This week's discussion prompt:We have reached Week Ten of our course, and would like to use this last discussion forum to give you an opportunity to reflect back on the class. For a variety of reasons
Week Ten Lecture: Media, Culture & Globalization
Note: Please click on all supplemental links as part of this lecture; the videos and articles provided will assist with your understanding of this chapter.
Key Questions:
1. What is globalization and how do media relate to it?
2. Who are the global media companies and how do they deal with globalization?
3. What are the areas of concern - related to media and globalization - and how do they related to McLuhan's "global village" proposition?
Themes:
10.1 Dimensions of Media Globalization
10.2 Four Areas of Concern: Ownership, Content, Regulation & User Access
10.3 Global Flows & Nollywood
10.1 Dimensions of Media Globalization
When reflecting on the "global" nature of media culture, what comes to mind? Is it the latest global box office statistic that you read in a recent article in The Wall Street Journal? Is it a song that includes dynamic (hybrid) components from different genres? Is it your love of BBC programming (that has been licensed to US-based platforms and even adopted by US-based networks)? Or do you think about the ways that the logics of Twitter have allowed you to engage in conversations about global events with international users? Although Croteau & Hoynes (2019) outline the complexities of media globalization, they open this chapter with the optimism of scholar Marshall McLuhan, and his notion of the global village: that electronic media will bring the people of the world closer and their voices will be heard (p. 342). As you've probably noticed through your consumption of global media, unfortunately not all voices are head in the same way, and, "In fact, ambiguity and contradiction mark the trends in media globalization. Some developments produce positive changes of the sort McLuhan envisioned; others seem cause for alarm" (p. 343).
Many of you have already studied "globalization" in various courses here at University of Denver, so your definitions may differ slightly based on the discipline/major that guided your understanding. Generally speaking, globalization is the process by which regional economies, societies, and cultures have become integrated through a global network of ideas through communication, transportation, and trade. In relation to the media industry, globalization has enhanced communication networks and has made culture and media products more accessible to a global audience. According to Croteau & Hoynes (2019), there are two components to globalization in relation to mass media:
1. Changing role of geography and physical distance; growing interconnectedness and intensification of connections.
2. Content: Electronic media offers the ideas, images and sounds of different cultures available to vast networks of people outside of their immediate culture (p. 343-4).
Globalization crosses limits of space and time and allows for the exchange and intermingling of cultures from different parts of the world. Think about the music industry, for example: (1) Increased global access to music genres; (2) Exchange of musical elements, sharing and collaboration; (3) The creation of hybrid genres and "world music."
Watch MIA's "Bad Girls" video and think about how this song and video represent "hybridity":
http://www.vevo.com/watch/mia/Bad-Girls/USUMV1200025 (Links to an external site.)
Also, check out this short video on the making of Zedd's song "The Middle" and how various individuals from various parts of the world contributed to production:
'The Middle': Watch How a Pop Hit Is Made | Diary of a Song (Links to an external site.)
So as the two video illustrate, media globalization has created space for collaboration and hybridity, but that doesn't necessarily fulfill McLuhan's "global village" for a variety of reasons. Think about political economy for a moment; is the global media industry organized in conglomerates or are there thousands of diverse companies that reflect regional differences? But what about the internet? That space is more democratizing and horizontal in terms of power, right? Unfortunately, there are constraints embedded in global internet culture that do not fulfill the optimism of the global village:
1. The world is unequal;
2. Language divides the world;
3. Language is a medium of power (51.8% of online content is written in English);
4. People have differing degrees of cultural capital;
5. Conflicting values, beliefs, and interests divide the world;
6. Nationalist cultures limit internationalism on the internet;
7. Authoritarian governments can manage the internet (see p. 346-7).
As Croteau & Hoynes (2019) argue, "Although media globalization continues to offer some promise, we must also be aware of the social impact of these enticing developments" (p. 347).
Many of these issues are explored in this weeks video lecture: "Film, popular culture & globalization:"
10.2 Four Areas of Concern: Ownership, Content, Regulation & User Access
When evaluating issues of "concern," this is not necessarily equated with pessimism; rather, this is an essential aspect of developing media literacy and a more critical understanding of media culture that includes power dynamics as well as a more sociological view (which is supported in this textbook). Croteau & Hoynes (2019) narrow the concerns of media globalization into four areas: ownership, content, regulation and user access. And if you think back to the "model of media and the social world" (p. 16) from Chapter One, you'll remember that all of these elements have relationships to one another; that they impact each other in the global media ecosystem.
Ownership: "The significance of centralized ownership and control is that decision making related to the purpose and content of the media, as well as the benefits that accrue from owning what are often highly profitable ventures, remains firmly in the hands of a few major corporations based on the wealthiest nations" (Croteau & Hoynes, 2019, p. 351). How does this reality disrupt the McLuhan's optimism? Check out the chart on pages 350-1 to review The Walt Disney Company's international holdings as an example of how US-based conglomerates have a disproportionate share of global media ownership and distribution channels. So what might this mean for content? Much like the concerns over US-based conglomeration and its impact on diverse representations, there are concerns about the impact of Western values and representations and how those meanings and ideological values may impact other nations and cultures. "Music, movies and reality television illustrate that although the distribution of media products has spread out across the globe, the ownership and control of media production are largely centralized in a few large conglomerates usually composed of dozens, if not hundreds, of different companies" (Croteau & Hoynes, 2019, p. 349).
Content: One of the seminal (but contested - as I'll discuss below) theories that developed as a reaction to the growth of Western media texts and their global distribution is the cultural imperialism thesis,which is a theory that argues that Western - and mostly US-based - media texts and companies will exert influence over the rest of the world:
1. Media products have have the ability to shape the cultures of other nations; this is a cultural form of domination.
2. Norms of individualism and consumerism will invade collectivist cultures.
3. Concern with the homogenization of cultures and the erosion of local culture
Despite the popularity of the cultural imperialism thesis in the 1970-90s, there has been criticism of this approach due to the following reasons:
1. The theory does not distinguish between different types of media (i.e., film is more influential internationally than print).
2. The theory assumes a passive audience and fails to account for multiple interpretive strategies in different cultural contexts.
3. The theory undermines the role played by local media.
4. There are limits to the appeal of Western culture in other nations!
A more helpful framework - hybridity - has emerged as a way to honor the resilience of local cultures and an acknowledgment of contemporary reality. However, as Croteau & Hoynes (2019) point out, it focused on the product, not necessarily the power dynamics of ownership, promotion, distribution, etc. They argue that, "If we are to understand global media better, considerations of power, production, and control - the issues that the cultural imperialism thesis focused on - need to be part of the equation" (p. 360). So how might scholars and students of media culture think about global media and its relationship to content, ideology, meaning and power? The next section in this lecture will explore a theory of "flows" as a way to think about both agency and structure.
Regulation: In an effort to regulate the impact of global media conglomerates, countries have adopted policies to regulate the flow of international influence while simultaneously supporting local production. Croteau & Hoynes (2019) discuss the United Nations and UNESCO's 2005 Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions(https://en.unesco.org/creativity/convention (Links to an external site.)), but then also note that preserving cultural diversity by local governments can be difficult due to: (1) a lack of infrastructure to support/produce local media; (2) the cheaper prices and availability of imported texts as an alternative to expensive media production. However, the development of "quotas" has become more effective, as outlined in the policies adopted by the EU and various countries, from Argentina to Malaysia (for an overview of these policies, see p. 365).
User Access: A major concern, related to media globalization and users, is the digital divide between those who have access to the internet, for example, and those that do not. On page 367 of your textbook, there is a map that identifies internet users in identified regions, and you can see that 88% of users have access to the internet in Northern America while 12% of users have access in Middle Africa. What might this gap in information and communication technologies mean for that population? It's important to remember that due to various variables, including infrastructure, wealth, government, conflict, etc., not everyone around world has access to digital communication.
10.3 Global Flows & Nollywood
One way to think about globalization and media that still takes into account structure and power dynamics while still taking agency and local media seriously is the idea of "flows." In this theory, originated by Arjun Appadurai (https://steinhardt.nyu.edu/faculty/Arjun_Appadurai (Links to an external site.)), there are dominant, transnational, and geo-cultural flows (I've attached a reading on this to the "optional" section of this module if you'd like to read further):
Dominant/Global: Dominates global market share (e.g., Hollywood).
Transnational: Dominates among several countries (e.g., Bollywood).
Geo-Cultural: Has an influence in a specific region (e.g., Nollywood).
When we begin to think about media globalization in terms of "flows" rather than cultural imperialism, we begin to understand the complex dynamics and cultural influences that exist, rather than assume that agency no longer takes place in the global media environment; in other words, the theory of "flows" supports a sociological relationshipbetween structure and agency versus the structure-dominant approach of cultural imperialism.
Here is an interesting essay from The New York Times, written by Kwame Appiah, on "cultural contamination" and how developing countries don't necessarily need "protection" from dominant media flows. Here, he discusses agency and homogeneity: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/01/magazine/01cosmopolitan.html?pagewanted=all (Links to an external site.)
The documentary, This is Nollywood (2006), offers an excellent portrayal of a Geo-Cultural flow and emerging film industry. As a way to tie in the themes from this chapter, and to expose you to this successful, Nigerian industry, I'd like you to watch this film.
In order to screen the film, please go to the DU Libraries home page and enter "Kanopy" into the database search. Once you've entered that database, search for "This is Nollywood" and you should be all set!
