The Inevitability and Desirability of Globalization
Host: Walter Anderson

The Influence of Technology and the Media

(Participant) We haven't really discussed much the role of mass media in this globalization process, but it is crucial in both form and content. The form is no doubt more important--ownership, reach, technology, etc.--but lately I've been extremely upset by the behavior of the media with respect to content. The most egregious example is the fact that every day, every day, EVERY DAY, for the past year, they report a sentence from Bush on Saddam, on the front page, and it is always the same sentence. I don't even have to repeat it because you know exactly what it is. And that's supposed to be news? I can't get over how irresponsible the press has been in this. Their hawking for war with their exciting logos and round the clock coverage, repeating that sentence from Bush mostly, and drumming up viewership with alarming stories, is enough to call in the ethics committee.

So the manner in which we globalize is going to be determined by both the form and the content of mass media. How do we get the forces that create both to observe some kind of ethical standards? I'm afraid the Fourth Estate has been foreclosed.

(Walter Anderson) Dick: you and I have been deploring how our democracy is responding to current events for some time, but it again seems to me that we are ignoring one important contributor: it is my broken record concerns over the lack of "informed and effective" citizen participation. We sing the song around the world about our strong democracy but in fact it has never been weaker. Camouflaged by the sound-bit barrage of the media, we get citizen polls, but they are based on inadequate education and managed messages.

Again, I think ignored in our exchanges has been the role of the citizen, its watered down impact because of adversarial debate without substance, and our deep down concern (perhaps justified) that our citizens are simply not up to making important judgments in the midst of so much technology and complexity.

You and I know of some important, but largely ignored, developments in deliberative decision making involving the average citizen, but they are less publicized than most of our alleged national secrets! I find it difficult to keep a curb on my broken record!

(Participant) Don, I couldn't agree more. That's what our education conference was about, and that's what my last comment here, lashing out at the irresponsible media was about. I know that Dan Yankelovich is working to establish centers of dialogue on crucial issues ranging from local to international.

(Walter Anderson) Dick, I see no way that we can force the media to grow up. As Kip notes, some things don't seem to change. I don't think the newspapers are any worse than they were in the good old days of Hearst and McCormick, however. What globalization does is enable the growth of huge media empires such as Murdoch's and at the same time increase the flow of information overall so that people who want to can get access to all kinds of other sources. I know people locally who watch TV news broadcasts from Qatar, and I hear al-Jazeera is going to launch an English-language web site. There's an alternative for you. But there's no doubt that the great mass of people--probably a larger mass than ever--get fed pretty low-grade stuff.

Don, I agree with you that there's something wrong with our over-emphasis on the debate model--I don't like those shows based on people with strongly different views hammering at one another. Our friend Dan Yankelovich has done a lot of work on the concept of dialogue, which is an entirely different type of interaction among people with different opinions--and something we could use a lot more of.

(Participant) Walt, I'm similarly at a loss to know what to do about the media problem, but I do believe that while some things have improved, and we always had corrupt publishers, we did have a respected profession of journalism. The commodification of journalism, most notable in network news, where entertainment and market values now prevail has simply wrecked reporting, failing to serve the public interest in the way Don mentions, and has fallen into far lower regard from the public. Perhaps we can fight the commodification of all professions, and that might make a difference. If globalization is to proceed with all the help it needs, it should have above all, an unencumbered Fourth Estate. Beyond that, it needs fully functioning professions across the board--architecture, medicine, law, education, psychology--all of which are vulnerable to commodification.

(Participant) I am wondering how it is that there is such a strong expectation that globalization will take place without including all of the human processes that we have seen for the last few thousand years?

It's easy to look at what is going on and find fault with it, but nonetheless it IS what is going on. Isn't it possible to conclude that somehow it is playing out in the only way actually possible for humans at this time?

(Participant) Kip, your comment on the inevitable march of society leaves little or no room for determined, goal oriented human achievement in altering its course. While there is plenty of room for pessimism in this--the 20th century was the bloodiest in history, and we are about to launch a war that will kill tens of thousands of innocents (by the way, the most destructive single events in history, in terms of loss of life, from Dresden to Nagasaki were perpetrated by the US, also that in the last century no aggressor has ever emerged victorious. I think we also have to honor those deliberate human achievements that do, on occasion, nudge the mass of society in the right direction. Most nations now deplore slavery, public hangings are no longer local entertainment, etc.

We do still have the Ashcrofts who are working to advance the cause of capital punishment, but I think he is fighting a losing cause in the long run, because of the deliberate acts of such people as Governor Ryan in terminating death row in Illinois.

And even if progress sometimes seems like a lost cause, the line from the old Frank Capra movie, Mr. Smith Goes To Washington, still motivates me, "Lost causes are the only ones worth fighting for."

(Participant) Dick, I'm not really framing my question in terms of a lost cause so much as suggesting that the species behavior patterns dominate in large movements. Nor am I suggesting that we should simply give up. What's that old thing about a long enough lever and the world? Well it's also a question of where to position the lever. There is no way to control the media in a democracy. It is private enterprise with the goal and the necessity to make a profit. More to the point it's not possible to predict what reactions over time the media's mishandling and misinformation are likely to produce in the way of response from the public. There is no fulcrum point to exert a moving force on the media other than profit, so effective management of globalization really shouldn't be distracted by what the media does or fails to do.

If the media is to be a concern to managing the process then the media should be employed in whatever ways possible to exert sufficient force on the viewers to nudge them in the desired direction. More germane to managing the process, I think, is the use of culture to nudge. Entertainment with the message. Movies, plays, art, music, etc. The news today is simply one more entertainment vehicle and I doubt that many people are overly swayed by its opinions anyway.

(Walter Anderson) Let's try to keep in mind that globalization as I'm defining it here is a context, a changing context that involves not only economic activity but also different conditions affecting all political, cultural and biological systems. It doesn't solve anything, and it is usually stretching things a bit even to say it causes anything. One of the things it definitely does do is stretch the boundaries of problems, so that American consumption is seen--correctly, I believe--as a problem for the world, and overpopulation in various parts of the world is seen--again correctly--as not just their problem, but ours.

I'd like to point out that the dialogue between Kip and Dick about the media reflects a change in the nature of political participation, and ideas about politics. The pattern of approaching problems through governmental action is now for many people seen as less effective than various kinds of actions through non-governmental organizations or movements. The two aren't a simple either-or, but if you look at what's happening globally in regard to environmental issues you can't help but notice the enormous role played by environmental ngo's.

(Participant) Howard Rheingold's recent book, Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution, provides some interesting commentary and insight about how the convergence of mobile communications and computing is driving the next social revolution - transforming the ways in which people meet, mate, work, buy, sell, govern, and create.

SMS played a significant role in the recent overthrow of the oppressive regime in the Philippines. An example of the power of the people "connected". It's not yet as popular in the USA as it is in other countries, but I imagine that we will hear from it as a powerful globalizing presence in the next few years.

Virtual communities with members from around the world now have a huge membership. Many of these communities are multi-subject oriented, and members move throughout them with surprising flexibility. While national and ethnic identities and interests nay be with us for some yet, I think this is a facet of globalization that represents a positive benefit for and within the process both now and in the near future.

"Blogging" is another recent net phenomenon that represents an example of globalization with the potential for realigning the conventional manner in which people are able to relate to each other and offers the opportunity to effect a much larger group than was possible even a couple of years ago.

I don't think there's any way as individuals or even as traditional hierarchical groups to really direct or manage this process.

(Walter Anderson) Kip, I haven't read Smart Mobs yet, will have to take a look at it. I have thought for a long time that Howard's thinking is an important piece of the globalization picture.

I'm off to the weekly meeting at PNS this morning, will pick up the Times and see what Berry has to say. I think he has a great feeling for the past, not much of a handle on the future.

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