Globalisation: taking it further

1) Why was Google Glass controversial?
Google glass was controversial because it breached certain privacy concerns such as people potentially being filmed in public without consent. Moreover, Google will be able to see what the wearer sees, and commentary around this highlights some of the negative consequences this may bring. This again breaches many privacy concerns people may have.

2) What are the positive elements to Globalisation that the article highlights?
 Glass will cause large changes, and attract a lot of attention from consumers around the world. This new and revolutionary way of accessing the internet. Moreover, google 'loom' initiative means they are launching internet balloons in remote places across the world to give people access to the internet for the first time.

3) What are potential negatives to Globalisation?
Other companies will be able to produce similar things and release it at a much cheaper price than google for instance the Japanese wireless phone network company NTT DoCoMO have released their own version called the 'intelligent glass' which would cause the price of the google glass to come down quite significantly. However, this further limits the amount of power smaller companies have as larger companies like google continue to dominate the global markets.

4) What is a techno-panic? How does it link to moral panics?
A techno panic is a moral panic that centres around fears regarding specific contemporary technology.

5) What is your opinion on the privacy debate and major corporations being able to access large quantities of personal data
I believe that major companies having the ability to access massive quantities of private information may be a breach of privacy, the maximum amount of this takes place while not the users acknowledgement. It can be argued that google glass is simply another chance to require advantage of this as a helpful promoting tool which can solely still herald wealth to the main companies that take up most of the market.


1) Who coined the phrase 'a global village' and what multinational companies illustrate this?
The phrase "global village" was coined by McLuhan.A multinational company that illustrates this is Unilever, which has subsidiaries in many countries and its many brands are known across the world. 

2) What role does Slavoj Zizek suggest the media plays in global capitalism? How can you link this to our previous work on Marxism and Hegemony? 

Zizek highlights that businesses are profit driven and the media are a tool used to justify this and make it seem moral to the people as long as they gain some sort of benefit from it.

3) What does 'capitalism with a conscience' mean? 
This means the profit driven western multinational companies are doing something other than make money for themselves for example Kenco coffee company aids local people by getting them out of gangs and into coffee growing.

4) What is the (PRODUCT) RED campaign? 
The red campaign is an attempt to bring companies together to raise awareness and money for AIDS in Africa. Companies invlolved include starbucks and nike which have replaces their normal logi and replaced it with a red one and a certain percentage of revenue taken from items with the red logo went to aids charities in Africa.