Globalization Theory, Media-Centrism and Neoliberalism: A Critique of Recent Intellectual Trends

Abstract

This article develops a critique of academic globalization theory from the viewpoint of media and communications. First, it discusses the overall importance of media and communications for the core argument of globalization theory, namely that the contemporary period has witnessed a dramatic shift in the spatio-temporal constitution of society. This is followed by a reconstruction and critique of such a line of reasoning in the work of two notable globalization theorists, Manuel Castells and Arjun Appadurai. It is argued that their positions are founded on an overtly media-centric and unhistorical treatment of globalization that lacks a critical materialist analysis of how the global media sphere has developed in the recent decades. It is further argued that such positions can be understood in the context of the rise of neoliberalism that overlaps with the development of globalization theory.