Midterm Exam PDF - Global Media Cultures

Module 2 Midterm Period Lesson 1: Global Media Cultures Lesson Objectives: Analyze how various media drive various forms of global integration. Compare the social impacts of different media on the processes of globalization. Explain...

Module 2 Midterm Period Lesson 1: Global Media Cultures Lesson Objectives: Analyze how various media drive various forms of global integration. Compare the social impacts of different media on the processes of globalization. Explain the dynamics between local and global cultural production. Getting Started: In this lesson, you will learn about the role of media as an essential tool in spreading cultures globally. Before reading the discussion, take time to read the following keywords related to this lesson: Audience Studies. Audience studies is a broad and multifaceted area of communication research. It encompasses a wide range of theoretical perspectives and a diversity of methodological approaches that all share an understanding of how and why audiences engage with media and the broader political, cultural, and economic implications of the media––audience relationship. (Link: https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780199756841/obo-9780199756841- 0135.xml) Communication Network. A communication network is the pattern of directions in which information flows in the organization. Channels of communication (networks by which information flows) are either formal networks or informal networks. Formal networks follow the authority chain and are limited to task-related communications. The informal network (grapevine) is free to move in any direction, skip authority levels. It is as likely to satisfy group members' social needs as it is to facilitate task accomplishments. (Link:https://www.wisdomjobs.com/e-university/principles-of-management-and-organisational- behaviour-tutorial-366/communication-networks-12761.html) Cultural imperialism. Cultural imperialism is the imposition of a politically or economically dominant community of various aspects of its own culture onto another non-dominant community. It is a form of imperialism. The imposing community forcefully extends the authority of its way of life over the other population by either transforming or replacing aspects of the non-dominant community's culture. (Link: https://www.britannica.com/topic/cultural-imperialism) Th e Co n te mpo r ary Wo rld Mod ule 2 (Mid ter m) | Le sso n 1 P a g e |1  Cultural products. Cultural products are goods and services that include the arts (performing arts, visual arts, architecture), heritage conservation (museums, galleries, libraries), the cultural industries (written media, broadcasting, film, recording), and festivals. (Source: www.igi-global.com) Cyberghetto. The equivalent of a ghetto in cyberspace, a place on the internet where a social group is marginalized. (Link: https://www.yourdictionary.com/cyberghetto) Hegemony. The social, cultural, ideological, or economic influence exerted by a dominant group. (Link: https://www.merriam webster.com/dictionary/hegemony) Social Structures. Social structures are the internal institutionalized relationships built up by persons living within a group (such as a family or community), especially concerning the hierarchical organization of status and the rules and principles regulating behavior. (Link: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/social%20structure) Splinternet. This is a word made up of "split" and "internet." It refers to the balkanization of the internet, fragmented and divided due to technology, commerce, politics, nationalism, religion, and particular interests. The New Generation Media Tools: How often do you use this platform to deliver your message? Discussion: Globalization relies on media as its main instrument for the spread of global culture and ideas. There is a close relationship between globalization and media which must be revealed to further understand the contemporary world. Th e Co n te mpo r ary Wo rld Mod ule 2 (Mid ter m) | Le sso n 1 P a g e |2 A. Media and Its Functions. Dr. Jack Lule, professor of global studies and professor and chair of journalism and communication at Lehigh University, describes media as a “means of conveying something, such as a channel of communication.” For media commentators, “media” refer to technologies of mass communication. Human speech is the oldest and most enduring of all media; this is referred to as oral communication. Meanwhile, the script is the first writing that allowed humans to communicate and share knowledge and ideas over much larger spaces and longer. The printing press started the information revolution and transformed markets, businesses, nations, schools, churches, governments, armies, and more. In 1979, Elizabeth Einstein surveyed the many profound influences of the printing press. These influences include the preservation and standardization of knowledge and the challenge of political and religious authority. Newer forms of media include electronic and digital media. Electronic media are forms of media that require electricity to use. Telegraph, telephone, radio, film, and television are the usual media collected under this. Digital media, on the other hand, are electronic media that rely on digital codes. (Steger et al., 2014) Johannes Guttenberg and the invention of the printing press. History recounts that the first-ever printed book in this machine was the Bible. While defining the term "media " is relatively easy," it is more challenging to determine what media do and how they affect societies. It might be simple to define what media is; however, its functions and effects in society are more complex. Media theorist Marshall McLuhan asserted the famous line – “the medium is the message.” He did not mean that ideas or messages are useless and do not affect people. The statement tries to draw attention to how media reform societies as a form of technology. The media is used to convey a message Th e Co n te mpo r ary Wo rld Mod ule 2 (Mid ter m) | Le sso n 1 P a g e |3 in itself influence how people live. Since the introduction of the television in the 1960s, it steered people from the dining table where they eat and tell stories to each other. It also drew most people away from other meaningful activities such as playing games or reading books. Television is not a simple channel of communication; it changes viewers' social behavior and family behavior. This is the same in the case of smartphones today. Savvy phone users can now keep in touch quickly with multiple people simultaneously, which was impossible in the previous years. It can be concluded that technology (medium), and not the message, initiate social change. McLuhan also asserted that the various forms of new media extend human senses and dumb them simultaneously. New media may have increased the extent of communication, but they also dull the communicative capacities of humans. For example, before people wrote things down on paper, stories were done orally. To be able to transmit stories verbally, storytellers had to have sharp and retentive memories. When the paper was invented and widely used, people acquired the ability to write down their stories. According to some philosophers, this decreased the capacity of people to remember. This is the same case in the use of cellular phones. Though they expand people’s senses because they provide the capability to communicate to more people instantly at the same time, they also limit human senses because they make users easily distracted and more prone to multi-tasking. This is not necessarily a bad thing; it is merely a social change with a trade-off. (Abinales and Claudio, 2018) B. Global Media Cultures and the Global Village The media have a significant impact on cultural globalization in two mutually interdependent ways. First, the media provide an extensive transnational transmission of cultural products, and second, they contribute to the formation of communication networks and social structures. Global media cultures create a continuous cultural exchange in which crucial aspects such as identity, nationality, religion, behavioral norms, and way of life are continuously questioned and challenged. These cultural encounters often involve meeting cultures with a different socio-economic base, typically a transnational and commercial cultural industry on one side and a national, publicly regulated cultural industry on the other side. (Ariola, 2018) Th e Co n te mpo r ary Wo rld Mod ule 2 (Mid ter m) | Le sso n 1 P a g e |4  McLuhan analyzed the social changes brought about by electronic media, particularly television. He declared that the television was turning the world into a “global village.” Marshall McLuhan regarded this concept as a phenomenon that connected the world. Drawn closely together by media, people would be like neighbors living in an ideal condition of universal understanding and unity. (Steger et al., 2014). As more people watch the TV, they gradually perceive the world as a smaller community. Global media tends to homogenize culture. As global media spread, people from all over the world would begin to watch, listen to, and read the same things. People will never meet face to face with all or even most of the other members of their nation, but they can imagine themselves as one. Imagination is a social fact and a staging ground for action (Arjun Appadurai, 1996). However, Lewis Mumford thought that media technology was instead used as a tool for capitalism, militarism, profit, and power. (Steger et al., 2014). JFK and MJ. The political turmoil of the Cuban Missile Crisis year 1962 and the Be Like Mike commercial 1992. Can you identify the effect of this event on the public? Commentators believed that media globalization coupled with American hegemony would create a form of cultural imperialism whereby American values and culture would overwhelm all others. Herbert Schiller, a media critic, argued that not only was the world being Americanized, but this process also led to the spread of "American" capitalist values like consumerism. Meanwhile, John Tomlinson considered cultural globalization as simply a euphemism for "Western cultural imperialism" since it promotes "homogenized, Westernized, consumer culture." (Abinales and Claudio, 2018) C. Cultural Imperialism through Media In the 1980s, media scholars began to pay attention to how audiences understood and interpreted media messages. The field of audience studies emphasizes that media consumers are active participants in the meaning-making process, who view media "texts" (in media studies, a "text" refers to the content of Th e Co n te mpo r ary Wo rld Mod ule 2 (Mid ter m) | Le sso n 1 P a g e |5 any medium) through their cultural lenses. In 1990, Elihu Katz and Tamar Liebes argued that “texts” are received differently by varied interpretive communities because they derived different meanings and pleasures from these texts. Apart from the challenge of audience studies, the renewed strength of regional trends in the globalization process has contradicted the cultural imperialism thesis. Asian culture, for example, has proliferated worldwide through the globalization of media. From Hello Kitty to the Mario Brothers to Pokémon, Japanese brands are now an indelible part of global popular culture. Given these patterns, it is no longer acceptable to insist that globalization is a unidirectional process of foreign cultures overwhelming local ones. As noted in Lesson 1, globalization will remain an uneven process, and it will produce inequalities. Nevertheless, it leaves room for dynamism and cultural change. This is not a contradiction; it is merely a testament to the phenomenon's complexity. (Abinales and Claudio, 2018) The Best from the Decades. Are you familiar with these? F. Social media and the Creation of Cyberghettos The internet and social media prove that the globalization of culture and ideas can move in different directions. The internet, particularly social media, is challenging previous ideas about media and globalization. As with all new media, social media have both beneficial and adverse effects. On the one hand, these forms of communication have democratized access. Anyone with an internet connection or a smartphone can use Facebook and Twitter for free. These media have enabled users to be consumers and producers of information simultaneously. (Abinales and Claudio, 2018) Th e Co n te mpo r ary Wo rld Mod ule 2 (Mid ter m) | Le sso n 1 P a g e |6  However, social media also have their dark side. In the early 2000s, commentators began referring to the emergence of a splinternet and the phenomenon of cyber balkanization to refer to the various bubbles people place themselves in when they are online. Being on Facebook can resemble living in an echo chamber, which enforces one's existing beliefs and opinions. This echo chamber precludes users from listening to or reading opinions and information that challenge their viewpoints, thus, making them more partisan and closed- minded. (Abinales and Claudio, 2018) Suggested Links: Understanding the splinternet: can the world ever be truly global? By Enrique Dans. https://medium.com/enrique-dans/understanding-the-splinternet-can-the-world-ever-be-truly- global-97262a60678c References/Attributions: Abinales, P.N. & Claudio, L.E., (2018). The Contemporary World. Quezon City: C&E Publishing, Inc. Aldama, P. R. (2018). The Contemporary World. Manila: Rex Bookstore. Ariola, M.M. (2018). The Contemporary World. Manila: Unlimited Books Library Services & Publishing Inc. Steger, M. B., Battersby, P., & Siracusa, J. M. (2014). The SAGE Handbook of Globalization. Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications “The Generation Media Tools” https://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2018-04- 01/newspaper-opinions/Media-imperialism-and-Generation-X-6736187228 “Johannes Guttenberg and the invention of the printing press.” https://www.history.com/news/7-things-you-may-not-know-about-the-gutenberg-bible JFK and MJ. https://edition.cnn.com/2012/10/15/world/americas/cuban-missile-crisis-fifty- years/index.html https://medium.com/@cguagliardo0165/be-like-mike-9c1f88f5e1fe The Best from the Decades. https://time.com/4236157/pokemon-20-anniversary/ https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/vintage-super-mario-bros-video-game-sells- 114000-1302902 Th e Co n te mpo r ary Wo rld Mod ule 2 (Mid ter m) | Le sso n 1 P a g e |7