Introduction

Our society has changed dramatically with the introduction of the digital revolution. The availability of affordable smart phones and Internet connections have brought in a whole new dimension to what we know as globalization. Earlier globalization for many of us was characterised by the presence of global fastfood, clothing and lifestyle brands. But with the arrival of smartphones in the past decade a new digital infrastructure to mediate human experience has emerged. Applications in your phone can now help you carry out tasks such as shopping, banking fundamentally changing the manner in which we humans conducted social interactions.

Globalization

Globalization: According to an online etymology website, in the early 1960's the term 'globalization' emerged from the word 'globalize' which is just a few years older. Looking at the word ‘globalize’ in the 1950's we find that it was used in the context of the economic system of the world. When we dig in, we find that the roots of the term globalization rest on the term 'global' which was coined in 1892. So it is only at the end of the 19^th century that the term 'global' emerge in a sense that refers to the whole of human existence in a universal manner.

Now the etymology of the term ‘global’ itself reveals something of the history of the idea. The age of European Imperialism from the 16^th to the 19^th century led to the discovery of many parts of the world. Slowly and steadily these imperial explorations led to the filling in of the world map until somewhere in the 18^th century a clear picture of the world emerged. But still people were not in the habit to referring to the whole world as one. They didn’t have a common language or infrastructure or shared experiences of the world as one. Still stuck in regional identities people couldn’t imagine themselves as citizens of the world. Only when economic trade and travel became easier due to technology advancement does the word 'global' find popular currency. A defining moment in the history of the word 'global' was the invention and use of modern media technologies (telegraph, radio and then television) that we find the ‘global’ become a house hold term.

Media

Media: When the term emerged in the 1927 it would’ve primarily referred to newspapers and the radio which reached out to the larger public (TV as invented but was not an item of public consumption). So, the term ‘media’ has its roots in an earlier (1923) word ‘mass-media’ which means any communication that went out to large numbers. The 16^th century root word though is the Latin word medium which symbolized a middle place position or ground. For our purposes, the secondary meaning that emerges from this Latin word is therefore that of a middle organization/channel of communication.

Tracing the term ‘media’ historically it is interesting to find that the political meaning of the term existed in the Latin ‘medium’ of the 16^th century itself. One of the meanings of the term ‘medium’ then was that of an intermediate channel of communication. This is the meaning that is embossed on media which some have called the fourth pillar of democracy. In the 20^th century when ‘medium’ becomes ‘mass media’ and then ‘media’ what is in play is technological development. But the idea that media is an intermediary agency was inherent in its 16^th century root word itself.

Define globalization and media from their etymological and historical development;

Public Answer