LESSON 2 – GLOBALIZATION AND COMMUNICATION

At the end of the lesson, you are expected to:

1. Explain how cultural and global issues affect communication.

2. Appreciate the impact of communication on society and the world.

“GLOBALIZATION”

Globalization is a term used to describe how trade and technology have made the world into a more
connected and interdependent place. Globalization also captures in its scope the economic and social changes that
have come about as a result. It may be pictured as the threads of an immense spider web formed over millennia,
with the number and reach of these threads increasing over time. People, money, material goods, ideas, and even
disease and devastation have traveled these silken strands and have done so in greater numbers and with greater
speed than ever in the present age.

HOW DID GLOBALIZATION DEVELOP?

Many scholars say it started with Columbus’s voyage to the New World in 1492. People traveled to nearby
and faraway places well before Columbus’s voyage, however, exchanging their ideas, products, and customs along
the way.

The earliest example of globalization is the Silk Road. This is an ancient network of trade routes across
China, Central Asia, and the Mediterranean used between 50 B.C.E. and 250 C.E.

As with future globalizing booms, new technologies played a key role in the Silk Road trade.

• creation of coins
• building of roads connecting the major empires of the day
• increased agricultural production
• Chinese silk, Roman glass, and Arabian spices, ideas such as Buddhist beliefs and the
secrets of papermaking also spread via these tendrils of trade.

These types of exchanges were accelerated in the Age of Exploration when European explorers seeking
new sea routes to the spices and silks of Asia bumped into the Americas instead. Again, technology played an
important role in the maritime trade routes that flourished between old and newly discovered continents. New
ship designs and the creation of the magnetic compass were key to the explorers’ successes. Trade and idea
exchange now extended to a previously unconnected part of the world, where ships carrying plants, animals, and
Spanish silver between the Old World and the New also carried Christian missionaries.

The web of globalization continued to spin out through the Age of Revolution, when ideas
about liberty, equality, and fraternity spread like fire from America to France to Latin America and beyond. It rode
the waves of industrialization, colonization, and war through the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries,
powered by the invention of factories, railways, steamboats, cars, and planes.

With the Information Age, globalization went into overdrive. Advances in computer and communications
technology launched a new global era and redefined what it meant to be “connected.” Modern communications
satellites meant the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo could be watched in the United States for the first time. The
World Wide Web and the Internet allowed someone in Germany to read about a breaking news story in Bolivia in
real time. Someone wishing to travel from Boston, Massachusetts, to London, England, could do so in hours rather
than the week or more it would have taken a hundred years ago. This digital revolution massively impacted
economies across the world as well: they became more information-based and more interdependent. In the modern
era, economic success or failure at one focal point of the global web can be felt in every major world economy.

ASPECTS OF GLOBALIZATION

In 2000, the International Monetary Fund identified four basic aspects of globalization, namely:

1. Trade and Transactions - Trade transactions include both goods (tangible products that are physically
shipped) and services (intangible commodities, such as tourism and financial services).
2. Capital and Investment - refer to the movement of money for the purpose of investment, trade, or business
operations.
 3. Migration and Movement of People - Increased migration is one of the most visible and significant aspects
of globalization: growing numbers of people move within countries and across borders, looking for better
employment opportunities and better lifestyles. Although migration is usually seen as problematic, it
contributes to sustainable development.
4. Dissemination of knowledge - Globalization processes involve geographically disparate peoples whose
ideas, knowledge, and technologies are disseminated by a variety of means over vast distances.

THREE AREAS OF GLOBALIZATION

1. Economic Globalization - refers to the widespread international movement of goods, capital,

services, technology and information. It is the increasing economic integration and interdependence of
national, regional, and local economies across the world through an intensification of cross-
border movement of goods, services, technologies and capital. Economic globalization primarily comprises
the globalization of production, finance, markets, technology, organizational regimes, institutions,
corporations, and people.
2. Cultural Globalization - refers to the transmission of ideas, meanings and values around the world in such
a way as to extend and intensify social relations. This process is marked by the common consumption
of cultures that have been diffused by the Internet, popular culture media, and international travel. This has
added to processes of commodity exchange and colonization which have a longer history of carrying
cultural meaning around the globe. Cultural globalization involves the formation of shared norms and
knowledge with which people associate their individual and collective cultural identities. It brings increasing
interconnectedness among different populations and cultures.
3. Political Globalization - refers to the growth of the worldwide political system, both in size and complexity.
That system includes national governments, their governmental and intergovernmental organizations as
well as government-independent elements of global civil society such as international non-governmental
organizations and social movement organizations. The creation and existence of the United Nations is called
one of the classic examples of political globalization.

ADVANTAGES OF GLOBALIZATION

1. Transfer of Technology
Transfer of technology throughout the globe is good for us. Any country can borrow the technology
through the agreement and can implement it in their country for their overall development. We can
communicate each other easily from any part of the globe by using advance technology at minimal cost,
time and efforts.
2. Better Services
Globalization always provides us better services. Through the technological advancement our services
like water supply, mobile networking, internet, electricity supply and any other services have been easier
and better than before. By the way, easy access to the internet throughout the globe is also the result of
the globalization.
3. Standardization of Living
The integration of economies as the key process of globalization enables countries to fight against
poverty and improve the standard of living of the people. Many researchers have been stated that when a
country open up their trade to the globe, their rate of economic growth is faster and living standards tend
to increase.
4. Development of Infrastructure
Due to the technological advancement and its transfer throughout the globe helps to improve country’s
infrastructure. Countries are more enabling to deliver their services to the people. Development of
infrastructure means overall development of respective countries. Here it is necessary to say that economic
growth and development of infrastructure are compatible with each other.
5. Foreign Exchange Reserves
Through globalization countries can build foreign exchange reserves owing to international financial
flows.
6. Economic Growth
Globalization entails to optimum utilization of resources wherein deficit resources are procured and
surplus resources are exported to other countries. This ensures overall economic growth.
7. Affordable Products
With the access to the latest technology, the countries can provide products to its countrymen at
affordable prices. Globalization promotes competition in domestic economies and their endeavor to compete
against competition, companies reduce product price or follow penetration pricing strategy.
8. Contribution to World GDP (Gross Domestic Product) Growth Rate
Globalization ensures contribution of every country to the world GDP growth. Gross domestic
product (GDP) is the total monetary or market value of all the finished goods and services produced within
 a country’s borders in a specific time period. As a broad measure of overall domestic production, it
functions as a comprehensive scorecard of a given country’s economic health.
9. Extensions of Market
Globalization promotes extension of market. It provides an opportunity to the domestic companies
in going global. For instance, domestically, companies can witness saturation in the demand for their
products or services but through globalization the domestic companies can sustain and satisfy the growing
demands of foreign customers.

DISADVANTAGES OF GLOBALIZATION

1. Growing Inequality
Globalization can increase inequality throughout the world by increasing specialization and trade.
Although specialization and trade boost the per-capita income it may cause relative poverty.
To illustrate this, we will take an example. All dominated MNCs (Multinational Corporations of
Companies) in the world are located in the United States. All these companies are buying cheaper labor
from developing or underdeveloped countries for their product manufacturing or assembling. China, India
and Africa are prime examples of this. It increases the employment of such countries but they are lagging
behind relatively developed countries.
Likewise, those companies coming to other countries for cheap labor also deprive their country’s
people from work. So, it appears that relative property is being created in developed countries as well.
2. Increasing unemployment rate
Globalization demands for higher-skilled work with cheaper price. But these countries where
institutions are relatively weak are not capable to produce highly skilled workers. As a result, the
unemployment rate is increasing in these countries.
When many foreign companies invest heavily in developing countries, they hire employee from that
country. In some cases, their salaries are much lower than the other developed countries. Moreover, the
demand for these employees in developed countries is very low. With the emergence of Global Economic
Crisis, employees are at risk of losing their jobs.
3. Environmental Concerns
Increased globalization has been linked to various environmental challenges, many of which are
serious, including:
• Deforestation and loss of biodiversity caused by economic specialization and infrastructure
development
• Greenhouse gas emissions and other forms of pollution caused by increased transportation
of goods
• The introduction of potentially invasive species into new environments
While such issues are governed by existing or proposed laws and regulations, businesses have
made environmental concerns and sustainability a priority.

IMPACTS OF GLOBALIZATION ON COMMUNICATION

Connecting with people on the other side of the world is now much easier than it was a few years ago.
Satellites, fiber-optic cables and the internet make it effortless to share information with those in different time
zones and locations. The following are the impacts of globalization on communication:

1. Increased Business Opportunities

Many companies today hire employees that are located in other countries. Using communication
vehicles such as video calling make it simple to converse with colleagues across the globe, almost
making it feel as if they are in the same room. Technology also makes it easier to connect with
suppliers and customers all over the world, and to streamline those relationship through improves
ordering, shipment tracking and so on. With this kind of communication technology, many businesses
are able to take advantage of opportunities in different countries or cities, improving the economic
outlook on a global level.

Thanks to global communications, information itself can be transferred as a valuable business asset
from one country to another. This has the effect of making everyone's operations more modern and
efficient, regardless where they are located.

2. Fewer Cultural Barriers

Many people perceive culture to be the root of communication challenges. When people from two
different cultures try to exchange information, the way they speak, their body language or their
mannerisms can be interpreted differently by the other person. The way people approach problems and
how they participate in communities is all influenced by culture.
 Globalization has made it possible, for example, for someone in Japan to understand how someone
in the U.S. goes about their day. With television and movies, cultural barriers are becoming less
prevalent. Being able to communicate effectively and frequently with colleagues or friends across the
planet helps people understand each other’s cultures a little better.

3. Creation of a Global Village

The term global village is coined by theorist Marshall McLuhan. Affected both by globalization and
global communication, the global village is created when distance and isolation no longer matter
because people are connected by technology. Wide-spread telephone and internet access have been
life-changing for many people across the world, especially those in developing countries. Many are now
enrolling in universities across the world without having to leave their desk chair. Virtual assistant jobs
are becoming commonplace, where employees from developing countries work with companies in
North America or Europe, providing administrative support and other business services that can easily
be conducted over the phone or via the internet.

Globalization and global communication have made it easier to see people on the other side of the
world as a neighbor, instead of a stranger from a faraway land. There is so much knowledge about other
countries and cultures available online, that it’s no longer a complete mystery.

“GLOBAL COMMUNICATION”
Global communication can be defined just as any communication can: a message is sent from one person or
group to another anywhere in the world. A good example of global communication is an e – mail.
The rise of electronic communication, such as instant messaging and email, has led to an increase of global
communication. This increase of global communication has had a profound impact on society. In fact, society
has become more global as electronic communication has eliminated distance as a barrier to communication.
The benefits of a global society include the following:

1. Makes the world a smaller place

While a cliché idea, the world being a small place has become more evident with the rise of
global communication. Family members separated by distance can stay connected with each other
through electronic communication. Computer mediated communication, like social networking websites,
even allow for long-distance communication without having to dread receiving an expensive long-
distance phone bill. Electronic communication helps to make the world a smaller place by making news
stories more accessible as well, by increasing the amount of international news people have access to.
2. Increases business opportunities
For businesses, an increase in global communication means new business opportunities.
Effective international business communication requires an understanding of other cultures. For
example, according to Mind Tools, an online resource for learning business skills, in Eastern countries
establishing relationships plays an important role in business transactions. Therefore, by developing
personal relationships with Eastern businesspeople using electronic communication, you increase your
chances of enjoying successful business transactions.
3. Improves cultural education
The increase of global communication has led to new tools for educating children about different
cultures. For instance, children can learn about other cultures directly from kids who live in other
countries through international pen pal programs. Also, teachers can use technology to allow political
leaders and cultural experts to educate students on the differences and traditions of other cultures.

BARRIERS TO GLOBAL COMMUNICATION

1. LINGUISTIC BARRIER

A language barrier is a figurative phrase used primarily to refer to linguistic barriers

to communication, i.e. the difficulties in communication experienced by people or groups originally
speaking different languages, or even dialects in some cases.
Language barrier impedes the formation of interpersonal relationship and can cause
misunderstandings that lead to conflict, frustration, offense, violence, hurt feelings, and wasting time,
effort, money, and lives of the people.
 2. CULTURAL BARRIER
The meaning of cultural barriers is easy to grasp. We’ve all had trouble understanding the culture of another
person at some point in our lives. While trying to understand the meaning of a message, the receiver interprets
it from his or her own cultural perspective. While the receiver may grasp the individual words that make up a
message, they may not comprehend its overall meaning. This causes confusion and anxiety because receivers
can’t act appropriately. People who are unaware of the cultural barrier may also communicate inappropriately,
using unacceptable verbal and non-verbal cues, leading to even greater misunderstanding.
3. PYSCHOLOGICAL BARRIERS
Psychological barriers are due to the emotional character and mental limitations of human beings. These
barriers result in absent-mindedness, the fear of expressing one’s ideas to others, excitement and emotional
instability—all accounting for an overwhelming number of communication problems.

STRATEGIES TO OVERCOME LINGUISTIC BARRIERS

1. Speak slowly and clearly.

2. Ask for clarification
3. Frequently check for understanding.
4. Avoid idioms.
5. Be careful with jargons.
6. Define the basics of business.
7. Be specific.
8. Choose your medium of communication effectively.
9. Provide information via multiple channels.
10. Be patient.

STRATEGIES TO OVERCOME CULTURAL BARRIERS

1. Maintain etiquette.
2. Avoid slang.
3. Speak slowly.
4. Keep it simple.
5. Practice active listening.
6. Take turns to talk,
7. Write things down.
8. Avoid closed questions.
9. Be careful with humor.
10. Be supportive.

STRATEGIES TO OVERCOME PSYCHOLOGICAL BARRIERS

1. Check whether it is a good time and place to communicate with the person.
2. Be clear and use language that the person understands.
3. Communicate one thing at a time.
4. Respect a person’s desire to not communicate.
5. Check that the person has understood you correctly.
6. Communicate in a location that is free of distractions.
7. Acknowledge any emotion al responses the person has to what you have said.