Leonardo to the Internet: Technology and Culture from the Renaissance to the Present by Thomas J. Misa

Author:Thomas J. Misa
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
Published: 2022-03-15T00:00:00+00:00

While mindful of convergence, I believe there is substantial evidence for a contrary hypothesis, let’s say “persisting diversity.” The fervently pro-globalization Economist magazine knocked down the “convergence” hypothesis by citing strong evidence of persisting cultural diversity in mass media. In most countries during the 1990s, American television programming filled in the gaps, but the top-rated shows were local productions. In South Africa the most-watched show was Generations, a locally produced multiracial soap opera; in France, Julie Lescaut, a French police series; and in Brazil, O Clone, a drama produced by TV Globo. For its part MTV, which once boasted “one world, one image, one channel,” created diverse productions across thirty-five different channels (fifteen in Europe alone) in response to local tastes and languages. Even McDonald’s, a symbol of globalization, was more complex than it might appear. McDonald’s is best understood as a case of active appropriation by local cultures of a “global” phenomenon. The internet is another construct that appears to be the same across the world only so long as you don’t look closely at European electronic commerce or China’s burgeoning social media.5

“Persisting diversity” is also consistent with earlier eras. As we saw in chapters 3 and 5, the paths taken by countries during the first and second industrial revolutions varied according to the countries’ political and institutional structures, social and cultural preferences, and the availability of raw materials. It is worth adding here that Japan successfully industrialized and modernized during the twentieth century, but it did not become “Western,” as is attested by the many distinctive political, industrial, and financial structures and practices in Japan that to this day baffle visiting Westerners. A case in point is Japan’s singular affection, through today, for the paper-based fax machine.6 This chapter first surveys the origins of the global economy and then turns to case studies of the facsimile machine, McDonald’s, and the internet.

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