Blog Assignment 2: Mediation and Globalization

In Mazarella’s article “Culture, globalization, mediation” we see that there is an on going argument, especially in anthropology, that globalization studies are not the way of our future. He also discusses the divide of opinion on whether mediation helps or hinders our social lives. He argues both for the positive, that globalization, along with mediation processes, aids our social lives and are at the foundation of them to begin with (Mazzarella, 2004).
Mazzarella is certainly interested in processes of mediation in ethnography. He says that culture itself is an effect of social processes of mediation, and that we can find out more about cultures in ethnographic fieldwork by using mediation (Mazzarella, 2004). He believes that mediation creates new concepts in social life and also, that media is a foundation of social life now a days. Mazzarella writes that mediation in ethnographic fieldwork can help us separate the “virtual and actual”, what is real and happening now and what is has potential in happening (Mazzarella, 2004: 348). There is no speculation in the use of mediation in ethnography, the ethnographer finds out for himself or herself what is real and what is not. He is also interested in cross cultural practices of mediation. We can construct our own cultures by looking at other cultures through mediation (Mazzarella, 2004).
Globalization affects our cultural understandings, as well as other cultures, through processes of mediation by creating a sense of separation that people do not seem to want. Mediation can be seen as a negative, as it creates “distance, intervention, and displacement” instead of a unity that people want to feel (Mazzarella, 2004: 348). In a sense, globalization has disavowed mediation, as it has made us want to separate ourselves from the realities we discovered when globalization arose. Globalization revealed political and conceptual problems in what we see as “culture”. And this has made us see the mediated quality of culture; which seems to have become a very negative concept, although Mazzarella is trying to argue the contrary (Mazzarella, 2004). But I find this all struggling, as globalization to many is thought of as a bad thing, one cultural idea is boring and unfair to those who do not want to conform to the globalized ideal. One of his main arguments is that our cultural politics of globalization are extremely contradictory; to say that mediation is the most important part of out lives, but then say that it is ruining them as well (Mazzarella, 2004). Globalization can help us understand other cultures through mediation by showing both sides of the story, we do not assume what is going on, we find out the facts and then make sure all have a grip on what is truly going on.
Mazzarella points out that there is no definitive answer, mediation processes can be both positive and negative, but they help aid in understanding the worlds cultures, our own and of others. Globalization has made it easier to understand the world’s cultures as well, as we have created a global culture in the process.