CASE STUDY APPLYING THE
DISCUSSIONS ON
GLOBALIZATION
Name Elijah Chua
Section
DATE TODAY 5/30/2024
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Answer the following questions:
1.What perspectives does the documentary offer on the role of technology giants in
globalization?
Overall, the documentary paints these tech companies as powerful global giants that
need to be kept in check by government and the people. It highlights how these
companies have taken over rural areas, manipulated economic markets, caused social
divide, and mistreated partners all in a grand scheme of maintaining their power that is
now growing to be more and more challenging for those who supposedly should have
the power to regulate them, such as the government.
In Silicon Valley and Prineville for example, what were once ordinary towns with regular
class people— has now been colonized by giant tech companies that have alienated the
people by drawing in more and more tech, further making that area more exclusive for
the wealthy. However, the presence of these companies provide these areas with
industry, and while it may be rejected by the people, it can very well put these
companies in favor of politicians.
The documentary also focuses on the individual CEOs of these companies, painting Jeff
Bezos, head of Amazon, as an ignorant bourgeoise who does not care for his company
to have empathy with the thousands of partners that they mistreat. Companies such as
Google and Facebook are stated to be partaking in surveillance capitalism and are
monopolistic in nature with how they use the data they gather to influence society,
economy, and politics.
Ultimately, its shown that the heads of these companies like CEO Mark Zuckerberg acts
without remorse as his company continues to prioritize profit over a society dividing
itself over politics and misinformation that they themselves allow to be peddled. Google
and Facebook have already been pursued by congress in an effort to break down the
company and lessen their power, but the documentary highlights that these companies
have enough lobbyists, political influence, and overall resources to keep themselves in
power.
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2.In what dimensions does the documentary analyze the influence of Google,
Facebook, and Amazon on global affairs?
The documentary mainly focuses on these companies in the Technological, Economic,
and Political dimensions. Obviously, these are companies that provide tech products
and tech-related services— they bring with them industry and the power to connect
people with products and other people. However, this has allowed them to become
giants that are so economically and socially relevant and powerful, that they naturally
have power in political spheres as well.
With companies such as Facebook’s data driven surveillance capitalism and advertising,
they have used this asset to indirectly divide societies with the allowance of
misinformation. This, along with other cases of mistrust with their partners, has
extended the government’s spotlight on these companies beyond their original
American borders. Given that, these companies are so big that governments struggle to
regulate them.
3. What approaches to globalization are highlighted in the documentary?
The main approach to globalization highlighted in the documentary is the Global
Capitalist model. On paper, the existence of these tech companies today can be seen as
the peak manifestation of these models— companies that were once scrappy and
founded to connect people on a small scale now grew into the faces of capitalism and
dominance over culture, the economy, and even politics. This is because these
companies leverage the power that they have over global systems.
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