It is easy to see how new media technologies have allowed people to communicate on a global scale. Seventy-two per cent of homes in Australia in 2002 had the internet (Nielsen, 2002) and 99 per cent of Queensland households have one or more telephones (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2002), permitting communication with anyone with access to the same facilities.
Global communication has far-reaching implications for business methods, design and manufacturing techniques and the way individuals interact, travel, entertain themselves, obtain information and communicate. (Saxby, 1990)
Wiseman describes the world, at this present time, as one where
Wiseman’s statement indicates with accuracy the influence that global communication has on economical, political, social, cultural and environmental relationships within and beyond Australia.
Daily life is often affected by the actions of other countries (Grieg, 2000), from places such as Paris, London, Milan, New York or even through the internet in cyberspace. Global communication reaches far and wide and in doing so many kinds of relationships occur globally. (Cairncross, 2001)
Romances occur on the internet without physical or visual contact. (Wiseman, 1998) International trade occurs every minute, an example being Ebay who connects people from Argentina, Austria, Australia, Belgium, just to name a few (Ebay, 2004). People communicate with friends and relatives via technologies. There is a sense of being close connection to distant people and places, yet also a sense of isolation. (Wiseman, 1998)
In the last decade there has emerged a new kind of global community, one that has increasingly become a force in international relations. (Garson, 1995) With the advent of the fax machine, telephones, international publications, and computers, personal and professional relationships can be maintained irrespective of time and place. Communication relationships are no longer restricted to place, but are distributed through space.
The global community has the opportunity to know more than before as the media increasingly has the ability to provides people with a great deal of second hand knowledge about not only the world at large but also the society we live in. (Greig, 2000)
The decentralisation of technologies, commercialisation and control, mean that through computers, fax-machines, amateur radio, packet data satellites, VCRs, video cameras, and the like, people are able to communicate without the control of government and major transnational corporations. (Wiseman, 1998)
They are decentralised in the sense that they democratise information flow, break down hierarchies of power and make communication from top to bottom just as easy as from horizon to horizon. (Frederick, 1993)
Despite some limitations, such as China's blocking of the internet sites like google and alta vista, technology reaches past these limitations. An example of this is The outbreak of SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) in early 2003.
Initially, the Chinese government announced containment of the SARS virus and attempted to manage news about it. This attempt failed, as the virus was communicated to neighbouring countries. (Reshaping World Communications, 2004)
Observers think that corporations and technology advancements, not governments, will shape the future internet era. Of central interest are global news organizations whose content is altering to allow for local content, rather than global, homogenous news. (Reshaping World Communications, 2004)
Belinda Dickson 15:54, 28 Oct 2004 (EST)
