GLOBAL MEDIA CULTURE: UNDER THE SCOPE OF THE PROMISE OF MODERNITY

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A Thesis Proposal

Submitted to: Mrs. Anita F. Alisaca

Rogationist Seminary College-Cebu

Punta Princesa, Cebu City

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In Partial Fulfillment of the

Requirements for the Subject

Contemporary World

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By:

Sem. Barry P. Cutaran

THE PROBLEM AND ITS SETTING

1.1 Rationale

Nowadays, major changes are taking place in the information and communications media as a

result of new technological forms being delivered to us. Seem implicitly take this view when they write

about our senses of space and place are being significantly reconfigured. They are exemplifying the ‘new

communications geography’ constituted by global networks and information flow which result in

proliferated crisis of the national sphere.

The changes described are effects of an ongoing process called globalization which we are all

aware of as nowadays it is one of the main buzzwords. Moreover awareness extends to the fact that we

are living in times of growing cultural globalism where global media has a significant impact on our lives.

Therefore the aim of this paper is to discuss the relationship between global media and its impact on

national identity and culture.

Through Western domination there is a homogenization and ‘sameness’ forming across the

world. Global culture is being shaped by international entertainment conglomerates and for that reason

becomes standardized. A discussion in the first part of the paper as a result will be formed around this

topic. In contrast, the second part of the analysis will focus on the works of other writers who believe that

we are living in the age of hybridized cultures, which borrow elements from each other but irremediably

remain distinct.
 For the purposes of this paper we must establish what is meant by terms identity and culture.

Identity will refer to portrayal ones’ hold for them and with which they identify, while culture should refer

to ‘a variety of practices which generate meanings’

As a result of these changes a global media sector was formed which made individuals all over the

world aware and able to gain knowledge about other countries. Media became a key and for many the

only one medium to discover the world. So as to say that it is the most pressing issue nowadays.

1.2 Statement of the Problem

This proposal aims to interpret the basic notion global media culture. Thus, the researcher

formulates some questions as guides for explaining the real essence of globalization in relation to global

media culture.

1 What are the principles, laws, and probations that interpret the global media culture?

2 What is the Promise of Modernity?

3 Global Media Culture under the scope of the promise of modernity.

The researcher makes this study in order for him to reach his goal that is to integrate and

understand the Global Media culture in the light of the promise of modernity

The researcher also believes that this study is a useful guide for students of philosophy,

sociology and law individuals who are interested about modern socio-economic issues. And also, to

achieve comprehensive understanding on the promise of modernity. Thus, this research manifests the

rich and vast idea of the author Jurgen Habermas philosophy in answering and solving the current

global media culture issues today. And lastly this study is an eye opener to everyone who will read

this because of its uniqueness in understanding and seeing a new way on how do we approach certain

issues and problem through consensus decision and dialogue.

Lastly, this study will serve as a reference for the future researchers who wish to undergo similar or

related study. Thus, this research will be beneficial to the government, students, teachers, and workers.

That will continue and invest their time to tackle this issues.

1.4 Scope and Limitation

The study is primarily focus only on integrating the common understanding on global media

culture under the scope of modernity and its communicative principles the researcher will utilize

foreign books and magazine specifically on the file and commentary books. It will utilize all the

existing books about the promise of modernity so as to illumine the hidden thoughts and promises that

our modernity brings.

Global media culture- The mass communication on a global level, allowing people across the

world to share and access the same information.”

Modernity- The self-definition of a generation about its own technological innovation,

governance, and socioeconomics.

Global Free Trade- is a trade policy that does not restrict imports or exports; it can also be

understood as the free market idea applied to international trade.

1.5 Research Methodology

contradictions points of Global media culture in the light of Jurgen Habermas book on modernity. The

researcher will utilize some of its relevant and available book in the library, PDF books and online article

as the main sources of gathering of data and information for the accomplishment of this study.
 Chapter 2

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

2. 1 Review of Related Literature

The researcher studied and examined the works of Jürgen Habermas, basically on his theory of

modernity and the global media culture as well. In line with this study, the researcher will also deal with

the different books and references that are related to this study. After looking and analyzing Jürgen

Habermas modernity and getting the main point of the two variables. It is necessary also to scan some of

its related essays and articles for the benefit of the study and also to have a decisive discussion of the said

study.

James Gordon Finlayson, Habermas: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford University, 2005

This book will help the researcher to give a clear and readable overview of the philosophical work

of Jürgen Habermas, the most influential German philosopher alive today, who has commented widely on

subjects such as Marxism, the importance and effectiveness of communication, the reunification of

Germany, and the European Union. Gordon Finlayson provides readers with a clear and readable overview

of Habermas forbiddingly complex philosophy.

Richard Kearney, 20th Century Continental Philosophy, Routledge Printing Press, 2007

This book will guide the researcher to the different thoughts that sprouted in the 20th century

continental philosophy where Habermas was influenced by 18th and 19th century philosophers. A final

chapter on postmodernism highlights the manner in which so many concerns of continental thought
culminate in a radical anti-foundationalism. It also includes a glossary of technical terms and a

chronological table of philosophical, scientific and other cultural events.

Drew Berry, Revisiting the Frankfurt School: On Media and Social Theory, Oxford 2000

This book will help the researcher to understand Habermas full conception of the public sphere

through the lens of the Frankfurt Scholar. This book expands the understanding of the researcher by

addressing the writings of intellectuals who were either members of the school, or were closely associated

with it, but often neglected. It thus brings together the latest research of an international team of experts

to examine the work of figures such as the social psychologist Erich Fromm, the philosophy of Siegfried

Kracauer, the writer on media and communication Leo Lowenthal, introducing Hans Magnus Enzenberger

to the debate, whilst also shedding new light on the work of Max Horkheimer, Theodor Adorno, Herbert

Marcuse, Walter Benjamin and Jürgen Habermas. A critical re-assessment of the contributions of the

Frankfurt School and its associates to cultural, media and communication studies, as well as to our modern

understanding of new media technology and debate within the public sphere, this book will appeal to those

with interests in sociology, philosophy, social psychology, social theory, media and communication, and

cultural studies.

Kathleen M. Higgins & Robert C. Solomon, History of German Idealism, Cambridge 1995

This book will serve as the starting figure where it will be stated Habermas Complex initiation of

the public sphere including its influence in the field of German philosophy. The enormity of the revolution

set off in philosophy by Immanuel Kant was comparable, by Kant's own estimation, with the Copernican

Revolution that ended the Middle Ages. The movement he set in motion, the fast-moving and often

cantankerous dialectic of `German Idealism,' inspired some of the most creative philosophers in modern

times, including G.W.F Hegel and Arthur Schopenhauer as well as those who reacted against Kant--Marx
and Kierkegaard. This book traces the emergence of German Idealism from Kant and his predecessors

through the first half of the nineteenth century, ending with the irrationalism of Kierkegaard.

Stephen Coleman and Karen Ross, the Media and the Public Sphere, Oxford 1974

This Literature will help the researcher to further understand how media important in public

opinion and communication. The author sets that communication in the public interest are accessible and

definitive treatments of subjects central to understanding communication and intersections to the wider

world: they will widen understanding, encourage discussion and illuminate the importance of

communicating about issues that affect people’s lives.

David Martin Jones, ASEAN and East ASEAN intercontinental relationship, 2012

This book questions this claim and reveals instead uncertainty and incoherence at the heart of

ASEAN, the region's foremost institution. The authors provide a systematic critique of ASEAN's

evolution and institutional development, as well as a unified understanding of the international relations

and political economy of ASEAN and the Asia-Pacific. It is the first study to provide a skeptical analysis

of international relations orthodoxies regarding regionalization and institutionalism, and is based on wide-

ranging and rigorous research. Students of international relations, the Asia-Pacific, Southeast Asia,

regional studies, international history and security and defense studies will find this book of great interest,

as will scholars, policy makers and economic forecasters with an interest in long-term Asia-Pacific trends.
Ingrid Volkmer, THE GLOBAL PUBLIC SPHERE: Public communication in the age of reflective

interdependence, Cambridge, 2012

This book challenges our modern way of thinking and communicating in the reflective era today. It

will help the researcher to relate and exploit the current issues and flaws of Habermas theory of public

sphere with its relevance in reconstructing a national public sphere where democracy is the central focus

of the society. This construction helps to understand the new processes of legitimacy at the beginning of

the 21st century in which the traditional conception of a ‘public’ and its role as a legitimizing force are

being challenged and transformed. The book unfolds this key phenomenon of global deliberate

interconnectedness as a discursive and negotiated dimension within ‘reflective’ globalization,

continuously constituting, maintaining and refining the ‘life’ of the global public and conceptualizes a

global public sphere.

John Girling, Corruption, Capitalism and Democracy, 2002

This book will help the researcher to full grasp the nature of modern way corruption. The author

demonstrates that corruption does not disappear as countries develop and modernize. Instead corruption

takes on a new form. For corruption is symptomatic of a deeper problem: the corrosive system in which

politicians mediate the often-contradictory claims of capitalism and democracy. It describes not only how

such corruption is damaging to democracy and its institutions, but also how it is checked by the ideal of

citizenship expressed by the civil society.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY AND THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

3.1 Research Respondents

The total number of respondents in this study will be 20 utility personnel. They are only

seminarians and youth workers, likewise, the ages of the respondents are 15-25 years old. They are from

Barangay Buhisan and Barangay Quiot, Cebu City. Moreover, the respondents of this study are male and

female students. Thus, the respondents are essential in this research proposal.

3.2 Research Environment

The data from this study will be gathered from the utility personnel of the Rogationist Seminary

Cebu. Thus, they are ask to present their opinions, in order for this research to become attainable and

feasible to the students and seminarians. Henceforth, the respondents are recognized and respected in their

views and opinions about global media culture. Lastly, they are requested to present their honest and

sincerest plea about their current situation on how they react and apprehend the current trend in our media

culture.

3.3 Research Instrument

Interviews range from highly structures, where specific questions and the order in which they are

asked are determined ahead of time. Thus, the instrument that will be used in this research proposal is

survey questionnaire. A survey questionnaire is a set of questions used in a survey. This survey
questionnaire is a type of data gathering method that is utilized to collect, analyze and interpret the

different views of a group of people from a particular population.

3.4 Research Procedure

3.4.1 Gathering of Data

Survey questionnaires will be given to 20 utility 10 seminarians and 10 students of Rogationist

Seminary Cebu and Rogate Youth Students. They will be given instructions in answering the instrument.

Moreover, the content of the survey questionnaires are simplified in order for the respondents to answer

the survey questions clearly and legibly. Therefore, the survey questionnaires are disseminated in order to

collate vivid ideas from the respondents.

3.4.2 Treatment of Data

Data gathered from the survey will be subjected to a qualitative analysis. Basic interpretive

qualitative study exemplifies all the characteristics of qualitative research. Likewise, data are inductively

collected through interviews, observations, or document analysis. These data inductively analyzed to

identify the recurring patterns that cut across the data. Henceforth, data gathered from the survey will be

subjected to a qualitative data analysis, specifically it will use the narrative analysis.

3.5 Theoretical Framework

the issue of modernity is to situate it in terms of other concepts like modernization, modernism and

postmodernism. Generally the concept of modernity is usually crystallized around the development of
rationality in the modern European period which is supposedly individualistic, reflective, and

multidimensional in trying to question every aspect of our lives.

For Habermas, modernity is a realization of communicative rationality which makes

explicit the implicit communicative potential of modern societies. Thus modernity differs from

modernization, which broadly refers to how rationality was interpreted in science and technology

signifying material achievements in the modern period. Today, as Habermas sees it, Weber’s

rationalization appears under a theme of ‘modernization’.

Accordingly, modernization supposedly consists of various ideals affirming others which

are related to ideas like increase in accumulated wealth, productivity, mobilization of resources,

emergence of central administration, urbanization, secularization, increase in rights and participation in

government, and so on. Habermas contends that the theory of modernization changes Weber’s occidental

rationalization and abandonment of religious world-views in two senses.

On the one hand, seeing modernity as a universal model and criteria against which

developments of societies will be assessed. On the other, abandoning accounts of the rationalization of

the life world so that modernity and rationality will be uncoupled Habermas also insisted in distinguishing

modernity from modernism which criticizes the exaggerated and destructive facets of modern rationality

and instead tries to bring the aesthetic dimension into focus. In The Philosophical Discourse of Modernity,

Habermas clearly states that he is trying to discuss modernity from a philosophical and

not an aesthetic angle. Here, he distinguishes modernity from modernism, which is a certain movement in

art and literature that could be seen as a critique of modernity. Modernism amongst other things advocated

new and unusual ideas in art and literature, new conceptions of time, limitations of modern culture,
 Finally Habermas’s modernity stands contrarily to postmodernism which envisages an

abandonment of modern rationality in favor of a heterogeneous, diverse approach that addresses the

complexity of human life. For Habermas, one could identify two facets of postmodernism. A

‘neoconservative’ one, which doubts the process of rationalization that is said to have taken place in the

West and also, an ‘anarchist’ one which admits that modernity is rationalization but asserts that reason

with the collapse of modernity is manifesting itself as repressive and instrumental (Habermas, 1987).

Thus, modernity could be seen in how it defends an emancipatory ideal of rationality which differs from

modernization, modernism and postmodernism.

Name: Age: Sex:

Address:

Contact Number:

Instruction: Answer the following questions honestly. Kindly choose the best answer of your choice

among the choices given. Consequently, put a check ( ) on the blank provided after the choices.

A. Yes B. No C. Maybe D. Not at All

1. Are you a member of multiple social networking sites? ______ ______ ______ ______

2. Do you visit your social networking sites with?

No goal or specific purpose in mind? ______ ______ ______ ______

3. Are you usually surprised by how much time you

Spend on a social networking site?

______ ______ ______ ______

4. Have you ever said no to an activity with your family or friends?

Because of social networking sites? ______ ______ ______ ______

5. Have you ever ignored a responsibility like homework or chores?

Because of social networking sites? ______ ______ ______ ______

6. Do you ever stay up late or get up early to spend more

Time on social networking sites? ______ ______ ______ ______

Sites from family or friends?

______ ______ ______ ______

A. Yes B. No C. Maybe D. Not at All

8. Have you ever used social networking sites when a parent or teacher has told you not to?

______ ______ ______ ______

9. Do you prefer to interact with people?

On social networking sites rather than face to face?

______ ______ ______ ______

10 Has anyone ever commented on how much?

Time you spend on social networking sites?

______ ______ ______ ______

11. Do you have more friends on your social?

Networking sites than you do in your real life?

______ ______ ______ ______

12. Do you become frustrated or angry when a

Social networking site goes down or is unavailable ______ ______ ______ ______
 I declare under the oath that this survey questionnaire has been accomplished in good faith, verified

by me and to the best of my knowledge and belief, is a true, correct, and complete understanding pursuant

to the instruction of this survey questionnaire.

I am also fully aware that when I violate any of the rules and regulations of this survey

questionnaire, I will be disqualified and automatically nullified.

____________________

Signature of Respondent
BIBLIOGRAPHY:

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______________Bendel, O. J. (1997). Symbolism of the Public Sphere. London, Britain:

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Oxford University Press.

______________Freistein, K. (07, October 2014). The Promises of the ASEAN charter. A Living

Document , 37-41.

______________Holub, R. C. (1991). Jurgen Habermas: Critic in the Public Sphere. London, UK

: Routledge Press.

______________Jones, D. M. (July 2008). Security and Democracy: The ASEAN charter and the

DIemmas of Regionalism in South-East Asia. Royal Institute of International

Affairs, 735-756.

______________Kearney, R. (2005). 20th century continental philosophy. New York City:

Routledge Printing Press Inc.

______________Pettit, R. G. (1997). Contemporary Political Philosophy: An Anthology. Vienna,

Austria: Blackwell Publishing.

______________Regh, W. (1996). Jurgen Habermas, Between Facts and Norms: Contributions to

a Discourse of Theory of Law and Democracy,. New Baskerville: MIT Press Inc.
______________Rosarion Manalo, W. W. (2009). The Making Of the ASEAN. Singapore : World

Scientific Co. PLt. Td.

_______________Seng, L. T. (2012). ASEAN Charters Communicative Principles. Report On

ASEAN, 21-22.

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Cambridge Printing Press.

_______________Stephen Coleman & Karen Cross. (1975). The Public Sphere: "Them and Us ".

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_______________ www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/08/7-challenges-to-business-in-the-

ASEAN-region-and-how-to-solve-them.