Final Draft- Reader's Response to 'Globalization of Culture Through the Media'

In the article ‘Globalization of Culture Through the Media’, Marwan M. Kraidy (2002) explores the different factors that has led to culture hybridization. He points out that the role of media as a major factor has influenced global cultures greatly. The changes transforming world culture was so significant that it prompted a worldwide debate on the issue.

 

Kraidy’s (2002) arguments on how the impact of globalization of the media was interesting as he raised both perspectives of the positives and negatives effect it had on culture. He was critical in his argument by isolating American values as the most influential among other Western values. This is not surprising as the United States (US) was the most influential and powerful nation during the era where globalization started to emerge and widespread (Kraidy 2002).

 

Kraidy’s (2002) perspective on cultural hybridisation explains how globalization and localization are two dynamic factors that interplay, resulting in the creation of hybrid values that is a mixture of traditional and cultural forms. In today’s modern world, we cannot deny the fact that American culture has been adopted in most cultures today. From the diversity of fields of filmography(Hollywood), food, and fashion, just to name some, are some examples of American culture being blend into locals’ culture, creating fusion by-products in an international scale. From fashion branded items such as Calvin Klein apparels or designers’ bags and accessories of Tony Burch (Doran 2012), the global market are trending towards American goods.

 

One of reasons that allowed the American culture be exposed and known to a large audience internationally is due to the Internet and media. It has been recognized that “global media and information technologies have substantially increased contacts between cultures, both in terms of intensity and of the speed with which these two contacts occur” (Kraidy 2002). This statement is highly true when Internet shopping websites are a plenty nowadays like asos.com, where anyone from the world are able to buy American products with just a click of a button. The Internet has revolutionized the way we receive and retrieve information, and online shopping enables individuals to adopt American culture, like fashion, with ease as boundaries are eliminated with globalization.

 

The debate on culture and media is an on-going process, where the complexities of the issue are very much subjective. However, there is no denial of how the media and the Internet have helped to boost the awareness of American culture through online information where it is highly accessible. We need to be aware of the constraint of a hybridized culture, where there is limitation to a certain degree of the acceptance of American values that should not contradict our own culture. The consequences of an imbalanced mixed is inevitable as there is no universal indicator that control individual liberty of choice.         

 

References:

Doran, S. 2012. The Most Searched For American Fashion Brands in the World. [ONLINE] Available at: http://luxurysociety.com/articles/2012/10/the-most-searched-for-american-fashion-brands-in-the-world. [Accessed 18 September 13]

Kraidy, Marwan M. 2002. 'Globalization of Culture Through the Media. [ONLINE] Available at: http://repository.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1333&context=asc_papers. [Accessed 18 September 13].