Globalisation
Globalisation refers to the way in which, in contemporary society, distant countries are inter-related and connected together by trade, communication and cultural experiences.
According to Giddens we live in a ‘runaway world’ where cultures, economies and politics appear to merge across national boundaries. For instance, TV programmes such as The Simpsons are watched all over the world.
A political economy perspective argues that the homogenisation of culture and communication leads to shared values and ideologies. The USA dominates the world’s media with 85% of the global film market, thanks to: a large home market, dominance of the English language and technical advantages.
Some may argue that the above is an example of cultural imperialism, a process by which one country dominates other countries’ media consumption and consequently dominates their values and ideologies.
Putnam suggests that the US government prioritised media for support as an important export industry that promotes both US values and US goods. However, this view is not straightforward for instance some texts tailor themselves to their local values and ideologies, e.g. Sesame Street.
Anthropologist Danny Miller has a different take to the cultural-imperialist perspective in that other cultures use western texts as a method of empowerment, to explore social issues in their own societies.
The media does, undoubtedly, hold an enormous amount of power, but audiences still have the power to:
→ Select the media texts they wish to watch
→ Influence the media producer to produce texts that appeal to local audiences by incorporating the local culture
→ Interpret the media texts according to their own lives and to create a range of meanings.
According to Giddens we live in a ‘runaway world’ where cultures, economies and politics appear to merge across national boundaries. For instance, TV programmes such as The Simpsons are watched all over the world.
A political economy perspective argues that the homogenisation of culture and communication leads to shared values and ideologies. The USA dominates the world’s media with 85% of the global film market, thanks to: a large home market, dominance of the English language and technical advantages.
Some may argue that the above is an example of cultural imperialism, a process by which one country dominates other countries’ media consumption and consequently dominates their values and ideologies.
Putnam suggests that the US government prioritised media for support as an important export industry that promotes both US values and US goods. However, this view is not straightforward for instance some texts tailor themselves to their local values and ideologies, e.g. Sesame Street.
Anthropologist Danny Miller has a different take to the cultural-imperialist perspective in that other cultures use western texts as a method of empowerment, to explore social issues in their own societies.
The media does, undoubtedly, hold an enormous amount of power, but audiences still have the power to:
→ Select the media texts they wish to watch
→ Influence the media producer to produce texts that appeal to local audiences by incorporating the local culture
→ Interpret the media texts according to their own lives and to create a range of meanings.
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