Free will society
International communication
May 2014
FREE WILL SOCIETY “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players.” — Shakespeare
Free will society
International communication
May 2014
FREE WILL SOCIETY Did Globalization creates free will or did it uniformed ideas?
What are we? A group of international citizen, worried about every ones opinion, and regrouped around the free will question in our society. We live nowadays more than ever in a globalized society composed by local societies interconnected and interacting between each other’s, creating a universal state of mind. In this magazine, our purpus is to tackle the free will question: Is globalization allowing us to spread different and new ideas to create the possibility of an individual creation of opinion or if this phenomenon, concentrating global Medias, impoverished that possibility by imposing ideas and uniformed them? Our topics, divers and completing one another, are written to provide the reader an overall view about this topic.
Our mission? We want to give to our readers, all the information for them to build their own opinion. We want them to have the FREE WILL. So, are you in‌
Free will society
International communication
May 2014
PRESENTATION OF THE TEAM WHO ARE WE ?
Sebastien SHULZ A french like every French who loves bread, cheese and wine. He is a School of management student and is actualy studing in Mexico. He likes books, music and travels.
Nayeli TECUANHUEHUE
She loves the Organizational Communication and the cars. One of her biggest goals is to be part of an internationally recognized company that cares about communication as fundamental to the development of the same tool. She love to Listen to music and drive for a long time. Marie FRADELIZI
The second french of the team. The free will has always been a serious topic for her when comes the time to choose which candy to eat! Besides that she often go to the pool to swim and she likes travelling.
Free will society
International communication
May 2014
INTRODUCTION Every day when passing by a newsstand we find the classics that we only talk about fashion, beauty tips, recipes, scientific data and curious in some interesting cases as well as political issues but are not always real. The content of this magazine is somewhat different to what we are commonly used as it tries to make the reader think about issues that have to do with communication but at the same time are vital to our lives. Often only half know what are the problems that beset the world are, however, some issues such as globalization and capitalism, which blended with the communication become an issue that concerns not only about how many but whole population in general.
THE ARTICLES CANCLINI AND THE CONCEPT OF HYBRIDITY : can we still define ourselves through our cultural identity? By Marie FRADELIZI STAUBAAR & CONCEPT OF CULTURAL IDENTITY:Do we really have a choice in what we watch on TV. by Marie FRADELIZI CULTURAL IMPERIALISM VS GLOBALIZATION : Is there somebody controlling everything? By Sebastien SHULZ THE PROPAGANDA MODEL : They have control on the information…or not? By Sebastien SHULZ THE INTERNET : A mode of communication and share opinions with the world. By Nayeli TECUANHUEHUE SAMOVAR AND THE CONCEPTION OF COMMUNICATION & CULTURE : U.S.A. The dominant culture in the world. By Nayeli TECUANHUEHUE
Free will society
International communication
May 2014
CANCLINI AND THE CONCEPT OF HYBRIDITY can we still define ourselves through our cultural identity? In today’s post, I would like to talk about the concept of cultural identity as defined by Canclini. To put it back into context, Nestor Garcia Canclini is an Argentinian born academic and anthropologist. He is known for his theory on the concept of “hybridity”. According to his article, LA globalización: ¿productora de cultura hibridas? He describes the various evolution of the use of the Word hybridity and its concept throughout history. First the word was used in biology only, to describe the cross between two separate races of culture. Hybridity was only considered as racial mixing at that point. The use of the term is also associated with the post colonialist period. Indeed, colonialism was the core illustration of a mix between two different culture and traditions. Therefore the term was use in a broader sense and not only in a biological one anymore. Canclini defines the concept of hybridity as “the sociocultural processes in which the former distinct structures and practices, which existed in a separated form, combine themselves to generate new structures, objects and practices.” Another aspect of the term, and the one that interest me the most, is its relationship to globalization. Today, hybridity is considered as one of the main effect of globalization. In fact, Marwan M Kraidy defines hybridity as “the communication based phenomenon characterized by the intermingling of people and media from different cultures”, but more important he affirms that hybridity “entails that traces of other cultures exists in every culture, thus offering foreign media and marketers transcultural wedges for forging affective links between their commodities and local communities.” This shows that even if globalization is creating more common ground between different cultures through phenomenon such as hybridity, these new culture still have to be linked to the remains of local cultures in order to have any influence. According to Canclini, the continuous concept of hybridity forces us to put the concept of cultural identity into perspective. Indeed, it prevents from trying to establish identities as “pure” and “authentic”. For him the hybridity processes show that it is not possible to talk about identities as if it was the sum of fixed characteristics. We cannot use cultural identity as the essence of an ethny or a nation because today, no one can be describe as a pure French or a pure Mexicans. Throughout history nation and people leaving in those nations have blended and mixed between each other. Everyone is a unique result of hybridity. For Canclini “cultural identity” should be understood as a way in which community perceive and construct themselves, but not as the essences of a culture. Our world is too interconnected for us to define any virgin cultural identity. Globalization through the phenomenon of hybridity did not lead to and homogenized society, it led to a society where everybody is a unique mixed of cultures. Therefore, it forces us to put the whole concept of cultural identity at another level. For example, I cannot only define myself as French because I am a lot more than French a lot of people in the history of my family crossed borders and made me who I am. Today, we need to define ourselves through the experiment we
Free will society
International communication
May 2014
have, the life we live and the people we meet. This allows us to have a more personal point of view and more free will.
STAUBAAR & THE CONCEPT OF CULTURAL IDENTITY Do we really have a choice in what we watch on TV In this new post, I would like to talk about Straubhaar article, Rethinking Cultural Proximity: Multiple television flows for multi- layered cultural identities. “This article argues that audience preferences are formed within the overall trends toward cultural proximity within both national and cultural-linguistic boundaries”. The whole phenomenon of cultural proximity affects very different scales it is not only national and supranational it is also subnational and regional. Straubhaar first examines the attraction or proximity of genres. Then, he discusses the sense of shared historical experience of specific groups within nations and how this particular form of proximity might operate at the reception level. The whole concept of cultural proximity is to affirm that certain geographical and cultural audiences will tend to prefer their own local or national culture. This concept gives the ability to predict what certain audiences would like to watch. In his paper Straubhaar examines “the continuing power held by U.S. exporters and national television producers, as well as the emergence of several other layers of production and distribution power at global and transnational levels.” Of course, in this era of globalization we cannot expect the cultural products that we see on T.V or in movie theaters to be produced locally. As a lot of charts show, most of the globally successful products are made in the United States. Because the US are the most productive country they are the one with the most influence. Indeed, you cannot escape their products because they flood the market. In order to avoid them, one would almost have to stop going to the movies. The US are particularly powerful and productive in some specific genres such as cartoons, action and adventures movies, US dramas. If the US are very powerful as a country in the production of cultural products they are not the one with the more power in cultural proximity. In fact, those who hold the power are not countries per se, they are individuals. This sentence from the article is a very good summary of the conclusion of the impact proximity: “what we see in cultural proximity in television flow studies is not necessarily a clear reflection of audiences‘ direct preference, but rather what programmers‘ think audiences want” (Havens 2006). “There is an important mediation in which national programmers for the main broadcast television select which kinds of programs from which producers to put into their schedules.” The decision makers who decide what is going on air and what is not are the one that make the choice for the people that watch it. Most of those decision makers are profit focused, they just want to put on air what is going to be watched the most, and not what is going to be appreciated the most or what could be the most interesting. The only choice left to the audience is whether or not to watch television.
Free will society
International communication
May 2014
I would say that this aspect of globalization has reduced our ability to express our free will.
CULTURAL IMPERIALISM VS GLOBALIZATION Is there somebody controlling everything? In this new post, I wanted to talk the everyday life question that we all had one day : is everything controlled? It is the famous topic of the international complot. In the history, this topic always interested human: the enemy was always plotting. During the XVII in Italia, hundreds of religious or nobles’ people died poisoned because of the struggle for throne. In the XIX, the complot was made by the Jews to control the economy. In the XX century it was the communists. What about now? Now, the question is: Are the northern countries, and in particular the US, controlling our minds to makes us consume every day more, adopting the capitalism ideologies? We are going to focus this topic on the media and ideological scale (Appadurai) First, we have to define what is the notion of cultural Imperialsim defined by Boyd-Barret. For this author, several clues, in time and space, justify the existence of an American culture imperialism in the world. In an empiric analysis, he found that imperialism can vary between different Medias and between different levels, scales or sphere of activity in all the sector of the media industry. But what is it exactly. Several authors analyzed this phenomenon like Mario Kaplun, Dallas Smythe, or Herbert Schiller. They explained that not only a few western countries controlled the meaning of production and distribution for the biggest medias, but also that that control allows them to transmit their particular way of life, think, values and in particular individualism and consumerism. The definition of Herbert Schiller (1976) is very relevant of their theory: ‘The concept of cultural imperialism today best describes the sum of the processes by which a society is brought into the modern world system and how is dominating stratum is attracted, pressured, forced, and sometimes bribed into shaping social institutions to correspond to, or even promote, the value and structures of the dominating center of the system.’ But of course, there are a lot of critics to that theory. Here we have a very good and structured critic of what is called the homogenized view of globalization: for Golding and Harris (1997), Media Imperialism “overstates external determinants and undervalues the internal dynamics, not least those of resistance, within dependent societies. Secondly, it conflates economic power and cultural effects. Thirdly, there is an assumption that audiences are passive, and that local and oppositional creativity is of little significance. Finally, there is an often patronizing assumption that what is at risk is the ‘authentic’ and organic culture of the developing world under the onslaught of something synthetic and inauthentic coming from the West.” What if all this wasn’t a proper imperialism, but just the market logics that create the superior number of western media content? And is that superiority putting in danger the free will of the audience all around the world? It is important here to distinguish the economic power and the social influences. Those two notions are link, but it is important to see in which way. Because some time economic power can be rejected by a society. For instance in France, even if the Medias are full of American content, there is a big repulsion of American society and way of life. Some authors like Appadurai (1990) integrated the vocabulary to be more contrasted like Indigenization or
Free will society
International communication
May 2014
hybridization. For the readers, we advise you to go further in the analysis of globalization as a homogenized or heterogenized process.
THE PROPAGANDA MODEL They have control on the information‌or not? What is important to tackle in this article, taking another angle to see the free will problem than in the Media imperialism vs Globalization, is not to see what are the impacts of the media content, and how there are broadcastes, but what are in there. What is the purpose to broadcast this or that information? To who does it gives benefit? What are the participant of the information construction and broadcasting? The crucial point here is to understand one thing : all the structural factors derive from the fact that the Media world is a profit-seeker world. The logic here is the money one. The media companies are hold by wealthy peolple, funded by advertising which is also a profit-seekend entity that only wealthy people or compagny can afford. So there is a clear link between Media buisness and Major firms. The second point to understand the propaganda model, is that there is a big intrication between this media firms and governement. There provide information to them. And the medias industry are a powerfull mean to provide information to the population. The question to takles here is : but what information? Those three main actors have the posibility to pressur one another, and that is why usally, the best for them is to collaborate. We could go more deeply in the social causes of those interaction and understand that the people controlling and at the head of those three entities (Media firm, Big buisness firm, governement) are all from the same socail class, and thus the same kind of interests. But another pressur can also come from the audience. Beeing a profit-seeker world, the interest of Media comagnies is to broadcast information that people want to ear or to watch. So they have to fit to the main stream ideas to be whatched by the largest number and win more money with the advertisment. Noam Chomsky sums up the propaganda model as : “a decentralized and nonconspiratorial market system of control and processing, although at times the government or one or more private actors may take initiatives and mobilize coordinated elite handling of an issue.â€? But this propaganda model have been a lot critized. Some ot the critics are that the model was not taking into acount the professionalism and the objectivity of both journalists and reporters. To that, Chomsky replay that they are not the ones who take the big decision. He explain also that they are maybe where they are, because they have been choosed for their thought and ideologie balance. Other critics says that the model does not take into acount the contestation, the oposition and resistence. To that critic, Chosmy is agree, explaining the the propaganda model is just a framwork to analyse the global media system, explaining that every case, in every country have to be analyzed more deeply.
Free will society
International communication
May 2014
What about independent journalists and the rise of internet? Chomsy here again have an unswer. The market is still ruling internet, so his model can apply to this technologie, and maybe emphysing the problem. But to conclude, I want to say that the propaganda model created in the late 80’s and actualized by Chomsky in the late 90’s has not experienced the blog fenomeneon for example that led the Arab spring to happened. The social medias has change the rules, how and in what scale is another question.
Free will society
International communication
May 2014
THE INTERNET A mode of communication and share opinions with the world While the internet is like a magic window that gives us access to any part of the world, not everything there is true. Today we find various platforms that allow us to discuss, review or discuss a topic of interest to a character, for an event, for a country, etc. However we have seen many cases where the government has been intruded over the bill and has come to the point of prohibiting or restricting the use of the internet in places. Places like China, are not free to seek information on the web and in Mexico, for example. Although it seems that we in our country that could not happen, unfortunately we are awaiting the opinion to approve the government for the famous secondary laws of telecommunications reform has much to talk about. Possibly Enrique Pe単a Nieto, President of the Republic , never imagined that this issue will go out of hand and that would become an international issue and that would break many barriers and people around the world would be talking about it. Maybe you forgot that the internet is a global platform that allows anyone to get in touch from anywhere, or maybe you forgot that thanks to 'excellent' condition our country there are many Mexicans abroad surely something had to do with this mass movement across networks. So far we can say that somehow, thanks to this global public sphere that was created on the subject, was that many of these laws were approved to concern us. However, hopefully for the World Cup and do not forget at least as we know it has passed what we fear: repression is not justified. As this example there are many others throughout the world and therefore we realize that the internet has surpassed any barrier and although it is said that we live monitored and nothing we say we are private people and perceived and this is expressed in a more free and uncensored . If the whole world takes positions or determinations as Assange for example, the government may act differently. The role that they watch us by which we are the change we monitor them. Sometimes it is surprising that we continue to live in the world as we have done so far. If we continue to allow the government to limit all the options we have today to continue communicating and expressing ourselves freely, we are in a serious problem. But we must not wait for something to happen up to counteract it. As our grandmothers would say, boy drowned after we plug the well. It is not that, is we do realize that if it cost us a lot of work to achieve all that we have such as the internet, because leaving that overnight simply no longer be free to say what you feel because in the best of cases you could end up in jail but in the worst case and what we used to live in Mexico, loss of life, does not sound like something feasible.
Free will society
International communication
May 2014
SAMOVAR CONCEPTION OF COMMUNICATION & CULTURE U.S.A. The dominant culture in the world In recent months, have you ever tried to imagine life without clothes, without internet, without social networking or without tablet or lap top? Definitely seems that today is almost impossible to live without any of these tools or accessories as they have become an essential part of our way of life. Some people think that Mexico, our country would not be the same if not for our neighbor, the United States of America, and that despite the huge gap between our technology and theirs; it is because the gringo market we could "modernize" a little more than necessary. Something that should worry all Mexicans in general is how long are we going to rely on others to get ahead? When we become citizens legally at age 18, we have obligations and responsibilities to fulfill, and that failure to do so , we generate consequences , but it is important to mention that there is always someone who is behind all the time telling us what we have and what that we have to do. If we turn this way "independent" self-sufficient and no longer dependent on mom and dad because we want to get our things on merit , because we do the same for our country. For many of us in many cases , it is much easier just to think and express what we feel through a social network , but what this can actually bring about change for the benefit of all ? Clearly globalization is part of what has allowed us to be aware of what happens in the world, but that does not mean we have to rely on the world to make decisions or to determine a lifestyle. Even if we talk about fashion, why we have to take the form of clothing or styles of other countries rather than be proud of our traditions. Sadly part of this whole adoption of cultures has led to deterioration in the customs and traditions of a colorful, folklore and culture and history as our country. Some people say that the future of Mexico is in the hands of young people, however, the future development and real change depends on all of us who live here and not a few . Only for short periods of time have campaigned for items manufactured in our country are consumed , but unfortunately only does all this season and then falls back into the same thing and if we do not buy sneakers Nike or Dona Karan blouse or use a Carolina Herrera perfume , just did not feel right. The day we stop having American dreams, become aware of the social and economic problems created by overpopulation and face reality of our country, possibly the day when we can see a real and meaningful change , so you reduce their reliance on other countries but primarily in the United States of America to finally be who we are , just Mexico .
Free will society
International communication
May 2014
CONCLUSION So then, what about FREE WILL ?
Free will is society imposing way to think? Is the globalization helping the development of new ideas? Throughout those post we wanted to show the different aspect and impact of globalization and their effects on free will and thought pluralism. Those post can’t lead to one conclusion only. Globalization as modified our societies in every ways but we cannot affirm that it was all good or bad; In fact, the influence of globalization are very varied. But one thing is sure globalization has made us more aware of others culture and has allowed a lot of people, the majority of the planet to develop more tolerance, more critical thought and more free will. The issue now is that we are not all allowed to express this free will in the same way or in every field. We need to control the phenomenon of globalization at our advantage and not let a few people in control. This is the most important matter now, because globalization as a constant influence on every aspect of our lives we need to make sure we are not being manipulated. If the core movement of globalization is handle by a few powerful people, we still have the choice o believe or not what they decide to tell us. We can still choose to look for alternative information, cultural products, media platforms‌
Free will society
International communication
May 2014