Globalization is reflected in certain areas of life such as culture and lifestyle. Modern mass media and increased mobility favour a sort of cultural globalization. African cooking and Indian films have become as common in Europe as Western fast food is in Asia or Hollywood films in the Middle East. Optimists see this mingling of world societies as a chance to integrate ‘the foreign’ into one’s own cultural value system and in this way to increase mutual tolerance. Growing commonalities in the sense of a recognized universal value system, such as human rights, can develop in this way. This perspective presupposes free access to information and knowledge. In contrast, critics emphasize the economic dominance of rich industrial nations in the media, through which they force their Western model of affluence on the weaker countries for their own economic advantage. The general commercialization and reshaping of national or regional cultures through foreign influences have, in many parts of the world, provoked mass movements seeking a return to their own traditional values. One can trace the radical anti-Western movements back to these perceived causes. The emphasis on regional, local, and new nationalist thinking can partly be seen as a reaction to globalization.