Economy, Society, and Cultural Change
If a society remains feudal, people the
(handout 8)
The Economy as Foundation of Social Life
The Importance of Economic Structure
Karl Marx, the father of scientific socialism,
famously stated in his A Preface to o Critique
of Political Economy the most controversial
assertion in sociology:
In the social production of their life,
men enter into definite relations that
are indispensable and independent of
their will; these relations of production
correspond to a definite stage of
development of their material forces of
production. The sum total of these
relations of production constitutes the
economic structure of society—the real
foundation, on which rises a legal and
political superstructure and to which
correspond definite forms of social
consciousness. The mode of production
of material life determines the social,
political and intellectual life process in
general. It is not the consciousness of
men that determines their being, but,
on the contrary, their social being that
determines their consciousness. A
Preface to Contribution to Critique of
Political Economy
(https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1859/crit
ique-pol-economy/preface-abs.htm, retrieved
November 26, 2015).
Karl Marx is basically arguing that the
different kinds of social relations that are
generated by the economic production of
human beings of a particular society shape the
entire life, beliefs, and activities of that society.
In a feudal society, for instance, where
agriculture is the main pillar of production,
hierarchical social relations are produced owing
to the inequality between the landlords and the
landless peasants. Naturally, the political
system under feudalism is either authoritarian
or despotic. The same applies to slave-owning
societies.
"education oriented
will always be tied to the land and its economic
structures. People will tend to be traditional
and the development of individualism will be
difficult as a result of the strong collective
orientation of the people. Once people are
freed from the bondage of the land, once the
free peasants migrate to urban centers and
begin to work in factories, they develop a
different way of life, a different worldview.
The assertion of Karl Marx is also a truism in
another way. The cultural lifestyle of the poor
will be much different from those of the middle
classes and the super-rich. Whereas the rich
and the middle classes can afford to buy
original products, the lower class will be drawn
more to popular culture and its affordable
products. Hence, families from the upper
classes enjoy watching golf, while the lower
classes tend to watch popular sports like
basketball. It does not mean, of course, that
poor people are incapable of enjoying "high
art" and stylish dresses, leisure, and music. If
given the proper education and socialization,
the lower class can also learn how to
appreciate the "conspicuous consumption" of
the rich. In the case of the Philippines,
"lifestyles as indicative of class cultures may be
inferred from material possessions, the way
people handle leisure and their exposure to
media and cultural preferences"(p. 153). For
Cynthia Bautista (2001),"Of material
possessions, the dwelling unit is among the
best indicators of social status in the
Philippines, since Filipinos tend to invest their
savings in the appearances of their houses."A
recent study on the education of the elite
members of European societies in relation to
students from lower classes illustrates further
the way class structure shapes the trajectory
of scholastic achievement:
A child from the so-called
"educationally remote strata" who,
despite all these obstacles, reaches a
university is then confronted with the
extremely effective "unofficial"
curricula and the behavior patterns of
strata."According to a study
undertaken by the German
Studentenwerk (Student Services
Association), these students also have
to cope with greater material
problems...This is then reflected in the
fact that twice as many of them take
longer than average to complete their
studies. All in all, the university
prospects for children from working-
class families or normal white-collar or
civil service backgrounds are far worse
than they are for children from the
upper classes, despite the fact that
universities have gone through a
process of social opening (Hartmann
2004, p. 91).
In the case of women, their status will also
depend, not only on the cultural definition of
gender roles, but also on the economic
development of society. Marx, again, famously
observed that the degree of development and
progress of a society is always measured by
the status of women.
The Political Economy of Inequalities
The distribution of wealth in society will always
be dependent on the economic structure of
society. One of the major impacts of economy,
therefore, on society is on defining the status
and class of individuals within society. The
claim of Marx and Engels that, "The history of
all hitherto existing society is the history of
class struggles;' provides the starting point for
class analysis. For Marx, class refers to
relations among people who share the same
class interests in relation to the means of
production. Class is dependent on the access
to the ownership of the means of production.
Those who own and monopolize the means of
production in the classic Marxist analysis,
under capitalism, are called the bourgeoisie
or the capitalists. Those who own nothing
except to sell their labor power in the market
are the proletariat (from French proletariat,
from Latin proletarius—a man whose only
wealth is his offspring). The proletariat and the
bourgeoisie, however, are not just aggregates
of individuals who share the same class
interests. Classes are real or objective entities
that shape the way people think about
themselves and how they relate with others in
the real world. Marx, however, argued that
workers do not necessarily have consciousness
over their class interests. But they can possess
this class consciousness through collective
struggle. When they become aware of their
oppression, they organize themselves into
unions.
There are three types of class according to
Marx: The bourgeoisie, which the Communist
Monifesto referred to as "owners of the means
of social production and employers of wage
labor:' The proletariat or the working class,
which are said to be "the class of modern
wage-laborers who, having no means of
production of their own, are reduced to selling
their labor-power in order to live."There are
also the petty bourgeoisie who are the class of
educated individuals. The big landowners who
exploit the labor of the peasants. And the
peasant class that include landless farmers
who are forced to offer their services to the big
landowners. Finally, Marx also included
the"dangerous class," otherwise known as the
lumpenproletariat, which is said to be
composed of "the social scum, that passively
rotting mass thrown off by the lowest layers of
old society."The lumpenproletariat sell their
services to the bourgeoisie, who use them as
strike breakers, labor spies, and fighters
against the workers in times of revolution.
Such are the actions which make them the
"dangerous class:' Marx, however, often spoke
of the bourgeoisie, proletariat, and
landowners. According to Bertell Oilman,
Marx's criteria for distinguishing classes hinge
on the question of class conflict and interests.
The proletariat and the bourgeoisie are the
great classes under capitalism because their
interests are directly opposed to each other
(http://www.nyu.edu/projects/ollman/docs/class.php, retrieved
November 12, 2014).
System of Stratification as Source of a closed system in contrast with the class
Inequalities system that is relatively open. Membership of
castes is ascribed rather than achieved, and
Some sociologists, however, extend the social in between castes is heavily constrained
definition of class to include not only access to and ritualized. Unlike in the class system, in
the means of production like land, capital, and the caste system the positions of people are
technologies but also to the prestige attached already determined at the moment they were
to one's social position. Hence, some born. In his famous essay on “The Future
sociologists, writing along the Weberian Results of British Rule in India”, Karl Marx
tradition, use the term stratification. When characterized the Indian castes as "the most
regularly recognized social differences (of decisive impediment to India's progress and
wealth, color, religion, ethnicity or gender, for power." Marx correctly argued that the caste
example) become ranked in some hierarchical system of India was based on the e hereditary
manner, sociologists talk about strata (Bruce division of labor, which was inseparably linked
and Yearly 2006, p. 290). with the unchanging technology base and
subsistence economy of the Indian village
Max Weber defined class a category of community.
individuals who (1)"have in common a specific
causal component of their life chances in so far Over one-sixth of
as (2) this component is represented India's population,
exclusively by economic interests in the some 170 million
possession of goods and opportunities for people, live a
income, and (3) it is represented under the precarious existence,
conditions of the commodity or labor market' shunned by much of
He was close to Marx's view because he Indian society because
believed that ownership of property is crucial of their rank
to the definition of class. But Weber's sociology as`untouchables' or
distinguished status from class as the two Dalits—literally
principal bases of social stratification. Where meaning "broken"
class referred to social differences based on people—at the bottom
economic divisions and inequalities, status of India's caste
designated the differentiation of groups in the system.
"communal" sphere in terms of their social http://www.ncdhcorg.in/dalit-
honor and social standing. For Weber and his rights-situation, retrieved
followers, status groups are differentiated less November 12, 2014)
on the basis of wealth but by the kind of
shared lifestyle they have. It is well known that
Weber saw class as only one aspect of the Class System
distribution of power in society. So, while a
physician belongs to the middle class, being a As discussed earlier, under the class system,
member of a professional group of physicians individuals are positioned according to their
also means having an elite status that gives a access to the means of production and
member social prestige. contribution to productive labor. People with
higher income tend to have children who also
Caste have higher income. Parents who can afford to
send their children to better schools are
Caste system as a system of social promoting the future advantage of their
stratification differs from class in its rigidity children. To talk about the class system is to
and in the basis of legitimation. It is also called talk about the ways in which individuals from a
definite family background can advance to a
relatively better economic position than their
parents. In most class system, education has
become the accepted means to advance one's
social mobility. Among Filipino families,
education is considered as the "ticket to
success." This is supported by the theory of
education-based meritocracy proposed chiefly
by American sociologists Daniel Bell in the
1960s. In this theory, education is supposed to
be the great status equalizer. Education
provides much needed capital to climb the
economic ladder. Hence, many Filipino families
will sacrifice anything for their children to finish
a college degree. This practice is based on the
belief that our society is an "open" society that
allows the movement of individuals from a
lower class to a relatively higher class.
When people are allowed and are capable of
moving from one stratum or class to another
class, it is called social mobility. According to
Bruce and Yearley (2006), social mobility
"signifies the movement of people between
positions in a system of social stratification. In
modern societies this means the movement of
people between social classes is defined by
occupational scales. It may occur between
generations (as when a girl born into a
working-class family achieves a middle-class
occupation) or be the ups-and downs of an
individual career" (p. 283).
Status and Class
In sociology, when the concept of class is
discussed, it is o hen term "stratification' en
differentiated from Weber's notion of
stratification. According to Peter Saunders
(1990), has been borrowed by sociologists
from the science of geology. Stratification, in
geology refers to the accumulated strata of
rock that form the earth's surface. In
sociology, while strata do not constitute
communities, according to Max Weber, status
groups normally are communities. Status
refers to life chances that are determined by
social honor or prestige. People who belong to
status groups usually form exclusive
communities with clear boundaries. They
distinguish themselves from the "outsiders" by
the use of the derogatory terms of "us" versus
"them." This is exemplified in the caste system
where high-class caste sets itself apart from
the outcast. Whereas Karl Marx de fined class
in relation to the ownership of the means of
production or property, Weber framed class in
terms of life chances in the market. In the
market, one can increase one's life chances or
economic opportunities by having more
prestige or social honor. These prestige and
honor are often not acquired by merits but
through birth to a status group. Being a
member of a royal family, for instance, is not
acquired but inherited. Yet, like Marx, Weber
believed that it is property or the lack of
property which are decisive in determining the
individual's chances in competing in the
marketplace.
In contemporary sociology, it is Pierre
Bourdieu (1930-2002), a French sociologist,
who dealt extensively with class inequalities by
arguing that capital, in its classic Marxist
usage, does not refer only to economic assets
but also includes cultural, symbolic, and social
capital. Cultural capital refers to the forms of
knowledge, educational credentials, and artistic
taste that a person acquires from family
background, which give them higher status in
society. A physician has a higher cultural
capital compared with an ordinary office clerk.
Parents provide their children with cultural
capital by transmitting the attitudes and
knowledge needed to succeed in the current
educational system. Middle class families
prefer to send their children to exclusive
private schools so their children can acquire
higher cultural capital. Social capital refers to
resources based on group membership,
relationships, and networks of influence and
support. Bourdieu (1984) described social
capital as "the aggregate of the actual or
potential resources which are linked to
possession of a durable network of more or
less institutionalized relationships of mutual
acquaintance and recognition." In traditional
societies, for instance, individuals are recruited
in a bureaucracy on the basis of blood
relations. In his book Distinction (1984),
Bourdieu refers to symbolic capital as "the
acquisition of a reputation for competence and
an image of respectability and honourability..."
(p. 291). A celebrity has a higher symbolic
capital than an ordinary individual. She can
utilize that symbolic capital to run for political
office.
These forms of capital constitute the resources
of a person's habitus, which refers to the
personal psychological dispositions of a person
that are shaped by these forms of capital and
family background, while also modifying them
in the light of engagement with the social
world. Bourdieu defines the habitus as "an
acquired system of generative schemes
objectively adjusted to the particular conditions
in which it is constituted" (Bourdieu 1977, p.
95). A person can combine these forms of
capital and transform or activate them to gain
advantage in the social field.
A middle class student, for instance, can hire a
tutor for his/her subjects. A middle class family
can only do this because it has economic
resources. In this example, a middle class
family converts economic resources to cultural
and symbolic capital. In return, this conversion
will serve as an asset and resource for a
middle class student in achieving better
scholastic performance in school. In the case of
students coming from the lower class, the
cultural and symbolic capitals they acquire
from college education are transformed into
assets in applying for employment.
Economy and Globalization
Globalization Through Free Trade
Agreement
Anthony Giddens, a British sociologist, the
multiplication of risks in a new globalized
economy: "In the new global electronic
economy, fund managers, banks, corporations,
as well as millions of individual investors, can
transfer vast amounts of capital from one side
of the world to another at the click of a mouse. commenced on 1 January 1995 under the However, many critics assail its negative
As they do so, they can destabilise what might Marrakech Agreement, replacing the General effects on poor countries. Colin Hines explains
have seemed rock-solid economies—as Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), which the power of WTO:
happened in the events scan Asia" (2002, p. commenced in 1948. According to the WTO
30). Giddens is, o fcourse, referring to global website: The WTO's greatest power lies in its
financial crisis. Financial crisis has become dispute settlement body and its cross-
global because world economies are The World Trade Organization (WTO) is retaliation provisions, both of which
integrated. From an economic point of view, the only global international enable it to force nations to comply
globalization may be seen as "the process of organization dealing with the rules of with WTO rules. The increasing number
progressive growth of economic activities trade between nations. At its heart are of controversial rulings in which the
which transcends any definition, kind of the WTO agreements, negotiated and WTO dispute settlement body has
geographical border. According to this signed by the bulk of the world's upheld corporate interests over those
definition, globalization can be seen as the trading nations and ratified in their of people and the environment has
increasing movement of goods and services as parliaments. The goal is to help increased public opposition to the
well as human resources through trade and producers of goods and services, VVTO...Globalization is reducing the
investments among nations. Trade exporters, and importers conduct their power of governments to provide what
liberalization policy and international trade are business their populations require all over the
perceived as important ingredients of (https://www.wto.org/english/thewtoe/whatis_e/whatise world. TNCs and international capital
globalization" (Thai, Rahm, and Coggburn .htm, retrieved August 5, 2014). have become the de facto new world
2007, p. 2). government. Their increasing control
The WTO is supposed to promote free and fair over the global economy is
The original and continuing fundamental goal trade. Yet, it must also be pointed out that the underpinned by their free trade
of economic internationalization is free trade. "agreement establishing the WTO commits its orthodoxy (2000, 16).
The dream of economists after World War II member states to a variety of noble objectives:
was a system of multilateral trade through the improved standards of living, full employment, When Corporations Rule the World
International Trade Organization (ITO) to expanded production of and trade in goods and
reverse the protectionism of the Great services, sustainable development, and an Another globalizing force is that of
Depression. Today, this dream has come true enhanced share of developing countries in transnational corporations (TNCs), which
in the major agreements, such as the world trade."The Agreement further commits influence national government policies through
European Union (EU), North American Free its members to contribute to these objectives their ability to invest and reinvest capital,
Trade Agreement (NAFTA), Asia-Pacific "by entering into reciprocal and mutually relocate factories, and influence other similar
Economic Cooperation (APEC), Association of advantageous arrangements directed to the companies in either investing or boycotting a
Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), and the substantial reduction of tariffs and other country. A TNC differs from a traditional
Common Market of the South (MERCOSUR). barriers to trade and to the elimination of multinational company (MNC) in that a TNC
Economic globalization today is facilitated by discriminatory treatment in international trade does not identify itself with one national home.
the interlocking of nation states through free relations" (Narllikar 2005). While traditional MNCs are national companies
market agreements by supra-national with foreign subsidiaries, TNCs spread out their
organizations such as the International . Many economists believe that trade operations in many countries through
Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank, the World liberalization is favorable to democracy. A outsourcing and offshore investment. An
Trade Organization (WTO), NAFTA, Transpacific democracy that starts with a liberalized example of a TNC is Nestle that employs senior
Partnership (2005), and APEC. These economy is likely to strengthen democratic executives from many countries while
international and regional trade agreements rule. Liberalization accelerates growth and enforcing decisions from a global perspective
limit the scope of nation-state activities while increases competitiveness. Growth following rather than from one centralized headquarters.
facilitating free trade. economic liberalization may permit Surely, the "transnationality" of TNCs can be
redistribution required in democracy (Pelaez considered as roughly equivalent to
The WTO, in particular, is an organization that and Pelaez 2008, 71). globalization. As United Nations Conference on
supervises and liberalizes international trade. Trade and Development (UNCTAD) defines it,
It is one of the pillars of economic "Transnationality is a function of the extent to
globalization. The organization officially which a firm's activities are located abroad. It
refers to the geographic spread of firms and
implies the existence of a home country and
one or more host countries" (UNCTAD 2007, p.
1).
TNCs have been a driving force behind the
dramatic transformations in the global
economy. They enabled the expansion of trade
and investment flows and have also promoted
the creation of new economic linkages between
developed and developing countries. In a world
increasingly marked by transnational economic
and cultural flows, TNCs assume an important
position as the producers and movers of goods
and services. They are not merely economic
units but have become important cultural and
occasionally political forces. Many economists
argue that TNCs can be beneficial to
developing countries because of technology
transfer and diffusion of knowledge and
information. TNCs bring much needed capital
to developing countries through direct foreign
investments. These investments, in turn,
create jobs and employment for the host
countries. One scholar cites the case of
McDonald's:
On January 31, 1990, the first
McDonald's restaurant opened in the
Soviet Union and a worldwide company
record of 30,567 customers were
served. However, the important point
for this book has nothing to do with the
fact that you can now buy a Big Mac in
Russia. The point is that a private TNC
from an industrialized nation can move
into an LDC and make a profit while
helping to organize very disorganized
and unproductive economic sectors
(e.g. agriculture, electricity,
transportation, food service) of society.
The infrastructure built by the TNC can
(and probably will) have a positive
ripple effect across many other sectors
of the nation (Hanson 2008, P. 12 )
Although TNCs are subject to regulation by the
nation-states, their transnational reach
appears to endow them with a superior
position of power. Their investment decisions
can be crucial to the economic well-being, not
only of a nation, but of whole regions. To
secure economic growth and political stability,
nation-states have to compete globally for
investments. TNCs benefit from that
competition and, therefore, appear to shape
the global political agenda to their advantage.
This enormous power of TNCs makes many
scholars and even governments worried and
critical of TNCs' operations. The potential
power and extent TNCs influence are described
by the UNCTAD (2007):
The universe of TNCs is large, diverse
and expanding. By the early 1990s,
there were an estimated 37,000 TNCs
in the world, with 170,000 foreign
affiliates. Of these, 33,500 were parent
corporations based in developed
countries. Today, there are an
estimated 77,000 TNCs in the world,
with more than 770,000 foreign
affiliates. These affiliates generated an
estimated $4.5 trillion in value added,
employed some 62 million workers and
exported goods and services valued at
more than $4 trillion (UNCTAD 2006, p.
3).
As a result, John Medeley, a strong critic of
TNCs, points out the difference between the
poor of developing countries and the TNCs:
"The starkest contrast between the poor and
the TNCs is that the poor have little power.
And while the corporations have gained from
the changes in the global economy, the poor
have lost, often from those same changes"
(Madelley 2009, p. 7). Medeley further adds,
TNCs have successfully persuaded
people in developing countries to adopt
products such as Coca-Cola, Seven-Up,
Pepsi, Kentucky Fried Chicken, beef
burgers, cigarettes and so on as part of
their way of life. Such goods cost a
sizeable proportion of the poor's
earnings, with the result that
traditional and usually more nutritious
foods cannot be afforded, and health
suffers. By consuming inappropriate
products, the poor have less money to
buy basic necessities... (p. 7).
TNCs are not only blamed for the poverty of
developing countries. Many critics also point to
the environmental problems that arise from
the operations of TNCs in the developing
countries such as mining, logging, and
agriculture. The petrochemical company
Chevron is guilty of some of the worst
environmental and human rights abuses in the
world, according to International Labor Rights
Forum. For instance, from 1964 to 1992,
Texaco (which transferred operations to
Chevron after being bought out in 2001)
unleashed a toxic "Rainforest Chernobyl" in
Ecuador by leaving over 600 unlined oil pits in
pristine northern Amazon rainforest and
dumping 18 billion gallons of toxic production
water into rivers used for bathing water
(http://www.laborrights.org/in-the-news/14-worst-corporate-
evildoers, retrieved November 12, 2014). Politically, many
anti-globalization activists protest the
powerlessness of developing countries to check
the unbridled operations of TNCs. Coca-Cola
Company, perhaps the most widely recognized
corporate symbol on the planet, is another
example. According to International Labor
Rights Forum, The company leads in the abuse
of workers' rights, assassinations, water
privatization, and worker discrimination.
Between 1989 and 2002, eight union leaders
from Coca-Cola bottling plants in Colombia
were killed after protesting the company's
labor practices. Hundreds of other Coca-Cola
workers who have joined or considered joining
the Colombian union SINALTRAINAL have been
kidnapped, tortured, and detained by
paramilitaries who are hired to intimidate
workers to prevent them from unionizing"
(http://www.laborrights.org/in-the-news/14- worst-corporate-
evildoers, retrieved November 12, 2014).
In the West, governments insist on high
environmental standards and TNC operations
are carefully scrutinized. In developing
countries, however, legal requirements are
often lower and TNCs can get away with more.
Critics point out the ease with which
multinationals can avoid national regulation
through their mobility and flexibility of
structure and organization. The power of TNCs
grows stronger with acquisitions and mergers.
According to Barron's Business Guide (2007),
to merge corporations means to "financially
combine two companies so that only one of the
companies survives as a legal entity" (p. 424).
In acquisition, one company takes over
controlling the interest in another company (p.
10). Acquisition usually refers to a purchase of
a smaller firm by a larger one. Consolidation
occurs when two or more corporations are
combined into a new corporation (p. 135). The
biggest acquisition so far is America Online
acquiring Time Warner valued at 5186.2 billion
in 2000. However, they eventually demerged
in 2009. Recently, Microsoft Corporation
acquired Nokia to the tune of 57.3 billion. This
acquisition will have enormous impact on
mobile technology, personal computers,
program development, and consumer
preferences.
In the past, many economists believe that it is
not the moral responsibility of TNCs to act
fairly and to operate based on sustainable
development. According to Milton Friedman
(1962, p. 133), one of the most popular
proponents of neoliberal economics, the idea
that corporations have any responsibilities
beyond maximizing profits for their
shareholders represents "a fundamental
misconception of the character and nature of a
free economy." The sole responsibility of
business leaders is to generate and maximize
profits within the prevailing legal framework.
Today, however, owing to the pressure from
anti-globalization movements, ecology
movements, and even governments, many
TNCs are now moving towards corporate
social responsibility (CSR) and developing
an ethical standard for their worldwide
operations. CSR "refers to any activity that
promotes the welfare of a ny stakeholder of a
business corporation. Sometimes CSR refers to
philanthropic programs targeting communities
or employees. Other times it refers to
commitments to promote the welfare of
suppliers. It also refers to a variety of activities
designed to enhance environmental
stewardship (sustainability). More generally, it
refers to the vague intention to better society
(corporate citizenship)" (Ludescher and
Mahsud 2010, p. 123). An advocate of
corporate social responsibility states,
But today a business can no longer be
seen as a creator of wealth solely for
its owners. Rather, business has
broader responsibilities that extend
beyond its owners and shareholders to
include employees, customers,
suppliers and host communities. This
view is distinct from business
philanthropy in that it is based on a
sense of responsibility, not generosity
(Pegg 2003, p. 8).
World Capitalist System, Neoliberalism,
and Inequality
Economic globalization through world trade
implies a division of labor between societies.
From world system analysis, popularized d by
Immanuel Wallerstein, the core or advanced
industrial countries do capital-intensive, de,
high value-adding production while peripheral
societies or less developed countries do labor-
intensive, low value-adding production. As a
result, the peripheral countries provided ample
but cheap raw materials and labor for
industrialized countries. According to Malcolm
Waters, this international division of labor
widened the gap between poor and rich t ac
was countries. roi 20:1, bOyn1a9n75income s
4p0e:ri and basis the rich: poor ratio was
about 2:1 in 1800, by 1945 by 1990 it was
64:1 (1995, 2001, p. 44).
Many critics of globalization argue that the
persistent inequality that the world confronts is
largely a product of neoliberalism and the
policies implemented under it. Neoliberalism is
a plural set of ideas rather than as a singular
body of economic theory (Plehwe, Walpen, and
Neunhoffer, 2006). As a theory, neoliberalism
has its origin in the economic theory that
emerged from the Mount Pelerin Society, the
name of a small village close to Lake Geneva,
under the leadership of the Swiss businessman
Albert Hunold and Friedrich August von Hayek.
Neoliberalism was an attempt to challenge the
growing power and influence of the state over
the market. Neoliberal reformers argued that
the smaller the government, the freer is the
market. The market is the place where private
individuals transact business freely. Basic to
neoliberal economic theory is the claim of the
superiority of the market mechanism and
competition-driven processes of capitalist
development over state-driven pathways of
social and economic organization, the
limitation of government to the protection of
individual rights, especially property rights,
privatization of state enterprises, and the
liberalization of formerly strictly regulated and
government administered markets (Plehwe and
Walpen 2006, 27).
Today, with the globalization under full swing,
social scientists are divided between those who
argue that globalization promotes economic
growth and those who argue that globalization
is increasing the gap between the rich and
poor both in developed and developing nations.
Those scholars who criticize neoliberalism
make a distinction between globalization as a
universal process of shrinking the globe into
small village, and globalism as an ideological
version of neoliberal globalization. Critics of
neoliberal globalization or globalism, the
ideology, tend to emphasize the growing
inequalities in both national and global scale.
According to the journal The Economist,
"Growth really does help the poor: in fact it
raises their incomes by about as much as it
raises the incomes of everybody else...In
short, globalization raises incomes, and the
poor participate fully" (The Economist, 27 May
2000: 94).
Some neo-classical economists even think that
inequality is good. In an interview in
Wirtschaftswoche, the Austro-Hungarian
economist Friedrich von Hayek, one of the
founders of neoliberalism, made it clear that he
advocated inequality unreservedly: "Inequality
is not regrettable, but highly pleasing...Those
who attack the rich forget that most of them
created jobs in the course of becoming rich
and so they have helped more people than if
they had given money to the poor (von Hayek
1996, p. 16).
For Joseph Stiglitz, however, a former
employee of the World Bank and Nobel
Laureate, in his recent book The Chances of
Globalisation (Stiglitz 2006), in contrast to the
euphoric promises of the theoreticians of
globalization through free trade, the respective
deregulation. and opening of markets have
not led to prosperity for all. On the contrary, i
today it clear that globalization has led to a
large number of losers, especially in the South,
i but also in industrialized countries, with only
some rich people having been able to benefit.
But one can always check the facts. The best
estimates for wealth's concentration at the
global level come from Forbes magazine.
Forbes annually tallies the fortunes of the
world’s billionaires. The world's 1,210 current
billionaires, Forbes reported in March 2011,
hold a Combined wealth that equals over half
the total wealth of the 3.01 billion adults
around the world who, according to Credit
Suisse, hold under $10,000 in net worth (http://
ineclualitY.org/global-inequality/listhash.biW6myyo.dpuf, retrieved
November 12, 2014).
In 2006, scholars with the United Nations
University's World Institute for Development
Economics Research published the first paper
to tally, for the entire world, all the major
elements of household wealth, everything from
financial assets and debts to land, homes, and
other tangible property. This research, based
on year 2000 data, found that the richest 1%
of world adults, individuals worth at least
$514,512, owned 39.9% of the world's
household wealth, a total greater than the
wealth of the world's poorest 95%, those
adults worth under $150,145 (http://ineq
uality.org/global-inequality/ttsthash.biW6myyo.dput retrieved
November 12, 2014).
To get a graphic picture of this global
inequality, think of this description by Oxfam,
an international non-governmental
organization: "The world's wealthiest people
aren't known for travelling by bus, but if they
fancied a change of scene then the richest 85
people on the globe—who between them
control as much wealth as the poorest half of
the global population put together—could
squeeze onto a single double-decker." Oxfam
further reveals that "The wealth of the 1%
richest people in the world amounts to $110tn
(£ 60.88tn), or 65 times as much as the
poorest half of the world"
(http://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/ jan/20/oxfam-85-
richest-people-half-of-the-world, retrieved November 12, 2014).
Something to Think About!
Pope Francis strongly
condemned unregulated market
in his encyclical Joy of the
Gospel. In this encylical the Pope
stated that inequality is the root
of global problems.
Read the following excerpt from Apostolic
Exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium (Joy of the
Gospel) of Pope Francis. Why do you think the
Catholic Church should be mindful of global
inequality and poverty?
53. Just as the commandment "Thou shalt not
kill" sets a clear limit in order to safeguard the
value of human life, today we also have to say
"thou shalt not" to an economy of exclusion
and inequality. Such an economy kills. How can
it be that it is not a news item when an elderly
homeless person dies of exposure, but it is
news when the stock market loses two points?
This is a case of exclusion. Can we continue to
stand by when food is thrown away while
people are starving? This is a case of
inequality. Today everything comes under the
laws of competition and the survival of the
fittest, where the powerful feed upon the
powerless. As a consequence, masses of
people find themselves excluded and
marginalized: without work, without
possibilities, without any means of escape.
Human beings are themselves considered
consumer goods to be used and then
discarded. We have created a-throw away-
culture which is now spreading. It is no longer
simply about exploitation and oppression, but
something new. Exclusion ultimately has to do
with what it means to be a part of the society
in which we live; those excluded are no longer
society's underside or its fringes or its
disenfranchised—they are no longer even a
part of it. The excluded are not the "exploited"
but the outcast, the leftovers."
54. In this context, some people continue to
defend trickle-down theories which assume
that economic growth, encouraged by a free
market, will inevitably succeed in bringing
about greater justice and inclusiveness in the
world. This opinion, which has never been
confirmed by the facts, expresses a crude and
naive trust in the goodness of those wielding
economic power and in the sacralized workings
of the prevailing economic system. Meanwhile,
the excluded are still waiting. To sustain a
lifestyle which excludes others, or to sustain
enthusiasm for that selfish ideal, a
globalization of indifference has developed.
Almost without being aware of it, we end up
being incapable of feeling compassion at the
outcry of the poor, weeping for other people's
pain, and feeling a need to help them, as
though all this were someone else's
responsibility and not our own. The culture of
prosperity deadens us; we are thrilled if the
market offers us something new to purchase.
In the meantime all those lives stunted for lack
of opportunity seem a mere spectacle; they fail
to move us.
In the case of the Philippines, the collective problems that face Philippine economy as it 25 Betty Ang $670 Million - Food
wealth of the 50 richest people in the swims into the tide; of globalization. And if 26 Dean Lao $625 Million 55 chemicals
Philippines reached $74 billion in 2014, up these fundamental problems remain
12% from $65.8 billion in 2013. Mall magnate unresolved, the problem o achieving economic 27 Manuel Zamora $620 Million 74 Mining
Henry Sy remains to be the wealthiest Filipino, equality and inclusive growth will be an elusive 28 Carlos Chan $550 Million 73 Foods
according to Forbes magazine's The Philippines dream. 29 Jorge Araneta $510 Million - Real
50 Richest List for 2014. Some may find this Estate
conclusion revolting, but the $74 billion Complete List: 50 Richest Filipinos in 2014 30 Mariano Tan, Jr. $445 Million 52 Pharmaceu
combined net worth of the 50 wealthiest in the ticals
Philippines is already equivalent to a ORIGIN 31 Edgar Sia $390 Million 37 Fast food
NET AG
staggering 26% or one-fourth of the country's RANK NAME OF
WORTH E 32 Ramon Ang $380 Million 60 Diversified
WEALTH
Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
1 Henry Sy & family $12.7 89 diversified 33 Michael Romero $375 Million 41 Ports
Billion
Is this a consequence of economic 2 Lucio Tan & family $6.1 Billion 80 diversified 34 Concepcion family $320 Million - food
globalization? One observer points out, 35 Philip Ang $315 Million 73 Mining
3 Enrique Razon, Jr. $5.2 Billion 54 ports
"Globalization, then, continues to be a powerful
political talisman in the Philippines and is used 4 Andrew Tan $5.1 Billion 62 diversified 36 Frederick Dy $310 Million 59 Banking
to justify a set a specific economic 5 John Gokongwei, Jr. $4.9 Billion 87 diversified 37 Luis Virata $300 Million 60 Mining
development policies. In particular, the drive to
6 David Consunji $3.9 Billion 92 constructio 38 Alfredo Ramos & $260 Million 70 Diversified
attract export-oriented foreign direct family
n
investment has been at the forefront of 7 George Ty & family $3.7 Billion 81 banking 39 Wilfred Steven $255 Million 52 Milk
national economic strategy" (Kelly 2000, p. Uytengsu, Jr. &
160). Of course, the Philippines is not 8 Family Aboitiz $3.6 Billion - Diversified family
untouched by globalization ever since 40 Tomas Alcantara $250 Million 68 Diversified
9 Jaime Zobel de $3.4 Billion 80 Diversified
colonizers set foot on the islands. In fact, Ayala & family 41 Jose Antonio $240 Million 67 Real estate
Filipinos were already trading with merchants 10 Tony Tan Caktiong & $2 Billion 61 fast food
family 42 Bienvenido Tantoco, $235 Million 93 Retailing
from different parts of Asia. Sr. & family
11 Robert Coyiuto, Jr. $1.8 Billion 61 power
43 Jacinto Ng $230 Million - Diversified
Today, however, the Philippines has been 12 Lucio and Susan Co $1.7 Billion 59 Retailing
44 Gilberto Duavit & $200 Million 79 Media
integrated into the circuit of global capitalism. 13 Emilio Yap $1.5 Billion 88 Banking family
And this has set the stage for impending 45 Menardo Jimenez $195 Million 82 Media
economic policies that dovetail with globalizing 14 Manuel Villar $1.5 Billion 64 Real estate
trends. i As one scholar points out, "In 46 Eric Recto $190 Million 51 Diversified
15 Inigo & Mercedes $1.2 Billion 58 Diversified
practical terms this priority has several Zobel 47 Walter Brown $183 Million 75 Mining
corollaries. i Firstly, it implies (and has resulted 16 Alfredo Yao $1 Billion 70 Diversified
48 Felipe Gozon $182 Million 74 Media
in) a reduction in the importance of agriculture 17 Andrew Gotianun $955 Million 86 real estate
in national development strategies. Rather 49 P.J. Lhuillier $180 Million - pawn
18 Vivian Que Azcona $935 Million - Retailing shops
than giving priority to developing infrastructure & family 50 Juliette Romualdez $170 Million - Banking
such as irrigation systems or farm-to market 19 Eduardo Cojuangco $870 Million 79 Food &
roads, it has instead been given to the needs drinks
of foreign investors in the manufacturing and 20 Beatrice Campos & $825 Million - Pharma There is a consensus among social scientists
service sectors. This has been particularly family today that even when inequality is not rising, a
evident in the productive agricultural areas in 21 Ricardo Po family $770 Million - canned high initial level of inequality can stifle
food
the national core region, where nationally prospects for pro-poor growth. In an economy
22 Oscar Lopez & $700 Million 84 Media
important rice growing areas have been family where inequality is low and does not
converted to urban and industrial uses" (Kelly 23 Alfonso Yuchengco $685 Million 91 Diversified subsequently rise, one can expect that the
2000, p. 160). The continuing land problems & family poor will tend to obtain a higher share of the
coupled with the inaccessibility of education, 24 Roberto Ongpin $680 Million 77 Diversified gains from growth than in an economy in
especially higher education, are the biggest which inequality is high. According to the
review of studies by Martin Ravallion, "loin
balance, the existing evidence using cross-
country growth regressions appears to offer
more support for the view that inequality is
harmful to growth than the opposite view,
which was the prevailing view in development
economics for decades (Ravallion 2004).
Economic Globalization and the
Environment
Classical theories of development or the rise in
Gross National Product (GNP). But as Mark
Hanson (2008) rihly points out, “ In this age of
globalization, a distinction between growth and
development must be made. Growth signifies
more of something, while development
signifies betterment of something. For
example, it is quite possible to have growth
though more schools, books, and teachers but
still have the same old bad education. Or,
more factories, machines and jobs, but still
generate no improvement in the quality of life.
On the other hand, development signifies
qualitatively better schools, books and
teachers; or better factories, machines, air
quality and jobs that collectively improve the
caliber of life" (p.10). The productivist
paradigm, or the belief in endless growth,
simply advocated for continuous growth and
rejected any notion of limits to the
environment and resources. If ever there were
problems with the environment, they were
treated merely as technical problem that can
be solved through technological advancement
or "technological fix”. In this view, the
problem of vehicular pollution can easily be
solved through technology of producing low-
emission engines and fuels.
Today, however, many economists and
environmentalists especially Barry Commoner
and Herman Daly challenge the “productivist”
parandigm. Herman Daly (2004) , a proponent
of ecological economics, while
acknowledging the peril of growth on the
economy, also suggests redistribution of
wealth. He argues, “Finally, we know that the
economic system cannot grow forever on a
finite planet. We must limit growth to ensure
the well-being of the future, but one cannot
ethically tell poor people they must continue to
suffer deprivation to ensure that the future
does not suffer. If the pie must cease to grow,
then we are ethically obliged to redistribute it"
(p. 441).
Take the EPA or economic partnership
agreement between S. Africa and European
Union, as a case in point. In 2007, the EPA
resulted in the massive use of water from the
lake to grow cut flowers. The UK alone
imported 18,000 tons of flowers from Kenya in
2013, up from about 10,000 tons in 2000. The
flower growers draw water out of the lake on
an average of approximately 20,000 cubic
meters a day. Lake Naivasha shrank last year
to about 75% of its 1982 size. At this rate, in
another 50 years, it will shrink to a muddy pool
of dead water. The papyrus swamps that were
the breeding grounds for fish have gone, even
as the laboring population in the flower farms
is increasing. People are facing severe
problems of food and water insecurity (Tandon
2009, p. 110).
An important factor in understanding the
necessary linkage between the rich and poor
countries in relation to global environmental
problems is the fact that most of the necessary
materials and resources for industrialization of
the West at the turn of the 20th century came
at the expense of other countries. After World
War II, the United States and Japan were able
to keep their forests well managed and their
watersheds forested partly because they could
rely on wood imported from Southeast Asia
and elsewhere. Similarly, wealthy countries
have been able to reduce their waste by
diverting it: releasing it downstream, sending
it downwind, dumping it in the ocean, or
exporting it. Even now, the United States
exports huge quantities of used electronics,
whose components can be hazardous when
they are recycled or discarded (Goldoftas
2006, p. 210).
Moreover, the global nature of environmental
degradation can largely be linked to the rise of
the fossil fuel economy and to the decreasing
distance of time and space in the relations
between different parts of the globe (Daly
1996).These phenomena are intrinsically linked
to the rise of modern capitalism. Also, the
extension of consumption and the increased
demand leading to more efficient production
methods and the advances in technology and
scientific knowledge contribute to strain on the
environment. Consumerism worldwide led to
the extension of trade and consumption
resources especially by the rich countries the
(Kutting 2004)
The Rise of Ukay-Ukay or Wag-Wagon
Market
The rise of consumerism is also felt in
developing countries. Second-hand clothing
markets are popular in these countries.
Second-hand clothing or known local y as
'ukay. "k' (flea market of used imported
clothes) symbolizes the relative positions of
the developed and developing world in the
global political economy. The developing
countries Supply raw materials and cheap
labor for assembly; the developed countries
consume at low prices and then dispose of the
garments to buy more products at cheap prices
in the latest fashion. The disposed garments
are then used either by the lowest income
groups in developed nations or back in
developing countries where the second-hand
clothing market undermines local industries
that would be a step on the way out of the
dependent position of developing countries in
the world economy Kitting 2004, p. 98).
Cottons are extensively used in clothing and
garment manufacturing. The intensification of
agricultural production methods has resulted in
a worldwide increase in pesticide use. There
are several adverse effects of pesticides on
humans and on the environment. Excessive
use of pesticide leads to poisoning and adverse
health conditions. The chemical residues also
damage the environment and natural
ecosystem. Local pesticide residues affect air
and water quality. About 11% of global
pesticide sales and 24% of insecticides can be
attributed to cotton production (Myers and
Stolton 1999). The World Bank cites price
factors and lack of local knowledge or the
misinformation of farmers as the main factors
leading to excessive or inappropriate pesticide
use (Farah 1994).
Economic Globalization and Managing Risk
in Everyday Life
The globalization of economy through trade
and new technologies provided the people of
our planet immense benefits and new exciting
possibilities. Yet the consequences of economic
globalization seems to be a "runaway world"
(Giddens, 2002). Today, people, around the
world are confronted with what Giddens calls
as manufactured risks, which are man-made
risks, having arisen as a result of new
technologies developed through advances in
scientific knowledge. As a result of
advancement in scientific knowledge and the
rise of a reflexive society"—a society where
people constantly monitor their lifestyles—
people are he more conscious of the impact of
globalization on their economic life. As Giddens
argues, “Globalisation isn't only about what is
'out there; remote and far away from the
individual. It is an 'in here' phenomenon too,
influencing intimate and personal aspects of
our lives (p. 32). Yet this growing
consciousness of the growing
interconnectedness of the world through
economic channels, does not necessarily
translate to people coming together to solve
global economic problems like 'climate change”
Anthony Giddens, coined the term "Gidddens
paradox" to explain this phenomenon: "since
the dangers posed by global warming aren't
tangible, immediate or visible in the course of
day-to-day life, however awesome they
appear, many will sit on their hands and do
nothing of a concrete nature about them.”
Faced with this paradox, Giddens suggests that
the states will have an important role to play in
addressing climate change:"The state will be
an all-important actor, since so many powers
remain in its hands, whether one talks of
domestic or of international policy. There is no
way of forcing states to sign up to international
agreements; and even if they choose to do so,
implementing whatever is agreed will largely
be the responsibility of each individual state:'
Summary
The economic structure is the pillar of social
reproduction. Social relations that arise from
economic production largely shape the way
people behave and think. Consequently, access
to resources determines an individual's position
within a stratified society. In turn, stratification
can be based on class, status, and power. This
stratification system leads to inequalities.
Today, with the growth of globalization through
free trade agreements and the spread of
transnational corporations, scholars argue
whether globalization promotes inclusive
growth or exacerbates the existing inequalities
worldwide. Economic globalization as is forcing
people to be aware of the social risks that
accompany global such environmental
problems and climate change.
The Mass Media and Society (handout 9)
Violence, Consumerism, and Mass Media
Most people think that the mass media
especially television has a pervasive effect on
society, especially on children. Today, it is not
an exaggeration to say that younger
generations are shaped more by the mass
media more than their genes. This is especially
true when one considers the pervasive
presence of Internet-mediated technology in
the lives of young people. In effect, people
have often blamed the mass media for shaping
the violent behavior of children. Violent
behaviors are also commonly associated with
watching movies and television.
The media process does not merely interact
with the rest of society; it has a major impact
on how the rest of society understands and
imagines itself (Couldry 2000, 54). McGuire
(1986) noted several of the most commonly
mentioned intended media effects: (a) the
effects of advertising on purchasing, (b) the
effects of political campaigns on voting, (c) the
effects of public service announcements (PSAs)
on personal behavior and social improvement,
(d) the effects of propaganda on ideology, and
(e) the effects of media ritual on social control.
These media effects work together to shape
the behavior and thinking of people.
One of the most important influences of the
mass media is on the socialization of children.
By providing "role models" and stereotypes,
children often adopt these models and
stereotypes as they engage with their families
and friends. During Halloween, children wear
the costumes of their favorite horror movie
characters such as vampire, Dracula,
werewolves, and zombies. According to the
American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) website,
children between the ages of 2 and 18 spend
an average of three hours each day watching
television. A three-year National Television
Study, reported by the AAP, found that
children's shows had the most violence of all
television programming. Statistics read that
some cartoons average 20 acts of violence in
one hour, and that by the age of 18, children
will have seen 16,000 simulated murders and
200,000 acts of violence on television. Young
people are especially in jeopardy of the
negative effects of television violence because
“many younger children cannot discriminate
between what they see and what is real"
Recent reviews of the media violence research
have concluded that there are three primary
effects of viewing violent television
programming on children. First, ample
evidence supports the contention that children
can and do learn aggressive behaviors and
attitudes from viewing violence on television.
For example, heavy viewers of television
violence are more likely to see violence as a
reasonable means for settling disputes.
Second, those who view relatively high levels
of televised violence develop an increased and
exaggerated fear of becoming a victim of
violence. Finally, viewers of television violence
have shown a tendency to become
desensitized to violence.
Among Filipino children, the picture is different.
According to the New Generations 2012 survey
of Cartoon Network, led by Duncan Morris, Vice
President for Research and Market
Development for Turner International Asia
Pacific Ltd., "Filipino children are clear about
what they want and don't want" Morris says,
Filipino children have firm preferences on what
gadgets they like to use, what TV shows they
like to watch, and what activities they want to
do. In terms of access to gadgets, the
Internet, and related technology, Filipino
children are ahead of their peers in more
developed countries in Asia-Pacific. Read more on
http:// businessinquirer.net/61337/children-influence-buying-
patterns-poll-says4ixzz3HVPcfN00 (retrieved October 8, 2014).
Mass Media and Youth Culture
In the review of literature done by Lanuza
(2003), regarding the mediatization of the
Filipino youth, he observes that "mass media
exhibits ambivalent character in relation to the
formation of youth culture:' So, "while it
carries modernizing currents, yet at the same
time, it also promotes traditional Filipino
values. Hence studies on youth and values
promoted by television would show the
propagation of traditional Filipino values such
as respect for elders, family solidarity, and
reverence for authorities:' Furthermore,
Lanuza shows that "mass media today, largely
through advertising, operates as the major
harbinger of late modern culture:' Citing
several studies, he points out that the
following images are associated with female
Gen X youth: aggressive, expressive,
unconventional, and liberated. Males are
depicted as optimistic, independent,
adventurous, and wild.
Mass media also impact on the way young
people spend their leisure. In the same review
of Lanuza, it is shown that young Filipinos
prefer to go to malls than in parks and
museums. The situation may even be worse
today. Today's youth are fond of going to
shopping malls rather than hanging at historic
places and public parks. Moreover, many
young Filipinos prefer to play online games
than engage in traditional physical sports and
games. Among the major findings of the
survey, Internet Access and Use by Filipino
Schoolchildren, conducted by the Asian
Institute of Journalism and Communication
(AIJC), commissioned by UNICEF in 2009, is
that online gaming is another favorite pastime
of the Filipino youth with almost 8 of 10
schoolchildren connected to the net playing
online games.
Mass Media and Gender Stereotypes
Another pervasive influence of mass media is
the acquisition of stereotypes. Stereotypes
are images that can be adopted about specific
types of individuals, groups or certain ways of
doing things. These thoughts or beliefs. may or
may not accurately reflect reality. Stereotypes
enable each member of society to deal
properly about certain individuals and provide
them with the right script on how to act
properly in a certain social situation. However,
stereotypes can also be a product of
prejudices. Prejudices are prejudgments, or
opinions that people have before knowing the
full circumstances about a person or an event.
In social sciences, prejudice is often used to
refer to negative or unfavorable judgments
toward people or a person because of social
class, gender, age, disability, religion,
sexuality, race and ethnicity, nationality, or
other personal characteristics. Mass media is a
powerful tool in disseminating gender
stereotypes especially about women. Movies
and television shows, for instance, usually
portray women as mothers or housewives
rather than as professionals. They are often
seen as caregivers and taking care of
household chores. Meanwhile, men are often
depicted as professionals and leaders. In
advertising sexy and young women are often
associated with alcoholic drinks and beverages.
Young women are usually seen as obsessed
with their skin and hair. Mass media,
therefore, is powerful in shaping not only the
attitude and perception of people about women
but also more importantly the minds of young
girls.
Studies would also show that constant
exposure to sexually explicit materials tends to
affect family values. Compared to the control
group, the exposure group reported more
tolerance for pre- and extramarital sexual
activity, less endorsement of marriage as an
institution, were reported to want fewer
children, and were more likely to believe that
there were health risks in sexual repression.
Taken together these results suggest a view
that sexually explicit media content fosters
exposure to deviance and may undermine
societal values. Many feminist scholars support
this view. They believe that the portrayal of
women in mass media tend to support
stereotypes against women. These stereotypes
include the myth that women want to be
raped, that men are naturally aggressive, and
that women are passive objects that can be
manipulated by men. Constant exposure to
sexually explicit materials also reinforce the
idea among men that violence against women
is morally acceptable.
It must be borne in mind, however, that while
mass media may influence the viewers in
forming their stereotypes and prejudices about
certain individuals or groups, nevertheless, it
must also be noted that mass media's
influence is mediated by other factors such as
the family, religion, and peer group. People
who watch violent films with the proper
guidance of adults in the family may not
necessarily develop and embrace prejudices
against women or people with different skin
colors or religions. But people whose friends
also watch violent films that glorify domestic
violence against women may find themselves
embracing these stereotypes. A school that
does not promote religious pluralism and
tolerance may inadvertently reinforce the
prejudices in mass media about certain
religious groups that are not part of the
mainstream society. In short, the effects of
mass media are not unproblematic and
straightforward. Researchers also point to the
intervening factors and variables that either
facilitate or depreciate the effects on
stereotype-formation among young viewers.
Mass Media and Knowledge Production
Media as a Tool for Propaganda
Aside from reinforcing existing social
stereotypes and prejudices, mass media is also
a powerful tool in disseminating certain
political ideas. In some countries, the mass
media is strictly regulated by the government.
Authoritarian states usually use the mass
media for its project of nation-building. Hence,
it constantly watches over oppositions and
protests in alternative platforms of mass
media. Mass media can also be used to
strengthen national interests. As President
Suharto declared in a speech on National Press
Day in 1989:
As an integral part of our developing
society, nation and state, the press has
an important role to assist in managing
this nation in all its complexity through
the dissemination of news, opinions,
ideas, grievances and hopes to the
masses... It is in this respect that the
press has a role to play in helping build
and preserve our unity and cohesion as a
nation (quoted in McCargo 2003. p. 31.)
By performing this function, the media act as
an agent of stability, charged with the task of
helping preserve social and political order. This
function is commonly associated with the term
development Journalism. Mass media can
also be used to inform people about corruption
and can be a catalyst for social change as in
the case of toppling Marcos regime during the
Edsa People Power I in 1986. In this sense,
mass media can perform three functions: as
conservative, progressive or transformative
institution.
But mass media generally has the function of
maintaining the status quo by controlling the
information that goes to the audience. This
mass media influence on the audience is well
elaborated in the Chomsky and Herman
model of propaganda. They summarize this
theory by saying:
It is our view that, among their other
functions, the media serve, and
propagandize on behalf of the powerful
societal interests that control and finance
them. The representatives of these
interests have important agendas and
principles that they want to advance, and
they are well positioned to shape and
constrain media policy. This is normally
not accomplished by crude intervention,
but by the selection of right-thinking
personnel and by the editors' and
working journalists internalization of
priorities and definitions of
newsworthiness that conform to the
institution's policy.
Herman and Chomsky (1998) argue that mass
media do not simply provide objective
information and images. These information and
images are already pre-selected, edited, and
screened out before they are presented and
consumed by the audience. What is
newsworthy and what is not how long should a
news or a segment in a TV series should be.
how news is to be presented are already
products of deliberation among the reporters,
producers, and directors. And while new
technologies are introduced. Chomsky and
Herman point out that they are created simply
to meet corporate needs. They further argue
that "those Of recent years have permitted
media firms to shrink staff even as they
achieve greater outputs. and they have made
possible global distribution systems that
reduce the number of media entities. The
audience “interaction” facilitated by advancing
interactive capabilities mainly help audience
members to shop, but they also allow media
firms to collect detailed information on their
audiences, and thus to fine-tune program
features and ads to individual characteristics as
well as to sell by click during programs. Along
with reducing privacy, this should intensify
commercialization” (Edward S. Herman, Noam Chomsky,
p. XVIII). The wars of US against terrorist states,
for instance, are often described as forms of
pre-emptive wars in behalf of justice and
liberty, while the terrorist states and groups
are called enemies of peace-loving nations.
The US media tend to downplay the violence
and genocide that the US government
perpetrates against other countries.
In the case of the Philippine press, Rosalinda
Pineda-Ofreneo (1986), observed, “No press in
the world is exempt from bias. This includes
the Philippine press. In fact, many local critics
have complained of canned or managed news
which necessarily reflect the bias of these
sources. One factor behind this is the rise of
public relations men who act not only as image
builders but also as outright censors. In the
latter capacity, they limit the freedom of
access to information to a great extent. Local
publishers, editors, columnists, reporters and
all other people who have a say in the running
of a newspaper can also serve as sources of
bias because they likewise have particular
interests and viewpoints to advance" (P. 236).
Mass Media and the "Society of Spectacle"
Mass media do not only maintain the status
quo by disseminating propaganda, they can
also make and unmake the career of
politicians. In an age of society as
spectacle, a term coined by Guy Debord
(1931-1994), a French artist and social critic,
spectacle or media images dominate politics in
modern societies. It is not surprising,
therefore, that presidency in the Philippines is
staged and presented to the public in
melodramatic terms, using media spectacle to
sell the policies, person, and image of the
president to a vast and diverse public. The
media are complicit in the generation of
spectacle politics, redefining politics as battle
for image, display, and story in the forms of Quezon City; former (former masterfully executed: 'the image millions saw
entertainment and drama. Politicians get Vice Mayor of Quezon Representative of was that of a nervous, haggard, sweating
City) Quezon City)
elected because they represent the poor and  Imelda Papin (former
Nixon versus a relaxed, robust, confident
the oppressed in their movies such as Joseph Vice-Governor of Kennedy. What the two candidates said no
Erap Estrada and Ramon Bong Revilla. But Camarines Sur, Bicol) longer mattered' (p. 16).
Estrada was also responsible for the downfall  Isko Moreno (Vice
of many celebrity-politicians as in the case of Mayor of Manila) Mediatization of Social Life
 Jinggoy Estrada
corrupt politicians.
(Senator)
The intrusion of media experts in politics and
List of Actor-Politicians in the Philippines electoral campaigns are perfect examples of
 Aga Muhlach  Joey Marquez (former
In the 1920s, Walter Lippmann described the mediatization of politics. Mediatization refers
(successful Mayor of Paranaque) to the pervasive effects of mass media on how
Congressional  Joseph Estrada (13th emergence of a new professional class of
"publicists" and "press agents" standing people see and interpret social events. It is not
candidate 4th district President of the 2nd
Camarines Sur) Republic; incumbent between US politicians and the media. They an exaggeration to say that mass media
 Aiko Melendez Mayor of Manila) are now called public relations consultants. influences people more than their genes. The
(former Councilor of  Lito Lapid (Senator)
They play a big role in shaping the image of reason being that mass media permeates and
Quezon City)  Lou Veloso (former mediates all forms of social life, not just
 Alfred Vargas Councilor for the 6th the politicians through mass media campaigns
and lobbying. The 1960 Presidential election politics. The mass media, through the influence
(incumbent Councilor District of Manila)
for the 2nd District of  Lucy Torres-Gomez won by John Kennedy is a dramatic example of of large advertising companies, generate
Quezon City) (incumbent PR management by mass media. Kennedy's images called "spectacle" by the French
 Angelica Jones Representative 4th team turned around the social stigma of sociologist, Guy Debord. These images or
(incumbent Board District of Leyte) "spectacles," in turn, form a life of their own
Member 3rd district of  Manny Pacquiao Kennedy as a Catholic by showing voters that a
no-vote is a form of religious intolerance. Bill that pre-defines and determines the way
Laguna) (incumbent
 Anjo Yllana (former Representative Clinton's Democrat media-team adopted and people look at the world and interact with
Vice Mayor of Sarangani District) masterfully deployed this knowledge to use a other people. In other words, only through
Paranaque)  Nora Aunor range of media and popular cultural forms to media images that people have access to the
 Bong Revilla Jr. (unsuccessful world and reality at large. One does not only
(Senator) Gubernatorial successfully reach "ordinary people!' Secondly,
political leaders now require different attributes buy a product. One buys the lifestyle
 Cesar Montano candidate for
(unsuccessful Camarines Sur) to be selected as candidates—they need to be associated with the product. One associates a
Senatorial candidate)  Ramon Revilla, Sr. credible (convincing) television performers, be product with a celebrity endorser. When one,
 Cita Astals (former (Senator) visually appealing to voters, and be able to for instance, sees the logo or Apple or iPhone
Councilor of Manila)  Richard Gomez one immediately equates it with "luxury" and
 Dan Fernandez (unsuccessful speak in sound bites.
durability. The symbol of McDonald's is
(former Senatorial candidate)
Representative 1st  Roderick Paulate They must also be able to follow scripts equated with American way of life—burgers,
District of Laguna) (incumbent Councilor designed by spin-doctors. Hence, aspirant fries, and fast foods. McDonald's is
 Daniel Fernando 2nd District of Quezon leaders with televisual charisma, backed by undoubtedly a corporation of tremendous
(incumbent Vice- City) magnitude, with outlets in over 30,000 sites in
Governor of Bulacan)  Rogelio de la Rosa good spin-doctors or PR consultants, can land
a neophyte into public office (Louw 2005, p. 121 countries, serving over 35 million
 Edu Manzano (former (former Senator)
Vice-Mayor of Makati  Rudy Fernandez 150). Maltese (1994), a scholar writing about customers a day, and earning profits of over
City) (unsuccessful Mayoral politics and PR, explains the failure of Nixon in $2 billion annually. McDonald's is, thus, a
 Fernando Poe, Jr. candidate for Quezon his fight against Kennedy: cultural ambassador for Americanization and
(unsuccessful City) global capitalism, promoting the commodity
Presidential  Sonny Parsons
Although Nixon had been a 1950s' pioneer in spectacle and its consumer culture throughout
candidate) (former Councilor of
 George Estregan, Jr. Marikina City) using television, he ironically lost this crucial the world. McDonald's does not only represent
(incumbent Governor  Tito Sotto (Senator) debate because he failed to pay attention to the American way of life. Some sociologists
of Laguna; former  Vilma Santos his TV appearance—he would not wear even contend that its process, business
Mayor of Pagsanjan, (incumbent and first outsourcing, and standardization have become
Laguna) female Governor of
makeup; his shirt was too large; his suit the
wrong color; and he slouched. Kennedy's the rule for making things efficient. This is
 Herbert Bautista Batangas
(incumbent Mayor of  Dennis Roldan appearance, on the other hand, was called McDonaldization. The term was
popularized by American sociologist, George
Ritzer.
Starbucks is equated with middle class
corporate lifestyle. Hence, media is powerful in
shaping consumers' preferences and lifestyle.
By buying one product over and against
another product, a consumer is voting for that
spectacle or commodity. Hence many
sociologists today believe that we live in a
"society of brands and logos" (Klein). The
French sociologist Jean Baudrillard even
argued, quite extremely, that today, with the
proliferation of mass media images, people
cannot distinguish anymore between the real
and the copy of the real or the simulacrum.
One cannot, for instance, distinguish, from
mere looking alone, a real woman from a
transgender, or an authentic branded shirt or
gadget from a fake one. The power of
technology today to produce millions of copies
of songs, images, videos, books, and articles
through torrents, mp3, and other electronic
formats seems to erase the distinction between
the "original" and the" copies:'
The Rise of Knowledge Society
It is accepted by most social scientists that we
now live in a fast-changing "runaway world"
where the economic, social, cultural, and
political foundations of societies are being
redefined on a continual basis (Giddens 2000),
and communication media are a central feature
of this globalization process. To the extent that
globalization is constituted in and through
networks and the resulting circulation of
symbols rather than things, then the rapid and
endless flow of media products are emblematic
of the process of globalization. Also,
information and communication technology
(ICT) is what we might term the mechanism or
medium through which economic
interdependence and integration operate.
The new age of Internet-based mass media
ushers in the so-called information societ or
knowledge society. Unlike in the traditional or
modern societies, the people in "information
societies" rely more and more on the use and
access to information rather than on machines
and human labor. People who live in
information societies do not just use new
technologies and the new social media.
Instead, their lives are immersed in the culture
of these new technologies. The exponential
explosion in webs of communication and
information technologies (CITs) has shifted our
primary relationship from face-to-face relations
to "interface" with technological "terminals" of
communication. More and more people cannot
live without immersing their lives in these
technologies. Consequently, the CITs
accelerate globalization by connecting people
and places across borders and spaces. These
new technologies that create virtual
communities, spaces, and identities have
changed dramatically the landscape of human
life—the invention of new crimes in the
worldwide net, democratic access to and
sharing of art works, music, books, and
articles, the posting of one's pictures (selfies),
self-made music videos, and even scandals.
Bullying, traditionally found in the school
setting, has also become virtual and pervasive
on the Internet.
One consequence of this is quite close to the
arguments put forward by Herman and
McChesney that broadcasting is more and
more dominated by 'co-financed and co-
produced products...made on a global
assembly line and...aimed at the world
markets' and 'these mega-corporations are
shaping a global space of image flows' (Morley
and Robbins 1995, p. 32). This has led some
sociologists to argue that there is now an
emerging global culture that is based on mass
media communication. But this
transnationalization of media is not universal it
may seem. Most news and their sources flow
from the first world countries that dominate
the production of global news.
But it must also be acknowledge that even
when western flows to the developing
countries, these information and images are
also transformed to suit local needs and
culture. This is called glocalization, to the
term popularized by Roland Robertson, or
the process whereby global commodities media
images are transformed to meet local
culture.
Cyberdemocracy and Globalization of
Media
The scope and power of Mass media today is
further extended by the development of ICT.
Computer mediated communicationass was
initiated in science laboratories in the 1960s
promoted by the US military in the late 1960s
and early 1970s, and developed further in
conjunction with key US research universities
through the efforts of a small cadre of
programmers. This development took forms
such as ARPANET, BITNET, and USENET in the
1970s and 1980s, and exploded throughout
the world via the Internet in the 1990s. Today,
ICTs include emails, networks, mobile phones,
Internet, worldwide web, chat rooms, e-
commerce. peer-to-peer sharing (P2P) such as
Napster and torrent sites, and other virtual
services.
To have an idea of the global reach of these
new technologies, one only has to look at the
mobile phones subscription worldwide. The
number of mobile-cellular subscriptions
worldwide is approaching the number of people
on earth. Mobile-cellular subscriptions was
estimated to reach almost 7 billion in 2014,
corresponding to a penetration rate of about
96%. More than half of these (3.6 billion
subscriptions) will be in the Asia-Pacific region.
In developing countries, mobile-cellular
penetration was estimated at 90% by 2014,
compared with 121% in developed countries.
More interesting is the fact that almost 3 billion
people-40% of the world's population—are
using the Internet. And close to one out of
three people in the developing countries are
online. By the end of 2014, the number of
Internet users globally will have reached
almost 3 billion. Two-thirds of the world's
Internet users are from the developing world.
Meanwhile, Internet user penetration has
reached 40% globally, 78% in developed
countries and 32% in developing countries.
2014 growth rates in developed countries
remain at a relatively low, at 3.3% compared
with 8.7% in developing countries (see
http://www.itu.int/en/ITU-D/Statistics/Documents/facts/
ICTFactsFigures2014-e.pdf, retrieved September 10, 2014).
The promise of the Internet is that it will give a
voice back to the people, one that has been
taken away by private media and
entertainment. True enough, the internet has
broadened the democratic spaces for people to
engage in politics. The famous Philippine
people Power II that toppled and ousted
President Ejercito Estrada was initiated by text
messages
(http://publicculture.org/articles/view/15/3/the
-cell-phone-and-the-crowd-messianic-politics-
in-the-contemporary-philippines, retrieved
September 10, 2014). The Arab Spring was
also carried out not only on the streets but was
facilitated by social media networks such as
Facebook and twitter. It is because of the
power of these social media networks that
prompted some governments to regulate their
use. Saudi Arabia and China (as rapidly
developing countries) are well documented for
their attempts to control computer ownership
and Internet content. Both countries have
invested massive sums of to prevent their
citizens from accessing websites money in
developing firewall technology from outside
their borders and to censor content.
But one must be careful about celebrating the
role of the "new media" in politics. The
suggestion of Ben Agger (2004) is a well-
thought out assessment of the role of new
media on political life:
My provisional answer is that Internet-
based politics, both consciousness-
raising and networking, can begin a
valid political process, which is
conducted within the more traditional
coordinates of the public sphere, but
that e-politics cannot substitute for
more public and permanent political
projects, which, if successful, emerge
in full-blown social movements and
institution building. These social
movements must never sacrifice selves
to larger goals, whether in the name of
a nation, a personality cult, or abstract
ions such as Democracy, Freedom, or
the State, requiring attention to the
politics of the personal, the family,
body, sexuality, marginal groups,
children, animals and nature (p. 132).
Ben Agger's recommendation is very true!
After all, the Arab Spring, the EDSA People
Power, and similar social movements did not
only happen on Facebook and other social
networking sites. They were successful
because people went out on the streets.
Cyberdemocracy or Digital Divide?
According to Jodi Dean (2009, p. 22), "the
expansion and intensification of communication
and entertainment networks yield not
democracy but something else entirely:
communicative capitalism." Communicative
capitalism allows for the proliferation of
divergent opinions and political positions in
cyberspace. Such free-for-all exchange of
opinions and ideas do not add to clarification of
political issues but simply add to the confusion
of diverging opinions. The age of Internet does
not merely pose a threat to intelligent process
of discussing diverse and opposing opinions, it
also creates new inequalities and exacerbates
pre-existing ones.
Inequalities created by the access and use of
ICTs is called digital divide. The "digital
divide" became one of the political and
academic "hot-topics" of the 1990s after a
series of influential surveys and studies in the
US and Europe highlighted a sustained
empirical picture of inequalities in the use of
information and ICTs—in particular, the
computer and Internet (Sewyn and Facer
2010, p. 1).
The digital divide is now recognized as an
international issue. High income OECD
countries account for over three-fourths of the
world's Internet users. In virtually all
countries, Internet users tend to be young,
urban, male, and relatively well educated and
wealthy. In short, the diffusion of technology
both within and between countries has been
extremely uneven. Globally, there are 4 billion
people not yet using the Internet and more
than 90% of them are from the developing
world.
Manuel Castells defines the digital divide as
"inequality of access to the Internet' (Castells
2001, p. 248). Access to the Internet is,
moreover, "a requisite for overcoming
inequality in a society in which dominant
functions and social groups are increasingly
organized around the Internet" (Castells 2001,
p. 248). Digital divide is easily understood if
connected to the concept of social inclusion. As
Christian Fuchs (2008) argues, "Digital divides
are an expression of the logic of competition
because they give benefits to those who
participate in the Internet and deprive others
of those benefits; it is a phenomenon of
exclusion" (p. 213). One scholar that links
digital divide with social inclusion defines it
as, the extent that individuals, families, and
communities are able to fully participate in
society and control their own destinies, taking
into account a variety of factors related to
economic resources, employment, health,
education, housing, recreation, culture, and
civic engagement" (Warschauer 2003, p. 8).
Jan Van Dijk and Kenneth Hacker (2008) argue
that there are four forms of barriers to access:
(1) the lack or-mental access, “which refers to
a lack of elementary digital experience; (2) the
lack of-Material access, “which means a lack of
possession of computers and network
connections; (3) the lack of "skills access,"
which is a lack of digital skills; and (4) the lack
of "usage access-signifies the lack of
meaningful usage opportunities.
The digital divide is, therefore, a symptom of a
much larger and more complex problem —the
problem of persistent poverty and inequality.
In an information society, productivity and
economic growth become more and more
dependent on the access and use of latest
information technology and computer mediated
communications. News and public information
are readily accessible in the Internet. For
example, the AccuWeather application is an
American media company that provides for-
profit weather forecasting services worldwide.
It provides daily and hourly. updates on
weather condition worldwide. Another good
example is Flipboard. It is a social-network
collection of news from various sources in
magazine format. As a mobile application, it is
localized in more than 20 languages. The
software collects content from social media and
other websites, presents it in magazine format,
and allows users to "flip" through their social-
networking feeds and feeds from websites that
have partnered with company. Such
application allows people to access weather
information, latest news any where using
mobile technology. These application allow
people to plan ahead of their trips in relation to
weather, plan about activities, and even book
hotels and airplane tickets.
In terms of information, many people rely on
Wikipedia. it is a free-access, free content
Internet encyclopaedia, supported and hosted
by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation.
Facebook and Twitter are also popular
platforms for young people to create their web
of friends. Without access to these
applications, and even if one is computer
literate the use of these technologies, one is
effectively barred from maximizing the
utilization of provided by these social media.
Wikipedia, for instance, is a direct substitute
for serious research and hard bound
encyclopaedias. Wiki is a powerful resource
and tool to do one's research. Yet, without
access to this important online encyclopaedic
knowledge base, one is deprived of the ease to
do online research. In the same manner,
without access to Accuweather, one is deprived
of the much needed information about future
weather conditions necessary for one's travel
and planned activiites. In times of disasters,
such weather information can spell the
salvation of millions of lives. Not having
personal accounts in social media networks
such as Twitter and Facebook would exclude
one from the constant exchanges among and
between peer and friends as well as the about
what is happening among one's friends.
The penetration of Internet in a country is
heavily dependent on telecommunications
infrastructure. In 1992, the Philippines had one
of the lowest levels of telephone penetration in
Asia: slightly more than 1 per 100 inhabitants.
By 1995, there were about 60 telephone
companies, but most were operating only in
urban areas and the long distance traffic was
controlled by a single company, the Philippine
Long Distance Telephone Company (PLDT). In
1995, a new telecommunications policy act
was passed which, although still favoring the
dominant carrier, acted to both deregulate
telecommunications and increase coverage in
more rural areas. One result was an increase in
the number of phone lines to almost 4 per 100
inhabitants by the end of 1999. March
29,1994,1:15 a.m. Benjie Tan, who was
working for ComNet, a company that supplied
Cisco routers to the Philnet project, established
the Philippine's first connection to the Internet
at a PLOT network center in Makati City.
According to recent statistics from The Global
Web Index, the Philippines has the fastest
growing Internet population in the world,
experiencing 531% growth in the last five
years. The Philippines does not have the
biggest number of Internet users. It has only
about 37 million Internet users, which pales in
comparison to China's 618 million Internet
users—the biggest Internet population in the
world to date. But growth in the Philippines has
outperformed the growth of all the other
regions. Back in 2000, the Philippines had an
Internet penetration rate of a mere 2%. But
just between 2012 and 2013, Comscore saw a
22% increase in the country's Internet
penetration
The study, from ad agency We Are Social and
using data from Global Webindex, indicates
that Internet users in the Philippines are the
most intensive in the whole of the Asia Pacific
(APAC) region. Filipino Internet users are
spending 6.2 hours per day on Internet
through laptop or desktop computers 2.8 hours
through mobile devices. The . Philippines also
tops in social media use, with each of its 34
million Internet users spending 4 hours a day
engaged in some sort of digital social media.
Politically, access to Internet is necessary for
the democratization and participation of
citizens in modern societies and the globalized
world. Social media and ICTS provide easy
access for people to organize social
movements within and outside the net. In fact,
according to Manuel Castells, Internet is like
the electricity of the 20th century. Poorer
countries are most likely to be the ones that
have the lowest levels of the new technologies.
Once again, Southeast Asia is a case in point.
Some of the countries in this region, where
some of the richest and poorest nations in the
world can be found, are world leaders in the
development of digital technology, whilst
others are amongst the most ICT-deprived in
the world. The digital divide existing in these
countries and across regions is not a simple
question of access but basic literacy about the
use and applications of these technologies
(O'Hara and Stevens 2006, p. 145). As
Thoman and Jolls (2005) rightly argue:
No longer is it enough to be able to read
the printed word; children, youth, and
adults, too, need the ability to both
critically interpret the powerful images of
a multimedia culture and express
themselves in multiple media forms (p.
4).
The advent of ICTs is also ironic considering
that it is supposed to provide free access and
equal opportunities for all, yet it also creates
new oligopolies and corporate monopolies.
Apple, via iTunes, controls an estimated 87%
market share in digital music downloads and
70% of the media-player market. Amazon sells
between 70% and 80% of both physical books
and e-books online, and eBay and Facebook,
along with a handful of other giants, enjoy
considerable monopolistic power as well. In
2012, four of the ten largest US corporations in
terms of market valuation, including number
one and number three, were Internet giants
Apple, Microsoft, Google, and AT&T. When
Fortune magazine compiled its list of the top
12 entrepreneurs of the past generation, the
founders of Internet giants Apple, Microsoft,
Amazon, and Google occupied four of the top
five slots. And while the ICTs are supposed to
be user-friendly, some corporations do not
follow this goal. Apple's various devices were
"Hollywood friendly” Apple is a perfect
example of a perfectly regulated software. The
genius of the iPhone, for example, is that it is a
"tethered" device, for which all the control is
with Apple. By 2008, Bill Gates conceded that
Apple's closed system had proven to be the
best approach to security. So, it is not also
totally true that ICTs allow democratic access
to technologies (McChesney 2013).
The challenge is how to regulate these
monopolies so as to protect the welfare and
rights of the netizens. The government also
has to provide affordable access to ICTs
through infrastructure and active upgrading of
its basic services to the people. A survey of
27,973 adults in 26 countries, including 14,306
Internet users, conducted for the BBC World
Service between 30 November 2009 and 7
February 2010 found that almost four in five
Internet users and non-users around the world
felt that access to the Internet was a
fundamental right. Fifty percent strongly
agreed, 29% somewhat agreed, 9% somewhat
disagreed, 696 strongly disagreed, and 6%
gave no opinion (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/bsp/hi/
pdfs/08_03_10_BBC_internet_poll.pdf, retrieved September 10,
2014).
While it is debatable whether access to
Internet is a basic human right or not, as
countries globalize, every government has to
address the problem of digital divide. The
United Nations, in fact, declared in 2011 that
disconnecting people from the Internet is a
violation of human rights. This is covered by
existing civil and political rights. Of course,
access to Internet is not yet recognized as a
right.
Another challenge for government and
educational sectors is to create" a critical
media literacy" that can educate young
netizens of the power as well as the sinister
effects of new ICTs. People must be able to
maximize the use of information easily
retrieved through the net while being critical of
its use, including the ethical considerations in
engaging with such technologies.
Summary
The mass media has the most pervasive
influence on people today, especially among
young people who belong to Generation Y or
the "selfie generation: Social scientists and
scholars have debated among themselves as to
the extent of influence of mass media on the
people, especially the young ones. Most of
these effects and influence are felt in gender
roles, political life, and individual behaviors.
Mass media today is rapidly changing due to
globalization and the advent of Web 2.0
technologies. The growth of emails, chats,
teleconferences, and other social networking
sites is changing the landscape of human
communications and even redefining intimate
relationships.