Communiations

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Intercultural Communication for Everyday Life, First Edition. John R. Baldwin, Robin R. Means Coleman, Alberto González, and Suchitra Shenoy-Packer. © 2014 John R. Baldwin, Robin R. Means Coleman, Alberto González, and Suchitra Shenoy-Packer. Published 2014 by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Culture on the global media stage: How does the global flow of information impact culture?

Power and globalization: What drives the global media?

Global media, global cultures: How do culture and globalization influence each other?1

Chapter 11

Chapter objectives After this chapter, you should be able to:

➔ Define and give examples of global media

➔ Provide examples of media products that have crossed borders or have inspired cultural productions in another country

➔ Outline some of the historical and technological influences in the history of global media

➔ Evaluate the impact of globalization on notions of time and space

➔ Describe what is driving globalization of the media and predictions about its long-term effects

➔ Discuss positive and negative implications for global media in terms of local cultures

1 This chapter was co-authored by William Lafi Youmans, Assistant Professor at George Washington University’s School of Media and Public Affairs.

Baldwin, John R., et al. Intercultural Communication for Everyday Life, John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated, 2014. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/apus/detail.action?docID=1568419. Created from apus on 2022-04-26 00:04:28.

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Part four Contexts228

I n 1984, the rap group World Class Wreckin’ Cru released the 12-inch single Surgery. The single celebrated one of the core elements of rap music and hip hop culture—the DJ. It is the DJ who not only brings the music, but also puts it together to create unique blends, or mixes, of sounds and beats that are the hallmark of hip hop music. However, the group’s

song reminds us that the DJ is just one central part of rap music; the others are the techno- logical tools upon which hip hop DJs are so reliant—headphones, mixing boards, speakers, and turntables.

Rayvon Fouché, (2009; 2012) a technology scholar at the University of Illinois- Urbana Champaign, uses the example of the DJ and her/his technological resources to illustrate how the art form of rap music is the quintessential global intercultural phenomenon. Fouché reminds us that hip hop DJs rely upon turntable, speaker, and mixing board technologies such as those created by the Japanese electronics company Technics to develop “party energy.” To put it more pointedly, hip hop culture’s origins become much more complicated when we consider more broadly the sources of all that has contributed to the essence of hip hop. Prof. Fouché’s work is guided by a research question that is useful to all of our thinking: What are the multiple, global intersections and relationships between cultural representations, racial identification, and techno- logical design?

At the heart of this question, and what we are most concerned with in this chapter, is the notion that mediated communication knows no borders. Keeping with the hip hop exam- ple, we can imagine how diverse cultures have influenced the art form, but also how the art form has similarly informed cultures. For example, some have linked breakdancing to Chinese martial arts, while the popular American rap group, the Wu-Tang Clan, pay hom- age to Hong Kong Kung Fu films through their name and lyrics.

We can also talk about a host of other media that have gone global—from the films of Bollywood to the children’s television show Sesame Street. Global media can be understood as sources of mass communication that involve the transmission of messages, formats, programming, or content across national boundaries. It is often a complex, trans-national network of different media systems. It still makes sense to understand global media, much as we do traditional communication, through a model of senders and receivers. Similarly, global media operate in patterns by which we can speak of sending countries, those where global media sources are based, and receiving coun- tries, those that consume global media products based in other countries. While the

Lyrics from World Class Wreckin’ Cru highlight the global forces, even within a single culture, of blending cultural beliefs and discourse styles with technological tools—here, to craft hip hop music.Records. Mixer. Turntables. Speakers.

7 days a week, He’s on call, to get the party people up off the wall. You’ll feel motivated… as He operates… cause party energy is what He generates. He’ll prescribe for you his potent elixir —two turntables, speakers, and a mixer.

(Surgery by World Class Wreckin’ Cru, 1984)

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growth of multinational corporations increasingly breaks down this distinction, it is still possible to generalize flow patterns of cultural and media products from certain coun- tries or regions to others.

Global media need not have the purposeful goal of becoming a global phenomenon, even though content creators usually would like the largest audience possible. A media product, such as a television show or performer, created for one country could catch on elsewhere, and be translated or dubbed in different languages. For example, the popu- lar British television show Pop Idol became American Idol in 2002. Shakira, who recorded her CDs in Spanish, was a well-known brunette performer in Latin America and Europe years before she became the blond singer of Whenever, Wherever, and Hips Don’t Lie. Global media companies, those with production and distribution channels in different countries, may produce media with the idea and goal of sending it to mul- tiple countries. This has economic benefits since it means gaining more revenues. In other instances, there is a concerted effort to circulate media to other countries and cultures in order to have some public or political impact. For example, the Children’s Television Workshop, the producer of the U.S. children’s television show Sesame Street, offered the series internationally to countries such as Bangladesh, Indonesia, Jordan, Kosovo, Northern Ireland, Palestine, Russia, and South Africa, with the hope of addressing conflict or empowering children to better their societies (Figure 11.1). Media content can move across borders and reach new audiences through many differ- ent means and with different goals. This chapter summarizes some of the mutual influ- ences between culture and globalization, including positive and negative consequences for local cultures from globalization.

Figure 11.1 Characters from Pakistani Sesame Street are displayed in Lahore, Pakistan. Source: KM Chaudary/AP/ Press Association Photos.

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Culture on the global media stage: How does the global flow of information impact culture?

As the 2009 Hollywood blockbuster film Avatar drew in record box office sales worldwide, the Chinese government ordered its country’s theaters to pull the movie’s 2–D version to make way for the 2010 Chinese government-subsidized biopic Confucius, about the ancient Chinese philosopher, whose thinking has been deeply influential in China (LaFraniere, 2010). China, which has in place strict limits on the number of foreign movies that can be shown and how long they run, allowed the 3-D version to run (Figure 11.2). The reason for these limits was to protect China’s film industry from losing market share to non-Chinese moviemakers.

Bloggers and film critics in China speculated that it was not simply the rapid success of Avatar that alarmed officials. Some theorized that the plot too closely resembled the controversial government and corporate policies of forced removal, or the mass evictions of people to make room for new development. On an online forum in China, one viewer drew the connection:

They are very much alike. For instance, the conflict in the film also starts with land. When real estate developers want a piece of land, the local residents must move away; if they decline to leave, then real estate developers will resort to violent ways. (Han, 2010)

Break it down

The major Hollywood studios make most of their money from global markets. Try to figure out

the impact of U.S. films on foreign markets. Select a country outside of the U.S., and then

identify the top four movies, based on box office sales, for that country. Identify who produced

those movies by researching the film company and its affiliated media conglomerate, and make

a note of which country it originates from. See the worksheet below for a model on how to

approach this exercise. Note that Hollywood dominated the global media landscape in 1999.

Based on your study, has anything changed since then? What are the implications for local

cultures and international media flow, based on your findings?

COUNTRY:

Top 4 films Production company National origin

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Another joked that the Chinese demolition crews should sue James Cameron, who produced and directed Avatar, for pirating their actions.

One underlying message of Avatar is an environmental one. Cameron himself said at a news conference that he saw the movie “as a broader metaphor, not so intensely politi- cized as some would make it, but rather that’s how we treat the natural world as well” (Itzkoff, 2010). Debates about the environment in general, as with globalization, mirror debates about global media. The environment is like global media in that what one country does impacts others. Pollution, for instance, does not stop at a country’s bor- ders. Increasingly, news, entertainment, and images have the same kind of fluidity. Transportation technologies have been a boon to media globalization. Reels of the latest film or boxes of a popular novel can be shipped by airplane to distant theaters or book- stores in a matter of days, or even hours. In the era of the Internet, this sort of border- crossing is instantaneous. As soon as someone in Tanzania updates her Facebook status, her friend in New Zealand can see the change. Communication technologies such as radio, satellite television and the Internet make it inexpensive for information and other media content to move through the world. Therefore, while governments may try to control media exposure—such as China’s movie import limits or the American govern- ment’s censorship of war images—there is no way to fully prevent media messages from circulating. More, information sources and media environments are increasingly impacted by this dynamic global connectivity.

Most often, global media is discussed within the context of globalization, the social, cultural, economic, and political integration of different parts of the world. Globalization is facilitated by the movement of goods, capital, ideas, and people among nations. Under this definition, globalization has been taking place for as long as humans have moved. However, current globalization processes are arguably more intense, given advances in transportation and communication technology (Giddens, 1990). Also important is the integration of the global economic system, which allows for a more rapid circulation of people, ideas, and resources.

Figure 11.2 Chinese moviegoers donned 3-D glasses to watch Avatar in Hefei, in Anhui Province. Source: AFP/Getty Images.

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Central to contemporary globalization—since the end of the Cold War in the late 1980s—is the economic engine of capitalism, an economic system based on exchange through markets and the private ownership of capital. Global media, though going back decades, emerged most prominently in its current form in the early 1990s, after capitalism expanded in the midst of the Cold War’s end. The Cold War saw the world split into three ideological camps: the capitalist bloc, centered on the United States; the communist bloc, which emerged around the Soviet Union (Russia and surrounding countries); and the non- aligned countries, of which Egypt, India, and Indonesia were leaders. These divisions meant that no one economic system ruled the world. As a result, for a time, international media were constrained from having truly global reach. First, as countries in Eastern Europe, South America, Asia, and Africa allied themselves with one side of the Cold War or the other, countries tended to import only media from those countries. Also, because of the challenge of opposing countries’ media, countries deliberately blocked media input from other countries. In fact, the primary global media crossing Cold War lines were state-run broadcasters that were founded to fight the Cold War through messages and reporting rep- resenting their sponsoring governments; stations such as Radio Free Europe (United States) and the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) were broadcasting across borders and ideological lines. With the end of the Cold War, economic integration and capitalist media prevailed, leading to a proliferation of private media crossing international lines.

Globalization is symbolized by the fact that an audience in China can enjoy Avatar, the most costly Hollywood movie up to that point. At the same time, a cinema audience in the United States, albeit probably a smaller one, watched the 2008 film Red Cliff, produced by Magnolia Pictures, which was then the most expensive Asian-produced film. The John Woo-directed Chinese epic film presented the legendary Battle of Red Cliffs during the end of the Han Dynasty. In the age of media globalization, expensive movies are often made with international audiences in mind. They must be marketed internationally, with the movie posters framed differently for different audiences.

Just because both movies could be seen in both places, it does not mean that globaliza- tion is an equal or mutual process. While Avatar made more than 540 million yuan ($80 million) in the Chinese box office, Red Cliff pulled in little over half-a-million dollars in the United States. This relates to one of the most important debates in global media: whether global media means stronger and more powerful countries and companies will come to dominate international media environments.

Many are concerned with what this means for the native cultures and national identities on the receiving end of global media. Some critics tend to see globalization as a homogeniz- ing force. Others argue that globalization also includes fragmentation, which means that standardization is not truly possible; while another group of critics argue that cultural inter- actions and borrowings are natural in history (as we have seen with hip hop culture), and that more often cultures adapt concepts and tools from other cultures in unique, hybrid ways. The cultural implications for the growing spread of media globally are considerable.

The global media experience Have you listened to a song by Jamaican-born singer Bob Marley, seen the American television show The Office, or viewed news reports from the Al-Jazeera network headquartered in Qatar? If so, you have been on the consuming end of global media. The global nature of the mediated communication we experience in our lives is often inescapable, and frequently, we do not even know how international the media product is that we witness. For example, the popular

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American situation comedy, The Office, was developed from a British series of the same name. The British actors were replaced by American ones and the American show was set in Scranton, PA. The humor changed as well. It came to reflect cultural differences in comedy.

Perhaps you were one of the one hundred million people to watch Susan Boyle astound the audience with her vocals on the British version of the reality-based talent show American Idol. If so, you saw first-hand how media content can travel between countries with ease in various forms and in different avenues. In her first appearance on the program, she seemed so awkward and un-starlike, yet shocked the audience with her impressive singing. Susan Boyle was first seen by many in the United States in mid-2009 on YouTube, a video-hosting website that lets anyone upload their own clips. She was not introduced in the United States as she was in the UK, on a regular television channel. Many learned about this video clip from their peers—friends and families—through email, social networking sites (Orkut, hi5, Facebook, Twitter, etc.). As Boyle became an Internet sensation, local and national enter- tainment and news programs began to cover her worldwide popularity. Even more people, those who still gained their news through the traditional channels of communication, learned about her eventually. Her popularity shows that there are still national divisions in the still powerful systems of television networks. Additionally, online content can easily go viral—that is, spread rapidly at the person-to-person level. This can have the effect of bringing the media experiences in one nation to another nation, even if the traditional media, such as TV networks, are not fully integrated. In a more recent example, South Korean overnight superstar, Psy, sang Gangnam Style, a parody video about the materialism of an upscale Seoul, South Korea, neighborhood (Figure 11.3). The video went viral, with

Figure 11.3 South Korean pop star Psy, whose video, Gangnam Style, went viral, with 131 million YouTube views in its first 52 days, making it the fifth most viral video of all time. Source: Charles Sykes/AP/Press Association Images.

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131 million YouTube views in its first 52 days, making it the fifth most viral video of all time, and earning Psy a prominent place in the New York, U.S.A. massive New Years festi- vals (Webfluenz, 2012).

Satellite television: The progenitor of global media While national television systems such as cable TV or traditional over-the-air, terrestrial broadcasters are not fully integrated internationally, the proliferation of satellite television has greatly expanded the reach of stations to hit regions. Cable systems are limited by the reach of the wires, which transmit the TV signals. Over-the-air, or terrestrial broadcasting involves signals transmitted through the air from land-based antenna and is limited in reach to a radius of relatively flat ground, based on the power of the antennas. While signals of this nature may cross borders if the receiver is close enough to the source of the signal, their lim- ited reach does not make them a significant feature of the current global media context. Satellite TV requires a powerful uplinking antenna on earth, sending a signal to a commu- nications satellite that is stationed in space. The satellite processes and reflects the signal to an area of the earth where homes with satellite dishes receive the signals. This reaches a generally greater percentage of the earth than does terrestrial broadcasting; also, satellite television can carry more channels than cable or terrestrial broadcasting. In many parts of the world, satel- lite dishes are ubiquitous, on the tops of homes and businesses everywhere.

Satellite television was called the “new media” before the Internet became widespread. Satellite TV grew to define new audiences and led to the growth of regional and trans- national channels. It also significantly undermined the power of national governments to control their population’s media diets. In many ways, the story of the global media can be said to begin with satellite television. Today, an increasing number of countries are send- ing satellites into space. However, as Thomas McPhail (2010) notes, only satellites at a specific height at the equator have maximum coverage; and the available locations for these satellites are already occupied by the industrialized (Western) powers that first had the technology and funds to put satellites there, leaving less desirable locations, with smaller signal spread, for newly developing nations.

Producers in one country will purchase successful programs produced in other coun- tries and either dub their country’s language over the original programs or include subtitles. One of the easiest television formats to cross-over, or adapt from one country to another, is animation. Dubbing new languages over animated moving mouths works better, it seems, and this correlates to the large number of cartoon adaptations. Comic books, by the same token, are frequently translated and republished for new national audiences. A leading producer of animated content is Japan. In 2003, animation, including manga, or comics, and anime, or cartoons, was a $26 billion industry for the country (Thussu, 2008). The avenues for cross-over can be varied as well. The television show Mobile Suit Gundam Wing, which first aired in Japan in 1995 to only moderate success, came to the United States through fansubbed videotapes—videos in which fans provided the subtitles. The show was then carried by the Cartoon Network, where it became very popular, to the extent that it was more popular in North America than in Japan. Other well-known Japanese shows that gained visibility in North America include Dragon Ball Z and Pokémon. The latter was a major franchise that included shows, video games, soundtracks, movie, toys, and a trading card game. Japan’s influence on U.S. films has stirred controversy. When the U.S.- made 2012 film The Hunger Games was released, comparisons were made to the 2000

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Japanese-made film Battle Royale. The plot of the Japanese film centered on a small group of teenagers selected by the government who must fight to the death until there is one win- ner. This closely resembles the plot of The Hunger Games novel (Collins, 2008) and film.

Telenovelas are Spanish- and Portuguese-language serials that focus on the personal lives and dramas of small casts of individuals. They emphasize themes of personal betrayal, rocky and dramatic human relationships and morality—themes with universal appeal. These pro- grams are deeply popular around the world, reaching a global audience of two billion people in every major region of the world. The biggest national producers are Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico and Venezuela. Each year, more than 12,000 hours of telenovelas are pro- duced. Though these shows originally were created for particular national audiences, cer- tain countries have made an effort to export the serials elsewhere. This has meant shedding markers of nationality, such as language. In other cases, producers have aimed for larger Latin American audiences by including characters of diverse national backgrounds. The exportation of telenovelas also shows that programs developed by countries outside of the industrialized global powers have widespread cultural appeal and also fit within the defini- tion of global media. One of the most famous cross-over examples, Yo Soy Betty, la Fea, aired from 1999 to 2001 on Radio Cadena Nacional (RCN) in Colombia. This telenovela about an unattractive economist working for a highly successful fashion design company was so pop- ular it led to international adaptations in 18 different countries, in several different lan- guages. In the United States, for example, it became Ugly Betty. The show had strong popularity with over four million viewers through 2009 (Seidman, 2009) and winning doz- ens of ALMA, GLAAD, Emmy, and other awards (IMDd.com, n.d.). It was finally canceled in 2010 after four seasons. In each country, the show maintained elements of the original plot, yet added its own cultural flavor.

Magazines are another format that has seen rapid globalization. Cosmopolitan magazine, for example, went from a family magazine published locally in the United States in 1886 to a global young women’s publication that has 59 national editions. The international audiences get the same recipe of news and tips on love, fashion, beauty, health, self-improvement, and entertainment, as well as a heavy assortment of advertisements for skin products, perfumes, make-up, and clothing lines. Although it was a feminist magazine for a brief time in the 1960s, its current form has been criticized by many for representing women stereotypically and advancing an unobtainable vision of beauty that adds to the social pressures already felt by young women. Its popularity in many parts of the world, where it adapts to local tastes, attests to the power of global media to realize unique forms tailored toward specific audiences while at the same time pushing some universal standards.

Are there international programs in your media diet? Remember that some programs that clearly have origins within a single national culture were born in other cultures and then modified and remade for local audiences. For example, U.S. American shows American Idol and The Office were adapted from the British shows, Pop Idol and The Office, respectively. Find out the backgrounds of your favorite programs. If they did not originate outside of your country, are they shown in other parts of the world? What do the changes in the program tell you about cultural values and notions of identity in your country?

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Instantaneous cultural exchange: When time becomes timeless The movement of goods, people, ideas, and messages across different lands is not new. History is full of large migrations, global trade, religious movements, and explorations. Just think about the global dimensions of religions. Buddha, for example, was born in modern-day Nepal, died in India, and is currently revered by followers throughout the world. Proselytizing, or the active effort to spread religions, has been in many ways a global communicative activity.

Historical empires, such as the Kush kingdom in northeastern Africa, used global com- munication networks of messengers to administer their territory and subject peoples. During different historical times, different modes of communication allowed people to send and receive information along wide distances. From human messengers carrying let- ters or memorized messages, to smoke or mirror reflection signals, to messenger pigeons, to wire and wireless telegraphy, global communication has always occurred. So, why is glo- balization treated as something entirely new?

While global movement may not be a purely modern phenomenon, globalization makes sense as a term when one considers the fundamental changes to space and time, and our subjective conceptualizations of them in this new era. In the past, before the 19th century telegraph wire, which allowed the long-distance transference of codes through a cable, it was impossible to send instant information along great distances. This means that it would take significant time and movement across great distance to communicate. Space refers to the physical distance between points, and time is the temporal or sequential distance—or how long it takes to do something. For much of human history, communication outside of the face-to-face setting involved significant constraints of great distances and the length of time it took to traverse those distances.

Globalization has created a highly integrated world where space and time no longer obstruct direct interaction. Manuel Castells (2000), a leading theorist of this new informa- tion age, proposed that we now experience “timeless time.” He argues that space and time have been transformed, with timeless time superseding the clock time of the industrial era. New communication technologies, namely online networks, are fundamentally changing our sense of time and how it proceeds (Castells, 1997).

Networked communications allow for the simultaneous interaction between one person in France and another in Thailand, for example, and hyperlinks on websites and search engines mean we can achieve instant informational gratification—media content is accessible at our fingertips with very little wait. Processes and inquiries that took months in the past now take almost no time, changing how we understand the time needed to do things. This is

ON THE NET Visit one of Cosmopolitan magazine’s many national edition websites and review it for similarities and differences with the U.S. website (http://www.cosmopolitan.com/). For example, the Philippines website, http://www.cosmo.ph, uses some terminology and features celebrities unique to the island nation; however, it shows generally the same content as the American version. Consider how Cosmopolitan is globalizing standards of beauty. What are those standards? What does globalization of beauty standards mean in a larger context of women’s role relationships, rights and equality?

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http://www.cosmopolitan.com/

http://www.cosmo.ph

Chapter 11 Global media, global cultures 237

enabled by a communications space so narrowed that we can say physical distances are simply less relevant between and within societies when it comes to media and communication.

One scholar, Marshall McLuhan (1964), predicted the rise of a “global village” due to international dependence on mass communication and the connectivity it promised. For McLuhan, technologies were “extensions” of the human body. For example, the car was an extension of our feet, clothing was an extension of our skin, and so on. Computer technologies were extensions of the human nervous system. In this vision, “across the ocean” was as far away as “around the corner” when it came to communication. From this, he argued the world would come together as a village, where peoples’ consciousness and identities converge.

That such grand transformations of a world coming together as a village are not yet real- ized does not make the prediction completely inaccurate. A more defensible characteriza- tion would be that “the globalization of the media has enabled the creation of a thriving international market, which now encompasses the globe” (Thussu, 2008). The term “mar- ket” is useful for understanding global media because media’s growth was a function of companies and individuals having greater access to more foreign markets for media fare after the end of the Cold War. What this means is that shows and formats developed in one part of the world are increasingly adapted or simply translated elsewhere. Also, the term market calls to mind a bustling place full of exchange, some equitable and some not. It is “thriving” because the change is rapid and the diffusion of creative programming is moving in new directions with a great degree of flux.

The inequality of global media flow The analogy of market would not be complete without an understanding that the develop- ment of a global media is not happening on equal terms. It is rather unequal, based on an imbalance between wealthier nations and poorer ones. For each country, global media can mean something different. For many in more powerful nations—those nations that send media—global media are beneficial in terms of bringing more revenue. The tight market for media in the United States means that only the most competitive media products get into the country, or are received. Poorer countries tend to be receivers of media. As such, they face the threat of being bombarded with media imports. This makes it more difficult for local media to develop, as they will invariably cost more to produce than it would cost to buy cheap, imported programming. The lack of a robust media market also means that poorer countries do not get to assume the role of senders as often as powerful countries do. Media scholars in the early days of global media were especially concerned with the ine- quality of media flow. Media dependency theory, which arose in the 1970s, postulated global media as being deve loped and produced in richer core countries, and being exported to weaker periphery countries (McPhail, 2010). While many scholars no longer see this as a primary pattern, there are many still interested in the question of power in determining who provides and who consumes information.

The globalization of media, specifically certain media forms being exported into other countries, has raised concerns about the impact on local cultures. The concern is two- fold. The first concern is that some countries will cease trying to develop indigenous media because of the expense as well as because of the great availability of other, often Western, media forms. The television network MTV has encountered criticism for its inter- national push. MTV Worldwide presents entertainment programming through more than

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three-dozen affiliates, from MTV Adria to MTV Hungary to MTV Ukraine. In some coun- tries, locally produced entertainment has waned or is not even attempted while yielding to the MTV behemoth. We cannot quickly categorize such globalization as good or bad, as in most cases it both benefits and harms the nations that produce and those that consume global media (Mohammed, 2011). For example, with the help of MTV and its international reach, pop stars such as Michael Jackson became a household name in virtually every part of the world. Of course, the obvious downside is that the media machines that catapult a Michael Jackson to global stardom may be doing so at the expense of other (local) figures that do not have access to the same backing.

The second, interrelated concern is what new cultural tropes are introduced to, and even imposed upon, other cultures. A cultural trope here is like a literary formula or theme upon which media producers draw: media have certain formulas—types of shows, standard plot lines, typical characters. Returning to the MTV example, in 2006 MTV presented a spring break special in which the network simulcast scenes that featured college-aged partiers from Asia, Australia, Europe, and the U.S. The simulcast was pre- sented by dividing the television screen into four blocks that presented scenes from vari- ous locations from each country or continent. The scenes are stark in their homogeneity. In each “block,” young people are seen dancing to exactly the same songs in clubs, while doing the same dances, while attired in remarkably similar clothing (Figure 11.4). Cultural homogeneity, however, is not the only concern with such images. Rather, some of the countries MTV featured were selected because they are moneyed, technological powerhouses. The exclusion of other countries means that their cultures remain hidden from the MTV audience.

Another area of inequitable development is that of Internet accessibility. Differential rates of Internet penetration (the percentage of a given country that has Internet access) should be of concern, given its growing importance as a tool of global interconnectivity. The Internet may provide the best basis for a globalization that benefits receiving coun- tries, since the Internet would let them organize and relate internally, mobilize their own

Figure 11.4 MTV Spring Break 2006 provides a vivid example of how youth from many cultures are presented in a way that shows extreme homogeneity, a homogeneity that supports beauty standards primarily from certain cultures. Source: Everett/Photoshot.

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identities, and seek out alternatives against outside unaccountable influences. However, the Internet is most available to the wealthiest and most industrialized countries. This raises questions about the reach of the information revolution and the prospects for a better future in a networked world.

Power and globalization: What drives the global media?

The narrative presented in this chapter so far mostly attributes global media’s advances to technological innovations. However, we must be careful about making claims based on technological determinism, which ascribes communication developments and effects to technology and understates other factors, whether social, cultural, behavioral, or economic. Technology, after all, is used in different ways by different people, suggesting that technol- ogy cannot be the sole explanation.

Some scholars provide an alternative explanation, cultural imperialism. This perspec- tive treats global media as a purveyor of certain cultural and political—usually Western— values, to the exclusion of others in the weaker countries of the world. This one-way transference of culture is enabled by global differences in power. In the imperialism perspective, global media networks, such as MTV and its regional and national variants, come to dominate and threaten cultural expressions and mores native to a receiving country. Global media, as part of a greater corporate industry, furthers values such as consumerism, and promotes escapism.

However, we could argue that the fundamental causes and trends in global media are not quite so simple. There are many cross-cutting examples and nuances. There are sites of resistance to power within global media; there are forms of expression that emerge to impact and change dominant global media. Also, the reasons for globalizing media can be multiple. We can see an example of this in Brazilian music, especially in the development of Brazilian rock music in the 1960s and 1970s. Some have argued that Brazilian popular music is never neutral, but is always either borrowing from or resist- ing foreign forms. Tropicália, a form developed largely by Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil in the late 1960s and early 1970s, does both. Whereas Popular Brazilian Music (MPB) strove deliberately to resist international forms to be truly Brazilian (while iron- ically still borrowing from other Latin and European forms of music), Tropicália embraced foreign forms but deliberately “cannibalized” them. That is, singers trans- formed foreign forms into a more Brazilian form, taking the best of the foreign forms and conquering the forms by adopting and adapting them (Chidester & Baldwin, 2013). Greg Wise’s (2008) argument applies especially to Brazilian music, that adoption of foreign forms is as much an issue of cultural push from the core nations as it is cultural pull from peripheral nations where people, for different reasons, are drawn to core- nation media products.

As another example, the most affordable programming is reality TV shows, which are less expensive to produce. Purchasing them and adapting them requires some subtitling work, but that is all. For a new channel, where the dearth of audience research means an unreliable basis for charging advertisers, cheaper programs are the ideal and have been tested and proven as an attractive format for advertisers. Buying and airing them is an

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economic no-brainer. In this scenario, technology, the formation of a satellite channel, economics and the cultural power of reality TV-producing nations, all came into play.

Global media from above and from below: Hip hop It is useful to think of global media falling along a spectrum: on one end, global media from above refers to any programs and communications that are delivered from organizations, cultures, and countries that are richer and more powerful than the receiving audience. Global media from below, on the other end of the spectrum, refers to communications originating from people who are on par with the receiving audience. The intersection of international and local influences and meanings is called interlocalization (Szalvai, 2009). This section explores one example of interlocalization as a way to understand better the nature of global media.

Although rap music is often seen as a uniquely American musical form that spread around the world, it is important to be aware of its international origins and exportation. We have already learned about the international technological contributions to rap music. Still, there is even more to this story. According to Can’t Stop Won’t Stop by Jeff Chang (2005), the story of rap and hip hop culture begins in Jamaica, the Caribbean nation with a very strong musical tradition. He writes, “Reggae, it has often been said, is rap music’s elder kin” (p. 23). While hip hop took shape in New York City, its earliest progenitors included young Jamaican immigrants. The central figure in Chang’s story is DJ Kool Herc, or Clive Campbell (Figure 11.5). He immigrated with his family to the Bronx borough of New York City in 1967. He began DJing parties, and innovated the technique of continu- ously mixing two of the same albums to loop a break beat, a percussion-driven part of songs, to create one long beat. This drove audiences wild. Dancers began trying new styles, spinning on the ground and adapting moves from Hong Kong kung fu flicks. This gave way to breakdancing. Kool Herc and members of his crew also rhymed over the looped beats, which they called rapping. While the birth of a musical genre has many influences and personalities, and such a quick history is bound to leave much out, hip hop took off from the ground up.

Even before this new musical form spread throughout the United States by storm, it began to grow in its global reach. In the early 1980s, a French journalist and independent record label owner living in New York organized a tour of the earliest hip hop stars to Europe. Headlining the bill was the legendary Afrika Bambaataa, who appealed to pan-African sentiments in the efforts of his Zulu Nation organization, among other things. It also included the Soulsonic Force and the Rock Steady Crew, which included Puerto Rican dancers, and others. They demonstrated hip hop’s four elements—rapping, dancing,

What do you think? Marshall McLuhan (1964) argues that electronic media have brought us all together into a “global village.” Do we live in a global village? In what ways have communications technology and specific media platforms, such as social networking websites (e.g., Facebook, Twitter), brought you closer to other parts of the world? Is a global citizenry truly possible? What would it look like? Can you name examples of cul- tural imperialism? What avenues of resistance are available despite them?

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Figure 11.5 DJ Kool Herc is called “The Father” for his foundational role in hip hop history. Source: Johnny Nunez /Wire Image/Getty Images.

Rap music reflects very specific aspects of some Black U.S. cultures and of the history of young, urban Black males in the U.S. But it can also reflect the interconnectedness of the world, as seen in these lyrics by Keith Murray and Nas:

From interstate to tri-state to international Mr. Keith Murray always keeps it classical They had me up in England, mic stranglin Jewels danglin while my single jingle jangling Number one in my field, never defeated Went to Sweden demonstrated malicious mic beatings I was with my right hand man, Redman When I did the Ichiban crane style in Japan I transform like Dr. Bruce Banner Stepped off the plane and blacked out up in Canada

(Keith Murray, World Be Free, 1996)

So I’m deadly now because of one reason, they listening In Budapest, Japan, China, and Switzerland

(Nas, untitled, 2008)

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DJing and graffiti-writing—to small crowds in England and France. Hip hop was not part of the mainstream media experience internationally yet. However, its growth was visible.

Today hip hop is a fully globalized musical form. The biggest stars, such as Jay Z, Kanye West and Eminem are global figures who tour internationally and are played in radio stations worldwide. Since these artists work for and are managed by the largest music cor- porations in the world, they reflect the process of globalization from above. The hip hop movement, in this respect, is an interlocal phenomenon: it is driven by the interests of the economic elite, though its earlier days saw a more organic development, driven by the inter- ests and needs of poor, urban youth. Hip hop is important because it complicates this below-above distinction and draws attention to the interactive possibilities between the global and the local. What is just as important is that now countries around the world, from Senegal to Poland to New Zealand, have their own native hip hop movements that take place in their unique national contexts. For example, Senegalese rappers are actively involved in trying to reform the country’s political system. In Dakar, the West African country’s capital, the DJ and rapper Xuman told the BBC in 2007 that “I wanted to make sure the album was released just before the elections. I’m hoping it will help people to see politicians with different eyes” (Ronsini, 2007). DJ Xuman’s music levels charges against the government and calls on the youth to vote.

Diverse cultures have influenced the art form of hip hop; hip hop has also similarly impacted cultures and found new expressions in different global landscapes. This shows how multi-directional cultural flows between nations can be. Of course, as we have seen, global media is not without its critics, many of whom warn against the world’s development under globalization.

The challenges of global media flows The rise of global media impacts national cultures in ways that are still unfolding and devel- oping. Like globalization in general, this causes many a great deal of anxiety as the uncer- tainties of development under such influences seem to pile on. This inspires much wonderment and speculation about the world’s communication direction. What does an increasingly globalized media mean for cultures and their unique characteristics, as well as their autonomy? Many in the developing world, especially, came to feel as though their native cultures were being bombarded by foreign media, spreading alien values, and that this bombardment would distort the youth of their countries. These concerns took shape in an international document called the Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions (UNESCO, 2005), drafted by numerous countries through the General Conference of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural

What do you think? Hip hop artists can be found in China, Bangladesh (Bangla hip hop), Norway, and many other countries. In some ways, it may differ in each culture, but in other ways, hip hop retains some elements of the culture(s) from which it sprang. In what ways is hip hop a culture in and of itself? How is it affected by global media? How does it affect other cultures?

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Organization in 2005. In it, they argued that “the processes of globalization . . . represent a challenge for cultural diversity, namely in view of risks of imbalances between rich and poor countries” (UNESCO, 2005). They fear that globalization threatens the fragile balance between influence and domination, that the cultural effects of global media are homogenizing—that is, getting rid of the differences between peoples. Proponents of this view argue that global media lead to convergence, the idea that we are becoming alike and consuming fewer sources.

Some governments of countries on the receiving end of global media try to assert their national power by regulating or censoring global media. As we have noted, some nations, such as China, put formal limits on the number of imported movies (Figure 11.6). Other countries focus on excluding particular content to prevent negative cultural influences. At times, these can be culturally neutral. Thailand, for example, banned smoking scenes on television. They cited this as an effort to prevent young people from gaining an inter- est in smoking. The government censored smoking in The Simpsons by blurring out rep- resentations of cigarette puffing by the show’s characters. In other instances, censorship is a large-scale project. Saudi Arabia banned access to nearly 400,000 web pages, one of the most exhaustive Internet filterers in the world. The stated aim is “protecting citizens from offensive content and content [that] violates the principles of Islam and the social norms” (Bunt, 2009, p. 71).

Another source of concern for national governments is that global media, especially new media, can be used by political dissidents to put pressure on their governments and advo- cate for political change. Over the summer of 2009, protesters in Iran took to the streets against the re-election win of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. As the government cracked down on the protests, often violently, reformers leaked photos on short reports to the world via Twitter, a social networking site that lets people broadcast short messages to followers. The government was trying to restrict access to certain websites as well as SMS text messag- ing, but did not stop Twitter. Users on Twitter re-sent the messages and images from Iran,

Figure 11.6 A worker in Shanghai, China, removes a poster for The Da Vinci Code after Chinese censors ban the movie. Source: Mark Ralston/AFP/ Getty Images.

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eventually pushing mainstream media like CNN to devote more attention to the brutal government crackdown on dissenters. The killing of Neda Agha-Soltan, whose last moments were posted on YouTube, drew international outrage. Iran eventually caught on and tried to limit Internet access, as well as the ability of journalists to report on what was taking place.

Twitter, as with other social networking sites such as Facebook, is an interesting varia- tion of global media in that it can be used locally, and can affirm non-global identities. Some refer to this as glocalization, a mix of “globalization” and “localization.” This implies that a global platform can have localizing applications, meaning it can used to bring neigh- bors closer together. Twitter demonstrated most vividly its “glocal” nature during the shooting spree in Mumbai, India, in late 2008. As several gunmen roamed the city firing on anyone they saw, witnesses and those escaping sent text messages and tweets to update the locations of the shooters. Their localized reporting was communicated to others and thus became part of a way to survive the ongoing emergency. In less dramatic form, these sites allow people to meet up with other residents who live nearby, by offering geography- based Twitter lists. Craigslist, an international, virtual bulletin board for everything from jobs, to used products, rental listings and personals, has maintained separate pages for individual cities to promote the local. Glocalization is also seen in magazines or news- papers that publish region-specific editions. One could argue that Cosmopolitan maga- zines in different countries are an example of that, even though others may see these as an example of cultural imperialism.

Some scholars are concerned that online communication leads people to form web- based communities premised on rules of inclusion—networks of similar people who grow further detached from the diversity of the world. At an extreme level, this could lead to divergence, or the fragmentation of peoples into smaller identities and networks of association. This could happen without the localization element. If people used the Internet to interact and identify only with like-minded people internationally, to the exclusion of others, new media could be contributing to fragmentation based on what- ever drew the like-minded people together. Some question what this would mean for national social fabric, especially if imagined communities shift from national bodies to trans-national affiliations.

In one extreme vision of global divergence, Benjamin Barber (1996) posited that the world faced a showdown between two social dynamics: McWorld versus Jihad. These terms represented on one hand the forces of corporate globalization, by which corporations gain political power, and on the other, an extreme embrace of traditional values, either tra- ditionalism or religious fundamentalism. His idea was that the universalizing pressures of corporate power would ignite tribalism and other narrow reactions in response. Barber felt that neither of these visions was promising for democracy.

Against such a doomsday scenario, others have called into question the binary logic, or the thinking that the world must choose one or the other direction. To make such a prog- nosis requires a basic assumption that there are such things as pure, authentic cultures that have not been impacted by others. Only with this assumption does the fear of cultural intermingling make sense. Those taking this view advise us to take a step back and see the inherent hybridity, or mixed nature of cultures formed through histories of borrowing, copying, and mutual influencing. To understand the world’s cultures as basically syncretic, or combinations of various systems of thought and influence, is to see the recently acceler- ated global movement of ideas, people, capital, and messages not as a necessary threat to cultures, but rather as an exciting stage in further hybridization. However, as we will note

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in chapter 12, such syncretism or hybridity is seldom neutral. Some groups always have more access to the means of creation, distribution, or access to media forms and contents than other groups, and thus can control at least to some degree the nature and rate of hybridization.

Finally, we should note that many of the channels that relate to globalization mentioned here, from video-sharing sites (like YouTube), to social networking sites (like Facebook, MSN, MySpace, or Twitter) to Internet chat, link the mediated forces of globalization to face-to-face communication. So far, most of the discussion of globalization has focused around media; future thinkers must also look to see how globalization informs folk culture, everyday lived experience, and face-to-face communication of individuals in their own cul- tures and as they interact interculturally. We will address specific aspects of globalization as it pertains to culture and business communication in chapter 15.

Summary

We have learned that media and technologies have a global impact. They support the circu- lation of all manners of cultural forms and communications from all parts of the globe. However, we have also learned that the mediated dissemination of cultures is not always equal. Rather, certain cultural stories, events, and messages get more (or less) attention than others. The result of such privileging is that only some cultures become more influential while others are rendered less powerful. One way to think about this unequal distribution of power is to consider who gets to tell their stories, and have those stories circulated, versus those whose stories are ignored or are told for them by others. To illustrate, in the fall of 2009, California-based TriStar pictures released the science fiction film District 9 to North America and the UK. The film was directed by Neill Blomkamp, a South African, and pro- duced by Peter Jackson, a New Zealander. In the blockbuster film, Nigerians are represented as hyper-violent gang members who deal in guns, exploit the less powerful, murder, and believe in superstition to the point that they engage in cannibalism in the hope of digesting the desired traits and powers of those they kill. In response, the Nigerian government banned the film from its country, dismayed by how they were stereotypically represented by others. The fear was that such representations would reflect poorly upon the people and cultures of Nigeria.

We have learned in this chapter to consider who is creating and circulating media mes- sages, whose messages dominate, and the implications of messages created from inside a culture versus those created by those external to it—in short, what is globalized, and our intercultural exchanges, may be dramatically altered by who gets to participate in the global conversation. However, we also have learned that media globalization holds great promise and hope. There are predictions of a truly global village arising out of media’s ability to help us conquer space and time. Perhaps the most optimistic view rests in notions of cultural hybridity. Holders of this view are interested in how new cultural forms emerge as a result of the coming together of different cultures. For them, globalization is not a simple top-down process, but one that results in complex and varied cultural outcomes, some good and some bad. The important thing to take away from this discussion is that we should not make sweeping generalizations about globalization. It may make more sense to think of what works and what does not work for cultures, and under what conditions communication between them is most effective.

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KEY TERMS global media, 228 sending countries, 228 receiving countries, 228 globalization, 231 capitalism, 232 viral, 233 cable systems, 234 over-the-air, or terrestrial broadcasting, 234 satellite TV, 234 cross-over, 234 fansubbed, 234 space, 236

time, 236 core countries, 237 periphery countries, 237 cultural trope, 238 Internet penetration, 238 technological determinism, 239 cultural imperialism, 239 interlocalization, 240 convergence, 243 glocalization, 244 divergence, 244 hybridity, 244 syncretic/syncretism, 244

Discussion questions 1 Discuss the effects of cultural imperialism. What would critics of cultural imperialism

have to say about these? Also consider more favorable possible outcomes of this form of cultural engagement.

2 Consider where you think we are headed in this global media age. Is it toward cultural convergence or cultural divergence?

3 In what ways has technology served to facilitate intercultural communication across national borders?

4 Have your favorite bands or singers toured internationally? List which countries they performed in, to get a sense of where else they are also popular. You may be able to find fan websites based in those countries.

5 Think about the global media reviewed in this chapter and what you are exposed to in your life. Would you consider them forces of convergence, divergence, or something else?

Action points 1 Watch a foreign film. Given the enormous movie industries in places like India, Hong

Kong and Europe, global cinema is becoming less and less American. Movies from those countries are rarely shown in the large movie theaters or on television, so going out of your way to track down movies from other countries could be a great learning experi- ence. Ask yourself whether you liked the movie, and why.

2 Study your favorite name brand of clothing. See what you can find out about where and how it is produced. What global flows of management, production, transportation, and consumption characterize your brand? Compare it to other brands. Do some have better global records than others? What are some actions you could take in situations of eco- nomic inequality? Discuss in your class the strengths and limitations of such strategies as large-scale product boycotts.

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3 In groups or pairs, with your instructor’s supervision, conduct a small research project in which you either interview or survey people within a group (e.g., the motivations of members or the activities of the group) about how much media from other countries they consume. Discuss your findings with the class. What type of knowledge does your study give you? What are some types of knowledge or claims that you could not make from your study?

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