2) The Mass Media, Globalisation And Popular Culture

Question 1

In what ways have the media become globalised?

Answer 1

> Ownership Of Mass Media

• no longer restrictions by national boundaries
• most western countries have relaxed ownership controls

> Satellite Television

• new medium opened up to the TV viewer
• can sit anywhere in the world and watch something

> The Internet
- wireless broadband means we can access info all over the world

> Entertainment

• globalisation happened through TV and the Internet
• the worlds population engages with much more of the same popular culture

> Advertising

• products easily recognisable
• happens on a global scale and brands have become global

Question 2

What is Media Imperialism?

Answer 2

• From the 1960s to the mid 1980s the media role in globalisation was often seen in a negative light
• transnational corporations were seen to be exploiting developing countries
• the power and influence of transitional media corporation was seen as a new form of imperialism

Question 3

What is Cultural Imperialism?

Answer 3

• Transitional media organisations were said to transmit western values across the world
• the global tele music the global news shape the culture of the world
• local cultures battered into submission

Question 4

TOMLINSON- rejects media/cultural imperialism

Answer 4

• culture flows so we take some culture but then some culture is imported
• for example different foods places available show that culture has been brought in

Question 5

Reception Theory- rejects media imperialism

Answer 5

• that audiences passively accept the mass mediated news provided for them by transnational media companies
• audiences respond passively not actively

Question 6

Marxists- effects of globalisation

Answer 6

• globalisation restricts choice because transnational media companies and their owners have too much power
• local cultures are being replaced by global cultures
• post modernists disagree and say it offers citizens more choice and opportunity

Question 7

Post- Modernism- effects of globalisation

Answer 7

• it brings about more choice with regard to identities and lifestyles
• they see global media as a positive influence in that it can inject the developing world with modern ideas and therefore kickstarts the economic and cultural ideas
• local cultures are not swallowed up by global media rather local adopts global

Question 8

Cultural Pessimist- effect of globalisation

Answer 8

• they say disneyfication of culture because it is claimed that this global culture is overwhelmingly an American entertainment culture
• Kellner suggests that the global media culture is about sameness and that erases individuality, specificity and difference
• global media and culture are dumbing demon real and authentic local cultures and perhaps killing off the nation state
• Cohen and Kennedy suggest they underestimate the strength of local cultures - people don’t abandon local traditions and national identities

Question 9

What is Globalisation according to O’Connor?

Answer 9

• the process by which local cultures are transformed or absorbed by a dominant outside culture

Question 10

Baudrillard- postmodernism

Answer 10

• media images now dominate and distort the way in which the world is seen
• media images replace reality- technology and video footage eliminated the blood and suffering
• sanitised version of events is produced- these false images are called stimularca
• this creates a hype reality- we find it difficult to find what is real
• ‘Sign Objects’- items we buy to express ourselves not for there function- purchase because their fashionable

Question 11

Postmodernism essay plan

Answer 11

Into

• with globalisation the world is more interlinked
• traditional perspectives are outdated- meta narratives- can’t explain it all together

1) Media Shapes Our Identity
- popular culture manipulates family, social class and gender
- made us more aware of the diversity of choices in modern world
- sky is the limit

2) Hyper-Reality
- media distorts images- false truth
- video images eliminate suffering
- sanitised
- it’s about providing a constant flow of info and entertainment

3) Stimularca
- artificial images are viewed across the world
- people given same info in a diverse number of forms
- info overload

Conclusion

• digital divide
• social change increasing like never before

Question 12

What does Lyotard say?

Answer 12

• in post modern society knowledge is just a series of different language ways of swing the world
• post modernity allows who have been marginalised by modern society such as ethnic minorities to be heard
• individualistic- everyone is out for themselves- not collectively working together

Question 13

Strinati- post modernist

Answer 13

• mass media shape consumer choices
• the popular culture it the culture of a celeb increasingly dominate the way we define ourselves
• many define their identities through this- how we want to be seen
• it’s not about the content but about the media trends and brand names- designer labels

Question 14

Positive arguments for Post modernity

Answer 14

• media technologies have grown to such an extent that they form a large part of daily experience providing us with a constant flow of info
• Vattimo- Subcultural groups use the media to find new and exciting ways of communicating their views- ideas can be drawn from a various range of sources

Question 15

Popular Culture

Answer 15

Mass media is creating a mass society= left and right wing

Mass media isn’t creating a mass society= Pluralists and Postmodernists

Question 16

The Right- mass media is creating mass society

Answer 16

• they see society as being divided into a elite and the mass population
• in pre industrial times the population has a rough culture- folk culture
• they could not access the high culture- fine and good food
• the high culture had festivals and carnivals and folk dancing- these traditions were passed through generations
• however capitalism polluted this culture into a mass culture- business and family replace the family as the main source of culture
• Now we: sit in cine rather than folk dance and eat fast food rather than traditional recipes

Question 17

The Left- mass media is creating mass society

Answer 17

• left are as critical of capitalism
• the working class was once both dynamic and progressive- this has changed- family been replaced
• the state manipulates them so they feel they are free
• ruling class pacify the working class with full bellies and entertainment- ensures they don’t cause trouble
• working class do not know there being oppressed

Question 18

What’s the difference between Left and Right wing critics?

Answer 18

1) Right see the natural state of the working class as static, the left wing see it as dynamic
2) Right see capitalism disrupting the state but discontent the left see it as repressing with the sense of ease

Question 19

Neil Postman

Answer 19

• TV has meant that much of our public discourse has become dangerous nonsense
• TV requires minimal skill to understand it and is aimed at emotions
• everything is made catchy even the news- presenters and theme tune
• this isn’t presenting to the masses its creating an illusion

Question 20

Pluralism- mass media isn’t creating a mass society

Answer 20

• they say the reality for working class in pre industrial was nasty, brutal and short
• modern society has made most people literate- more politically literate and aware of the world around them
• soap operas are watched by both classes- class distinctions are less and less important
• open university has brought high education to the whole population which wasn’t accessible before
• individuals have there own freedom

Question 21

Postmodernity- mass media isn’t mass society

Answer 21

• media technology has created a postmodern era- no longer split into elite and mass culture
• people are given same info in a variety of forms- more and more info less and less meaning
• postmodern society isn’t a mass society
• the masses engage in consumer culture
• GILLESPIE’s- young people are using the media to redefine their ethnicity by giving them choice- what it means to be young Britain Asian for example
• Lyotard- post modern society is individualistic and fragmented- mass culture is predictable and this is not