glo(B-ali)zation

You can't spell globalization without B Ali, and that's me. A blog dedicated to teaching and self-guided learning about globalization and its affects on our diverse society.

[global-ization-blog]

“what is a mee-mee?”

Have you ever developed a cramp in your thumb from holding your mobile device for too long? Rest assured, you are not alone. You see, it’s actually quite a common outcome for social media users, and seeing as though we are almost all social media users, the finger cramp is actually a very significant incident. Much of our lives are spent scrolling and refreshing our socials for several hours a day. And well, there’s no denying that social media is truly a fascinating phenomenon. Whether we use it to connect with loved ones, retrieve the latest news from around the world, or just use it to cure our boredom. It is evident that we spend the greater majority of our day on our mobile devices surfing through social media. But what really makes social media what it is today? One word: memes. The term “meme” was coined by Richard Dawkins in 1976, and he saw it as a “cultural unit that is spread from one person to another through copying and imitation” (Dawkins, 1976). In modern-day social media, memes are seen to be a form of comedy that one can invent or innovate on their own terms based on their lived experiences or current events. Many believe that to understand a meme, you must have basic knowledge of popular cultural conventions (Phillips and Milner, 2017). However, as “jokes are ambiguous modes of communication” (Shifman and Levy, 2014) it can be argued that they have no real language and that there is no escaping the exchange of memes across the borderless cyberspace. Without a doubt, the diffusion of memes through transnational borders is easier than ever due to their representation and construction of social perceptions (Nissenbaum and Levy, 2018). But what makes memes different? What sets “memes” apart from the rest of the nuances of the internet? Notably speaking, most things in relation to globalization and technological advancements involve some sort of economic factor. Unlike other flows of transnational media content, memes and other internet jokes do not explicitly involve economics (Shifman and Levy, 2014). This subgenre of globalization is termed as “User-generated globalization”. It is described to be a practice of daily normal internet users and not a product of large corporations. “User-generated globalization” allows users to not only create but share the memes and internet jokes they come across. Surely, we can all relate to the inevitable scenario of finding a perfectly fitting meme and sending it to your friends or family. This process allows the greater population to control the time-space compression of popular and current events happening around the world with their own means. By sharing memes we are actually creating a sort of transnational awareness of current events around the world, thereby compressing the space between our geographic locations instantaneously, allowing for a greater global consciousness to take over. In sum, memes are essential to our daily lives, and a vital part of globalization as we know it. 

Works Cited

Dawkins, R. (1976). The selfish gene . Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.

Gil, P. (2019, November 8). Examples of Memes and How to Use Them. Retrieved November 19, 2019, from https://www.lifewire.com/what-is-a-meme-2483702.

Nissenbaum, A., & Shifman, L. (2018). Meme Templates as Expressive Repertoires in a Globalizing World: A Cross-Linguistic Study. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 23(5), 294–310. doi: 10.1093/jcmc/zmy016

Phillips, W., & Milner, R. M. (2017). Decoding memes: Barthes’ punctum, feminist standpoint theory, and the political significance of #YesAllWomen. In S. Harrington (Ed.), Entertainment Values  (pp. 195–211). London, England: Palgrave Macmillan.

Shifman, L., Levy, H., & Thelwall, M. (2014). Internet Jokes: The Secret Agents of Globalization? Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 19(4), 727–743. doi: 10.1111/jcc4.12082

Warf, B. (2013). Time-Space Compression. Oxford Bibliographies Online Datasets. doi: 10.1093/obo/9780199874002-0025

*note: Picture/meme is not my own but was my favourite transnational meme during the time of the Raps championship era of 2019. It perfectly represents my point in this article, that memes do not have a language and that they are able to relate to everyone.

**note pt.2: credits to original owner of meme whom I have no idea is!!!!

[global-ization-blog]

More Than Just a Game

Standing in line is so common in North America that it can pass as a unique custom or even a cultural ritual of sorts. Whether it is for an exclusive event, an overpriced item, or just plain food, we always find ourselves waiting in a line that has somehow managed to wrap itself around a building right in the core of the city we live in. However, the occasion for this particular line this past summer was not an everyday occurrence like most other lines we see regularly. This line was created and protected by fans of a Toronto team called The Raptors, and it was formed in order to get into an exclusive viewing area called “Jurassic Park” where fans of all ages, and backgrounds could come together to appreciate the art that is basketball. Toronto is a city that is truly as cosmopolitan as it can get. Yet, despite the differences we harbour as individuals, the one thing that never fails to bring us all together is sports. In this case, the sport was basketball and buzzword around town was the name of the infamous Canadian NBA team, The Raptors. However, the 2019 NBA Finals was not just an event for Torontonians to watch and celebrate, because many around the world had also been tuned in to the final games and shared the same anticipation and rollercoaster of emotions as Raptors fans at home in Canada. During the final six games, there was an average audience of 6.4 million people, thus making it the country’s most-watched NBA broadcast on record. It was also reported that each game in the Finals has set a new Canadian NBA ratings record. Once again, proving the instrumental role that technology plays within our contemporary society as an agent for heightened interconnectivity across borders. Moreover, The Raptors have probably never been as talked about as they were in the summer of 2019, and their popularity was through the roof worldwide. The Raptors had surpassed just being a basketball team and they had carved their names into the NBA franchise as a true brand. Many may wonder what helped manufacture the fame and success of The Raptors team as a global brand in 2019, and the answer is indefinitely always going to be globalization. The team itself is highly diverse and includes players from around the world, to name a few like Marc Gasol (Spain), Pascal Siakam (Cameroon), and Serge Ibaka (Congo). Thus, the recent win for the Raptors proved that there is strength in diversity, and allowed global viewers to feel included in the victory. In fact, it was reported that 24.5% of players in the NBA league for the 2018-19 season were international players from 42 countries and territories around the world. Once again proving that globalization further allows people, money, goods and ideas to flow through borders and ultimately benefits us all, especially in the case of the recent 2019 NBA finals where the help of foreign members allowed a Canadian team in the NBA to finally taste the sweetness of victory. The same victory that was shared by millions around the world and one that will be talked about for generations to come. A big shoutout to Masai Ujiri, the current President of The Raptors team and a foreigner to Canada for proving that even borders can not contain us if we bond together for a shared passion and that anything is possible through the strength of diversity. 

Works Cited

Abdul-Jabbar, K. (2019, June 17). Why the Toronto Raptors' title is a victory for the NBA, Canada ... and the US. Retrieved November 5, 2019, from https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2019/jun/17/toronto-raptors-basketball-nba-title-championship.

Boot, M. (2019, June 13). Opinion | Globalization is the star of the NBA. Retrieved November 5, 2019, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/globalization-is-the-star-of-the-nba/2019/06/12/356acd06-8d23-11e9-b08e-cfd89bd36d4e_story.html.

Dawson, A. (2019, August 11). The president of the Toronto Raptors told us how he turned a losing team into 2019 NBA champions. Retrieved November 5, 2019, from https://www.businessinsider.com/how-masai-ujiri-built-the-toronto-raptors-2019-8.

Gal, S. (2018, October 16). NBA's trend of increasing number of international players appears to be slowing down. Retrieved November 5, 2019, from https://www.businessinsider.com/growing-number-of-foreign-born-players-in-nba-slows-2018-10.

Lewenberg, J. (2019, June 14). Raptors' championship will have long-lasting impact on basketball in Canada. Retrieved November 5, 2019, from https://www.tsn.ca/raptors-championship-will-have-long-lasting-impact-on-basketball-in-canada-1.1322091.

Masai Ujiri joining Raptors. (2013, May 31). Retrieved November 5, 2019, from https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/9330616.

Raptors fans celebrate Toronto's NBA championship win around the world. (2019, June). Retrieved November 5, 2019, from https://www.blogto.com/sports_play/2019/06/raptors-fans-celebrate-toronto-nba-championship-around-world/.

Reynolds, T., & Associated Press. (2019, June 15). The Raptors' diversity serves them well as global champions. Retrieved November 5, 2019, from https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/analysis-a-global-game-now-has-a-truly-global-champion.

Staff, N. (2019, May 26). Thousands wait in line to watch Raptors at Jurassic Park. Retrieved November 5, 2019, from https://toronto.citynews.ca/2019/05/25/jurassic-park-line/.

This is what Jurassic Park in Toronto looked like as Raptors won NBA Championship. (2019, June). Retrieved November 5, 2019, from https://www.blogto.com/sports_play/2019/06/jurassic-park-toronto-nba-championship/.

[global-ization-blog]

Tell me your story. I want to hear your voice, and I want to hear your conviction. No matter who you are, where you’re from, your skin colour, gender identity: speak yourself.

Kim Namjoon, BTS

[global-ization-blog]

Hana Dul Set, Are You Ready for Hallyu?

As I step into the arena filled with thousands of ecstatic people of all different shapes, sizes, backgrounds and ages I listen to the loud hum of screaming fans, and my excitement is soaring. My heart beats with quiet anticipation and my eyes immediately focus on the large stage in front of me. In a few minutes, they will take the stage, the seven men that have charmed their way into millions of people’s hearts around the world, including mine. BTS, a seven-member award-winning boy-band from South Korea that sings exclusively in Korean. They will be taking the stage in Hamilton, ON, Canada, with an audience of 30,000 fans. How did I get here? How did BTS manage to break several social and global barriers to get here today? The answer is not easy. Hallyu is a term referred to by academics to describe “The Korean Wave,” and this wave has spread internationally. Many experts and media scholars are fascinated by the K-pop Hallyu phase, as it is a perfect example of cultural globalization. K-pop has become an international phenomenon breaking apart from the borders of South Korea itself. Hallyu is split into two generations, Hallyu 1.0 is often referred to as the age of television and Korean dramas. Whereas now, Korean music has innovatively changed and has witnessed tremendous growth since the 1990s. As a result, it has become the forefront of the new Korean wave or, as others regard it, Hallyu 2.0. For those of you who are K-pop virgins, the success of BTS can easily be misinterpreted as another factory produced boy-band with good vocals, good moves and perfect visuals. However, K-pop has had its own battle getting to where it is now. Following years of oppression and censorship from authoritarian governments in the past, Korea has never had it easy with liberty of artistic expression. Korean popular music in the 1980s and earlier was seen to be trots, ballads and slower, more romantic songs. However, in Hallyu 2.0, we view a totally new type of K-pop that translates to a larger and younger audience. With its upbeat music, catchy lyrics and aesthetically pleasing choreography, it is innovative and exciting to many across Korea and across the world. Artists like Seo Taiji and The Boys, as well as Kim Gun Mo, played a key role in influencing K-pop with new and diverse beats and music genres, and effectively opened up a pathway for K-pop to be hybridized and ready for global consumption. Although many argue that the “global” has erased the “local” in reality, the newfound paradigm shift in South Korea has allowed artists like Seo Taiji and BTS to show Koreans something new. Many also worried about the effects westernization would have on Korean culture. Yet, the new generation of Koreans or “Shinsedae” are often seen to be enjoying westernized music, food and overall culture as opposed to sticking with the traditional.  Westernization may have been an outcome of social media; however, South Koreans had been able to use social media to their own advantage as well. BTS had started out as a band from a small company called BigHit Entertainment in South Korea and was almost unheard of for the greater majority of their careers. However, due to the agency of social media, BTS was able to gain a fanbase like no other. K-pop is nothing without the unique fan culture. BTS’ fanbase or otherwise known as ARMY-Adorable Representative MC for Youth, has a huge impact on large social platforms like Twitter, Youtube, Instagram, and use their impact to gain recognition and popularity for BTS. Unlike TV and other platforms for popular culture to thrive on, social media is global and mostly unrestricted globally for those who are looking for new things and are open to watching foreign material. Thus allowing more westerners to find out about K-pop online, and furthermore, are then able to enjoy this content online as well. Platforms like Twitter, Facebook and Youtube, have allowed for Korean content creators to reach a larger and more widespread audience with ease. Fanbases are then able to also proclaim their devotion to these creators on these apps, which ultimately results in instant feedback to the original creator. Moreover, this enables them to cater their content accordingly to make it even more appealing to their audience. Social media has inevitably contributed to globalization and intensified the popularity of transnational media culture in a non-western region. K-pop fans enjoy a genre of music and support their favourite artists that come from a small local environment, but with the help of social media and their fans, they are able to become global artists that sell out arenas and stadiums around the world. The market consumption of K-pop is also very fascinating. Neoliberalism plays a key role in the economic prosperity of Korean popular music, as many believe that through globalization, “K-pop” has become a brand of Korea. And thus, without the capitalist mentality, maybe K-pop would not have been able to penetrate various global markets. Arguably, the biggest and most successful aspect of K-pop is the material aspect, as many fans want a variety of merchandise ranging from lightsticks, albums, and clothing to even merchandise that has cartoon versions of their favourite artists. Speaking of economic prosperity, “Chaebol” in Korean translates to a large family-owned conglomerate, and they are mighty within the Korean economy. Chaebols see K-pop as a marketing tactic and use successful groups and K-pop idols to their advantage. An example of a big K-pop influence that the government has turned to profit would be BTS, as they are not only booming globally but also bringing in total revenue of $3.6 billion annually to the country’s economy. As a result of their imminent success, the government and other reputable Chaebols within Korea have launched various advertisement campaigns to bring tourism and added revenue to the country’s national annual income (Lotte, BTS Seoul Tourism AD, Hyundai x BTS, etc.). However, the power of K-pop does not end there, as idols and groups are also used by the government to often create soft-power. An example of this is when they attended the Korea-France friendship summit in Paris back in October 2018 and performed their latest comeback track “Idol” for both Korean and French government officials. Another example of a big K-pop group that has recently been used for soft-power is EXO, during an event after the latest G20 summit in Japan, Trump and his family travelled to Seoul to meet President Moon Jae-in. Fans were shocked to see that alongside President Moon and his wife, the Trump family also met EXO and were gifted with signed albums. On the surface, K-pop may seem very simple and may be viewed to have no depth. However, it is much more than that, as I discussed today. So now, when I view this concert that BTS will be putting on, I appreciate their art even more and am even more proud of them for overcoming years of obstacles to put K-pop on the global market. Thank you, BTS and K-pop, for showing the world that globalization can be used to an advantage and that a country is not always defined by its past, but it’s future, just like South Korea today. 

Works Cited

Cruz, L. (2019, July 18). What It's Like to Become a BTS Fan Overnight. Retrieved October 16, 2019, from https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2019/07/bts-paved-the-way-army-fandom/592543/.

Gollayan. (2018, December 18). K-Pop band BTS brings $3.6 billion a year to South Korea. Retrieved October 16, 2019, from https://nypost.com/2018/12/18/k-pop-band-bts-brings-3-6-billion-a-year-to-south-korea/.

Han, G.-S. (2007). Multicultural Korea: Celebration or Challenge of Multiethnic Shift in Contemporary Korea? Korea Journal, 47(4), 1–32. doi: 10.25024/kj.2007.47.4.32

Jin, D. Y. (2016). New Korean wave: transnational cultural power in the age of social media. Chicago: University of Illinois Press.

Lie, J. (2012). What Is the K in K-pop? South Korean Popular Music, the Culture Industry, and National Identity. Korea Observer, 43(3), 1–25.

Méndez, B. (2017, August 1). Seo Taiji & Boys Pioneered Socially Conscious K-Pop for Groups Like BTS. Retrieved October 16, 2019, from https://www.vice.com/en_ca/article/7x95gz/seo-taiji-and-boys-pioneered-socially-conscious-k-pop-for-groups-like-bts.

Pae, P. (2019, August 29). South Korea's Chaebol. Retrieved October 16, 2019, from https://www.bloomberg.com/quicktake/republic-samsung.

*(Image used is my own!) 

[global-ization-blog]

Globalization is a fact, because of technology, because of an integrated global supply chain, because of changes in transportation. And we're not going to be able to build a wall around that.

Barack Obama, Former President of The United States

[global-ization-blog]

A Step in My Shoes

Blog Post #1 - A Step in My Shoes

Shoes are truly an essential item to mankind. They protect our feet, add a stylish element to our outfits, and are with us through thick and thin. My favourite pair of shoes that I own are my white Converse, they are comfortable for long days, easy to walk in, and lastly, go with almost every outfit I own. While I love my shoes and wear them almost every day, most of the time I do not even stop to think about who or what made my shoes, where my shoes came from, and how much energy and labour went into creating and shipping those shoes to a place where I can buy them. Still, it’s an unfathomable concept to me, hundreds of products from all different countries that took hundreds of different workers to produce, then all of those goods are shipped to one location where hundreds of workers once again work tirelessly to make thousands of shoes. Finally, those shoes are shipped across borders and it takes another group of people to distribute the export to stores where then those shoes are accessible to us. Glocalization is the practice of a local product/thing that becomes global through exposure and technology, it is a wondrous thing. Glocalization in businesses was truly revolutionized by technological advancements and political agreements that have shaped how and which exports are allowed to come through our borders. And after all this today, I sit here writing this as I stare down at my pair of Converse and ponder about who made MY pair, how my pair was made, where my pair came from, and I am at awe. Converse started as a local brand founded by Marquis Mills Converse, with humble beginnings in 1908 Malden, Massachusetts, U.S.A, and was originally designed for basketball players under the name of “Non-Skids”. Hence why they were assembled locally with little to no need for global interference. Recently, however, in 2003, Nike bought Converse. The entire brand was then innovated to something far bigger, far more global, and it changed the brand ‘Converse’ forever. Converse was no longer a local brand based in The States, instead it was now being produced in Nike factories all over the world, and as a result, the brand was carried over to hundreds of countries overseas making these shoes far more accessible to people around the world. Nike purchasing the Converse brand has allowed Converse to glocalize the shoe, a word used to describe the act of globalizing something that was otherwise known to be local in a particular place in the world. Years later, as a result of these developments, I now also have a pair of Converse that were made overseas, and it just goes to show how much of a factor bigwig corporations like Nike can have on the advancement of globalization in our society. In conclusion, the point is, never take for granted what you have because you never know how much time and effort has gone into making that single thing that you now have. Every step I take, I am also carrying the stories of hundreds of people around the world that have put in hard labour to make these shoes for me, and I am forever grateful.

- Bushra Alimerdan

Sources

Blatter, J. (2019). Glocalization. Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/topic/glocalization

Mathew, J. (2019, March 29). Glocalisation- Global Local Approach of Brands. Retrieved from https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/331465

The Idleman (Ed.). (2018, November 13). The History of Converse. Retrieved from https://theidleman.com/blogs/style/history-of-converse

Wayne, L. (2003, July 10). Nike Purchasing Converse, A Legend on the Blacktop. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/10/business/nike-purchasing-converse-a-legend-on-the-blacktop.html

[global-ization-blog]

First Post - Introduction

Hi and welcome to my blog on globalization, I will use this blog to communicate my views and learnings on what globalization means and the effects it has on our world. Stay tuned!