CASE STUDY: AOL-TIME WARNER

Research I have conducted over the past few months has lead me to conclude that technology is a supply for which globalization is a demand. Certain aspects of this conclusion can be seen by studying the historic 2001 merger of AOL-Time Warner. Both AOL and Time Warner embraced globalization and acted on opportunities presented by the successful digitalization of information. Prior to the merger, AT&T was about to spend $110 billion on upgrading its new cable system units. This would allow AT&T to offer local and long distance telephone services, cable TV, and high-speed, broadband internet access at affordable prices to middle class households. Alarmed, AOL offered to merge with Time Warner to remain competitive. By doing so, AOL would receive the second largest cable company in the US and proximity to the broadband future of the cable industry. AOL had a medium, the Internet, through which it could propagate information but lacked interesting content to share. Time Warner had appealing content including news, films, and cartoons but lacked Internet presence to effectively propagate its content to customers. Together, AOL and Time Warner had “the cocktail of ingredients to succeed in the internet business—a strong customer base, appealing content, and ways to distribute it,” (Johnson, par. 4).
The internet as provided by AOL was becoming increasingly popular and useful in people’s lives. Additionally, content as provided by Time Warner in the form of text, pictures, music, TV, and videos could be more easily translated into the same form through the digitalization of information making them more compatible. Crossing forms of media supplied by Time Warner with the Internet provided by AOL became a more feasible and profitable idea. Additionally, advancements in the telecommunications industries allowed for more efficient international communication. In this way, AOL-Time Warner could efficiently operate as a vertically integrated multinational corporation from multiple continents around the world. They could also market their products to customers worldwide. Anyone with access to the Internet, regardless of location, can read information provided by AOL-Time Warner such as CNN new stories.
This historic 2001 merger between AOL and Time Warner is one example of how mergers between cultural producers resulted in the formation of an MNC that can integrate all major aspects of cultural production. Advancements in communication technologies eased the transformation of the world into a globalized arena. MNCs thrive in a globalized world. The online, AOL, merged with the offline, Time Warner, forming an MNC that controlled all major aspects of cultural production. Magazines, news, TV shows, movies, and music can be produced and propagated through the internet worldwide.

SUPPLY AND DEMAND

After recently concluding that I am a believer in the school of hyperglobalists, I have started to make more conclusions on globalization and its effect on media interactivity. As time goes on, the world becomes increasingly modern. There always exists a technological need for innovation. Recently, technological developments of faster visual and virtual media products has lead to the creation of a globalize media market. As the quality and quantity of available communication technology improves, the world’s ability and need to support globalization also improves. Our supply of quality technology creates a demand for globalization.

GLOBALIZATION: THREE VIEWS

After more research and discussion on globalization and its effects on media interactivity, I learned that there are three dominant schools of thought regarding globalization: hyperglobalists, skeptics, and transformationalists. Hyperglobalists hold the view that contemporary globalization has made all people increasingly susceptible to disciplines of the global market. The worldwide denationalization of economies is a direct result of economic globalization. Goods and services are produced, traded, and financed through transnational networks. “Economic globalization is constructing new forms of social organization that are supplanting, or that will eventually supplant, traditional nation states as the primary economic and political units of world society.” (Held 3) Skeptics believe that globalization is nonexistent. Skeptics think people are mislead into believing in the power of globalization. This wrong belief hides the true existence of what skeptics think exists a modern international economy in which national governments remain powerful. Transformationalists hold a moderate view on globalization. They think that globalization is occurring at an unprecedented rate forcing nations to quickly adapt in order to keep up with their changing world. They conceptualize globalization as “the reordering of interregional relations and actions at a distance.” (Held 10)
As can be seen in my previous blog entries, the research I have conducted regarding globalization supports the views of the school of hyperglobalists. The world is becoming increasingly interconnected. The global economy has strengthened as national ones have become less prominent. The emergence of mass culture and mass cultural products distributed worldwide is an example of this. This change in the global economy’s influence on the world has led to the homogenization of cultures. These previously blogged ideas all support the views of hyperglobalists.

"NET" CUSTODY BATTLES??

Yesterday, fellow bloggers left comments on my blog regarding Internet control and regulation.
"Fighting for custody of the NetCustody battles are always nasty. And from the looks of things, a recent proposal to shift control of the Internet to the U.N. will be no better." I never knew that the UN was actively working to gain the authority to govern the Internet. I did some research to learn more about this. I found that "the UN General Assembly Resolution 56/183 (21 December 2001) endorsed the holding of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in two phases. The first phase took place in Geneva hosted by the Government of Switzerland from 10 to 12 December 2003 and the second phase will take place in Tunis hosted by the Government of Tunisia, from 16 to 18 November 2005." WSIS has a detailed plan of action. A particular section of this plan claims that people are entitled to "confidence and security are among the main pillars of the Information Society" and specifically asks the UN to investigate how they can gain governance of the Internet. You can read this passage from the WSIS Plan of Action under Section C6 at http://www.itu.int/wsis/docs/geneva/official/poa.html.

A DIGITAL DIVIDE??

The term, digital divide, refers to the situation where people with access to quality technology become more wealthy while the "technologically poor" get poorer. The digital divide refers to technology access within the US while the global digital divide refers to “great disparities in opportunity to access the Internet and the information and educational/business opportunities tied to this access … between developed and developing countries” (Lu 2001 p. 1). I have included links to statistics on Internet usage trends worldwide to supplement this information.
World Internet Usage
http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm
Internet World Statistics Blog
http://www.internetworldstats.com/blog.htm

THE TWIN FORCES OF GLOBALIZATION AND INFORMATIZATION

“Information technologies, such as the world-wide web and other communication technologies, have transformed economic and social relations to such an extent that cultural and economic barriers are minimized” (Kluver, par. 8). Reading this quote on how technologies that aid the spread of information have emerged during this era of globalization made me wonder which came first.
Technologies that enhance communication promote globalization in that they cause increased interactivity and interconnectivity worldwide. “Previously, ideas and technologies took centuries to diffuse across the globe, not seconds” (Sprague, 2000). On the other hand, the strengthening force of globalization demands faster methods of communication to survive. As people become increasingly interconnected with others located far away, they need technologies that allow them to quickly communicate over further distances. As a result, the use of Internet, e-mail, instant messenger, cell phones, and text messaging has increased.
Whether improvements in technology led to globalization or globalization led to improvements in technology, it is clear that globalization and technologies that quickly and efficiently spread information worldwide are coexisting forces that support each other to grow stronger.

FROM POPULAR TO MASS, NATIONAL TO INTERNATIONAL

Wayne Yang, a fellow blogger, argues that we are all able to speak the same cultural language as a result of the homogenizing effects of globalization on his blog located at http://eightdiagrams.typepad.com/eight_diagrams/2005/04/tech_tool_grass.html. I think that this is the result of cultural evolution overtime.
In the eighteenth and twentieth centuries, urbanization took place across Europe and America. People of diverse economic and social backgrounds migrated into cities creating larger communities. The quality of education, health care, and modern industry quickly improved. The invention of the steam locomotive and steamship allowed people and their cultural values to reach more people in more places within their nations. Among all these industrial changes, a new culture emerged. Popular culture arises when a certain identifiable group within a community shares a cultural style. Knitting, cooking or storytelling abilities common to members of a certain society are examples of things that can comprise the popular culture of a certain group. As urbanization became more common and transportation became more accessible to all, pop culture began to have a mass appeal. From this, the concept of mass culture emerged. While members of a society actively contribute to the pop culture they share, passive members of a society may be stimulated by the cultural influences of mass culture. Products of mass culture such as fashion and movies are produced to appeal to target consumers. People do not have to take part in the conception or production of mass cultural products. As the visionary businesses that developed mass cultural products became more successful within the nations they marketed their products to, their next step was to further expand. They expanded their target audience from potential consumers of a nation to potential consumers of the entire world. The strength of globalization assisted these businesses in successfully accomplishing this. Today, a producer of a mass cultural product can market and sell this product to six billion consumers around the world. As a result, all these consumers share the product and the culture associated with it. In this way, it is as if all of humanity can speak the same cultural language.

GLOBALIZATION: THE ULTIMATE HOMOGENIZER?

Globalization is the colossal process of integration. Increased integration leads to more efficient communication and productivity between parties across the world. One is able to socially, politically, or economically affect more people more efficiently. While globalization seems like the logically appropriate international system to exercise in order to further advance human civilization, do we have pay a price for it? Thomas Freedman, a popular analyst of globalization, has stated “…[Globalization has] unleashed forest-crushing forces of development, which if left unchecked has the potential to destroy the environment and uproot culture…Because globalization as a culturally homogenizing and environment-devouring force is coming on so fast, there is a real danger that in just a few decades it will wipe out the ecological and cultural diversity that took millions of years of human and biological forces to produce.” Reading this quote made me reevaluate my initial thought on globalization. As nations and cultures become increasingly interconnected, they also become more similar. While being able to exercise a greater level of efficiency is great, individuality and cultural diversity is also important. The lack of diversity leads to “groupthink.” Everyone starts thinking and acting alike. As people’s opinions, morals, and ways of living begin to resemble each other’s, dissenting ideas which could be better or more correct that the common ideas of society also disappear. This, in turn, could hinder the advancement of civilization. While globalization could catalyze human development, unchecked globalization could eventually lead to a monocultural world incapable of advancement. As globalization gains greater influence upon our political, financial, and social systems, we should be careful to ensure that individuality survives the integration.