Globalization and the Media

Globalization and the Media.

The following is my response to the YouTube clip, Globalization and the Media, taking note of the reading, Theories of Global Media.

'The corporate media only tell you what they want you to know, not what the elite Globalists think you shouldn't'.

Television is the most powerful weapon of psychological warfare in history and yet it is a feature in nearly every household. It is a member of the family.

The programming conditions people to a particular way of thinking and viewing the world using fear and manipulation.

Corporate media has become government controlled making propaganda the main objective. You could say that they are the gatekeepers of information, people can only see and hear their point of view.

This brings up the questions of, do people not think for themselves? Do the majority never question authority? Do they never think outside the box?

They have been manipulated at an early age and the reporters, anchors, journalists etc have become trusted to convey the truth. It is the sheep following the Shepherd.

In saying that, it is not true for everyone. Across the globe there has been demonstrations and revolt against the corporate media. People have been demanding back the right to a voice, to an opinion. For example, in London, workers became so frustrated with the BBC reporting that they took to streets in protest.

People need to learn how to report again, after the way they have been reporting over the last few months. They need to get out there and engage with the public and not report from a backroom or an office building. They have to get away from being the governments tools of propaganda, stop selling their souls to the devil.

As well as demonstrating, people have began to set up independent media outlets. This is to give the public a voice, give them a chance to gain all information, not just what the government want them to hear.

New technology has been a breakthrough, allowing access more easily available to people worldwide to gain and distribute all information and all opinions. Volunteer, independent media outlets are being set up and the use of camera and Internet has spread.

The first independent Media Centre was launched during the protests at the World Trade organization summit in Seattle. Their website became the trusted voice of the campaigners.

People need to know that the Mass Media does not hold all the control. You can make yourself heard.

For example, G8 Genova, 2001. The police said they did not fire rubber bullets at the protesters but according the footage caught on individual cameras, this was in fact false. The police had shot rubber bullets and they also used police brutality to break up the protest. The growing use of cameras, camera phones, Internet, seen to it that the truth was exposed.

But the truth was never broadcast on the television, or transmitted on the radio or published in the newspapers. It was the independent activists that posted it on the Internet, to show the world what really happened.

'The powerful against the Powerless'.

But has the Powerless finally found a way to overthrow those now in power?

Bibliography

Globalization and the Media, YouTube.

Flew, T. (2007) 'Theories of Global Media' in Understanding Global Media:30-65

The following essay looks at tracking Global flows; from the opening of the essay in the book 'The Anthropology of Globalization'. From this essay I will comment critically on the three key arguements discussed.

The understand the three key arguements, we must understand Globalization. What is Globalization? It is hard to define. In general, Globalization refers to countries joining together economically, through education, society and politics and viewing themselves, not only through their national identity but also as part of the world as a whole. It is said to bring people of all nations closer together, espeically through common mediums such as the internet.

Globalization according to Inda and Rosaldo is the intensification of global interconnectedness, suggesting a world full of movement and mixture, contact and linkages, cultural interaction and exchange, but it is not as easily explained as this.

The first arguement is the impact Globalisation has had on space and time. Yes, we live in a interconnected world but there are limits to the areas where this exists. There are limits to the mobility and connections some people have. The world is shrinking and distances are becoming shorter, but the world is not shrinking for everyone and in all places. Some people cant afford that ticket, that phone call or an Internet connection. There is a small minority with no access at all to any of these things.
Although in saying that, the places that do have rapidly growing flows of capital, people, goods, images and ideologies are drawing more and more places of the globe into interconnection.

Globalisation according to Inda and Rosaldo suggests that there is more to it than increased global interconnectedness. It suggests a reordering of time and space. To try and explain this we will take a look at David Harvey and Anthony Giddons.
David Harvey wrote that 'Time and Space compression' is the speeding up of economic and social processes. It has shrunk the Globe, so basically distance and time do not hold people back anymore, it is overcoming the barriers of space. For example, if a major, violent, riot broke out in the DIT Dublin, people from all over the world would be able to watch it at the same time, real time. It is shrinking space and shortening time, speeding up the pace of life.

The satellite communication systems deployed since the early 1970's have rendered the
unit cost and time of communication invariant with respect to distance. It costs the same
communicate over 500 miles as it does over 5,000 via satellite'.
Inda, J. X. and Rosaldo, R. (2008) 'Tracking Global Flows' (eds.) (2008, 2nd Ed)
The Anthropology of Globalization: page 10. David Harvey.

Anthony Giddens, like Harvey, considers Globalisation to involve a reorganizing of time and space in cultural and social life. Giddens wrote that 'Time-Space Distanciation' is the stretching of social life across time and space. There are two types of social interaction, Firstly there is face to face and secondly there is a more remote form, taken place across time and space.
Over time localities have come to rely less and less on face to face connections and more on interactions across distance. For example, in Bangladesh, the workers are making clothes for the stores Penny's, Tesco's, and ASDA. (although according to the 'War on Want' organisation, the conditions and wages of these workers are horrific).
'www.indymedia.ie/article80564'

The second argument in 'Tracking Global Flows' is that 'Globalisation has pulled culture apart from place', or de/territorialization.
Borders and boundaries have become easily crossed making cultures no longer geographically fixed. People are travelling from all over to find a new homeland, turning places into spaces of cultural juxtaposition and mixture. Objects from cultures, for example, food, clothes, music etc, are circulating in the expanding networks. The reasons people leave their own country is usually due to war, poor economic conditions or as the case was many years ago, colonisation.

The third argument in the text is the notion of cultural imperialism. Cultural imperialism suggests thedomination of some cultures over others. The infuence of the Western countries are the most evident. There are millions of immigrants in Western countries today. They bring with them their traditions, customs, practices and cultures.
You could argue that it could lead to the downfall of some cultures, the dominant cultures of that country could destroy the smaller ones, but in saying that, there are widespread chains of Chinese, Vietnamese, Thai, and Indian restaurants across Western countries. The people that have come to live in different countries are holding onto their traditions, practises, beliefs and cultures. Hopefully this will continue so we dont all become the same, with the same beliefs, cultures and practices.

Bibliography

Inda, J.X. and Rosaldo, R. (2008) 'Tracking Global Flows' in Inda and Rosaldo (eds.) (2008, 2nd Ed) The Anthropology of Globalisation: 3_36

www.indymedia.ie/article80564

www.richw.org/dualcit/fat.html

Whiskey as a Network.

Choose any one product and explain how its production, distribution and consumption can be seen as a 'network'. Identify relevant nodes, ties and flows in this network. Pay attention to the role of ICT and indicate where technology might fit into the network.

Irish whiskey is becoming one of the fastest growing spirit categories in the industy, with sales increasing more than 60 percent in the past decade. The product is enjoying a revival worldwide, and in a world that is becoming increasingly smaller with each year, you will never find yourself far from an Irish pub. Whiskey is an essentail fixture of these Irish pubs, this product and Ireland and inseperable.

Whiskey could not be produced, distributed and consumed without being part of a bigger interconnected network, which is made up of nodes, ties and flows.

Irish whiskey has been in production since the 16th century, with the first major (and still open today) distillery Bushmills being founded in 1608. Even though there are only three Distilleries still active in Ireland, Bushmills, Midleton and Cooley, there is still a huge demand worldwide. Jameson ships out 2.3m case equivlants (case equivlants are 9 litres of spirits) every year. It has become not just a drink to celebrate St.Patricks day, but a drink for any occasion.

The headquarters for Bushmills and Midleton are in the Dublin headquarters of Irish Distillers, Cooleys distillery is ran from the distillery itself, as they are an independant factory.

The headquarters could be considered as the central node, all processes are controlled from here. This centre connects with the next level of nodes, these nodes are where the product is produced, packaged and distributed, for example, the Distilleries. The next level of nodes are the shops, pubs and any other places the product will be sold to, before being bought by the consumer.

For the whole process to be a success, all these nodes need to be connected so the product can pass from stage to stage. The connections between these nodes are known as ties.

The ties for whiskey to be produced, distributed and consumed would begin from the origins of the raw materials used to brew whiskey, which would be fermented grain mash, such as, barley, malted barley, rye, malted rye, wheat and maize. All ingredients for whiskey is grown and distributed to the distilleries from Irish land and Irish farmers, no ingredients need to be imported.
So there is a tie between the farmers and the Distilleries. The ties continue from the Distilleries to the location for sale.

The success of the product relies on advertising, through television advertisments, the radio, the internet and also, the representation of whiskey in movies have helped characterize whiskey as a cool, gentlemans drink. All these things create ties with customers worldwide. It is through the ties that information about whiskey reaches the customers. The information flows through the ties, allowing the customers to gain knowledge about the product.

Overall, the cycle of whiskey production begins in the fields of Ireland, the ingrediants are then sent to the Distilleries, the finished products are sent to the location of sale and then the money handed over by the customers is sent to the centre headquarters.

It is a web of interconnected nodes, ties and flows, that work together to produce and distribute the product.

The first two communication revolutions were the evolution of writing and the invention of printing. The world is now going through the third communication revolution resulting from the convergence of communication satellites, computers and digitization.
Digitization converts all information, text, sound and pictures into a binary code that can promptly travel through a global network of computers linked by telephones, fiber optics and satellites.
New media is the emergence of digital, computerized, or networked information and communication technologies. Most technologies described as "new media" are digital, some examples may be the Internet, websites, computer multimedia, computer game, CD-ROMS, and DVDs.
According to Van Dijk, the New Media is defined by its characteristics of integration, interactivity, and digital code.
The most important structural New Media characteristic is the integration of Telecommunication, Data Communication and Mass Communication into a single medium.
Integration is the merging of Telecommunications, Mass Communications, and Data Communications.
Two revolutionary techniques enable the process of integration.
1. Full digitalization of all media.
2. Broadband transmission through all connections by cable and air.
Van Dijk, J. (2006). The Network Society. (2nd Ed).

There has already been merging of certain communication forms but if they continue to merge, will we be left with just one form of New Media?
Interactivity allows a two way flow of information between a computer or other electronic devise and the user. A sequence of action and reaction.
Digital data is the most suitable for enabling interactivity. Interactivity sets apart the Old and new medias. Old media was more, sit back and interact, whereas, New Media has become more engaging. Technologies such as DVD, and Digital TV where the audience can control what they watch result in more interactivity. However, the internet is the main interactive system.
Today we are surrounded by a multi level convergent media world where all modes of communication and information are continually reforming to adapt to the enduring demands of technologies, changing the way we create, consume, learn and interact with each other.
Could these on going improvements, for example, in telecommunications be creating a spaceless world? Will electronics eliminate the need for face-to-face interactions?
We can already communicate large quantities of written information over long distances at almost no cost, by using information technologies such as email, fax machines, the Internet, and the World Wide Web. Existing technologies even enable us to hold virtual meetings in which people can look at and talk to each other over long distances.
So what is to become of society if the New Media continue to decrease social activity? Have they really thought it through? As Van Dijk pointed out, they did not think of the future consequences when developing private transportation as opposed to public transportation which resulted in traffic congestion environmental degradation and global warming.
So what will the consequences be of the roads for information and communication we are building?