Chapter 6

Asian Regionalism

Introduction:

Asian regionalism is the product of economic interaction, not political planning. As a result of
successful, outward-oriented growth strategies, Asian economies have grown not only richer, but
also closer together. In recent years, new technological trends have further strengthened ties
among them, as have the rise of the PRC and India and the region’s growing weight in the global
economy. But adversity also played a role. The 1997/98 financial crisis dealt a severe setback to
much of the region, highlighting Asia’s shared interests and common vulnerabilities and
providing an impetus for regional cooperation. The challenge now facing Asia’s policy makers is
simply put yet incredibly complex: Where markets have led, how should government follow?

Specific Objectives:

At the end of the lesson, the student should be able to:

1. Differentiate between regionalism and globalization.

2. Identify the factors leading to a greater integration of the Asian region.
3. Analyze how different Asian states confront the challenges of globalization and
regionalization.

Duration: 3 Hours

Chapter 6: Regionalism in Asia

Advantage of Regionalism in Asia

Organizations Emerged in the Asian Region

The difference between Regionalism and Globalization

Factors leading to a greater integration of the Asian Region

Lesson Proper

ASIAN REGIONALISM

Regionalism is the manifestation or expression of a common sense of cultural identity and

purpose combined with the creation and implementation of institutions that express a particular
identity and shape collective action within a geographical region. It also refers to the institutional
arrangements designed to facilitate the free flow of goods, services, and to coordinate foreign
economic policies in the geographic region.

Why are nations participating in Regionalism?

Opportunities, threats, and challenges prompt nation states to bond together and forge ties and
alliances built on solid, legal frameworks with other nations.

Nations believe that regionalism can boost and support their national interest in economic,
military, political, and even cultural contexts.

6.1 Regionalism in Asia

Asia’s region is home to over half the world’s population, produces three tenths of global
outputs, and consistently records the world’s highest economic growth rates.

Asia’s economies are increasingly connected through trade, financial transactions, direct
investment, technology, labor, tourist flows, and other economic relationships.

The regional order that is present in the Asian region is spurred by the fact that there exist
patterns of similarities too great to escape scrutiny.

Asia’s strength derives from the openness, diversity, and dynamism of its interconnected
economies. Asian regionalism could bring huge benefits to Asia, and ultimately to the world. It
could help sustain the region’s growth, underpin its stability, reduce inequality, and address
perennial problem of poverty.

6.2 Advantages of Regionalism in Asia:

1. Generate productivity gains, new ideas, and competition.

2. Contribute to the efficiency and stability of global financial markets.

3. Diversity sources of global demand, helping to stabilize the world economy and diminish the
risks posed.

4. Provide leadership.

5. Create regional mechanisms.

6.3 Organizations Emerged in the Asian Region:

a. Association of Southeast Asian Nation (ASEAN)

A regional intergovernmental organization comprising ten Southeast Asian countries which

seeks to promote intergovernmental cooperation and facilitates economic, political, security,
military, educational and socio-cultural integration amongst its members.

Aims and Purposes:

a. To accelerate economic growth, social progress, and cultural development in the region.

b. To promote regional peace and stability.

c. To collaborate more effectively for the greater utilization of their agricultural and industries,
the expansion of their trade, including the study of the problems of international commodity
trade.

d. To maintain close and beneficial cooperation with existing international and regional
organizations with similar aims and purposes and explore all avenues for closer cooperation.

b. Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC)

The APEC is a regional economic forum established in the year 1989. It aims to create greater
prosperity for the people of the region by promoting balanced, inclusive, sustainable, innovative,
and secure growth and by accelerating regional economic integration. The 21 APEC member
economies work towards the realization of free and open trade and investment in the Asia-
Pacific.

c. East Asian Summit (EAS)

The East Asian Summit is a unique Leaders-lead forum of 18 countries of the Asia-Pacific
region. It is formed to further the objectives of regional peace, security, and prosperity.
Established in 2005, EAS allows the principal players in the Asia-Pacific region to discuss the
issues of common interest and concern, in an open and transparent manner, at highest level.

6.4 The Difference of regionalization and Globalization

Globalization
Culture Promotes integration of
economies across state
borders all around the world
Market Allows many corporations to
trade on international level; it
allows free market.
Cultural and Societal Acceleration to
Relations multiculturalism through free
and inexpensive movement of
people
Aid Globalized international
communities are more willing
to aid countries stricken by
disasters.
Technological Advances Globalization has driven great
advances in technology.
Regionalization
Divides an area into smaller
segments
Monopolies are more likely
to develop. Monopoly means
one producer controls supply
of a good or service, and
where the entry of new
producers is prevented or
highly restricted.
Does not support
multiculturalism.
A regionalized area does not
get involved in the affairs of
other areas.
Advanced technology is
rarely available in one
country or region.
6.5 Factors that leads the Asian Region into greater integration

Trade- The world economy is intertwined with each other whether we like it or not. We all want
or need something from another part of the world, and global facilitate that.

Similar Culture- The cultures of Asia is diverse but they do share many things. This makes it an
easier fir during times of negotiations.

Common Goals- The Asian region recognizes the mutual benefit a slow integration. The
territories involved are not from each other and the industriousness of its population ca work as a
powerful negotiating block against those from other part of the world.
References

Lisandro E. Claudio and Patricio N. Abinales. (2018). The Contemporary World. Quezon City: C
& E Publishing, Inc.

Shiraishi, Takashi. (2006). “The Third Wave: Southeast Asia and Middle-Class Formation in the
Making of a region.” In Beyond Japan: The Dynamic of East Asian regionalism, ed. Peter
Katzenstein and Takashi Shiraishi. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press

https://asean.org/asean/asean-structure/asean-sectoral-ministerial-bodies/

https://asean.org/asean/external-relations/

https://asean.usmission.gov/our-relationship/policy-history/usasean/

http://marklsl.tripod.com/Writings/asean.htm
Activity Sheet

ACTIVITY 1
Name: ___________________ Score: ________

Course, Year and Sec.: __________ Date: __________

Essay:

Directions: According to what you have learned from the previous discussion, answer the
following questions/statements in your own words. Write your answer on the space provided
below.

1. What is the difference of regionalization and globalization?

______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________

2. Why do Asian countries form regional associations/organizations?

______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________

3. Analyze how different Asian States confront the challenges globalization and regionalization

______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________

4. Is regional governance a better alternative to global governance in general?

______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________
5. What is the major challenge in Asian Regionalism?

______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________
 The Contemporary World

Chapter 7

Global Media Cultures

Chapter 7

Global Media Cultures

Introduction

The point of departure is the crucial role played by media in particular electronic and audiovisual
media, in the cultural, political, economic and social process that together constitute the process
of globalization. By globalization is meant a development through which the constraints of
geography on social and cultural structures are reduced, an increased social and cultural
interconnectivity across time and space is created, and a heightened consciousness is developed
about this secession of social and cultural interaction from geographical constraints.
Globalization, however, is neither an unambiguous concept, nor does it refer to a single and
specific socio-cultural phenomenon. Similarly, globalization is not a historically new
phenomenon that is only confined to the 20 th century. Consequently, one aim of the research
program is to advance a comprehensive understanding and critique of globalization both as a
concept and a sociocultural phenomenon.

The media have an important impact on cultural globalization in two mutually

interdependent ways: Firstly, the media provide an extensive transnational transmission of
cultural products and, secondly, they contribute to the formation of communicative networks and
social structures. The rapidly growing supply of media products from an international media
culture presents a challenge to existing local and national cultures. The sheer volume of the
supply, as well as the vast technological infrastructure and financial capital that pushes this
supply forward, have a considerable impact on local patterns of cultural consumption and
possibilities for sustaining an independent cultural production. Global media cultures create a
continuous cultural exchange, in which crucial aspects such as identity, nationality, religion,
behavioral norms and way of life are continuously questioned and challenged. These cultural
encounters often involve the meeting of cultures with a different socio-economic base, typically
a transnational and commercial cultural industry on one side and a national, publicly regulated
cultural industry on the other side.
Lesson Proper

CHAPTER 7 – GLOBAL MEDIA CULTURES

7.1 ROLE OF MEDIA IN GLOBALIZATION

Media proliferated the growth of mass communication in the 21 st century. Though used from
time to time, most people do not exactly know what media means in terms of varying contexts.
Consequently, they use the word interchangeably with network. The latter is associated with the
interconnection; hence it is referred as social network, “an online service or site through which
people create and maintain interpersonal relationships” (Merriam Webster). Media as the
“channel of communication” – a means through which people send and receive information. In
expanded discourse, social network can actually mean social media since the idea of the term is
under the function of the media itself.

Due to the continuous and rapid changes in the communication mechanisms in the modern age,
there have been three named types of mass media – media that is “designed to reach the mass of
the people”.
a. Print Media – It is said to be the oldest type of mass communication, which includes
newspapers, magazines, booklets, and brochures and billboards. Earliest production of this type
was made possible through woodblock stamped on paper, although later development includes
the invention of the printing press for a more and efficient production.

b. Electronic Media – The usage of electronic media was first established when the radio was
invented by Marconi. Since then, radio was utilized as a source of entertainment and as a news
broadcasting tool. Decades later, another electronic media manifested, the cinema and television.
Overall, electronic media includes: radio, movies, television, and audio and video records.
(Pradeep, 2014)

c. New Age Media – This pertains to the newly applied means of communicating involving the
employment of non-traditional system; the development of the computer as a universal
information carrier (multimedia) and its combination with telecommunications hence the term
new media. Moreover, the term new media includes communication. In fact, five factors
constituting communication as initiator, recipient, vehicle, message and effect, include the
defining characteristics of the new media.

Development and Pattern of Global Communication

The invention of the first printing press by the Chinese became the turning point to elevate
communication beyond national boundary. The use of printing press for mass production of
disseminating information spread like wild fire in different parts of the globe. As a result, more
advanced societies, particularly the European societies, improved the originally invented printing
press, the finest of which was that of Johannes Gutenberg in the mid-15 th century. At this time,
the system of writing was not only primarily aimed as a means of communication. With the use
of the printing press, the system of writing was likewise a means to spread ideas from one to the
other parts of the globe.

It was in 1837 when communication started to become global. This is because of the invention of
telegraph that was laid across the English Channel. The first fax machine was invented in 1843.
In 1876, the telephone was invented by Alexander Graham Bell. Radio broadcasting began in
Britain in 1922 and immediately thereafter in 1925, television was invented. Apparently, at this
stage of human progress, channels of mass communication were not only channels for
communication – they were also means of spreading ideas and pieces of information, from one to
the other sides of the globe.
As expected, global communication embraces dynamism. In the 21 st century, profound change in
global communication was more than what everyone expects it to be. The internet became
accessible to the public. This paved the way for a better and more expeditious means of
communications to people in different parts of the globe. Electronic mail became the trend of the
time, and in just matters of seconds, one’s

mail is being sent to the addressee, wherever he may be in this part of the world. Because of the
internet, people are being informed in real time, of events and happenings in various parts of the
world, surpassing the delivery time of the traditional mass media.

7.2 CULTURAL ASSIMILATION AND CULTURAL CONVERGENCE

Cultural assimilation is a situation where one society borrows the culture of another society and
uses it as part of its culture. Most of the societies that experienced colonization have cultural
borrowing. In the case of the Philippines, Filipinos’ mode of dressing and speaking is mostly
culturally borrowed from the Spaniards and Americans. Cultural borrowing is not an overnight
process. It is usually goes into the core of the culture if such particular cultural item becomes
beneficial to the majority of a large number of people in the society.

The intriguing question is, “What happens when a particular idea or cultural item is confronted
with idea or cultural item of the same kind in another society”? This situation is known as
Cultural Convergence. In this situation, there are two possible scenarios. The first scenario is
the exportation of superior or dominant culture. This usually happens when a particular idea or
cultural item is being introduced to, and such is being accepted by another society. For example,
basketball as a sport is not a sport of the Filipinos. But with American influence, Filipinos now
become hooked to basketball as a sport.

The other scenario is the hybridization, which is the mixing of two converging culture resulting
to the emergence of the new culture. A typical example of this is the convergence of two
languages in the Philippines, namely Filipino and English. Filipinos eventually develop the
Conyo language, which is an innovative combo of English and Filipino languages, without
necessarily distorting the message conveyed.
7.3 GLOBAL AND LOCAL CULTURE

Culture can also be classified into global and local culture. Global Culture is one which
transcends national borders and exists in many different places around the world (Rettig, 2017).
Example of global culture is the food that exists all over the world, the use of English language,
or certain customs which get adopted by various different cultures. This global culture is most
often the result of cultural convergence, where cultures are subject to many of the same global
flows and become increasingly more alike. Without doubt, this cultural convergence becomes
possible because of the ever-increasing utility of new age media that serve as transmitters of
culture.

Local Culture, on the other hand, pertains to set of belief systems that characterize the
experience of everyday life in specific, identifiable localities (Britannica). This set of culture is
what makes the locality unique from the rest of the world. It makes up its own identity and
cultural heritage.

7.4 DIFFERENT WAYS OF ACCEPTING CULTURE: Ethnocentrism, Xenocentrism,

and Culture Shock

While there is inevitably a free flow of ideas and culture in the modern world, the acceptance of
such ideas is not automatic. The degree of acceptance of this culture varies from one society to
another. While some societies may be accommodating of outside culture, and may even modify
its own culture in order to take a new one as part of its own, another society may be intolerant to
other breed of culture and treat its own culture as the absolute truth.

The belief that one’s culture is relatively inferior compared to the culture of another society is
called xenocentrism. People having this kind of belief are apparently more accepting and
accommodating of other culture, and would take outside culture as part of their own.

In the opposite, the belief that one’s own culture is relatively superior compared to the culture of
another is called ethnocentrism. The people who adhere to this belief are apparently more
skeptical to the introduction of another culture, stressing that there is no point to borrow the
culture of another. In fact, they believe that it is not only their culture that is more superior to
others, but their race as well.
A person may experience culture shock at the time he is exposed to the culture of another, and in
which he is not aware of the existence of such culture. Culture Shock is an internal struggle
experienced by an individual who encounters a culture radically different from his own, which
leads to his own confusion and disorientation. This is mostly experienced by a migrant, or by a
person who has a high sense of nationalism.
References

Deocampo, Felix Jr. R., Ramos, Bernardo F., and Llonora, R. L. (2019). Globalization in
Contemporary World. Plaridel, Bulacan: St. Andrew Publishing House

Lisandro E. Claudio and Patricio N. Abinales. (2018). The Contemporary World. Quezon City: C
& E Publishing, Inc.

https://catalog.flatworldknowledge.com/catalog/editions/lule-understanding-media-and-culture-
an-introduction-to-mass-communication-1-0

https://open.lib.umn.edu/mediaandculture/chapter/1-3-the-evolution-of-media/