Media, Culture, and Globalization (Spring 2023/2024) PDF

GLOBALIZATION: MEDIA, CULTURE, & GLOBALIZATION SPRING 2023/2024 WHAT IS MASS MEDIA? Mass media refers to media technologies used to broadcast information to a wide audience. The key function of mass media is to communicate various messages through television, movies, advertising, radio, the int...

GLOBALIZATION: MEDIA, CULTURE, & GLOBALIZATION SPRING 2023/2024 WHAT IS MASS MEDIA? Mass media refers to media technologies used to broadcast information to a wide audience. The key function of mass media is to communicate various messages through television, movies, advertising, radio, the internet, magazines, and newspapers. The mass media are seen today as playing a key role in enhancing globalization, facilitating culture exchange and multiple flows of information and image between countries through international news broadcasts, television programming, new technologies, films and music. Before the 1990s, mainstream media systems in most countries of the world were relatively national in scope. However, most communication media have become increasingly global, extending their reach beyond the nation-state to reach audiences worldwide. GLOBALIZED MEDIA The media industry is, in many ways, perfect for globalization, or the spread of global trade without regard for traditional political borders. The low marginal costs of media mean that reaching a wider market creates much larger profit margins for media companies. Why/How? Because information is not a physical good, shipping costs are generally not important. However, some have argued that media is actually a partial cause of globalization, rather than just another globalized industry. WHERE DOES THE CONTENT COME FROM? Much globalized media content comes from the West, particularly from the U.S. Driven by advertising, U.S. culture and media have a strong consumerist bent (meaning that the ever-increasing consumption of goods is encouraged as an economic virtue), thereby possibly causing foreign cultures to increasingly develop consumerist ideals. Therefore, the globalization of media could not only provide content to a foreign country, but may also create demand for U.S. products. Some believe that this will “contribute to a one-way transmission of ideas and values that result in the displacement of indigenous cultures.” TRANSFER OF CULTURES Globalization as a world economic trend generally refers to the lowering of economic trade borders, but it has much to do with culture as well. Just as the transfer of industry and technology often encourages outside influence through the entry of foreign money into the economy, the transfer of culture opens up these same markets. As globalization takes hold and a particular community becomes more like the U.S. economically, this community may also come to adopt and personalize U.S. cultural values. The outcome of this spread can be homogenization (the local culture becomes more like the culture of the U.S.) or heterogenization (aspects of U.S. culture come to exist alongside local culture, causing the culture to become more diverse). TRANSFER OF CULTURES For example, concepts like “Fair and Lovely” replaced traditional beauty standards in regions with people of color. By focusing on these beauty standards, people of color often feel insecure and feel the need to fit into the molds of Western beauty standards. As a result, markets have capitalized on the demands, resulting in brands producing wide varieties of whitening creams and supplements to adhere to these beauty standards. Thus, making a profit out of it. MEDIA IMPERIALISM American culture is increasingly exported around the world because of globalization, and many U.S. media outlets count strongly on their ability to sell their product in foreign markets. But what Americans consider their own culture has in fact been tailored to the tastes not only of U.S. citizens but also to those of worldwide audiences. The profit potential of foreign markets is enormous: If a movie does well abroad, for example, it might make up for a weak stateside showing, and may even drive interest in the movie in the U.S. MEDIA IMPERIALISM One prime example of global culture and marketing is the film Titanic. Titanic was not anticipated to perform particularly well at the U.S. box office. Rather, predictions of foreign box-office receipts allowed the movie to be made. Of the total box-office receipts of Titanic, only about one-third came from the domestic market. Titanic grossed $1.2 billion in foreign box-office receipts. MEDIA IMPERIALISM Mass media reporting of foreign affairs very often governs what kind of image of a country, or a culture predominates. International news agencies like Reuters, AP, UPI and AFP have been assigned a role by media scholars of having contributed to spreading a global agenda and in creating particular perceptions of the South as being a place of “corruption, coup and disaster” for Western audiences. The Western dominance of news broadcasting was perceived as reproducing the prejudices of colonialism. The news agencies came specifically under attack by Third World critics during the New World Information and Communication Order (NWICO). The allegations made against the Western news agencies were that they did not cover enough of the developing countries, the material covered was little and the tendency was to reinforce a biased image. These perspectives were rejected by the representatives of the US and the UK, who felt threatened by requests for balanced free flows and thus withdrew their support from UNESCO. DEBATE QUESTION “Pablo Escobar was a hero for the people of Colombia.” GROUP G GROUP C FOR AGAINST 1. Mohammad Waddah Mousa Amro 1. Mahra Ibrahim Saif Alratouq Alsuwaidi 2. Rashid Ali Mohamed Binjersh Alsuwaidi 2. Rawdha Khaled Masoud Ali Aldhaheri 3. Hamdan Abdelrahman Saif Alzarooni 3. Afra Abdulrahim Obaid Abdulla Albadwawi 4. Shames Waleed Abdulla Ebrahim Alshamsi 4. Janan Khalid Mohamed Khalfan Alnaqbi 5. Rashid Obaid Rashid Mohamed Alnaqbi 5. Tahiya Mohamed Hassan Altalaia Aldhuhoori 6. Alfahad Mansour Hussain Abdalla Alhammadi 6. Salama Fadhel Humaid Badaw Alfalasi DEBATE QUESTION “In a globalized world, states are utterly powerless in the fight against organized crime.” GROUP H GROUP D FOR AGAINST 1. Abdulnaser Hamdan Abdulla Yaqoob Alzaabi 1. Shouq Mohamed Ahmed Dughali Aldhuhoori 2. Salem Jamal Abdulaziz Humaid Alqasimi 2. Mariam Younis Ali Mohamed Alhosani 3. Sultan Abdulaziz Abdulrahman Almusallam 3. Hamdan Saeed Marzouq Alnaqbi Alkhaaldi 4. Mohamed Ebrahiem Mohamed Alsamahi 4. Saeed Abdalla Saif Obaid Alyammahi 5. Mohamed Salem Mohamed Alzeyoudi