Source essay

Globalization

Alden Mueller

Globalization, is it a good thing? Or is it a bad thing? These are good questions. There are many opinions on both sides. Ill be exploring these opinions in example sources that I received. Is Globalization a good thing? You already asked this. How is media affecting us? And are big companies what they seem? These are just some of the questions that I will be looking at. It is acceptable to ask rhetorical questions in your introduction but I would not ask a whole bunch. It is best to stick to one if any at all. It is definitely not wise to use them in your thesis. You are also missing your position from your thesis. Also you need to realize the question is not so much if globalization is a good thing or not, it is more of whether it is making us the same and then if that is a good thing.

Globalization affects us individually and collectively. Eventually becoming more of a collective group then an individual; one culture, one world. If we had one culture wouldn’t it be easier for the world to communicate? Being one identity so no one will be let out? Well if Globalization continues some believe that this will happen if we don’t do something about it. Being an individual is important to people. They can be who they decide to be, but it’s getting more and more difficult to do so because of Globalization. Though, there is another side to the opinion on if it’s good or bad. Once again I would suggest less questions. This paragraph is confusing. At the beginning and through your questions you state the benefits to cultural universalization and then it seems that you claim we need to do something about it to stop it. There is no discussion of why this would be a bad thing except that being individual is important.

In the second source there is a picture of the iconic Sesame Street logos. On the sign there are different languages. What it’s saying is that something that started in the U.S is now in other countries in their language, a form of culture contact (nice). The media has a huge impact on us as people, our views can be changed on a topic quick and easy. The part in our society that media plays are a big one. Media plays a big part in our society. We watch the news, documentaries, anything and everything on television. It also depends on which station you watch because they each have a different opinion on what you should think about a topic. They are being bias of about what they think is important. This is a much better paragraph. You could also talk about the dangers of media convergence and/or media conglomeration here.

The Chiquita brand of bananas says that it’s the best banana you can buy. They check it over six times and then it goes into wooden boxes that are strong and protective before it leaves the tropics. The person that wrote this source is showing that they do everything so when you go buy a banana at a store it will be perfect. Though, they are leaving out an important part. Who picks the bananas? How much are these people paid? Are their working conditions good? Like the United Fruit Company for example, sure they provided 40 000 jobs and investments up to $60 million (toward what?), but they ended up to be a monopoly. They owned the telephone, and the telegraph, and almost every mile of rail road in the whole country. So, if you wanted to make a phone call it would have to go through the banana company. Or maybe In order to import something from the sea; it would have to go through the banana company because they owed that too.  This is a good discussion of the banana company but how does it relate back to the overarching question of our identity becoming collectively universalized?

source essay draft by jace salmon

Introduction: How has Globalization affected our modern world? For negative or positive, people have been disagreeing with one another for a long time about this subject. Globalization has made us have more of a collective identity. For the better or the worse that is for you to decide.

1st paragraph: Globalization
 How has globalization affected our world past, present and future?
         Globalization started along time ago , there is no exact  date but large travel started on the silk road when goods were transferred between India and England. This kind of travel and trade has effected the way we live today and might i add for the better. Now today i can sit on a couch that was made in China but assembled in Thailand while I am on a computer that was designed in Germany while I eat a banana from Guatemala. This is present day Globalization and it is making people all over the world more and more the same. How am I supposed to keep my culture and history when more and more globalization takes over. How long before we are all the same people, with the same culture, religion, and one human.

2nd paragraph: Sesame Street
TV programs have spread all over the world such as Sesame Street, Simpsons, and Family Guy. These TV shows are all created in the United States and these shows and ideas are being showed all over the world. North American ideology are being transported all over the world. Young children are slowly being brainwashed to think a certain way. Media convergence can affect large amounts of people, companies can send out mass advertisements in the form of magazines, TV commercials, poster, movies, and he internet. Websites such as Facebook and Twitter are also based out of the United States, large companies such as these can persuade people to think what they want.



3rd paragraph: Chiquita Bananas
When you go to a groceries store there will usually be three main brands of bananas. Most people wouldn't support large banana companies if they new the truth about them. Chiquita Bananas hire young children and they are usually payed a very small wage or no wage whatsoever. They also spray chemicals to protect the plants from insects even when there is workers in the field. If you go to a grocery store in Korea you will find one of the major three banana companies. These three companies control all off the market all over the world. this is bringing our world all closer together and a very similar identity.

Conclusion: 

Source Interpretation Assignment. (final draft)

Source Interpretation Written Assignment

Social 10-1

Ronni Burrows

Introduction:

What impact does globalization have on a world? Has it enhanced us as a globe, or has it weakened us as individuals? There is a heated discussion about the true influences of globalization and if it really is such an advantageous thing. Good or bad, there isn't much argument as to whether or not it's happening. If you look at the tag on your shirt, chances are you would see that it was made in a country other than the one in which you sit right now. Before it reached your wardrobe, that shirt could have very well been made with Chinese cotton, sewn by Thai hands, shipped on a French freighter crewed by Spaniards to a Los Angeles harbor. Essentially an economic phenomenon, globalization could only be envisioned in the context of wider interaction between different cultures; I instead believe that globalization has in fact lessened us as individuals. Globalization should shape the identity not create it so that individuals and collective identities are lost or forgotten. Our daily globalization, media convergences, and our economics are all big factors as to what keeps us from maintaining our distinctiveness, and as an alternative of being an individual.

 Source 1: Globalization

 To what extent should globalization shape our identity? In our hybridized world, many of our sources express the positive aspects of our globalized domain. They all tell about our access to foreign culture in the form of movies, music, food, clothing, and more. In short, the world has more choices.  Still, they say globalization is the process of increased interconnection among countries, most notably in the areas of economics, politics, and culture. For example; McDonalds in Japan, French films being played in Minneapolis, and the United Nations, are all representations of globalization. Society is modernizing at a rapid rate and there is nothing we can do about that. But people around the world need to come to realize the importance of cultural diversity, unique traditions, and personal identities apart from one other. Although different cultures from around the world are able to interact, they begin to meld, and the contours and individuality of each begin to fade. One of the strongest critics to globalization comes from the fear that such a process might erode national cultures and individual identities.

Source 2: Sesame Street Logos

Today, the original American kids show "Sesame Street" appears in more than 120 countries. Children in 65 countries have viewed the series in its English‐language form and in addition, the program has been re-made in 13 other languages.  The producer of Sesame Street owns a lot more than just a TV show. Media convergences are bringing together media companies; a newspaper, a textbook publisher, a phone company, a TV network, and a movie production company may all be owned by a single transnational corporation. Not only has the Americans’ show Sesame Street been shared across the world but in particular the Americans’ outlook in general. We adopt American ways, and their media has a big influence on the outcomes of the rest of the world. Americans are interrogating other cultures identities. Today, communication technologies are changing so quickly that the rate of revolution has become far faster than ever before. Cell phones, television, and the Internet have come to affect nearly every aspect of people’s lives. The word distribution simply means to spread out, and that is exactly what any new found knowledge does. When a new development or way of doing something emits, it does not stay secret for long. The media aspect of globalization is making us lose one of the things that count the most: our identity, the uniqueness in us, that which makes us special and allows us to stand out from the crowd.

Source 3: Bananas

Mass consumption of standardized goods brought up by international trade in cultural and other sectors may be seen as negative because it crowds out self-produced, traditional and locally manufactured goods and services. 

Comparing/Conclusion

It is obvious that neither "globalization" nor "cultural identities” are neutral concepts