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Globalization and Cultural Homogenization

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Globalization and Cultural Homogenization
The rapid development of economic globalization and cultural globalization enhances cultural transaction between different countries. Even though in this process culture between different countries still has its own characteristic on the whole, the cultural homogenization has been presented in social life, especially in the media industry. This essay will discuss the definition of globalization and cultural homogenization, and the popularity of Hollywood movies in China, the phenomenon of convergence of TV programmers between different countries and Japanese anime elements in video games around the world will be given as examples to demonstrate the homogenization of media culture.

Culture includes many aspects in people’s daily life such as the economic, politics, media. According to Appadurai (1990), “The key problem in the global interactions today is the tension between cultural homogenization and cultural heterogenization”. The cultural homogenization is the process that local cultures are changed or assimilated by the dominant outside culture (O'Connor, 2006). Globalization has its natural barriers like the differences in languages, geographical factors, religious and ethnics. These differences between countries could undermine the cultural homogenization. Take the political system as an example. Today there are different political system in different countries like the socialism in China and the capitalism in western counties like America and Australia. However the influence of globalization for the media cultural homogenization has been widely presented in people’s daily life. Under the background of globalization, the media culture makes the meaning of the globalization equal to the cultural homogenization. In the process of economic globalization, neoliberal ideology had spread. Neoliberalism advocates that business dominate the social affairs to make the national and international policies have a new order and the market can solve social problems



References: Appadurai,A. (1990). “Disjuncture and Difference in the Global Cultural Economy”. Public Culture. 2(2), 1-24. Herman, E., & McChesney, R. (1997). The Global Media, Washington: Cassell. Hoynes, W., Croteau, D., Milan, S (2011) Jiang, Q., L. (2010). Games With a Continuum: A Case Study on the Development of Online Game Industry in China and Beyond. Internet Publishing and Broadcasting and Web Search Portals. March, J. G. & Olsen, J. P. (1989). Rediscovering Institutions: The Organizational Basis of Politics. New York: Free Press McChesney, R O 'Connor, E, D. (2006). Encyclopedia Of The Global Economy A Guide For Students And Researchers. pp. 391 Rosen, S Schiller, H. (1976). Communication and Cultural Domination. White Plains, N.Y.: International Arts and Sciences. 118(4), 21-32. Sinclair, B. (2006). Sony stops making original PS. Retrieved April 22, 2013, from http://au.gamespot.com//news/sony-stops-making-original-ps-6146549? Su, W. (2011). Resisting cultural imperialism, or welcoming cultural globalization? China’s extensive debate on Hollywood cinema from 1994 to 2007. Asian Journal of Communication. Vol. 21, No. 2, April 2011, pp.186-201

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