Globalization and online audiences

The concept of globalization appears to fit perfectly with the phenomenon of the online audience. In reflecting on this seemingly natural affinity, we can first take a standard glossary definition of globalization as "a process through which space and time are compressed by technology, information flows, and trade and power relations, allowing distant actions to have increased significance at the local level" (Miller, Lawrence, McKay and Rowe, 2001: 131). Here the critical elements of flow and fluidity that are integral to any conception of globalization articulate smoothly with what we generally conceive as "being online," which involves connection to the Internet and the World Wide Web anywhere across the globe. Online audiences for sport and other mediated content would, therefore, seem to be perfectly suited to the globalization process in receiving and dispatching communication, free of hitherto awkward constraints of time, space and technology. Thus, for example, an online sport fan ought, at least technically, to be able to access any mediated sport text that they desire, and to interact freely via computer mediated communication with any fellow fan, irrespective of their physical-spatial location.