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onnected global media and
communications flows.
6. This 2lst-century global condition is unprecedented, for while capitalism
has been an international system since its inception, it is only now that
global networks of technology and communication enable it to function as
a fully integrated global system.
7. Globalization can lead to a 'race to the bottom', where 'capital will
increasingly be able to play off workers, con~munitiesa nd nations against
one another' (Crotty et al., 1998, p. 118).
The empirical validity of these claims, and their relationship to trends in
global media, will be assessed in more detail in the remainder of this book. At
this stage, it is important to note that the core political-economic claims associated
with these arguments have been disputed, by both those whom Held
and McGrew (2002, pp. 3-5) describe as globalizntiort sceptics, but also by
those who agree with aspects of the strong globalization argument, but question
the empirical validity of some of the claims that underpin it. Aspects of
these arguments that relate to global culture and subjective identity will be
addressed in more detail in Chapter 5.
First, the claim that markets are increasingly global and are dominated by
TNCs, and that corporations operate on an increasingly global scale, has been
disputed. The detail of these debates will be addressed in Chapter 3. At the
same time, economic geographers have strongly contested the claim that
TNCs have risen to such a level of pre-eminence that they have flattened the
complex terrain of working in different national economies, and that the
expansionary dynamic of TNCs has been such as to overwhelm points of
distinction between national economies. AS Dicken (2003a) has pointed out,
using the UNCTAD trarrsrlatiorrnlity irldex (TNI - to be discussed in detail in
Chapter 3), the degree of transnationality of the world's 100 largest nonfinancial
TNCs increased from 51.6 per cent in 1993 to 52.6 per cent in 1999.
This is not a significant shift in the scale of global operations of these largest
corporations - who would be expected to be at the forefront of globalization
- and it indicates that, on average, most of the world's largest non-financial
TNCs continued to undertake 40-50 per cent of their activities in their 'home'
country, with only 16 companies undertaking more than 75 per cent of their
activities outside of their country of origin (Dicken, 20033, pp. 30-1). In other
Supplied by The British Library - "The world's knowledge" I
60 Understanding Global Media
words, the majority tend to be national corporations with international operations,
rather than truly transnational ~ o r ~ o r a t i o n s . ~
Second, it has been argued, from the perspectives of business management,
economic geography and econon~icso ciology, that TNCs have not been able
to efface the significance of their home environment in how they structure
their international operations, and that international expansion invariably
involves significant modifications to their general organizational culture
(Hofstede, 1980; Doremus et al., 1998; Dicken, 2003a; Gertler, 2003a; Clegg
et al., 2005). The available evidence (Dorernus et al., 1998) indicates that
there is not a growing 'convergence' in their institutional and policy environments
as a result of globalization, and that national differences i