The essay process

How effective is the global’s solution to deal with the large income inequality between develop and undeveloped countries?

Background

Globalisation arises when people and institutions from different countries interact. International trade is one of the factors that drive this process. Statistics have shown that the rise of globalisation lead to the increase in income disparity between the rich and poor countries. Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) identified this problem that may arise due to the interconnectivity of countries, and tackled on the aspect of education to alleviate this problem.

Thesis

I feel that educating the less privileged is an effective tool to alleviate the problem of income disparity in the long run. However, this approach is not as useful in the short run.

What leads to greater income inequality between developed and less developed countries?

Globalisation is a process that includes people to move from one country to another, the talents from the less developed countries will move to the developed countries that provide more opportunities and prospects. For example, Singapore provides many scholarship for the talents in other less developed countries such as Indonesia, Vietnam and Myanmar and attract them to stay and contribute to the workforce when they graduate. This causes the less privilege people to be left in the country, causing the poor to get poorer.

Also as the technology grows, machineries that is viewed to be more productive replaces the human labour, causing the people in the manufacturing industries to lose their job.

Solution

Education for all is identified as a solution to deal with the problem in income inequality. It can be seen from statistics that the developed countries has a much higher literacy rate as compared to the less developed countries, indicating that education is a way to alleviate poverty. However, the limitation of this solution is that it requires a long time to see the result. Furthermore, it is recently identified that the $26 billion per annum provided is not sufficient. Also, according to the United Nation Report, 125 million school children around the world are unable to read a sentence even after four years of attendance. 

Improvement
(Corruption-limitation)
(Time-limitation)
(statistics-GDP of less developed countries)
Malaysia and Singapore as case study. analyse Singapore and Malaysia's growth as a result of improvement of education

Reader Response (2nd draft)

In "Globalisation of Culture through the Media", Kraidy (2002) discusses the controversies on the effects of mass media on globalisation of culture. International communication theorist believe that Cultural imperialism, a phenomenon whereby westerns propagate their culture through media, has massive effects on global culture. However, further research indicates that global culture can be affected by all parties with power to control the media. This leads to another perspective called "Hybridisation", whereby cultures and traditions from various countries interacts and reconstructs. Kraidy also questions if the media is the cause or if it only acts as a catalyst to boost such globalisation. Kraidy is supportive that the existing culture hybridity is intensified by mass media.

I agree that parties with power will be able to control what media releases to the audience. In Paddy Ashdown talk on “The global power shift”, he mentions of massive effects on the world by “globalisation of power”. This effect is easily seen via analysis of the K-pop market, using Girls Generation as an example. They are supported by strong Korea record company (SM Entertainment) that operates internationally and are able to control the media easily. This allows the artist and their work to gain fame globally. With this, I agree with Kraidy’s view that the concept of cultural imperialism is no longer applicable to the world because the world’s culture is not only shaped by the Asians as well.

I also agree with Kraidy that transnational media intensify the culture hybrid that already existed. It is undoubted that the concept of idolisation existed way before transnational media was established. However, only when transnational media started rising, did it bring about the sudden rise of the popular culture. In “Idols and Celebrity in Japanese Media Culture”, Ho (2012) mentions that it is the spread of Korea’s entertainment media to Japan that caused a surge in the Korean Wave. Even to the extent that Japanese middle age house wives, who has the social perceived role of being “supporting wife” and “devoted mother”, leaving their homes and spending a lot of money just to follow their Korean idol. It is because the internet media propagates this popular culture so fast across the globe, it actually intensifies the effects of popular culture to other countries.

However, I do not agree with Kraidy’s view that there is no homogeneity in the culture. The reason being I feel that Kraidy has overgeneralised culture. According to ICACP report (2012), culture includes all the changes which man adds to the nature, implying the existence of different categories of culture. Perhaps it might be impossible for countries to have a uniform culture, but I believe it is possible for some countries to share certain types of culture. Just like how idolisation is not an effect that is seen only in Japan but a worldwide phenomenon, supporting my believe that homogeneity do exist if we look at specific type of culture.

References

ICSCP. 2012. Many Voices, One World: Towards a New More Just and More Efficient World of Information and Communication Order. London, New York and Paris: UNESCO

Marwan M. Kraidy. (2002). Globalisation of Culture Through the Media. University of Pennsylvania.

Patrick W. Galbraith and Jason G. Karlin. (2012). Idols and Celebrity in Japanese Media Culture. University of Tokyo, Japan.

Reader response on Globalisation of Culture through the Media

In "Globalisation of Culture through the Media", Kraidy (2002) discusses the controversies on the effects mass media on globalisation of culture. According to him, international communication theorist believe that Cultural imperialism, a phenomenon where westerns propagate their culture through media, has massive effects on global culture. However, further research indicates that global culture can be affected by all parties with power to control media. This leads to another perspective called "Hybridisation", where various cultures and traditions from various parts of the world interacts and reconstructs. Kraidy also questions if media is the cause or acts only as a catalyst to boost such globalisation. Kraidy is supportive that the existing culture hybridity is intensified by mass media.

In this article, Kraidy mentions that “international communication flows, processes, and effects are permeated by power”. In another words, parties with power or authority will be able to control what media releases to the audience. I agree with this statement as the effect can be easily seen from daily life example. The analysis of the K-pop market allows us to learn that famous artist or groups like PSY and Girls Generation are actually supported by the Korea record companies that have strong market share and international operations, that can control media easily. This is also the reason why the artist and their production can get  worldwide attention.

The above example also supports Kraidy’s view that the concept of cultural imperialism is no longer applicable to the world. The world’s culture are no longer shaped by the Westerns but also the Asians as long as they have the capability to influence.

However, I feel that the ability to control media is not sufficient to change one’s culture, it also requires the audience to accept and adopt what the media conveys to them in order for media to be a platform of change in the culture. In this article, Kraidy assumes that the audience accepts what they get from the media, making media a strong platform for cultural influence.

Kraidy believes that transnational media is not a cause of hybridity but intensify this hybrid that already existed. True enough, I believe that this is a fair judgement of the impact of mass media on culture of individual nations. Since exchanging of culture caused by real life interaction between people exist before the development of transnational media, it is safe to conclude that hybridity of culture is definitely not caused by mass media.

However, I feel that he over generalise media’s effect on culture. I feel that media does not have the capability to intensify all aspect of culture in all countries. According to ICACP report (2012), culture includes all the change man add to the nature. It is true that media has great power to influencing the audience’s fashion or food preference and perception of beauty. However, media does not have any strong impact on the practice that is very deep rooted or governed by law.

Summary on Globalisation of Culture through the Media

In "Globalisation of Culture through the Media", Kraidy (2002) discusses the controversies on the effects mass media on globalisation of culture. According to him, international communication theorist believe that Cultural imperialism, a phenomenon where westerns propagate their culture through media, has had massive effects on global culture. However, further research indicates that global culture can be affected by all parties with power to control media. This leads to another perspective called "Hybridisation", where various cultures and traditions from various parts of the world interacts and reconstruct. Kraidy also questions if media is the cause or acts only as a catalyst to boost such globalisation. Kraidy is supportive that the existing culture hybridity is intensified by mass media.

Reflection on an event that has shaped your life and the person you have become

My grandfather was diagnosed with cancer several year ago, yet he was strong and put on a tough fight against it initially. However, when he had a relapse again, this time round, his body was too weak and he succumbed to this illness in the end. This news hit me hard and I regretted. I was one of the grandchildren that he doted on the most, yet during his toughest period of time, I was not with him. I was blinded by my academic work and focused much on practicing for my Singapore Youth Festival (SYF) competition to the extent that I skipped a lot of family gatherings and most importantly I gave up my chance to accompany him. Now, I no longer have a chance to stay by his side anymore.

This triggered me to think hard on what is the most important thing to me, what kind of person I want to be and what kind of life I want to have. I reflected much and came to realise that family is also another important aspect of my life, I do not wish to have any of such regrets anymore. I try my best to be there for all family gatherings and make an effort to visit my grandmother every week. There is a quote from Albert Einstein, “only a life lived for others is worth living”. After my grandfather’s passing, I also learnt that academic results is not everything, leaving an indelible mark on people is much more meaningful than my own personal gains, which makes me a regular volunteer now.