ABSTRACT
In recent years, the term ‘globalization’ has fast become a central organizing category in academic disciplines from economics to international relations, from cultural studies to sociology. When various public intellectuals and academics during the 1990s pointed to the term ‘globalization’ to explain the major social changes going on around the reader, many reacted in a sceptical fashion. Radical globalists are generally upbeat about globalization, sketching an optimistic view of the rise of free trade and open markets. In contrast to the global sceptics and radical globalists, a third-way position has emerged within the globalization debate – that occupied by global transformationalists. One of the confusions arising from the globalization controversy is that social theorists disagree over its possible benefits and costs to democratic politics. In past few decades, major transformations have occurred within the media industries. Globalization impacts on all aspects of current social life, from the rise of multinational companies to global warming to the worldwide spread of disease.
