Most countries depend on other countries in one way or another.
Countries are connected through trade, communications, sport and events.
Australia is a multicultural country.
There are around 200 different nations on Earth.
We are all citizens of the world
Most countries depend on other countries in one way or another. Whether it is for food, financial support or trade, we are becoming more globally connected. It is difficult for a country to exist in isolation. When something happens in one part of the world, it can often affect what happens in other parts of the world.
Australia affects and, in turn, is affected by people and events in other countries. Through migration, trade, foreign aid and even sporting events, Australia is connected to the rest of the world.
Australia is a multicultural country; the population is made up of people from all over the planet. This in itself makes Australia globally connected.
A global village Did you know that there are about 200 different nations on Earth? Did you also know that there are approximately 6 billion people in the world? Every single person on our planet is a citizen of one of those nations, either because they were born there or they have immigrated and applied for citizenship. We are all citizens of our own country and also citizens of the world.
We have a responsibility to all the other people living on our planet. As global citizens, it is our job to do all we can to help each other and make our planet a safe and happy place to live.
Advancement in technology has meant that there have been many changes in the world's transport and communication systems. These changes have made it much easier to communicate and travel long distances. That is why the world is sometimes referred to as a global village.
Our everyday lives Rarely a day goes by that we are not affected in some way by something or someone from outside Australia. We are globally connected in many ways, even though we may not always realise it.
Let's look at a typical daily morning routine.
You wake up to the sound of your alarm clock (made in Taiwan). You throw off your sheets (made in Spain) and put some bread in the toaster (made in China) and spread some jam on it (imported from France), whilst sipping on a cup of tea (leaves grown in India and packaged in USA) from a cup (made in Singapore).
You haven't even finished your breakfast, and already you have been dependent on at least seven different countries.
You check your emails (computer made in Japan) watch a news item (television made in Korea) describing an earthquake in Pakistan, before putting on your cool new sport shoes (made in Bangladesh). Green Day (US band) play on the radio as you grab your jacket (made in New Zealand) and jump into Dad's car (made in Germany) and head off to school.
If you find all these places on a world map, you will notice that although many of them are a long way from Australia, they still have a big influence on our daily lives. This is because we are all globally connected.
Questions 1. Why is the world referred to as a global village or community? 2. What are our responsibilities as global citizens? 3. Why is it important to be connected to the rest of the world? Make a list of ways Australia is interconnected to the world.
Communication
In this chapter:
Australia is physically a long distance from the rest of the world.
How is Australia globally connected through communication?
Australia is now globally connected through modern technology.
We can send post by sea or air mail.
The invention of the telephone has given us the mobile phone, fax and video conferencing.
Australia is physically a great distance from the rest of the world. For this reason, Australia has benefitted from modern communications technology. In the past, the only way to communicate over long distances was by letter writing. Letters to and from Australia had to come by ship, which often took months. By the time the news in a letter arrived, it was already months old.
Today we have many methods of communication that are a lot quicker than those early letter-writing days. In some cases the communication is instant. We can talk to people overseas by telephone, fax, instant message or email. We can log on to the World Wide Web (the web) and instantly find information from around the globe. We can now even video conference with people on the other side of the world. These are just some of the advantages of modern communication technology. As well as these methods of communication, we also rely on communication through radio, television, newspapers and magazines.
Postal services Overseas mail and packages travel the same way that people do - by sea or by air. Air mail is a lot quicker, but it is also more expensive. Sea mail is much slower, but it is also cheaper. Sea mail is only for packages, not for letters. You have the choice of sea or air when you post your package at the post office. You can send up to 20kg to most countries. Air mail receives priority (very important) air dispatch from Australia and usually takes 3-10 days to arrive, depending on the country. If you want something to arrive quickly, then air mail is the best choice. If you want to send a package and don't really mind how long it takes, then the cheaper alternative of sea mail is a better option. Sea mail is the cheapest overseas delivery service for international parcels. Posting letters by mail has recently become outdated with the internet and smartphones quickly replacing actual letters. You can find out more about the decline in demand for the postal service in this news articles; http://www.forbes.com/sites/adamhartung/2011/12/06/why-the-postal-service-is-going-out-of-business/
Telephone The telephone was one of the first inventions that enabled people to talk to each other from a distance. Today, not only do we have the fixed telephone (or landline), but also fax machines, mobile phones and even video phones. It is amazing to think how we can be connected so instantly, all around the planet. So how does it work?
Mobile phones The mobile phone has really changed the way we stay in contact with the world. No longer just a business tool, mobile phones are now also a fashion item, coming in every size and colour imaginable. We can send a text message instantly, take a photo and send it overseas, or even have a conference call with a few of our friends at the same time. Mobile phones keep changing as technology evolves. The original mobiles were heavy, the size of a brick, and needed to be attached to huge batteries. Now they are as small as a matchbox, lightweight and provide us with so many services that we cannot live without. Before mobiles we would need to carry about a watch, an address book, a camera, a flashlight, a map, a radio, a calendar, letters, a pen and pigeon to send your messages, a photo album to show your friends your pictures and a thermometer to see if it was hot enough to go to the beach. Nowadays you can download an app for everything. Don't know a song, Shazam it. Want to listen to a song, YouTube it. Can't find a remote, there's even an app for that. Before, you would have been considered weird if you wrote stuff on your neighbours wall, now it's the norm. The 21st century and the technology that is has bought with it have revolutionised every aspect of our day to day life.
Mass media Mass media simply means a way of communicating to a lot of people. It is a very important part of our global connections and includes television, radio, newspapers and magazines. Every time we turn on the radio or the television and listen to or watch the news, we are connecting with places around the world. News that happens today will be on our televisions tonight. The rest of the world is in our living room at the click of a button. We are kept informed about what is happening in the rest of the world, without having to leave the comfort of our home.
Television Overseas television shows bring drama, music, sport and comedy right into our living room. Have you ever checked the television guide to see just how many of the shows we watch are made in another country? There is a certain amount of Australian programming that has to be shown on Australian TV. At the moment, 55% Australian content must be shown between 6am and midnight. Can you think of some of your favourite TV shows that are made somewhere else is the world?
Radio Radio is a form of media that can be listened to anywhere: at home, in the car, at the beach or in the park. It also links us globally with music and news. We can listen to new overseas bands, hear the latest Hollywood gossip, or stay in touch with what is happening on the other side of the world, whether it is the latest news or sports results. Before the TV. radio was one of the most reliable ways to keep in touch with what is happening around the world.
Newspapers and magazines Another area of the mass media is print media. This means any type of communication that is printed. Newspapers and magazines are a multimillion-dollar business. They give us the latest sport, news, reviews and stories from around the globe. Newspapers are printed daily or weekly, whilst magazines generally come out either weekly or monthly. Magazines are written for a target audience. This means if you are a surfer you will buy a surf magazine. If you like music, you will buy a music magazine. Magazines entertain and inform us. We can keep up with what is happening in the world of sport, fashion, music, lifestyle, computers, movies and many other specialised topics.
Computers Perhaps the biggest change to global communication has been the computer. Once the size of a room, some now the size of an ice block, computers have completely changed the way we communicate, not only on a local level, but on a global level as well. Without computers, there would be no internet. There would be no email. There would be no world wide web to go searching for the latest download or information on just about anything imaginable. Ebay would not exist without the internet, and neither would Yahoo, Google or any other internet company.Life would be very different indeed. We are lucky to be able to log on, send off an email to a friend or speak instantly through an instant messenger service.
Instead of going to the local library and borrowing a handful of books to do a school project, we can now go online and search for anything we need - in an instant. We can find the latest songs from just about any band in the world. We can watch international sport web-casts, speak with our sporting heroes or even download videos in a matter of minutes. Computers have brought the world to our fingertips. Computers are constantly evolving. Dial-up has given way to broadband, meaning everything is even quicker to access. Wireless technology means we no longer need to be connected by wires in order to use our computer. We can access our emails through our mobile phones, take photos and send them to our friends, even download music and movies without the use of wires or connections. Technology is constantly changing, bringing us closer and closer to our global friends.
Did you know that the computer that sent the first man into space had less power than a mobile phone.
Questions 1. Make a list of the different forms of communication you use in a day and why? 2. Write a paragraph explaining why we are so dependent on technology like mobile phones and computers. What would happen if one day they all stopped working? Be creative with your answer 3. How can communication improve our quality of life; personally, locally, nationally and globally?