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
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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
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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
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A focus on American military interventions is particularly troublesome, and the same applies to local cultural events and stars
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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
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Cinemas in Feltham and Ilford are some of the highest grossing Bollywood cinemas in the world
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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
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It is often very difficult to translate these understandings between cultures, even between quite similar cultures
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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