Essay on Cultural Globalization

1. Essay on Cultural Globalization
Globalisation and global flows of culture have redefined the processes in which we share and
connect to ourselves, others, and the world. From its onset, globalisation had both proponents' and
critics; some believed that it leads to a rich, hybrid global culture. Others saw it as the west versus
the rest, an imprint of Western values and ideologies upon the world's rich and diverse cultures. In
exploring global flows of culture, we can observe these major assumptions about globalisation as
well as its changing nature. New, 'reverse' cultural flows have begun to emerge and question these
traditional assumptions. The case study of Japan's 'pink globalisation' is one such reverse flow.
Globalisation can take on many different shapes and...show more content...
Appadurai terms these global flows as 'scapes', in which media, technology and ideology circulate
broadly around the globe. The forces behind this new global imagination and its scapes are no
longer nation states but global media corporations. Accelerated by the dawn of the internet and an
opening up of transnational borders for economic trade in the 1990's, global media corporations
have rapidly penetrated overseas markets with products aimed at consumers in what could be seen
as a cultural ideology of consumerism. Cultural globalisation is no longer a case of
Americanisation, but rather multiple, competing globalisations of global media corporations.
Henry Jenkins observed the impact of these global media corporations which he described as
'corporate convergence.' In addition, we also see a 'grassroots convergence,' in which fans armed
with new technologies capable of crossing borders (such as the internet) prescribe to new forms of
popular culture. Jenkins observed this convergence coupling as 'pop cosmopolitanism.' This notion
of pop cosmopolitanism explains the rise in popularity of a new, reverse flow, in which Japanese
popular culture products are being disseminated across the globe.
To demonstrate the active way in which media is appropriated by people
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