To begin this essay the common perceptions of globalization and culture will be put forward to clearly define that which is the topic at hand. Culture is as defined by many to generally consist of values, traditions and practices that occur within any given society. This also incorporates attitudes and common beliefs held by those within that society, which are almost always closely intertwined with that of tradition, religion being a very strong factor in many cases.
For Marx, globalization referred to the domination of capitalism, which has and continues to, play a leading role in the creation of a global culture. Sklair (1991) viewed globalization as being prevalent on three levels:.
1-economic.
2-political, and.
3-cultural-ideological.
Albrow (1990) suggests that .
'globalization refers to all those processes by which the peoples of the world are incorporated into a single, global society'. Globalization is a relativity new process, in terms of the existence of human societies, and one that is the topic of many debates in the context of politics, economics, right through to the state of the environment, although these and many other social issues and institutes are inextricably intertwined.
Next a brief analysis of the various interpretations of how the mass media influences the minds and attitudes of the public is what will be presented below. The first approach is titled the 'Hypodermic Syringe model', which is quite basic in its theory. This says whatever is portrayed in the media can be shown to have a direct effect on the behaviour of those who indulged in the media medium, in short it was proposed that people would mirror what they saw. Although this is true to an extent, it was assumed that audiences were passive receptors of the media, however this suggested that the media had enormous control, however this approach was proven not to be all incorporating.
The 'two step flow model' this theory highlights the opinion leaders that exist in almost all communities.