IP Communication Webinar Series #5: The Annual Globalization Workshop “The Future Globalization” (2)
On July 23, 2020, International Program of Communication Science Universitas Islam Indonesia (UII) and Uniicoms TV invited Professor Chen and Dr. Masduki in The Annual Globalization Workshop (AGW) with the theme “The Future Globalization.” This workshop is the inaugural workshop program organized by the International Program of Communication UII. This writing is the second writing of Fitriana Ramadhany, our intersnship student, based on her reportage. This is her follow-up article.
“But globalization is not only about economic issues,” he said. Refer to the paper from Christian Fuchs, a younger sociologist from the UK, who wrote about ‘corona virus capitalism’ as a term for daily life and communication during the pandemic. Masduki explained that through that paper, Fuchs wrote about the huge impact of Covid-19 more than the economic impact and the health impact. He said that Covid-19 impact according to Fuchs was about questioning global solidarity or socialism among us without any concern of identity.
Globalization at this time come in the form of consumption patterns such as consuming Coca Cola, Starbucks, and McDonald’s. Dr. Masduki said that this consumption pattern was criticized by Theodore Adorno who criticized the commodified and massive culture toward a single-global product-taste. This is a kind of communication massification from the US to the rest of the world which shows how far globalization has progressed.
In the next explanation, Dr. Masduki questions a lot about how globalization works during the pandemic, new normal period, or after the pandemic. He also mentioned one of the effects of Covid-19 about culinary habits. If before the pandemic public consumption was on international branded culinary. During the pandemic and work from home, culinary habits have not changed and consumerism has increased. Especially consumerism on global brands and products consumed by the public to stay at home. This is what he calls a condition that places people into local members by staying at home, while forcing people to become global consumers.
“Back to my question in the first slide, the world is temporary closed but how about globalization? So, my answer is that globalization still exist. But in the new way and new approach,” he said. He explained that indirectly the pandemic had empowered the established global ICT brands like Google Meet, Zoom, and Tik Tok. Furthermore, he concluded that Covid-19 was only a distraction about the problem of globalization and globalization cannot be considered complete.
At the end of his presentation, he explained that the bad side of Covid-19 was distract society and endangers health. But on the other hand, Covid-19 also sends a good massage to respect the family and to respect a local brand of communication. He also gave advice to audiences before closing his presentation that to be a critical person needed a variety of small initiatives that had a big impact. Such as minimizing expenditure, and minimizing the use of global branded products by paying more attention to local brands.
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Author and Reporter: Fitriana Ramadhany, Student internship of Department of Communication Science, UII. Batch 2016
Editor: A. Pambudi W
