Week 9 Globalisation

From the lecture and seminar of week 9 my understanding of the word globalisation grew in a media sense. Before I thought globalisation was the mainly the coming together of people/movements due to quick transporting of information like email, text, and physical letters. This was in some way correct, our lecture spoke how it is the linking of local and global. From this I could understand globalisation from more of a business perspective, where the internet allows multinational companies to continue being powerful. Globalisation is kind of the main companies we see advertised every day, branching out in every possible way they can (to other countries) to take market share where they know they can.

We then discussed the effects this poses to smaller businesses on less economic land. Yes, it definitely creates room for jobs in different countries.
However, the real money is in creating your own business, and in a country where comglomerates dominate it should make this harder to happen.
– “Contested – Global capitalism aggravates dependency of the weaker nations on foreign intervention in the form of aid or investment”

Besides this we also spoke about the way we can internationally move around the world, which is part of the idea of globalisation. We wondered whether or not the world is actually our oyster or are we restricted? We spoke about tourists, refugees, students, guest workers.

We spoke about some reactions against uneven nature of Globalisation
A growing awareness of unfair nature & unequal relations
Global capitalism & free tape mainly benefit rich

Anti-capitalist movements – Milan Expo as well as Occupy London

Week 7 blog post

In todays lecture/seminar we spoke about how important privacy is to the individual and as a population. We believe in certain freedoms e.g. freedom in speech, freedom in belief. But we then went on to examine the many ways where our private life isn’t actually private like we want it to be.
I thought about this in reflection to my life. As a Facebook user, I agree to certain terms and conditions which allow them to use my data for profitable purposes, like many other companies do which I interact with.
We then went on to discuss this topic as a radical change. This is due to the fact that there has been a reverse in the relationship between public and private. Before internet, private was the default and it took effort to become public or required money. Now, the private is almost by default and requires effort or money for privacy. This lecture made me think more about how I feel about my data being used in order for companies to gain a profit. It is like I am selling and contributing something and not gaining much back from it, and is also ironic because i’m not too fond of the internet anyway. However, if we were to not agree with the terms that most of what we use today impose, we would lose out on a lot of news and social life. This would leave people isolated.

Week 6 Group presentation

During today’s seminar, I watched the first group present their topic which was ‘Networked media, community and identity’. This presentation consisted of a nice flow of questions making us gain more of a self conscious view of our time spent and existence online and in online communities. This reminded me of my Understanding Audiences  (LM133) module as this brought up the fandom phenomenon where audiences recreate or use professional products, celebrate their favourite games or movies by meeting up at places like Comicon. Some class mates argued that, possibly not communities as strong as comicon, but smaller online communities are completely different to physical communities who meet up due to similar hobbies. By this i think they meant that there is something authentic about meeting, and that the virtual realities we see ourselves in aren’t as strong and reliable as real ones. I get this argument due the fact I join in with online communities like skateboarding which has recently spiralled all over instagram. By commenting on skate videos I would be connecting with like-minded people who I know I would get a long with. However, people have written back to me with negative comments about what I said even when it wasn’t needed. Maybe there is a disconnect with online communities because no one can truly see or understand anyone they come across online. Despite this however, I still believe I am part of a community due to similar accounts following me and giving me ‘likes’ the more I join in with a certain online community and area of the web.

Week 4 Blog Post

The meaning of ‘information’?
In class we said: Knowledge, details and facts.

We watched ‘Did you know 2017’ on youtube, showing facts about how technology has grown and the size of the information technology sector.
“Defining the Information Society as a new society” (Webster, 2002; 2004)
I think it is a new society due to how the scale of data has grown which has made it possible for a new society as it has never been this big/easy to make before. But as said in lecture, it is hard to say just yes or no because there are many points for and against.

Shift of way media is made, recorded, remixed.

After digitalisation media products become

  • Faster and more reliable
  • Cheaper info processing and transmission
  • Smarter, (convergence).

Over 4.1 billion people (54.3% of population) is now connected to the internet. www.internetworldstats.com/stats
Upon seeing these stats, I thought it must be possible that humans are leaning towards learning to make money in new ways online. It must mean that because we have turned so online, that there are new skills to be learnt as it has shifted from goods to selling more technological services. In my eyes this is a big change.
Economic change
Economic value of informational activity: Most wealth generated by info-processing activities.
Shift from production of goods to services
In lesson Maria showed us various videos of change in society, like utilising our technology in new smart ways. (Self-driving car) To me, these videos were examples of how society has change and how we are learning to live in a technological society. This is by creating ways to make our days easier.