Marshall McLuhan, the prominent Canadian theorist of media, once compared the world to the global village. The primary idea behind this comparison is that the dissemination of media technologies made the world immensely interconnected. In other words, the global village could be regarded as a metaphor for the concept of globalization. However, the notion of globalization is much broader and more general because it is not limited to the effects of media technologies.
The rapid development of digital media and communication technologies reduces the distance between people. For example, a person in Canada could easily talk to a person in Australia via Facebook or Zoom and receive responses quickly without waiting several months for an answer and spending a lot of money. Besides, media technologies reduce travel costs because they allow the spread of information on people’s lives in other countries. The same could be said about international trade. Hence, media technologies reduce uncertainty and assist businesspeople in entering foreign markets and shaping efficient supply and value-added chains.
It should also be noted that McLuhan’s idea of a global village implies that the interconnectedness of people through the consumption of the same content all over the world has led to the convergence of their views. To some extent, westernization could be regarded as a manifestation of McLuhan’s global village. Overall, the notion of the village was chosen by McLuhan to illustrate his idea because it is a place where all dwellers know each other and where news spread quickly. This way, even though the world is huge and people speak different languages and have diverse worldviews, they still become closely linked to each other with the help of media technologies.