TERM PAPER TITLED: GLOBALIZATION AND NEW MEDIA IN

NIGERIA

BY OGUNSOLA SURAJUDEEN DAYO

PhD2201163
COURSE TITLE: NEW MEDIA AND ICT

COURSE CODE MCM905

DEPARTMENT OF MASS COMMUNICATION, FACULTY OF SOCIAL

SCIENCE NASARAWA STATE UNIVERSITY, KEFFI.

COURSE LECTURER: Prof A. I, Igyuve

JULY, 2023

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Introduction

More than six decades ago, the Canadian media theorist Marshall McLuhan in his books ‘The

Gutenberg Galaxy”: The Making of Typographic Man (1962) had predicted the idea of global

village, which describes the phenomenon of the entire world becoming more interconnected as

the result of the propagation of media technologies throughout the world.

According to Livinginternet.com, the insights of Marshall McLuhan were revolutionary, at the

time, and it has fundamentally altered how everyone has thought about media, technology, and

communication ever since. His insightful phrase, “global village’ to describe how electronic

media and by extension technology will rapidly integrated the world into a single entity, with one

event in one part of the “village” being experienced in another part is the reality of today. Indeed,

the concept of global village is what globalization exemplified.

Peterson Institute for international economics (2022) defines Globalization as a term used to

describe the growing interdependence of the world’s economies, cultures, and populations,

brought about by cross-border trade in goods and services, technology, and flows of investment,

people, and information.

Ben (2021) conceptualized Globalization as the process by which ideas, knowledge, information,

goods and services spread around the world. Peterson Institute for international economics

however held that countries have built economic partnerships to facilitate these movements over

many centuries. The Institute argued that globalization gained popularity after the Cold War in

the early 1990s, as these cooperative arrangements shaped modern everyday life. This guide uses

the term more narrowly to refer to international trade and some of the investment flows among

advanced economies, mostly focusing on the United States.

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Joining the conversation, Davina (2020) concurred that globalization essentially means the

growing increase in the inter-connectedness and interdependences among the world's regions,

nations, governments, businesses and institutions. Davina (2020) explained further that such

process engenders a free flow of ideas, people, goods, services and capital thereby fostering the

integration of economies and societies. The most visible aspect of globalization according to

Davina is the spread of information and communication technologies as effective tools of

business management

The wide-ranging effects of globalization are complex and politically charged. As with major

technological advances, globalization benefits society as a whole, while harming certain groups.

Understanding the relative costs and benefits can pave the way for alleviating problems while

sustaining the wider payoffs.

In the argument of Peterson Institute for International Economics, technology, transportation and

international cooperation are the drivers of globalization, for quite some time, the institute is of

the view that humans have sought distant places to settle, produce, and exchange goods enabled

by improvements in technology and transportation. But not until the 19th century did global

integration take off. Following centuries of European colonization and trade activity, that first

“wave” of globalization was propelled by steamships, railroads, the telegraph, and other

breakthroughs, and also by increasing economic cooperation among countries.

Giving credence to the evolution of globalization, Ben (2021) affirmed that even though many

people consider globalization a twentieth century phenomenon but the process has been

happening for millennia. Ben traced three different attempts at globalization even before the

aftermath of the second world war when United states of America took up the lead, the previous

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attempt according to Ben (2021) include the Roman Empire, dating back to 600 B.C. where the

Empire spread its economic and governing systems through significant portions of the ancient

world for centuries. Silk Road trade is another attempt at globalization, these trade routes, which

date from 130 B.C. to 1453 A.D. they brought merchants, goods and travelers from China

through Central Asia and the Middle East to Europe.

Another attempt was made in the Pre-World War I. where European countries made significant

investments overseas in the decades before World War I. The period from 1870 to 1914 is called

the golden age of globalization.

Factors that shaped globalization

In addition to the previous submissions that steamships, railroads, the telegraph, among other

breakthroughs drove globalization, Ben (2021) identified such breakthroughs or technological

advancements to include

1. Internet and internet communication. The internet has increased the sharing and flow of

information and knowledge, access to ideas and exchange of culture among people of

different countries. It has contributed to closing the digital divide between more and less

advanced countries.

2. Communication technology. The introduction of 4G and 5G technologies has

dramatically increased the speed and responsiveness of mobile and wireless networks.

3. IoT and AI. These technologies are enabling the tracking of assets in transit and as they

move across borders, making cross-border product management more efficient.

4. Block chain. This technology is enabling the development of decentralized database and

storage that support the tracking of materials in the supply chain. Block chain facilitates

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 the secure access to data required in industries such as healthcare and banking. For

example, block chain provides a transparent ledger that centrally records and vets

transactions in a way that prevents corruption and breaches.

Tied to the above however is the advent of New Media, with the internet as the driver, this,

experts believed was an offshoot of the various advancements. Oyebode (2014) defined new

media as the use of telephone and Internet to optimize interaction in the exchange of information,

ideas, news, feelings and opinions. They are devices used to overcome constraints of space and

time in enhancing social interaction. Oyebode further quoted Raji-Oyelade (2012) who believes

new media as the practice and tools of retrieving and dissemination information, narratives,

histories, performances and ideas in a way that both collation and delivery, as primary acts of

writing are qualified in the immediacy of virtual or mass circulation.

Agbo and Odaudu (2021) agreed that one of the by-products of the second generation of the

internet (Web2.0) is the new media, citing Friedman and Friedman (2008) who stated that the so

called new media technologies encompass a wide variety of web-related communication

technologies, such as blogs, wikis, and online social networking.

The internet being the offshoot of mobile telecommunications industry has continued to

permeate all the nook and cranny of Nigeria, with renewed commitment on the part of regulatory

agency of government, especially the Nigerian Communications Commission closing access gap

of the underserved areas in Nigeria from over three hundred some ten years ago to less than

hundred access gap.

The implication of the above is that as more areas are covered with provision of

telecommunication signals, the internet continues to be accessible almost everywhere, oiling the

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idea of globalization by days, with means of interaction and communication across the globe

becoming achievable.

Impact of Globalization on Nigeria in the Face of New Media on Nigeria

On the face value of the benefits of Globalization, Charles (2018) predicted that everyone gains

from the emerging reality, as he argued that the media are undisputed agents of globalization, as

they propagate and promote values of different cultures of the world. As a branch of media,

social media have evolved as new technology in respect to globalization, and especially to

further ensure the effectiveness of globalizing the world. The use of social media today Charles

(2018) agreed ensures immediacy and wider reception of contents that possibly can be accessed

by over 80 per cent of world’s population. It is in this regard that cultures and other values of

different people are promoted and made accessible to transnational audiences.

Cultural values are typically those standards that the people hold as distinctive elements that

qualify them as unique. The issue is that these values encourage all religious, political, and social

persuasions to interact, based upon their mutual commitment to the greater good, practicing,

imparting, and celebrating values of the people in the society they belong. In this age of

globalization, social media are readily available to promote cultural contents that are replete with

values a particular set of people would always uphold and feel proud of.

But the reality may not be so in Nigeria and perhaps some other developing world. Dons (2014)

observed that globalization in the era of new media with an unbridled access to mediated content

may do what colonialism could do to the culture of Nigeria and by extension Africa. He opines

that African culture through activities on twitter, Facebook, are being systematically obliterated

or even erased from the face of the earth.

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Although, it is a frank opinion that globalization has come with many benefits, it is still

undeniable that this phenomenon is with bundle of deficits. Dons (2014) however summed it up

that the level of benefits derivable from such incursion is not equal, such that developed

countries of America and Europe are better placed and cornered the benefits, Nigeria and her

third world counterparts are struggling under the yoke of globalization with its attendant effects,

especially with huge impact on her cultural values and age long norms, which at any rate is fast

eroding.

Although Charles (2018) thought that government may be right in advocating for the censorship

of social media messages, the effort may in the end not be effective because all citizens are

qualified to create content and make them available to the audience. This is why, the argument

that social media as an agent of globalization is quite potent in ensuring that the Nigerian cultural

values are promoted accordingly in the global sphere. My position is that in as much no part of

the world can stand aloof from the rest parts of the world, meaning that globalization is a reality

of today, it is not out of place for the country to continue allowing new media sphere left

unregulated.

Therefore, policy framework capable of regulating unwanted foreign content that can pollute or

undermine high held Nigeria values should be pursued vigorously. Besides, it should be

considered as national policy that deliberate attempt should be made for the relevant agencies of

government to leverage on the new media platforms to promote local indigenous culture

globally.

References

Peterson Institute for international economics (2022).What is Globalization and how has
the Global Economy Shaped the United States?

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Davina Nyiam (2020) Globalization and the Media. An Interdisciplinary Journal of Human
Theory and Praxis, Vol. 3(1) (2020)

Ben Lutkevich (2021) Definition of Globalization. Retrieved from

https://www.techtarget.com/searchcio/definition/globalization

Davina Nyiam (2020) Globalization and the Media. An Interdisciplinary Journal of Human
Theory and Praxis, Vol. 3(1) (2020)
Charles Effiong (2018) Globalization, Social Media and Imperatives in the Promotion of
Nigerian Cultural Values. Journal of New Media and Mass Communication 2018 Vol. 5,
No. 1, pp. 14-22
Oyebode M. O; (2014) Use and Misuse of the New Media for Political Communication in
Nigeria’s Fourth Republic. ISSN 2224-607X (Paper) ISSN 2225-0565 (Online) Vol.4,
No.4, 2014
Dons Eze (2014) Nigeria and the crisis of cultural identity in the era of globalization, Academic
Journals, Vol. 6(8) pp. 140-147, October 2014