Global Media Exam 1

Rise of a transnational corporate culture

- Walmartism - Mcdonaldization

Significance of Al Jazeera

- first non biased - treats viewers as smart, understanding

production fetishism

- happens when production itself becomes a fetish - obscuring not social relations as such but the relations of production, which are increasingly transnational - happens when there is but an insatiable desire to produce to facilitate the scapes that characterize globalization

ethnoscapes

- physically or symbolically mobile persons and communities in a shifting world - diaspora: physical movement of communities - even "stable" communities affected by imaginary and actual mobility - greater distances spanned now than in past (and at faster speeds)

Al Ekhbaria

aimed at saudi audiences

Concept of Globalization

the transnational flow of images, ideas, goods, technologies, money, and people across traditionally defined borders like nation-states, cultures, ect.

cultural reproduction

- "how do small groups, esp. families, deal with these new global realities as they seek to reproduce themselves and, in doing so, by accident reproduce culture forms themselves?" - cultures less a realm of unconscious or unquestioned enculturation *we have changed def. of culture *not something we produce, something we reproduce, we take - more matter of conscious choice, justification, negotiation, representation - culture reproduction becomes politicized - globalization dislocated culture

media capacity in east asia

- "on the map" - hollywood outsourcing helped industry grow? - asian media consumed in diaspora - independent production as widespread as ever - resistance to foreign competition an important driver of production - also providing competition - rationales for producing successful Asian content run much deeper than identity politics

work of imagination

- "world we live in today is characterized by a new role for imagination in social ice."

Global cultural economy

- (ethno, finan, techno, media, and ideoscapes) *scape: constantly moving, altering *land is territorial, landscape is deterritorial - "complex, overlapping, disjunctive order" *of politics, economics, cultures, technologies, ideologies - blurred geographic boundaries - congruent with unpredictable contours of 'disorganized capitalism' - (spatially, economically decentralized 'horizontal capitalism')

Anglo- American hegemony in global media and communications infrastructure (american and euro/american)

- 20th century phenomenon - hegemony: political struggle among groups and players to get dominant power - 4 distinct areas of American dominance 1) English as a world language 2) global pop culture (tv, music, movies) 3) new media technologies (iphone) 4) international politics and news

Hollywood

- 60s: move away from adv. agencies to broadcasting networks as producers of programming - rise of hollywood: networks turn to hollywood for program production - centralization and consolidation of media production culminating in the high network era - hollywood/tv - US (national) film/tv - 90s: unraveling the centralized "national" structure and power of US hollywood/tv

historical context of US involvement in Somalia

- 70s and 80s - somalia caugh in web of US and Soviet cold war politics in africa - end of 70s - soviets support military coup to overthrow US friendly ruler of Ethiopia - countering Soviet power in region, US supports authoritarian regime of Barre in somalia - 80s - barre invades somalia inhabited ethiopian territory of Ogaden - soviets provide military aid to fight barre - cold war ends; somalia insignificant to US - barre later ousted by leaders of ethiopia supported ethnic group - civil war - therefore extreme poverty, starvation, leading to famine - red cross works with various factional leaders to proved food and shelter to civilians - US later joins UN operation; sends aid and special forces - US supports ethnic faction led by Mahdi to help distribution of food and aid - Mahdi's rival Adid threatened and attacks Pakistani Peacekeepers - hundreds of civilians and 19 US soldiers killed in Mogadishu fighting - battle of Mogadishu - backdrop for black hawk down and video game

Neo-network Hollywood

- 90s: anxieties about globalization, digital technologies, piracy, unauthorized circulation of product have motivated hollywood to think more transnationally - hollywood's status as global media capital remains, but conditions of dominance altered dramatically - deterritorialization of relations of production makes centralized location of hollywood less significant - flight of tv and film productions to locations as vancouver, toronto, london, melbourne, orlando, chicago and new york

Neo-network Hong Kong

- 90s: neo-network era in hong kong media - globalization and decentralization of tab and shaw bros. film companies now seeking worldwide markets - increasingly capital, expertise, and cultural resources from chinese societies around the world flow through hong kong - hong kong's power as media capital rests not only on its centrality, but also its marginality to chinese media culture

Emergence of diverse/ alternative/ local media

- Al Jazeera - ZBC: Zimbabwe Broadcasting Company

Keane's critique of NICL and media/cultural imperialism theories

- NICL theory too western centric - NCIL theory sees outsourcing s new media imperialism where west dominates the rest - NICL theorists see new media capacity in Asia purely as cheap "off-shore" production centers for global Hollywood - binary divisions of the world in terms of core an peripheries (or west and the rest) is now inadequate and outdated, with a new model of globalization emerging in role of regional media in globalization (emergence of East asia Pop culture

vertical integration

- The merging of companies that are within the chain of companies that handle a single item from raw material to retail - owning everything from production to distribution to exhibition, etc.

globalization of video/computer games

- US computer game industry - largest and fastest growing segment of media - overtaken hollywood as largest american export in global media culture - as with hollywood, globalization of US computer games raises concerns about combining ent. with american values and ideologies - most evident in case of computer war games

strategies of representation in Special force game

- always collectivized - functionalized - enemies grouped and functionalized as well - treats locations differently; always depicted in actual place, accurately

Critiques of Al Jazeera

- american government critical of AJ for being "biased" in coverage - Arab governments critical of AJ for *creating political controversies *pursuing sensationalism for audience ratings *showing Arab gov. in bad light - many western media network critical AJ for not being objective in its news coverage - calling palestinian bombers "martyrs" vs. "terrorists" - is AJ biased? - Is AJ not "objective"?

Reality tv and pan-arab public sphere

- analyzing role of reality tv in sphere - two major perspectives: young and old fans/ sometimes fans - impact on public discourse and politics - "best hope for democracy in arab world?"

symbolic anchorage

- anchoring self to surroundings and events as if they were real - social, linguistic, visual cues, music - gives the 'feel' - could be anywhere - three things emphasized: *skill of soldiers and superiority of weapons *individuality of camaraderie *sense of adventure - soldiers humanized, toys (technology, night vision goggles, professionalism) showcased

Mimetic isomorphism

- cloning global TV formats and film formulas brings short-term success for local companies, but... - also long-term problems of international IP regimes

Role of Advertising in Global Media System

- commercial exploitation of TV - commercial media systemis the necessary transmission belt for businesses to market their wares across the world; indeed globalization as we know it couldn't exist without it

Relationship between cultural and economic aspects of globalization

- commodity fetishism replaced by production fetishism - 'locality' a fetish which obscures global relations of productions - fetishism of the consumer- *individual 'states' as consumer has become a master identity *a symbolic mask for 'real seat of agency' *i.e. people's roles/ identities as citizens, family members, workers, etc.

core and periphery model

- core countries of the west dominate or control the peripheral third world counties - dependancy theory: former colonies remain dependent on the west - Core: the industrial capitalist counties on which periphery countries and semi-periphery countries depend. Core countries control and benefit from the global market. - Periphery: less developed than core countries. receive a disproportionally small share of global wealth. weak state institutions and are dependent on and exploited by more developed countries b/c they lack technology, a stable government, and education and health systems

Resurgence of culture as basis for identity

- counter flow of globalization (ex: japanese localization, adjusted hybrids of globalized images) - people in todays culture identify with multiple identities to different countries -two aspects which are "new" about renewal of culture as basis for identity: 1. Cultural identity as "fluid" * isomorphic * focus on race, gender, class, language, religion, region, ethnicity, etc. 2. speed and intensity with which cultural identities are constituted and re-constituted * in relation to/resistance to globalization

World factory model

- de-territorialization, low-cost production and outsourcing - multiplier effect of low-cost outsourcing for local companies - potential for creation of high-value creative industries

strategies of representations used in Black Hawk Down game and film

- deletion of participants *omission of certain specifics - Red Cross role - four other somali clans (just focus on the one) - individualization and collectivization *how participants are represented * aim of indiv. is to humanize, make audience connect, attach to movie * collectivized to show teamness, team spirit important to special ops * enemies don't matter as individuals - use of names and titles * who gets names and who doesn't is revealing - categorization * linguistic cat. most important are classification and functionalization *american vs. somali

Disjuncture and difference

- different streams of global and cultural flows that interact to create overall instability and disjuncture in globalization patterns in the global cultural economy (ethno, finan, techno, media, and ideoscapes)

Representation of conflict in Ridley Scott's film Black Hawk Down

- documentary style intros to anchor selves to actual events - "anchorage" - events appear realistic though strategic use of visual and linguistic cues to make unfamiliar events seem familiar

Critiques of media imperialism thesis

- effects of media imperialism on audiences unclear *too much emphasis on power of media? - audiences are not cultural dupes *people aren't passively accepting the "ideologies" set in front of them - other factors influence media consumption: family, education, relighion, language, etc. *media is a social experience, people don't just draw things based on individual experience (shared with significant others, etc), especially in countries that are "decoding" as they are watching *it will probably be better to think of cultural imperialism as a much broader process of cultural change which involves the media among other factors. - audiences read "against the grain" *people are more active, complex and critically aware in their readings than the theorists of media imperialism have allowed - overestimates power of US and US media around the world - Hollywood and US TV programs not always the most popular abroad -local TV mostly preferred use to cultural proximity and/or when production value are similar *cultural barriers, people relate with own languages, skin color, values, etc. more - foreign media can increase cultural resources in local markets - availability of foreign media can provide more variety and choice - non-isomorphism and deterritorialization challenges one imperial culture - cannot presume transgenerational stability of knowledge *our america is different than our parents' - global media offer alternative modes of identity and cultural identification

Special Force computer game

- emphasizes covert operation - doesn't individualize of humanize - hezbollah ideology foregrounds sacrifice, as part of islamic struggle - strength from god - goal not to be realistic, but seemingly omnipresent

horizontal integration

- expansion of the firm at the same level in the value chain - owning all of one part of a business, therefore others are dependent on you - monopoly effect - owning all movie theaters, everyone depends on you to get their movie shown

ideoscapes

- flow of ideologies - complex flows of images, narratives, metaphors, stories - (which serve as basis of political/ stable ideologies and counter-ideologies) - elements of ideologies change meaning when exported around globe - problems of "translation" into other cultural contexts *cannot take their meaning as self-evident

technoscapes

- global configuration... of technologies (mechanical and informational) - moves at high speeds across boundaries (political, geographic, linguistic, cultural)

new media in global news

- global news media being rapidly transformed by new media technologies (camcorders, cell phones, internet, etc.) - new media outlets are threat to dominance of global news agencies (blogs) - new satellite tv channels in asia, africa, middle east, latin america providing alternative perspectives on global news for audience

McChesney's critique of the ideology of neoliberalism

- globalization not a natural force - exploitation of technologies didn't have to happen, if people had wanted it to remain pure (without ads) it would have - calls for (corporate) privatization of areas that are/were historically in "public" domain - shift from public media to private (commercialized) media

new challenges for nation-states

- globalization poses problems for nation-states (dominant political structure) - disjuncture between nation and states - effects of global capital - undermining sovereignty, new cultural influences - multiplication of cultural, political, economic contradiction within nations - primordia have become globalized *made people more alike, differently *understand each other better *more in conflict with each other - ethnicity has become a global force *globalization bad bc its makes you fearful of others *good bc it makes you understand others better i.e. too many black people in a neighborhood - people become more different but more same *l.a. - different races, different "parts", same place - with potentially destabilizing effects for host of home countries *others come in, people less racist and gov. more open *others come in and create unrest, gov put in more regressive policies

representation of participants as 'social actors'

- heroes - there to fight; common goal

Hong Kong

- historically a major transit point for chinese migrations, economics, culture but seen by most migrant workers as "temporary" residence (mainland is home) - since 60s: has grown stature as nexus between mainland china and the world, and a major regional trade and finance center for all of east asia (like chicago)

four key changes in global media: 70s - 90s

- increased role of 'intellectual capital', illustrated by the rising contribution of services in GDP - increase in cooperative ventures and levels of integration among the main wealth-creating nations, with alliances most pronounced in knowledge-intensive sectors such as IT, media and communication and internet services - liberalization of markets has continued to the point where once 'dirigiste' interventionist economies have traded sovereignty for free trade concessions *increased interdependence between nations, enhancing globalization and leading to the widespread replication of products - new players have emerged within the global economy and have leapfrogged into the McLuhan telecommunications era

reverse flows/counter flows

- information flowing from countries other than West

cultural technology transfer

- international co-productions and global franchises through sharing of IP - higher in value chain (than outsourcing and cloning) - ex. east asian media producers selling global rights to successful films and TV shows - and hollywood studios producing films in china

primorida

- language, ethnicity, race, kinship - have become globalized *made people more alike, differently *understand each other better *more in conflict with each other

Walmartism

- large scale corporations coming in and building in a small community that leads to other small business closure - the economy completely changes because Walmart takes the money out of the community unlike the small business that put the money back in - symbolizes capitalism - walmart is still walmart in china (less adaptation)

Hezbollah

- made own game after american to show their side

Chicago

- major regional center of manufacturing, transport and communciation in early 20th century - see as nexus between east and west US, rural and urban, agricultural and industrial productions - result: Chicago a major regional media center in the early years of American broadcasting as advertising agencies (which produced radio and TV programs) wanted to be close to major clients in industry

war games and propaganda

- many war games produced by american companies are created in close collaboration with US military - similar links between hollywood filmmakers and US military - games, movies based on conflicts in which US military involved (most recently in the middle east)

Media Imperialism

- media from one nation or culture dominates media from other nations or cultures (ie: role of Hollywood central in spread of American power) - theory based on an over-concentration of mass media from lager nations as a significant variable in negatively affecting smaller nations, in which the national identity of smaller nations is lost due to media homogeneity inherent in mass media from larger countries

super star, star academy and al ra'is

- most popular and controversial reality shows in Arab World - claim to be live, non-scripted and therefore 'real' and are hailed as a harbinger of democracy in arab world

niche breakthrough markets

- multiple channels of production and consumption sometimes make niche products global hits - greater availability of information helps to move media products into and across niches - for industries moving up the value chain, niche markets, both global and local, provide alternatives to the kind of parasitic imitation of global products that often leads to charges of cultural homogenization - tradition develops marketability through fusion of the urban - east asian cinema taps into a less ethnocentric global market than existed prior to globalization

Tier two Media Conglomerates

- national and regional media markets - large firms ate medium ate small firms

media capitals and global cities

- nexus - place where everything comes together - in dual sense of "capital" *as center of activity *as concentration of resources, reputation and talent

concerns with media imperialism

- one nation dominates and controls international info flows - diminished local production in other parts of world - cheap foreign programs crowd out local programming - imposes foreign standards of production, technicality, professionalism - e.g. hollywood promotes american values of capitalist consumption, personal ambition, money, profit motives, individualism, etc possibly not shared in other countries - homogenization, erases diversity - media imperialism crucially linked to political, economic imperialism - imperialistic texts shouldn't be read with only political and economic repercussions in mind, but cultural as well.

democracy of participation

- prerequisite to democ. of governance - not a substitue - reality tv activates this - when people text to vote, maybe?

theory of contextual objectivity

- presenting news that is impartial - but also sensitive to local sensibilities of audience (religion, culture, region) - AJ claims to provide c.o. - are amercians new channels providing "objectivity"? or "contextual objectivity"?

Support for Al Jazeera

- presents news in language familiar to Arab audiences - leads to greater political awareness and possibility for political mobilization - provides forum for debates on politics, social issues, civil liberties, etc. - contributes to "democratization" in Arab societies - provides Arab audiences around the world alternative to Western news channels

discourse of special ops

- quest type of schema, key participants have a goal, face various setbacks on way to achieving it, helped by the tools of technology - hardened men, doing a job, protecting weaker, relying on pro skills, motivated by loyalty toward each other - statement of goal, technological support, objective, approach, engagement, setback/partial achievement/ achievement

Neoliberalism

- refers to the set of national and international policies that call for business domination of all social affairs with minimal countervailing force - particular ideology that markets are running things - governments are to remain large so as to better serve the corporate interests, while minimizing any activities that might undermine the rule of business and the wealthy - almost always intertwined with a deep belief in the ability of markets to use new technologies to solve social problems far better than any alternative course - centerpiece for neoliberal policies is invariably a call for commercial media and communication markets to be deregulated - and in practice, re-regulated to serve corporate interests

critiques of reality tv in the arab world

- religious leaders and political activists condemn reality tv as anti-islamic and pro-western, promoting values of individualism, consumerism, and sexual promiscuity - some say it's contrived drama, mediocre artistically, simply not interesting

"Reading Dallas"

- said to be "ideological content" - glamorizing wealth? (argument that everyone wants to be rich, they tune in to see what it's like not as if it were cathartic) - studies done to qualify critiques that it imposes on others' cultures - "how much does Dallas really affect the ideologies of others?" - most people adapt Dallas to make sense to their culture (arabs think Sue Ellen moved in with her own father when she moved in with her ex lover and his father) - a social experience, not just individual - studies say that people aren't passive in watching it, they are actively thinking/not just accepting ideals ("I thought you were against capitalism?" "it's not about capitalism anymore, it's the entertainment value")

history of Al Jazeera

- started with $150 million government grant (emir of Qatar) - emir provides subsidies on yearly basis - sources of income: adv., cable subscription, broadcasting deals with other companies, selling footage - footage rebroadcast by major global media including CNN and BBC

New International Division of Cultural Labor (NICL) theory

- suggests that peripheral locations compete by cutting prices - an outcome of globalization. - it is the spatial division of labor which occurs when the process of production is no longer confined to national economies. This has led to a trend of transference, or what is also known as the "global industrial shift", in which production processes are relocated from developed countries (USA, Europe, Japan) to countries in Asia and Latin American

McDonaldization

- the homogenizing spread of consumerism around the globe - Americanization - Ubiquitous expanse - target of protestscorp. adapting self to - surrounding culture. (i.e. McFelafel in Egypt, no beef in India)

Media Globalization and Democracy

- two criticisms of democracy: 1) doesn't fit in with the rest of the world 2)trying to impose democracy on other countries is undemocratic - Democracy as "western" or "American"; globalization=homogenization - democracy as expression of collective will bottom up model of media and democracy (globalization=heterogenization=diversity) - cultural imperialism leads to global cultural homogenization - connected to political, economic imperialism

Synergy

- two or more things functioning together to produce a result not independently obtainable. - vertical and horizontal integration

finanscapes

- unpredictable and complex movement of captial across time and space - complex relationships among money flows, resources and labor - local economy following increasingly unpredictable, non-isomorphic paths - as technology compresses time and space - no longer regionally - circumscribed - our ability to access things across time and space has changed - a day is still a day, but what you can do in a day has increased dramatically - a dollar is still a dollar, but it has no control over the dollar (Dependent on other currency in- and deflation

"How to Read Donald Duck"

- western imperialism text - not just about furry animals sent on adventures by rich comic uncle to "Unsteadystan" (superficial meaning) but about the capitalist-imperialist world-view implicit in the narrative - presented in harmless way for children's entertainment - creating ideals that *American superiority is best *"exotic" (third world) lands holding wealth "there for the taking" by western adventures *depiction of third world nations in terms of racial and cultural stereotypes (infantilization of natives) *anti-communist, anti-revolutionary propaganda *suppressed women, etc. - Capitalism themes *obsession with money personified by Uncle Scrooge *"compulsive consumerism"

commodity fetishism

- why buy coke or pepsi and not sam's club brand? - value added with brand name - we fetishize certain values that have nothing to do with product

mediascapes

- worldwide production, distribution, and consumption of information by media - global 'repertoire' of images, narratives, information available to audiences - blurring of lines between 'realistic' and fictional landscapes - (news, commodities, pastiche, nostalgia) - provide 'scripts' and 'metaphors' which shape imagined lives of audiences

Deterritorialization and Non-isomorphism of "scapes"

-Metropole periphery model and meeting the needs of a deterritorialized population. Each of the five scapes are becoming deterritorialized--the global flows are not always territorially bound or stable and Non-isomorphism: unpredictable and complex interaction among "scapes" - ex: Fortune Cookie - (first move of deterritorialization is influx of refugees, second their seeking worldwide)

Four Major Trends in Globalization

1. Anglo - American hegemony in global media and communications infrastructure (american and euro/american) 2. Rise of a transnational corporate culture 3. Resurgence of culture as basis for identity 4. Emergencec of diverse/alternative/local media

Tier one Media Conglomerates

Global media market has come to be dominated by seven multinational corporations: Disney, AOL-Time Warner, Sony, News Corporation, Viacom, Vivendi, and Bertelsmann

"McWorld"

catchphrase for the ubiquity of American corporations overseas

creative/ industrial clusters

creation of hi-tech cities, television cities to compete with regional and global players

Al arabiy

owned by middle east broadcasting center

democracy of governance

plain democracy?

Al Hurra

promoted by US gov

Al Alam

supported by iranian gov