter
QUIZ