r2mati on technol ogy, as the driving force of economic gl obalizati on,has als o become a veritable instrument for p ropagatingWestern cul2ture .
Perhap s by far the most i mportant far - reaching effect of cul2tural gl obalizati on is the commercializati on of culture . Producti onand consump ti on of cultural goods and services have become com2modities, al ongwith the essentials of s ocial life (marriage and fami2ly life, religi on,work and leisure) , that are the crucibles of culturalcreati on . In a way very si milar t o economic gl obalizati on,most peo2p le ( and especially the poor) do not experience cultural gl obaliza2ti on on ter ms they have decided for themselves . Culture - whetherit ismusic, food, cl othes, art, s port, i mages of age or youth, mascu2linity or femininity - has become a p r oduct, sold in the marketp lace . As the for mer chairman of Coca - Cola, Robert Goizueta,said: “Peop le ar ound the world are t oday connected by brand -name consumer p roducts asmuch as by anything else . ”
The commercializati on of culture has a disturbing i mpact onpeop le . What once was an element of their way of life becomes ap r oduct, rather than something unique they had made t o suit theirown s pecific needs and circumstances . At the same ti me, peop le areincreasingly bombarded with new i mages, new music, new cl othesand new values . The familiar and old are t o be discarded . Whilethere was cultural change l ong before gl obalizati on, there is a dangerthatmuch will be l ost si mp ly because it is not valued by gl obalmar2Consequently, it has been observed, gl obalized“cultural”in2dustries are taking over traditi onal for ms of creati on and dissemina2ti on of culture . Local culture ’s role as a spontaneous and integralpart of peop le’ s life is eroded and it ceases t o serve as the means ofconstructing s ocietal values, rep roducing group identity and buildings ocial cohesi on . The end result becomes gl obal integrati on at the ex2pense of l ocal disintegrati on .
As with othermarkets, the p layers of the culturalmarket p laceare unevenly matched . Gl obal media is increasingly in the hands ofa few, large, powerful organizati ons, as is the p r oducti on of musicand fil m. For examp le, by 1997, the MT V televisi on stati on was a2vailable t o 280 milli on households in over 70 countries . Fearing al oss of viewers, l ocal televisi on stati ons in many African countrieshave filled their transmissi ons with cost effectiveWestern p roducedshows, superficial news br oadcasts, quiz shows and, of course, adver2tisements . Consequently, T V p rograms all over the world resembleeach othermore and more and s o do the p roducts in the field ofmu2sic, fil m industry and publishing companies .The common aspect of the gl obalized culture is that it pursuesthe same“one size fits all”ideal : the archetyp ical middle - classfamily according t o the American model in which consumeris m isthe nor m. The result of this cultural p rocess of homogenizati on isthat a large secti on of the world’s populati on dreams of living likeCosby & Co . or like the characters in any other stereotype Americans oap opera .
Such a radical under mining of peop le’ s existing values and cul2tures has a corrosive i mpact on their sense of who they are, whatthey want and what they respect . It attacks s p iritual values and faithtraditi ons . The
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