THE

CONTEMPORARY
WORLD
(GE 3)

Submitted by: Nelson Dandal

BSIT-Electrical

By
Floramay S. Abuzo
MODULE III A WORLD OF IDEAS
LESSON 1: Global Media Cultures
LEARNING ACTIVITIES/EXERCISES:
Activity 1: Answer the following questions to deepen your understanding of the
lesson.

1. Compare and contrast the social impacts of television and social media.

The social impacts of television and social media is that it

gives the public enough knowledge of what is happening
around the society. Also, it gives us awareness as to what
one should do inside the society.

2. Do you think globalization leads to cultural imperialism?

As technology develops, technology made it possible to

make a worldwide movement toward economic, financial
trade, and communication integration, which is called
globalization. The globalization paradigm started with a good
purpose, it was to unify the world and to share and
understand each other cultures. However, it turns out
globalization paradigm had its flaws and this flaws are
described as cultural imperialism.

Activity 2: Explain briefly. In your own idea, please elaborate your experiences
using social media, media, Television in your day to day activities. What is the
impact, is it all positive or negative?

Using social media and television in our day to day activities

helps us a lot in any way. This is because it keeps us
updated on what is happening around our environment and it
made us aware about the current events. Also, it gives us a
lot of knowledge that will help us in our day to day lives.
PRACTICE TASK/ASSESSMENT:
Identify the statements whether it is True or
False. If true, write T if false, write F.
1. Internationalism as a world economic trend generally refers to the lowering of
economic trade borders, but it has much to do with culture as well. F

2. The media industry is, in many ways, perfect for globalization, or the spread of
global trade without regard for traditional political borders. T

3. Much globalized media content comes from the West, particularly from the
United States. T

4. Culture is largely a cultural product, and the transfer of such a product is likely
to have an influence on the recipient’s culture. Increasingly, technology has also
been propelling globalization. F

5. Global Media Cultures explores the relationship between the media, culture
and globalization. T

ASSIGNMENT
Enrichment:
If cultural globalization merely entails the spread of a Western monoculture, what
explains the prevalence of regional cultural trends?

Cultural Trends has been providing in-depth analysis of cultural sector statistics
since 1989. It focuses on key trends within the fields of material culture, media,
performing arts and the historic environment, and it includes coverage of issues
which impact on the sector as a whole, such as the internet, poverty and access
to the arts, and funding. Cultural Trends is based on the assumption that cultural
policy should be based on empirical evidence and it champions the need for
better statistical information on the cultural sector. It aims to: stimulate analysis
and understanding of the arts and wider cultural sector based on relevant and
reliable statistical data; provide a critique of the empirical evidence upon which
arts and wider cultural policy may be formed, implemented, evaluated and
developed; examine the soundness of measures of the performance of
government and public sector bodies in the arts and wider cultural sector; and
encourage improvements in the coverage, timeliness and accessibility of
statistical information on the arts and wider cultural sector.
LESSON II: The Globalization of Religion
LEARNING ACTIVITIES/EXERCISES
Activity 1: Answer the following questions.

1. What are the conflicting ideas between religious thought and the ideology
of globalism?

Religion, much more than culture, has the most difficult

relationship with globalism. First, the two are entirely
contrasting belief systems. Religion is concerned with the
sacred, while globalism places value on material wealth.
Religion follows divine commandments, while globalism
abides by human-made laws.

2. Why is secularization theory outdated?

As a result of secularization the role of religion in modern

societies becomes restricted. In secularized societies faith
lacks cultural authority, and religious organizations have little
social power. Secularization has many levels of meaning,
both as a theory and as a historical process.

Activity 2: Answer the following question.

How do you describe the reactions of some religious movements to

globalization? How do others facilitate globalization? (10 pts.).

Globalization–due to the advent of communication and

transportation technology and the roles played by the media–has contributed to
the deterritorialization and the blurring of geographical spaces and boundaries.
This has resulted apparently in making the world a small village where people,
cultures, and identities come in daily face-to-face contact with each other.
Undoubtedly, religion is not immune from these changes and their burgeoning
effects brought about by globalization. However, religions still have their
respective homes in specific territorial spaces where they originally appeared and
where their respective shrines exist. The inner nature of religions and the
purpose to be embraced and practiced by people all over the world prompts it to
spread throughout all the world’s geographical spaces. In order to emerge and
spread, therefore, religions make good use of the technologies of globalization.
Having geographical boundaries and frontiers blurred and dissolved, religions
find it easy to spread and reach every part of the world.
PRACTICE TASK/ASSESSEMENT:
Identify the statements whether it is True or
False. If true, write T if false, write F.
1. Globalization perspectives seeking to include religion have taken several
directions of which the following are likely the most significant. T

2. Globalization, much more than culture, has the most difficult relationship with
globalism. F

3. It implicates religion and religions in several ways. T

4. From religious or theological perspectives, globalization calls forth religious

response and interpretation. T

5. Religion is concerned with the sacred, while globalism places value on

material wealth. T
ASSIGNMENT
Enrichment activity:
Choose one religion and search the history of the said religion. Then describe the
following:

a. the religion’s concept of good

b. the region’s concept of evil

c. the steps needed by a person to become good and prevent himself/herself

from becoming evil.

Christianity

Christianity began as a movement within Judaism at a period when the Jews had
long been dominated culturally and politically by foreign powers and had found in
their religion (rather than in their politics or cultural achievements) the linchpin of
their community. From Amos (8th century bce) onward the religion of Israel was
marked by tension between the concept of monotheism, with its universal ideal of
salvation (for all nations), and the notion of God’s special choice of Israel. In the
Hellenistic Age (323 bce–3rd century ce), the dispersion of the Jews throughout
the kingdoms of the eastern Mediterranean and the Roman Empire reinforced
this universalistic tendency. But the attempts of foreign rulers, especially the
Syrian king Antiochus IV Epiphanes (in 168–165 bce), to impose Greek culture in
Palestine provoked zealous resistance on the part of many Jews, leading to the
revolt of Judas Maccabeus against Antiochus. In Palestinian Judaism the
predominant note was separation and exclusiveness. Jewish missionaries to
other areas were strictly expected to impose the distinctive Jewish customs of
circumcision, kosher food, and Sabbaths and other festivals. Other Jews,
however, were not so exclusive, welcoming Greek culture and accepting
converts without requiring circumcision.
a. A monism of goodness would guarantee prosperity since only good can
exist, whereas a monism of evil would lead to our extinction.

b. Evil, in a general context, is the absence or opposite of that which is

described as being good. It is driven by fear and manifests through
violence and division. The Judeo-Christian belief does not give a human
form to Satan as they do God, to reinforce the belief that it shouldn’t
manifest itself in humans. Those faithful to God in the Judeo-Christian
belief reconcile with the existence of evil by acknowledging that God gave
us free will, and since Satan exists, some will be tempted by the Snake
with the apple from Adam & Eve. The snake represents a moral code
driven by evil, where greatness and prosperity are guaranteed but not the
motive, and their actions are a means to some other end that is self-
interested. Often, evil is used to denote profound immorality.

c. When we learn to see Him as Spirit, filling all space, we feel His nearness.
And when we accept God as Principle, we know more clearly what it
means to say, ``All things work together for good to them that love God.''