‘everywhere is now our own neighbourhood’

Over the past half century, advances in technology have enabled individuals and nations the world over to the point where we may truly consider ourselves to be part of the ‘global village’. The concept of ‘global village’ was first used by the Canadian philosopher of communication theory, Marshall McLuhan, who surmised that the world had become interconnected through the use of technology and new media. He concluded that society in general was becoming an example of ‘tribal’ men by moving away from the concept of ‘individual’ men (The Global Village, 1960). McLuhan put forward the argument that what was once ideas, concepts, models etc. held by the individual was rapidly becoming the knowledge of all via the process of sharing through the use of new media and the various ways it was presented and could be accessed.

Consequently, this notion of the global village also played a substantive, if not the primary role of ‘globalisation’. There exist a variety of definitions of this term. A pertinent one to this summary is that as described by theorist Roland Robertson. He states that, ‘Globalization as a concept refers both to the compression of the world and the intensification of consciousness of the world as a whole’ (Robertson, 1992, p, 8). The major linking point between these two examples is that they both illustrate the awareness of global unification in our recent history. Current characteristics that are integral within the global village concept is its use of new media concepts combining with communication theory and usage. This process has increased exponentially with both hardware and software product technologies constantly updating. As an example of this we can examine the integration of smart phones and tablets that can access the resources of the internet in a way that few would have predicted only a decade ago.

These information/communication modalities; (‘refer(ing) to a particular manner of sensation or perception or a process that produces information content for perception in a particular sense’) (Torpey, 2003, p.20) of media resources have allowed the untapped potential from citizens across the global village to have a potential input and a voice that can be heard and shared around the planet. Societies has also had to come to terms with the host of difficulties that these communication technologies have given rise to. Hacking, security, privacy, It could be quite daunting to think that a term coined 55 odd years ago could still possibly have any relevance today such a long time ago, surely back then we had different ideas, values etc. but sure enough the concept of the global village is as prevalent as ever.

Marshall McLuhan: The global village- Television has transformed the world into an interconnected tribe, 1960, CBC digital Archives, May 18th, retrieved 24th July 2015, <http://www.cbc.ca/player/Digital%20Archives/Arts%20and%20Entertainment/Media/ID/2157808198/>

Robertson, R 1992, ‘Globalization: Social Theory and Global Culture’, SAGE publications, retrieved 23rd July, 2015, Google Books Database

Torpey, P.A 2013, ‘Media Scores A Framework for Composing the Modern-Day Gesamtkunstwerk’, Ph.D thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, retrieved 23rd July 2015, <http://web.media.mit.edu/~patorpey/publications/torpey_phd-thesis_2013_media_scores.pdf>.

Mashall McLuhan Quote, digital image, (n.d.),retrieved 23rd July, <http://izquotes.com/quote/124667>

Global Village, digital image, August 9th 2014, retrieved 23rd July, <http://buddybits.com/aiesec-surat-organize-global-village-surat/>