What does this has to do with globalization, you might ask? Well, I would like to explain using the illustration of a recent Rugby Union highly-anticipated match that has brought cultural, social and media impacts on Australian soil. It is the match of British & Irish Lions vs. Australian Wallabies. It was the match we've all been waiting for. With every four years, the nations of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland choose their best players and combine them into one team, hence, the inception of British & Irish Lions.
Their 2013 tour to Australia consists of three test-matches, with each test-match being held in major Australian cities (Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney) respectively. What interests me the most, is the fact that with every test-match, the atmosphere has always been favoured to British & Irish Lions, even though it's being held in Australia. The first two test-matches, the overall attendance were no more than 56,000. The last test-match was 83,000. With almost every single living soul in the stadium are wearing Red (to support the Lions) and synchronised chants that matches the signature symbol of the Lions, it's almost as if making the Australian Wallabies team feel like a "home-away-from-home". This automatically linked to both Ethnoscapes and Mediascapes as it made a huge impact visually and also the transnational distribution of correlated people.
With a reference to Thompson ( Rantanen, 2005 ), he suggests that "globalization is a process in which worldwide economic, political, cultural and social relations have become increasingly mediated across time and space". Obviously, this is connected to Cultural Flows as how different cultures and different social backgrounds have been somehow interconnected in another country based on their ideas of sport and post-modernism. With the fact that Lions supporters and squad travel 15,000km and still be able to somehow overpower and overwhelm the Australian spirit, that once again proves how globalization has taken major impact in the sport industry.
This is a short clip of over 83,000 souls chanting the Lions.
Photo Source:
http://tourism.atdw.com.au/Multimedia/Original__9407547_WATC_2013_British__Irish_Lions_Tour_Emirates_Western_Force_v_British__Irish_Lions_LOGO.jpg
References:
Rantanen, T (2005), "Theorizing media and globalization", Media and globalization 2005, Sage Publications, London, pp. 1-18.
