3 mediating globalisation 2016

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MEDIATING GLOBALISATION

Communicating hegemony or technologies of resistance?


What are ‘proms’ like at American High Schools?


Mediating global culture (again) 

In a pre-global world, cultural resources would primarily have been sourced from our local environments

The development of a global media systems mediates between distant cultures

We often have as much access to American culture than we do to geographically local cultures


Today…and next week 

If globalisation entails the intensification of interactions between distant localities, it is the global communications system that connects them

This week we consider the development of global media system with a particular focus on news and entertainment media

Next week we will debate its impact upon local and global cultures, along with social media and the potential for active audiences

Now featuring an office hour in an office: MRJD 130


“Globalisation as a concept refers to both the compression of the world and the intensification of consciousness of the world as a whole” (Roland Robertson, 1992, p.8)

“Globalisation refers to all those processes by which the peoples of the world are incorporated into a single world society, a global society” (Martin Albrow, 1990, p.45)

Globalisation “is best considered as a complex set of interacting and often countervailing human, material, and symbolic flows that lead to diverse, heterogeneous cultural positionings and practices, which persistently and variously modify established sectors of social, political and cultural power” (Lull, 2000, p.150)


Does the interaction of distant cultures produce greater cultural diversity or a more homogeneous global culture?

Is your cultural identity more diverse because you are exposed to a wider range of cultures or is it being overcome by a single world culture?


The development of global media 

Initial forms of media were local and nationally controlled

Economic and technological changes allowed media with a global interest to develop, even if it was locally based

The first steps were ‘wire-agencies’ such as Reuters, which sold international news to domestic newspapers

This was followed by Hollywood movies and short-wave radio


Transnational media corporations 

The construction of a truly global media system arrived with the rapid expansion of global capitalism in the 1980s and 1990s

Transnational media corporations pushed beyond national boundaries in search of profit, often filling the place of domestic media 

In 1982 there were three channels in the UK!

Along with digital and satellite technology, it was the development of transnational media corporations that was the pivotal moment in this globalisation of culture



Privatising the public 

The new global communications system was based around transnational corporations whose primary purpose is profit

Information and entertainment is produced for private profit rather than to serve the (local) public good

A much wider range of media was available to people in various localities

Conversely, this diversity of sources came at the same time as a centralisation of ownership



Who cares? 

As media became more globally orientated, yet commercially focused, the way that the world is represented for us changed



The reduction in the diversity of goals and sources of those organisations has had a significant affect on the public sphere


Locating the public sphere 

The public sphere is the structures through which public opinions can be formed

Historically this might have been town squares or meeting halls

The media has extended this sphere, allowing greater public participation in understanding and producing public opinions



Where do you find out information about what is happening in the world?


Broadcasting the public sphere 

Public broadcasting, like the BBC, plays a vital role in many democratic systems

Lying outside of both commercial and governmental interests, it is positioned as an impartial and locally orientated source of information

Global profit-making media corporations have increasingly taken the place of this public tradition


BBC Worldwide The BBC has developed its own international commercial broadcasting service: BBC Worldwide is the commercial arm and a wholly owned subsidiary of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). We exist to maximise the value of the BBC's assets for the benefit of the licence fee payer by creating, acquiring, developing and exploiting media content and brands around the world. We also focus on creating value from BBC content and showcasing British talent both in the UK and international markets.

In the past five years the company has invested over £1bn in the UK's creative sector making it a major supporter for this increasingly important part of the 'UK plc'. We also sell programmes and formats produced by more than 200 different UK independent producers. In 2011/12 the company saw sales rise by 5.4% to £1085m - exceeding the £1bn mark for a fourth year. BBC Worldwide's total returns to the BBC rose by 19% to a record £216m in 2011/12, taking the returns to over £1.3bn since 2004


Profit and the public sphere 

The corporatisation of global news media serves private interests rather than developing a global ‘public sphere’

The spread of global (American) culture is dominated by what is profitable, rather than in service of local cultures


Advertising 

Advertising is the primary source of funding for most media outlets

The ‘product’ being sold by the media is not the content itself, but the potential audience, who are then sold to advertisers

Consequently, in order to produce a maximum return, the presentation of information is generated in order to gain the most advertising revenue

This focus on advertising revenue alters the representation of cultures: ‘ruling ideas’ tend to be reproduced


Who is the audience for this news clip?


Find three things that have happened this morning


Global media: American media? 

Beginning with Hollywood films, American media has been particularly popular with global audiences

Because American media was overwhelmingly private it was better placed to expand globally

The dominance of American corporate media has led to suggestions that the global media simply reproduce American or dominant Western ideas

This process is not the old colonialism of forced cultural assimilation, but occurs through a desire for the media content and an increased homogeneity of its form


Write down the top five television shows you watch


What country are they from?


Entertaining culture 

The explicit focus of entertainment media is not to produce cultural change, and yet because popular culture has such a large influence on our lives, it cannot help but influence us



Entertainment media mediates between cultures: our primary exposure to a culture is through their films, music and television


What are some the struggle faced by young people (over 20) in New York?


Entertaining Americans 

The world is primarily exposed to American culture in two ways: through its foreign policy and through its media, which acts as a form of ‘soft power’ that allows for the glamorous and desirable portrayal of America

The United States of America is the largest producer of popular entertainment media in the world

This portrayal is multi-faceted and allows a wide range of access points, from romance to personal excess and sexual expression, to oppositional modes such as hiphip culture, which appeal to excluded youth around the world


The case of MTV 

Music is often the most easily transferable of cultural forms and was at the ‘vanguard’ of the spread of American culture

This dynamic was seen in the global success of ‘Music Television’, or MTV, which was created in 1981 and has spread to approximately 160 countries in 18 different languages

MTV sets up local operations that allow it to push America music but, most of all, to do what is profitable and play what is popular at a local level


Influencing local identities 

This pushes the American format of popular culture, sexuality, violence and individual expression (and popular slang)

Through its local affiliates, MTV mass-promotes a cultural lifestyle whose local roots are in America, but inspires demand from local youth

The soft power of the likes of MTV or the e channel and reality TV allow for American values to become more acceptable and more understandable and consuming movies and television more desirable


Is there anything that you or your friends do that is ‘American’?


Is it a problem for young people living in Britain to identify with American culture(s)?



Can film be truly global? 

Hollywood films make significantly more money from global audiences than in the US box office

There are three main factors: 1.

2. 3.

The emergence of greater ‘leisure spending’ in the developing world Global marketing of Hollywood films A concerted effort to refocus the content of films to be more globally appealing


Global cultural identities 

Hollywood films are seeking to remove American cultural references and cast a more diverse range of actors



A focus on American military interventions is particularly troublesome, and the same applies to local cultural events and stars



In some movies, plots are being re-shot to include culturally-specific scenes


The influence of China 

In 2012 China lifted its limit on foreign films from 20 to 34

With a rapidly growing economy and increased discretionary funds, the Chinese film market is booming

The Chinese government is planning to support the construction of up to 35,000 more cinemas screen over the next five years – up from a current 5,000

In 2012 foreign films made $US1.41billion out of a total of $US2.74billion and American films were seven out of the top ten



The Chinafication of Hollywood 

Hollywood films are being specifically designed for the Chinese market, with more Chinese stars and locations as well as more Chinese friendly plots

Because the market is controlled by the Chinese government, Hollywood has to comply to the strict controls set, including restrictions on the ‘supernatural’ and negative depictions of China

Much of the violence of the Quentin Tarantino move Django Unchained, for example, was cut from the Chinese version and the film was banned for a period until further cuts were made

As China will soon be the biggest market for films, entertainment corporations are ‘forced’ to comply with these practices


Michael Lynton, chairman of Sony Pictures “These are not signs of Hollywood's homogenizing effect on the world. They are signs of the world changing the way Hollywood works. It makes sense to marry our production, marketing and distribution experience with the growing global appetite for entertainment tailor-made by and for a

variety of cultures.�



The case of Iron Man 3 

In 2013 Iron Man 3 set the Chinese record for the biggest opening weekend for a foreign film, taking in over $US65 million

Whilst Iron Man is a continuation of the US cultural tradition of ‘super-hero’ blockbuster movies, Iron Man 3 was designed with the Chinese market in mind   

It was co-produced with China’s DMG entertainment Scenes were filmed in Beijing with famous Chinese actors and a product placement deal with TCL electronics The main villain was changed from Chinese ethnicity to one of indeterminate identity


The counter-hegemonic global 

Globalisation might be a story told by the winners but, in film, counter-hegemonic movements are becoming more influential

China’s financial influential and cultural-political restrictions mean that the biggest budget films are more likely to portray China positively

But, villains have to come from somewhere – they can either be from smaller film markets, or be of non-local identity

Culturally specific films from the Western world are increasingly being re-made with local actors and plots, rather than being dubbed



The global village of film 

With global audiences, global production and global funding, we are witnessing the convergence of global cultures through film

Studios wish to appeal to the widest audiences possible, so plots and characters become more generic

The bigger the market, the more films are likely to represent them positively

Conversely, the vast majority of films play to a local audience and local practices still rule in some genres


Do you ever watch films from a different culture?


Concentration of Film Production

Source: UNESCO, INTERNATIONAL BLOCKBUSTERS TO NATIONAL HITS ANALYSIS OF THE 2010 UIS SURVEY ON FEATURE FILM STATISTICS


The case of Indian identity 

The increasing global popularity of Indian film, or ‘Bollywood’ signals the presence of a counter-hegemonic globalisations

Bollywood was once largely limited to the local Indian film market and remains a hugely influential element of Indian culture

Bollywood has a very distinctive style, often focusing on song and dance and ‘epic’ stories that are culturally different from Western cultural practices

Although they are very popular across Asia and parts of Africa, they had struggled to have an impact upon American audiences


Globalising Bollywood 

Indian films have become increasingly popular in London, however



Cinemas in Feltham and Ilford are some of the highest grossing Bollywood cinemas in the world



This shift has come less from an cultural change in either audiences or in the films, but from targeted marketing at the Indian global diaspora



What translates? 

Yet where action films are popular with global audiences, but comedies struggle

To succeed across cultures, films have to empty themselves of any unrelatable content: comedy relies on insider knowledge of a culture, whereas special effects and action do not

Our identities have some flexibility, but are deeply embedded in cultural understandings



Not funny? 

Comedy relies upon insider understandings of culture, and it also expresses a truth of that culture: to laugh is both a social reaction and a cultural reaction



It is often very difficult to translate these understandings between cultures, even between quite similar cultures



In order to get around this some big-budget companies, like 21 and Over, have different plots to suit different cultural understandings


Summary 

The development of a ‘global media system’ has fundamentally altered the dynamics of mediation between ‘distant localities’

Our sources of information about the world potentially favour some forms of the local about others

American culture has spread through entertainment media: Is globalisation simply the spread of dominant/ruling ideas?

Although new entertainment markets have emerged, are our cultural identities changing through this exposure?


Next Week WEEK 4

WHO CONTROLS THE GLOBAL VILLAGE? CULTURAL IMPERIALISM AND THE CONVERGENCE OF CULTURES

READINGS Core reading: Zayani, M. (2011). Media, Cultural Diversity and Globalisation: Challenges and Opportunties. Journal of Cultural Diversity. 18 (2), pp.4854 See also: Chapter One, Ritzer, G. (2008) The McDonaldization of Society (5th Ed.). Pine Forge Press: California


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