Glocal Culture in the Thai Media: the Occidental ‘Other’ in TV Advertisements

Abstract

Giddens (1998: 28) is surely correct when he observes that the theme of globalization was hardly mentioned ten years ago, yet now discussion of it is to be found everywhere, from political speeches to business manuals. However, the concept will be misunderstood, he warns, if we think of it solely in terms of economic interdependence and the mere existence of interconnections that are literally worldwide. Driven by a mixture of political and economic influences, globalization actually encompasses a much wider and more complex area since it is transforming the very social institutions in which people’s lives are played out — even in the case of those living in the poorest regions. Furthermore, today’s world of instantaneous electronic communication is very much responsible for the intensity and acceleration of globalization. By definition, globalization is the process by which the relatively separate areas of the globe come to intersect in a single imaginary ‘space’ (Hall, 1995: 190). However, this process is by no means fair and equal. In reality, different places, and different social groups within them, experience globalization in widely varying ways (Massey and Jess, 1995: 220). Globalization, then, is a process which, though it affects the whole globe, is in fact highly uneven in its impact. Some countries, cities and social groups are more actively engaged with its various processes than others and some people are more affected by it than others, whether adversely or in ways that lead to personal empowerment.