Climate change is accelerating due to globalisation as it is mentioned in the article above.
Climate change is a serious issue, that not many people take in consideration since all they want is more products and a more convenient way to live - The âwant it allâ consumers, and it is all happening while tropical forests and the air we breath are paying the price. Pollution is affecting the way we are living. Global warming is a great issue whereas the average temperature of the earthâs atmosphere is only increasing.
It is mention in the article that "the effects of climate change are proceeding faster than predicted. Four years of drought in much of Africa have resulted in thirty to forty million people facing starvation.â
Since people want it all and want more products, the means of creating the products and natural resources are being used in greater amounts without taking the safety of the planet in consideration, neither from corporates nor consumers.
There are many campaigns and organisations who work in order to make a change and save the planet, such as, green peace, The Campaign against Climate Change and etc.. where people volunteer and spread awareness of the situation in many different ways such as social media and real life activities.
Climate change, in my opinion is a serious issue. and I myself would like to make a change and raise awareness about it. I believe we are taking our planet for granted and not giving it respect. We are being selfish, where we are using the planet and the resources it gives us, while not worrying about it and its health and safety.
BY ROBERT D. ATKINSON - From semiconductors to e-commerce, Chinese President Xi Jinping has unabashedly trumpeted the goal of making China the âmaster of its own technologiesââand, to do so, the Chinese government is pursuing an aggressive by-hook-or-by-crook strategy that involves serially manipulating the marketplace and wantonly stealing and coercing transfer of American knowhow.
As China gets richer and richer, it's buying more and more of the world's natural resources and major tech companies, such as western digital as referred to WD which is an American data storage company.
The famous âmade in chinaâ slogan, according to the article, is back and is now more powerful, since China is going to take over the tech industry and not only non-tech products such as clothes and etc.
The media is viewing Chinese dominance over the US dominance as a thing that deserves to panic about. we can see it in the article in the following statement "It is time for the Obama Administration and Congress to send a clear signal that the United States will not tolerate this kind of behaviour anymoreâ which implies that people are not happy with Chinaâs economy growth and closeness to global dominance.
I personally think that it really isnât the greatest idea if china becomes the next dominant country in the world, since it still lacks some factors that a dominant country should have, such as a stable domestic economy, social and environmental stability as well as "soft power"
How an Egyptian Google executiveâs Facebook page helped spark a movement.
The Egyptian revolution, is counted as a great example to define the public sphere.
In the article above we can learn how the revolution started, it says "Two minutes after he (Wael Ghonim) started his Facebook page, 300 people had joined it. Three months later, that number had grown to more than 250,000â All these people that liked that page had joined together through social media to unite in order to stop the governments oppression and claim their rights from them.
Todayâs public sphere is based on a great online network where all people from all around the world can connect together.
Exactly like the Egyptian revolution, where an Egyptian citizen who lived in Dubai could communicate with his people inside Egypt in order to change government policies and claim the rights that the people deserve.
In this era, our public sphere is social media, where everything is online and connected.
Being an international student, living thousands of miles away from home, I can still be aware of the things that happen inside my country and I can still support them actively on social media, where I can perhaps make a change.
Television has transformed the world into an interconnected tribe McLuhan calls a
Going back to Marshal McLuhan and his âglobal villageâ theory by introducing the video above.
In the video above McLuhan talks about how technology helped the world become more globalised and helped media expand globally.  His predictions were correct. Nowadays, we are able to use applications like Instagram, Facebook, news website and so on, which proves McLuhanâs prediction/theory of a globalised world.Â
Technology is the main factor of this globalised world, the âinternetâ is the main one. Technology is not just talked about in the media but it is the mediaâs most used equipment into making everything global.
The media made our world less private, where everyone can know many things about someone only by him posting something on Facebook. I personally think that the world that we live in today that allows everything to be global is a great world, it helps people become aware of many problems in the world that anyone can contribute to. globalisation is not only used between governments in order to stop and start warâs, yet it used for more human purposes, such as, raising awareness over starvation in Africa and other things.
Philippa Malas on the French court ruling that Facebook can't settle all its disputes in California.
 Starting from the 1980âČs until today many sources of media have started to be deregulated. This removed restriction on what could be on the media âlooseningâ what could be broadcasted giving them less public service obligations. Although the amount of deregulation there was depended on which country the media was being broadcast. For example the process of deregulation has effected most Western countries much more than a lot of Eastern countries where regulation of media is more common than not.
I remember a similar situation on Instagram, where a young lady was trying to express what girls felt on their periods through photos that she took of âbloodâ, white sheets and stains. Instagram took down the posts since they found it âinappropriateâ which made a big fuss over the internet since sometimes, the things that social media websites censor are actually forms of art and self expressing and by deleting these posts they deny people their freedom of speech and opinion.Â
A less examined future of the global future is put under the phrase âFortressâ
The European fortress was being used by Nazi propaganda, namely to refer to Hitler's and the Wehrmacht's plans to fortify the whole of occupied Europe, in order to prevent invasion from the British Isles. And that is where the phrase came from.
In the picture above we can see European citizens trying to fled to North America. In the past, other countries borders weâre open and welcoming to immigrants who are leaving their countries because of war, However, In the past 5 years according to Crawley (2009) the uk and European public attitude for asylum and immigration has become increasingly and generally, negative.
This picture has been trending online for a while with a saying "These aren't Syrians. Theyâre Europeans trying to get to North Africa during World War II. So next time you think of closing the borders you might want to check with your grandparents.â
It is kind of harsh to compare the past with the present. Today, countries have different interests and are welling to disconnect from other countries for own benefits. However, the unwanted migrants in the European countries will remain, and will always have trouble with receiving the essential rights for living. What is presented in the media, I believe, is the main cause for the increasingly negative attitude of asylum and migration
I think that this negative public attitude is common these days, since people today who are migrating and are refuges are most likely to be from the middle east Arab or muslim. And perhaps after the events of 9/11 and all that has happened because of ISIS the public came more aware of their right to be secure physically, emotionally and financially than just helping other nations and protecting them.
The global village is heading to a future that will divert to too many roads.
In this post and in my future posts, I will be explaining the different predictions of what is going to happen to the global village.
Starting off with the future of Cool Consumers and a Growing Global Village
This prediction points out that people in the future, as it is now, are going to rely more on communicating and shopping through technology, such as the internet and mobile service.
âI want it allâ today and future consumers are giving the retail companies challenges, as to cope up with the consumer demands as it is mentioned in the article above.
In order to keep up this growing and happy consumer global village, all there has to be a personal mobile phone or computer for each individual, and friendly convenient and easy access shopping websites and communicating apps
I personally shop online more than I go to a store and pick my clothes, I even shop for my groceries online and wait for it to arrive to my door step. In my opinion this future is where we are really headed, and most - if not all, Â people who use these technologies find it more convenient as a use of communication and easier.Â
This video was done for my New Media class with Michael Strangelove & inspired by his book "Empire of the Mind".
The public sphere between the past and the present
JĂŒrgen Habermas - the German sociologist and philosopher, is best known for his theory: The public sphere.
The public sphere is basically described as an area in a a period of time where people can share and discuss latest news. Where they identify and debate over social problems and might actually influence the political actions of a government.
In the 17th and 18th century in London, the public sphere was known to be the coffee-houses around the city, such as, Jonathanâs and Garrawayâs and also Lloydâs. Habermas suggested that at that time coffee houses are the public sphere where âprivate peopleâ could go to a great gathering place to discuss news, business, politics and also just to have a convivial chit chat. These coffee houses were used as an opportunity to a lively and open discussion with a sphere of varied social backgrounds of patrons.
Baring in mind that the media back then was always controlled by corporates such as the church or the government. A time where it was hard for people to be individual and free thinkers.
Nowadays however, we can see that our public sphere has become more global, with an easier reach to the latest news and an easier way for people to discuss and influence political actions.
âTo own the medium of the message, is to own the meaning of the messageâ
In the past corporations used to control the meaning of all the messages, since they held the power to expose what ever they wanted the people to believe, using news papers, magazines, advertising and satellite news channels.
Today however, as it is mentioned in the video above, corporations are not the only medium we can use in order to rely a certain message. Social media has become a medium that we own in order to rely our own messages.
Social media has helped taking out the medium from the hands of the few and putting it into the hands of many. Each day people add to the public sphere - through blogging and sharing different posts, creating a bigger global network, where discussions are being made and free opinions are being spread without anyone censoring it.
I know I blabbered a lot about the public sphere, however, it because I find this topic really interesting, since I, like other people, like to share what I believe and I like to discuss what I know with other people, that are also interested in the things I am interested in. Today the public sphere, is more global and contains many discussions and opinions, that are leading to change and leading to enlightenment to many different things around the world. Such as the Arab spring, Green Peace campaign against Barbie. I find this as amazing, because people simply have a choice and are not bound to a powerful organisations that can control the world because they simply have loads of money.
Unlike Marshall McLuhan that I mentioned in my previous post, Herbert Schiller (1919-2000) did not view the global village as wonderful as it is. He had a different opinion about globalisation in general. Herbert Schiller suggested that traditional cultures are destroyed by the external pressure of more powerful countries, more specifically he mentioned the US corporate dominance of cultural life abroad.
In the article above, restaurants are given as an example of US corporate domination. We can understand from what is written that the simplest things, such as food can also affect a peopleâs traditional culture. since people nowadays want to fit in, and be a part of this globalised world theyâd love to use anything that is efficient, predicted, quantitive ( concerning money business and statistics) and lastly technologies that do not rely on humans to use them to do the work. This is how the modern world is, wanting things to happen fast, and easy, since being comfortable is a bigger deal than just holding onto the traditional cultures. At least thats what the dominant corporations made us believe, using the modern world as an excuse for their dominance.
It is true that more powerful countries can affect developing countries traditional cultures, however I think that its not always the case, since the modern world itself affects traditional cultures. With all the technology and social media that we use in our everyday life, we can share everything on our minds without anyone giving us boundaries to what we can share or not. I think that the media and technology actually affect traditional cultures more than US corporates do.
Are we entering an era of two economic superpowers?
Chinese Future Dominance
many economists expect that China is going to overtake the United States by the year 2020 and becoming the worldâs largest economy. However, does becoming the worldâs largest economy mean that fall of US dominance?
In the article above, the writer explains that with the success of China it does not imply that America will be in decline, and in order for China to succeed it needs to be innovative and competitive, Â thats why it needs America, and as much as China needs America, America also needs China.Â
I think that China has a long shot in overtaking The united states global dominance of the world, since in order to become a global dominant it doesnât only require to be the largest economy in the world, and China still lacks many things that the United states have, such as global brands and global media marketing.
Many people agree that the China rise will be disappointing to many others, based on their history and the many wars they have been through throughout the years, thats on a one hand. On the other hand however, Many believe that with Chinaâs rise along side to the US will be beneficial for many, since as the writer said :Â âthe rest of the world would benefit from having more than one engine of growth, particularly if there is more than one large market to sell toâ
Video compilation of a selection of predictions made by communications philosopher Marshall McLuhan's. Shown at Taste, a networking event in Amsterdam, organ...
Marshal McLuhan was a Canadian theorist and a writer, he proposed the idea of  âGlobal villageâÂ
The Global Village quickly became an expression used by many for its sublime and succinct meaning. McLuhan gave it an optimistic definition. He described it as a place which is as big as the planet, for holding all the information and connections needed for any individual. However, it is a place which is as small as a town, since it allows everyone to be engaged with one another even if oceans are held as a barrier.
Through what McLuhan calls âelectronic informationâ which is known as the media, sharing information and building connections has now went from being local to being global. In the past - where electronic technology didnât exist, people used to share their thoughts by writing and stacking books on shelves for the people surrounding them in their local area. However, today anyone can write and share their thoughts with people from the other side of the world on virtual shelves that we call the internet.
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