Lecture 12: Globalisation, Sustainability and the Media

Socialism - Transformation of local or regional phenomena into worldwide. 

Socialist -The process of transformation of local or regional phenomena into global ones. It can be described as a process by which the people of the world are unified into a single society and function together. This process is a combination of economic, technological, sociocultural and political forces. 
Capitalist -The elimination of state-enforced restrictions on exchanges across borders and the increasingly integrated and complex global system of production and exchange that has emerged as a result

Globalization

"Global Integration"

The world becoming a much smaller, more integrated environment. e.g. The Arab Sprint. Triggerd by rapid communications with the West vs The East. Citizens of countries such as Libya and Syria could easily almost act as uncensored news journalists through outlets such as Twitter.

McDonalds. "McDonaldization"

B. Steger.

The wide-ranging socioculturual processes by which fast-food process are dominating sectors of US Society

Exotic places still have the same Starbucks & McDonalds around the corner.

Marshall McLuhan - 1964. "Extended our nervous system in a global embrace."

‘Today, after more than a century of electric technology, we have extended our central nervous system in a global embrace, abolishing both space and time as far as our planet is concerned’ (1964: p.3)

Rapidity of Communication echoes the senses 

We can experience instantly the effects of our actions on a global scale.

Experiencing effects of our behaviour in a global scale. Quite true!

Global Village Thesis

‘As electrically contracted, the globe is no more than a village. Electric speed at bringing all social and political functions together in a sudden implosion has heightened human awareness of responsibilty to an intense degree’ (1964: p.5).

Thought is should make us more aware of our responsibilities."Globe no bigger than a village."

Nothing is hidden and news is everywhere.

But the problem is it kind of hasn't brought us together and maybe in fact segregated the world and communities even more.

Hatred can be spread from behind a screen without any obvious personal ramifications of your actions.

Centripetal Forces X Centrifugal forces.

Internet

3 problems of Globalisation

• Sovereignty - Challenging the idea of a nation.
• Accountability - People aren't always held accountable, people are reckless with their actions
• Identity

"Globalization: A Very short Intro""

"Does globalization make people around the world more alike or different?"

Cultural Imperialism

If the 'global village' is run with a certain set of values then it would not be so much an integrated community as an assimilated one. 

Key thinkers: 
–Schiller
–Chomsky

Schills v Chomsley
Empires - British Empire. Soviety Union.

Forcing your culture on others. US culture leaking into UK for example, hip-hop culture and idolising American celebs and prominent figures and knowing more about American politics than UK politics for example.

• US Presidential elections hold much more interest to the younger generation than Prime Ministerial elections in the UK which is interesting, the US' culture and news is forced upon us.
• People are less regionally unique. People for examples speak US slang and vocabulary from other countries, dialects are now going missing. For example the 'classic Australian' way of speaking is pretty much non-existant nowadays and this could be from globalisation.

Rigging the ‘Free Market’ 

• FREE MARKET - Media conglomerates operate as oligopolies.
• Giant multinational corporations own little ones, which in turn own little ones. So in reality only a handful of corporations basically run media and journalism! One of the biggest ones is TIME WARNER

e.g. Rage Against The Machine. Anti disestablishment movement to get RATM to Number 1 instea of Joe McElderry. In reality, the same corporation owned the record labels for both artists so the same fat cats got the money in the end...

News Corporations divide territories into descending market importance.

• e.g. Big Brother. Repackaged and sold around the world. Countries lap it up. Has real social effects, for example in India after the release of Bigg Boss the biggest selling product in India was skin whitening cream.

Propaganda Models

Chomsky & Herman (1998) 

‘Manufacturing Consent’ 

Propaganda Model- 5 basic filters

• Ownership 
• Funding 
• Sourcing 
• Flak 
• Anti Communist ideology

Ownership 

–Rupert Murdoch, selected media interests 

•News of The World 

•The Sun 

•The Sunday Times 

•The Times 

•NY Post 

•BSkyB 

•Fox TV

Sourcing
Funding
Flak

Anti- Ideologies

Al Gore, (2006) ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ dir. Davis Guggenheim 

Al Gore, (2006) ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ dir. Davis Guggenheim

Sustainability 

‘sustainable development is the development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs’

Brundtland Commission, (1987) ‘Our Common Future’

•Needs (particularly of the worlds poor)
•Limitations of technology

    

Erin Balser, 'Capital Accumulation, Sustainability and Hamilton, Ontario: How Technology and Capitalism can Misappropriate the Idea of Sustainability' 

Greenwashing

‘Most things are not designed for the needs of the people but for the needs of the manufacturers to sell to people’
Papanek.V, 1983, p46    

Victor Papanek

 

Shepard Fairey

G20 Protests