The Media and Globalisation Flashcards
(29 cards)
1
Q
What is globalisation?
A
- Globalization is the way societies across the globe has become increasingly connected, they are now exposed to the same cultural products across the world which has led to a popular culture
2
Q
What does McLuhan argue about the impact of technology?
A
- The speed of technology is rapidly increasing and the world is now becoming a global village (McLuhan), this describes how electronic media collapses time barriers and people from around the world can now interact with each other instantaneously on a global scale. This means the world has now became more like one community
- More people are now exposed to the same information and messages such as TV shows can be seen in all countries of the world
3
Q
What is popular/mass culture?
A
- Popular Culture is a culture that is liked and enjoyed by ordinary people
- This is enjoyed by the majority and is highly commercialized. This involves mass produced and standardized products which are short lived and hold no artistic value
- These products are made to be sold on a global mass market to make profits and enjoyed by the mass media
4
Q
How is popular culture inferior to high culture?
A
- This is an everyday culture which is simple and easy to understand,
- Popular Culture is passive and unchallenging entertainment designed to be sold to a large audience
- These products are dumbed down and require little thought
- Stories are often tabloidization which is a sensationalized and dumbed down form of infotainment
5
Q
Who spreads popular culture?
A
- The mass media are spreading a common mass culture to many people across large communities
6
Q
What is high culture?
A
- High culture is seen as something set apart from everyday life and that it is seen as something special and to be treated to have a lasting value
7
Q
Who is high culture aimed at?
A
- High culture products are found in special places and mainly aimed at the upper class, and audiences with good taste
- This includes things with comprehensive details with analysis and discussions.
8
Q
What do postmodernists argue about the distinction? How has media impacted this?
A
- Postmodernists argue that the distinction between high and popular culture is weakening
- The global reach of media is now on a world scale and easier international transport which means cultural products are available to everyone
- This has been expanded with advertising which then makes the distinction weakening
- Changes allow cultural products to be consumed by the mass of people in their own homes without the need to visit specialized places
- High culture is no longer to preserve the cultural elites as there is now a wider diversity of choices, people are able to pick and mix their culture
9
Q
What does Strinati and Giddings argue?
A
- Strinati agrees with Giddings argues that high culture is now apart of popular culture and incorporated into both.
- Giddings points out that forms of high culture is now used to promote products for the mass market. Popular culture brings together aspects of high culture
10
Q
What has impacted the changing distinction?
A
- Technology has made it possible for mass audiences to see and study high culture products such as paintings or to be able to see it online
- People are able to build their own private high culture as copies are available to everyone
- High culture images are reproduced everywhere and literature is turned into major mass movies
11
Q
What is an evalution of popular culture?
A
- Popular culture is often attacked for diverting people away from useful activities and drive down standards, and having a harmful effect on mass audiences
- Marxists see mass culture as mass produced products for financial profit
- It is a form of social control which gives an illusion of choice of dumbed down infotainment
- This culture maintains the ideological hegemony of a dominant social class (Dominance of the ruling class through internalising their values)
12
Q
How does popular culture impact consumers? What does Marcuse, Strinati and Livingstone argue?
A
- Consumers are lulled into an uncritical passivity which is less likely to challenge the dominant ideas.
- Marcuse suggests that consumption of media generated mass culture undermined peoples ability to think critically about the world.
- This is a form of social repression and promotes conformity and a passive acceptance of the way things are in society
- Strinati rejects these views and does not agree that people passively and uncritically consume a single mass culture but there is a wide diversity of choice
- Livingstone found writers of soap operas found them as educating and informing the public about controversial social issues
13
Q
What is a global popular culture?
A
- A global popular culture is the way cultures in different countries of the world have become more alike, sharing similar consumer products which has undermined local cultures
- It is often western and means english is a dominant language
14
Q
How has globalisation undermimed local culture?
A
- Globalization has undermined local culture as the same cultural product is used across the world
- These products have becomes a way of life in different countries meaning more cultures are more alike
15
Q
What is the dominant media’s impact on smaller cultures?
A
- Powerful media makes the cultures more alike into one uniform culture which is cultural homogenization, this is where separate characteristics of a culture is blended into one culture
- Media conglomerates now operate in a global market, as they break down barriers between cultural distance and barriers
- Local companies cannot compete with the power of global media conglomerates and therefore go out of business
16
Q
What does Sklair argue about global popular culture?
A
- Sklair suggests the media spreads American ideas to a global market which blurs the difference between information and entertainment, this presents an idealized Western consumerist lifestyle
- This encourages acceptance of the dominant ideology of the ideology of consumerism
17
Q
What are different types of products that can be seen globally?
A
- Global brands can be recognized across the world due to transnational media to promote these products
- Television programmers can be seen globally in different formats of different countries
18
Q
How is a global popular culture media imperialism?
A
- Fenton shows that global rarely means universal it is usually the domination of the American culture over other cultures
- Most media conglomerates work in the US and dominate global communications, this is a process of cococolonization, this is media led global culture ideology of consumerism which means that Western products are forced onto other cultures which undermines other cultures
19
Q
What are the three views of globalisation’s impact on the media?
A
- The Pluralist
- The Critical view
- Postmodern view
20
Q
(Pluralists) = What do pluralists argue about popular culture?
A
- Pluralists argue there is no such thing as a popular culture as there is a wide range of media products which gives consumers a wide variety of choice
- New media technology enables consumers to create and distribute their own media products rather than being passive victims of western media conglomerates
- However, even if messages are distributed, it does not mean people will interpret the same way and adopt their cultural values, people are not just passive and Marxists argue that consumers have more choice than ever before meaning it is harder for one view to dominant the world
- There is cultural diversity and a blossoming of new ideas due to hybridization which is a blend of two cultures
21
Q
(Pluralists) = What does Compaine argue about popular culture?
A
- Compaine suggests that global competition is expanding information and entertainment rather than dumbing it down
22
Q
(Pluralists) = What does Tomlinson argue about popular culture?
A
- Tomlinson argues globalization does not involve direct cultural imposition from the western world but there is hybridization where people pick and mix different cultures which promotes different cultural styles and a range of cultural influences which is combined into a new hybrid culture
- They are glocalized which merge global and local cultures as they are adapted to suit tastes of local cultures
23
Q
(Critical) = What does the critical view argue about popular culture?
A
- The globalization of a popular culture is a great advantage to media owners as they gain profits from advertising across the globe which encourages people to consume their lifestyles
24
Q
(Critical) = What does Thussu argue about globalisation?
A
- Thussu argues the globalization of TV and competition between conglomerates has led to it being more tabloidized to created a global infotainment which is designed to entertain and inform, this is then promoted with a feel good factor based on western consumerist lifestyles
- This diverts peoples attention away from more serious issues from the media conglomerates, this lulls consumers into an uncritical passivity making them less likely to challenge the dominant ideas
25
(Critical) = What does the critical view believe about audience choice?
- They now have less choice due to controlled output of the lords of the global village who created dumbed down, standardized mass entertainment, which replaces more serious issues
26
(Post-Modernists) = What do Post Modernists believe about globalisation?
- Postmodernists view media globalization as offering more choice and diversity in terms of their consumerism
- They have more awareness and access to a diversity of cultures, meaning they can form their identities through unconstraint limitations
27
(Post-Modernists) = What does Baudrillard argue about globalisation?
- Baudrillard argues we live in a media saturated society which dominates and distorts the way we see the world, media images replace the way we see the world, this distorted view of the world is hyper reality and the media presents simulacra which is artificial images that have no relationship to the real world and are presented simultaneously across the world
- The media no longer reflects reality and the media blurs the distinction between reality and hyper-reality meaning audiences cannot tell the difference
- Baudrillard suggests we identify more with media images than we do with our own daily experiences and live in a media led life
- We associate ourselves more with online characters rather than people around us
28
(Post-Modernists) = What does Strinati argue?
- Strinati emphasizes the importance of shaping consumer choices which are bombarded daily
- TV, radio, etc. increases the way we define ourselves and our identity
- The media creates desires and pressures to consume which shapes our identity based on how others see us
- Media induced trends become more important to us rather than the usefulness of the products
- It is not the quality of the products that we buy that matters but whether it conforms to media induced images, the labels attached to these products is more important then
29
(Post-Modernists) = What is an evaluation of Post-Modernism?
- They assume that people approach media with no prior experiences and that they accept these images when they could ignore or reject
- Media does not create a new identity but reinforce existing stereotypes
- Many people do not have access to media or make decisions of consumerism no matter if they would like to
- Marxists argue that the choice is a myth as transnational media conglomerates control the major media influence
- The media is only one element which shapes our lives meaning we have different factors in how we select and respond to media
