Friday 27 October 2017

Critical Perspectives - Globalisation, Cultural Imperialism and Cultural Appropriation

Globalization refers to "the compression of the world and the intensification of consciousness of the world as a whole" (R. Robertson, Globalization, 1992)

Has globalisation made the world smaller? Not physically but representationally? Everyone can find eg. BBC News

Global Dominance explored
  • The extent to which certain political economies dominate the world by process by which  global media organisations. 
  • Thus the major media organisations drown out smaller regional outlets.
  • US style journalism is homogenising world media coverage becoming missionaries of corporate capitalism 
  • Has the potential to establish a dominant GLOBAL CULTURE.
A good example of media giants that do not just dominate the country that they where established by the entire world is BBC and SKY. they have a viewership all over the world which may drown out smaller local station. 

Consequences of cultural imperialism
  • During the 1980s there was a massive amount of interest and reports about the horrible famine that took place in Ethiopia. However at the same time there was something equally as bad going on in Brazil that did not get hardly any coverage. The reason for this was that there was not the video from Brazil that would be of a benefit to the media companies. 
  • CNN have been accused to stirring up "Compassion Fatigue" through their reporting of global human suffering. 
  • Grenfall is another way that globalisation has made a difference. The massive amount of reports on this subject did mean that the government had to do something about it. 
Generic formats of a news report
  • Dramatic tone
  • Half an hour duaration
  • Generically formatted
However is not always truly global. They always end up going to the same people covering the same type of topics. However with countries like China are now becoming a powerhouse meaning the way media is presented has to be changed to be truly global.

The media can influence and enhance stories to convey cultural differences, as well as sort the bad news which may inforce cultural prejudices. 

Is it a small world?
With the increased use of social media make the world more interconnected? Everyone can hop on social media and form and type an opinion from what they have read. This is also global as pretty much every country is on social media in one way or another. As it is global we can catch up with global news much quicker as social media is instant and TV News may take more time to fact check and publish.

Cultural Appropriation is an important issue. When trying to adapt something to what your vision may be you have to be careful about the way you adapt it. People are worried that movies are being whitewashed. For example a asian actor should have cast, but instead the actor was white because that particular white actor may have been more well known. Hence it would be a more successful (financially) than if a more culturally appropriate actor was cast.

Most people agree that the media can change your opinion of a certain situation. We also have to be aware that there are only a small amount of companies that are feeding us this information meaning we are only getting news from a particular point of view. The media is "Putting pictures in our head" Water Lippman 1922.

Always think about what is and what is not included in the story. In some scenarios it is as important to look at what is not included in the report as what is. because key facts could be being held from us to give us a tinted opinion on a particular story. 

"There is a lot of choice but they are the all the same" The same brands are always at the top. They are normally all saying the same thing as well.

No matter how much knowledge you may have on a subject, As long as something is relevant you may be able to exploit it and maybe make people change their bias. Even though you may have many more facts on another topic, because it is not as relevant, it won't be heard as much.

Group Work: Going more in depth with our questions "We are all journalists now"

How does globalisation affect your essay question? 

We used to only get fed a certain opinion, but with the ride of social media it means we will get more opinions from more different angles. Globalisation means that we can now hear these stories from all over the world from citizen journalists via social media.

What evidence can you find that it is impacting the story you are analysing? 




Are certain people's voices being drowned out by bigger voices?

In old term media this was the case. Certain people dominated and others where drowned out because they did not have the power of the others. However with globalisation it means that people can voice their opinion on social media to the world and the major players in old fashioned news do not get as much of a voice, especially to the younger generation. Most people under 30 are on social media and usually get their news from that. I think less and less people watch news in the traditional way meaning the companies that had built up this powerhouse do not have as much influence. However social media is still controlled by someone. Twitter's news is still pushed by someone, but this news does seem to be more balanced with less of a political view. 

RE-CAP 
• GLOBALISATION within the media has the potential to ‘export’ cultures, values and ideologies. 
• It can lead to globally dominant media brands which may ‘drown out’ other voices. 
• It also has the potential to view the world as a whole rather than by regional boundaries – interconnected and interdependent - therefore making the world feel smaller. 
• The media remain an important force for FRAMING the issues and ways of understanding those issues around the world, affecting how we see ourselves and one another. 
• The necessities of time-based media are partly to blame for the over simplistic/abbreviated storytelling which can occur. 
• Commercial pressures can exacerbate attempts to re-dress the balance, with media owners and creators unlikely to take ‘risks’ and conflict with dominant representations of the world. 
• Consensus emerges from the main media outlets rather than real choice/diversity.

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