Global Communication
With the rise of globalization over the past century and the advancements made by communications technology, it is only natural that global communication should become a topic of concern: with so many people of so many cultures and languages coming together, connecting in the virtual space and even working together on virtual teams (Klitmøller, Schneider & Jonsen, 2015), the impact of so much interconnectedness among diverse populations was bound to become an issue. As Masoom, Abdula and Islam (2016) point out, the problem extends beyond the mere agency of language; it goes on to include the issue of how to define social values, which are important for many nations and states around the world but which may differ in the global context. For instance, what is deemed a social value in the West may be deemed a social problem in the East (i.e., in China or the Philippines or in the Middle East). The rise of global communication has not just lifted barriers in terms of how people communicate, live, share information and work together: it has also raised questions about how to view one another, how to live in a global society, and how to respect other cultures and cultural values even when they conflict with one’s own. This paper will analyze how global communication has created an environment in which people are now closer than ever before yet also less certain about their place in the world and what it means to have a national or cultural identity in the global context.
Globalization has indeed created its own culture—a global culture in which appreciation of common interests (business, success, peace, advancement) have mutually beneficial outcomes for all invested. However, it has also led to the creation of a culture that views the global stage as something of a problem—a stage that...
If the latest trade war between the U.S. and China, or the latest round of sanctions against the Venezuelan government, in which both China and Russia (another “enemy” of the U.S.) are heavily invested in, shows anything it shows that the global stage is one upon which there is soon to be a terrific fight, one way or the other. Already the pieces are in place and even across Europe there is a rise in nationalistic politics, from Italy to England to Hungary to Spain: the people who have been brought together via the wonders of global...…reinforce the ability of the global corporation to provide goods and services to the global community in a uniform manner.
But would such a feat be conducive to the human experience, which has benefited from the richness of diversity for so many thousands of years? Would it be something that even succeeding generations would be willing to embrace? Global communication has thus introduced many questions and issues that still need to be asked, discussed and understood more fully. Right now it appears that the global stage is being set for global conflict, as all the people of the planet who have become so enmeshed in one another’s lives all simultaneously assert themselves in a way that makes it impossible for the global stage to stay peaceful for long. Though virtual teams, virtual worlds, virtual lives, and virtual information sharing have become part of the modern world, they are not indispensible when one considers the history of human experience. Humankind has existed in very small ways for thousands of years—and it is only now, in the digital era, that the effects of globalization have made that fact all the stranger and still somehow important to understand—for if global communication does breakdown, a new era of isolation…
