From a Global Village to a Global Metropolis
From a Global Village to a Global Metropolis
Student: Bailey J. Liackman
Thesis Advisor: Jaeho Kang
Abstract: Marshall McLuhan has been marginalized in academic media discourse, but his approach and provocative ideas can be refocused, reconceived, and reapplied to an understanding of the new media environment that is a crucial element of contemporary society. This thesis reconsiders McLuhan’s "global village" as a "global metropolis" with the aim of developing a comprehensive understanding of the 21st century. I demonstrate that while digital communication technology is driving globalization, the polarization effects brought about by the process engender a complexity that expands beyond the representation of the global village. First, the globalization of culture has by no means brought about a global culture. The two poles of culture in the globalization context are a corporate created culture and a local identity culture. Second, the archetypal polarization brought about by digital communication technologies is between the connected and the unconnected. The disparities existing within the digital divide are so great that they dispel any illusion that the global access available through new communication technologies is a worldwide standard. Amongst those who are connected, we see the rise of the monad and the monadic culture. These dynamics are creating the world in an image more complex than a global village. I propose a better representational term is a global metropolis.