Nataliia Denysiuk, OOA-503i

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Informational
Globalization
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Definition

 Informational globalization – increase

in information flows between geographically remote
locations. (This can also be seen as a technological
change related to the advent of fiberoptic
communications, satellites, and increased availability
of telephone and Internet.)
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Historical background

 Globalization from the very beginning was determined by

eagerness of media moguls to intellectual seizure of new
territories and reinforcement of political and economic influence.
In fact, this process was primarily initiated by the Industrial
revolution in Europe in the late XVIII and the early XIX centuries.

 The French socialist Saint Simon and the English philosopher

Spencer claimed that the Industrial society being imprinted by
this revolution symbolized a specific type of the unified system
parts of which are indispensably linked to each other.
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Historical background
 The media concentration which started in Europe and the US in the
mid-XIX century showed obvious changes in the field of information.
The latter was gradually becoming a specific kind of production
affecting the other goods within the system of economics. Moreover,
the informational product has become a certain reflection of the whole
market activity

 A real globalization in the information sphere became obvious in the

first half of XX century when media ownership (mostly in the US and
Britain) stepped across the national borders and became
internationally developed. The then media evolution has demonstrated
new omnipotent tendencies, a most significant of which became a
comprehensive and pragmatic expansion of certain cultural values
into different national backgrounds.
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Historical background
 After World War II one more approach was brought into existence.
It treated the process of mass communication globalization as the
only one able to maintain cultural and ethical values of mankind.
The evolution of this approach was predetermined by the cold war
and the separation of the Globe in two ominous parts: socialism
“restraining” universal development of information and
“democracy” oriented on full-scale informing of the audience on all
pivotal issues. The approach was regarded as more civilized in
West due to the media market laid down by that time which was
opposite to the system of the planned economy .

 Internationalization of mass communications was treated within the

idea of human liberties. The concept of the free flow of information
was thereby affiliated with the process of media
internationalization.
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Notion of space, time and community

 Globalization has dramatically changed our perception of space

(geographical place). Individuals living a more globalized life no longer
correlate time with distance but with speed. It is no longer from how far
a place an answer or a product may come; it is how fast can one
respond.

 Cyberspace also undermines the relationship between legally significant

(online) phenomena and physical location. Since cyberspace has no
territorially based boundaries, the cost and speed of message
transmission is almost entirely independent of physical location.

 Although the concept of ‘location’ still remains important, it is only the

location within a virtual space that truly matters (machine ‘addresses’ =
location). In many respects, the internet is evolving into the ‘world brain’.
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The concept of “nation”
 Communication technology has radically changed the concept of
“nation” as “place” to one of “nation” as “space,” much as uniquely
constructed national cultures replaced pre-national culture with the
new technology of printing.

 The iniquitousness of online access has provided the impetus to

relocate formerly “grounded” diaspora communities into
cyberspace, with the advent of online newspapers, chats, and
forums.

 Historically, social movements have developed in parallel with

some public activity or policy within specific physical and/or cultural
spaces, e.g., national boundaries, social, economic, and political
infrastructures, or common cultural traits.
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Literacy and language issues
 With the rise of English as a global lingua franca, 1.7 billion people
across the world read or speak English, including those individuals
who have never set foot in a country where English is the native
language.

 In the great majority of cases, the languages that the poor speak
instead are not global languages, such as English, French or
Spanish, but minority languages.

 In addition, much of the literature on the linguistic issues in

maintaining culture or on the digital divide focus on the technical
infrastructure and skills required to access what is essentially a
written form of communication.
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Literacy and language issues

 However, those who do not read or write any language are at a distinct
disadvantage in this ‘written’ information communication technology.
Although the internet has many affordability when it comes to access,
there are reasons to suggest that the voice technologies may be a way
to provide access for and information to more individuals.

 Rural radio programming, using an announcer and a panel of resource

persons who browse the Internet at the requests of listeners, has
proven to be capable of overcoming linguistic barriers in using the
Internet by non-English speakers. The radio station adds value to the
information by interpreting it into a local context, by broadcasting it in
vernacular languages, and by providing a platform for feedback
through local discussion and networks of local correspondents.
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Information seeking and globalization
 Users have naive expectations about the quality and extent of
information on the internet. Digital information is affected by many
intricate and often antithetical factors, such as technical factors,
political factors, and human resource factors. It is also affected by the
added factor of the life span of digital information.

 Determining the lack of authoritativeness, credibility or reliability of

cyber information becomes more difficult. Information from political
and social movements, particularly of diasporic communities, must be
verified by other sources know to be authoritative. Otherwise,
librarians run the risk of providing incomplete views of an information
topic.
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Information as an intellectual property

 Whether or not information can or should be described as

property, it is clear that it is linked to the ability to accumulate
wealth. The ease of information flow in the current digital
environment and the increasing importance of information as the
basis for wealth-generating activity are, it seems, central to the
international intellectual property environment.