Media and Globalization

The Media and Globalization Globalization contains many factors, which can be studied in a wide range of ways. It can be analyzed on a macro level or a micro level, with many contributors. Terhi Rantanen, in her book The Media and Globalization, explores the media as a contributor to globalization. While explaining the many level media’s impact is seen, she chooses to show the micro level of its impacts in relation to globalization. She explains several factors of the role of media such as the transformation of the media, time and space, nationalism, de-territorialization and also through several scapes. The scapes that I will be touching on, which are the micro level of the analysis, are ethnoscapes, financescapes, mediascapes and timescapes. Rantanen shows how the different scapes and media are involved in globalization through time and place. She does this through studying and interviewing three families and their four generations. In order to fully understand the micro level of Rantanen’s studies we must understand the macro level of globalization. She explains the progress of studies starting with the first emergence in the U.S. after World War I, when they realized that media and communication are an important role in war. Later media was used in the form of propaganda to manipulate behaviors and attitudes. The studies then began to develop into how nations communicated with each other with an emphasis on politics. At this point it could be seen that media has a large impact in globalization. The macro level of media and globalization can be studied in terms of the relations it has as a whole, in any manner, such as politically.
One concept that Rantanen explains on a macro level, later explored on a micro level, is the concept of time, place and space. First focusing on time, clocks and calendars can be seen as the first steps to globalization. Through the mass standardization of time everyone is brought together. Thomas Friedman gave an