The Negative Effects Of Americanization

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Without any doubt one of inevitable parts of 21 is considered globalization. Even Though this term is widely used at present, it is rather difficult to define it properly.Salvatore Puledda defines it as a natural process of economic interaction among different countries and cultures, supported by modern communication technologies. There are heated debates about positive and negative effects of globalization. There are many researchers as Salvatore Puledda who perceive globalization as a threat to cultural diversity or the loss of cultural identity. Nevertheless, this increasing integration of the world or 'globalization' could enrich people’s life and may bring knowledge and information to people around the world. In recent years, cultural …show more content…

this form of cultural domination in term of Americanization.HAS BEEN DECLARED BY FRIEDMAN IN Friedman notes: "...globalization is in so many ways Americanization: globalization wears Mickey Mouse ears, it drinks Pepsi and Coke, eats Big Macs, does its computing on an IBM laptop with Windows 98."(2) This may be illustrated by the worldwide influence of McDonald's. The sociologist George Ritzer(1) uses the term "McDonaldization of the world’, stating that the expansion of McDonald's or McDonaldization is a result of globalization. Ritzer warns about the negative influence it can have on local cultures. According to Dr. Yusuf Örnek another side of Americanization is that almost 50 % of the world’s cultural industries are located in the United States of America as well as 85% of movies seen in the world are made in Hollywood. Some researches as Buckingham, D. (2007) point out that children are mostly impacted by Americanization as their personal identity is not strong enough. Kolawole Owolaby declares that American culture is their chosen culture of the future. Buckingham names it a global ‘children’s culture’ and states that it cuts across national …show more content…

La Spada (2010) debates that globalization can be a process, which opens minds to new ideas and experiences, and strengthens the communication among different cultures and brings them to a greater capacity of reciprocal understanding. La Spada is supported by other researches. Weinstein emphasises that the presence of a common language has a positive side to the strengthening of relations between people using different indegenous languages.. (3) Ginsburg ( 2002) claims that language, customs and culture may be protected by modern technologies. by providing an easy access to anyone who is interested in them. According to Ginsburg mass media does not destroy, but serves to restore and preserve indigenous cultures by promoting and avvertising them.