Global+Village

toc =Marshall McLuhan=
 * //1911-1980//**

= = "The Medium is the Message"- Marshall McLuhan

=Global Village=

In his best selling book "The Medium is the Message", Marshall McLuhan has announced that the speed of electronic media such as radio, telephone, television, and internet will allow us to act and react to the global issues at the same speed. Nowadays, these electronic media have linked peole together worldwide. People are living in the borderless world.

In McLuhan's view, the electronic technology has extended our view, sight, and sound. The television and computer extend our eyes by projecting further news and the radio and telephone act like long distance ears.

**Globalization and Contemporary Communication Technologies**
__Defination of Globalization:__ A set of process leading to the intergration of economic, cultural, political, and social systems across geographical boundaries.

__Features of Globalization:__
 * Increased speed of movement by travel and increased movement of people across planet
 * Volume of goods, capital, images and messages in circulation has massively increased
 * New communication technologies strength social relations across vast distances
 * Mode interconnectedness, interdependence and interactivity of ew roder and intensity.
 * move from paper to electronic

media type="youtube" key="A7GvQdDQv8g"

The Global Divide
The Global Divide, is one of three distinct aspects that make up the [|Digital Divide]. It can be defined as the divergence of Internet (which in turn limits access of information), and technological access between industrailized and developing countries(Castells, 273). This inequality gap between the rich and the poor can be seen as one of the most important and relevent issues concerning our generation. Due to the immence growth of technology, trade and investment flows, the globalization of production, distribution and marketing, people from all over the globe are interconnected like never before.

Nations Most Affected*
• Central and South America • Africa • Asia
 * select regions

Current Problems
The gap between the richest and the poorest countries was not always as large as it is currently. It wasn't until the the mid 1970's that the problem began to escalate drastically. In the 1960's, the top 20% of the worlds people in the richest countries had 30 times the income (in terms of total GPA) of the poorest 20%. By 1997, the top 20% received 74 times the income of the bottom 20% as stated by the UN's Human Development Report (Lee, 3). Due to these numbers, people in developing countries are at a serious disadvantage as they are unable to afford necessary daily items, let alone products such as computers. However, though computers can be seen as a luxury item not requred to sustain life in many areas of the wolrd, they are also seen a a devise that allows Internet access which direclty exposes individuals to a wide range of data be it educational, recreational or informational. Being able to attain this assortment of information can be very advantageous in many realms however, individuals residing in developing nations do not have the means to gain access and can for this reason, not bennefit. In the year 2000, there was an estimated 377 million Internet users worldwide which translates into approximately 5% of the worlds population (Lee.3)
 * In short, not everyone has access......**

With the emergence of new technology, many specualted that devises such as the Internet would act as an aid towards economic growth for converting developing nations in such a way that they would be given the opportunity to catch up to the industrailized world. Digital networks have the ability to both broaden and enhance access to information and communication for isolated rural areas as well as poorer areas.However, being able to see the direction in which these new technologies are headed, it can be argued that these technologies such as the Internet, really only benefits the Industrailized countires as they are the ones who are able to afford such items and services (Castell, 275). The knowlege gap hypothesis can explain this.

Work Cited
Castells, Manuel. //"An Introduction to the Information Age."// The Information Society Reader. Ed. Frank Webster, Raimo Blom, Erkki Karvonen, Harri Melin, Kaarle Nordenstreng, and Ensio Puoskari. London and New York: Routledge, 2004. 273- 283. from http://ccit205.wikispaces.com/The+Global+Divide%2C+the+divide+among+countries, citing myself, user gibsond.

Lee, Marc. "The Global Divide; Inequality in the world economy." Canadian Center for Policy Alternatives, Behind the Numbers, Economic Facts, Figures & Analysis. 4th Volume, April, 2002.

Source: CCIT 205 Lecture Note HSE Web Depot Glossary:"http://www.hsewebdepot.org/imstool/GEMI.nsf/WEBDocs/Glossary?OpenDocument"