Global Media Final Exam

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Identity Projects

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Imagination and representation of cultural identities using available resources (political, economic, technological, ideological) Global Media provides a variety of resources for the creation of identity projects. The more compex resources, the more complex identities.

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Simunye!

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aka, We are One (1996) was a South African attempt to promote national identity through cultural diversity, which led to South Africa being celebrated as the “Rainbow Nation”

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Essentialism

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A traditional concept that states that the idea that identity is fixed. Something you are born with, nationalism is a good example of this. Identity is something you are born with.

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Anti-Essentialism

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Identity is not fixed, or pre-given, but something that you build, hence the project. There is no essence to our identity, but we build our identity using things like race, gender, class, etc. Identity is something you build.

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Public Sphere Theory in China

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– Public spaces were traditionally like town halls, public squares, where people went to debate. Now, “public space” is less about physical location but more electronic space. “Electronic Elsewheres” rework the traditional idea of public.

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Jia Zhanke’s films on public spaces in China

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He uses public spaces to present a critique of the state of the public. He showed public spaces in a different way. The true public spaces are not allowed in China. His documentaries focus not on the middle class, but the margins, those impoverished, illiterate people who do not have a voice.

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2 Types of documentary films in China –

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Television: Subject to government censorship for approval, but unlike the old model, does not use a lecture style.

Independent: Most independent documentaries are not shown in China because they do not submit themselves to state censorship. Many are shown in international film festivals. Focus on “invisible dwellers”

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Socialist vs. New Realist Modes

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Old Socialist model was very propaganda based, and used a state voice to lecture the people, showing the great things that the great communist party has done for the people. Story of people told through the party because they are one and the same. Very ideologically driven.

The new realist model focuses much more on the “human condition” The new realist mode is more like independent documentaries by being a little more critical, by showing human-interest stories.

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Independent Documentaries and “Invisible Dwellers”

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Newer independent documentary filmmakers have moved to making films about “invisible dwellers”, people living in the geographical and social margins of China. Ex: Tibet, rural migrants, homeless scavengers, LGBT community.

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Difference between Western and Chinese Documentaries

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In the West, Independent documentaries mean corporate, rather than state controlled, whereas in China, censorship is the big issue.

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Affective Mode of Pleasure

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viewers who take melodrama seriously and whose idea of realism comes out of emotion.

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Ironic Pleasure

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Viewers who mock melodramatic imagination but enjoy it because it is so bad.

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Watching Dallas

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Essay by Ien Ang that critiqued the top-down theories of the cultural imperialism of American Programming. Argued that viewers of the show did not always read the show the way the producers intended. Viewers are not cultural dupes, but active audiences.

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Rise of Postmodern Irony

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Audiences are more skillful in reading television and peculiarities of generic conventions. Because audiences have been watching soap operas for so long, that producers can make poke fun at the genre in a way that only lovers of the genre will understand.

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Dallas vs. Dynasty

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While Dallas took the emotional realism of melodrama seriously, Dynasty mocked melodramatic conventions by using irony, parody, and self reflexive exaggeration.

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Dramedy of the 1990’s

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By the ‘90’s, straight melodrama was no longer cool, and postmodern irony became trendy. So Melodramatic feeling + Postmodern Irony = Dramedy.

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Glocalization

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Global standardization of a certain format but modified with local production standards of narrative and context.

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Japanese Trendy Dramas

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Stylish, gorgeous looking youth serials focusing on stories of romantic relationships among young professionals in contemporary urban settings. Ex: Tokyo Love Story, Winter Sonata

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Korean Wave

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Refers to the popularity of Korean pop culture in East Asia. TV dramas, film, music. Only content that has been successfully exported in other countries can be considered Hallyu

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Factors in rise of Korean Wave

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Rise of capitalism in Asia,

Media deregulation,

Focus on cultural industry.

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Cultural Proximity Theory

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People look for their own content, so being able to identify more with the character on the screen has aided the rise of the Korean Wave.

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Current trends in Korean Wave

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Focus has shifted from TV dramas, although they are still very very popular, to K-Pop, a genre of Korean pop music.

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GGM and the context of its emergence

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Goodness Gracious Me was a sketch comedy series on BBC2, which began as a radio show. In the 90’s, Tony Blair was the new, hip PM, and GGM represented a shift in British thinking. Hate crimes against Asians were on the rise, and the show gave the population increased visibility

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Themes of GGM

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What it means to be Hindu/Muslim/Christian, arranged marriages, Indian mothers, “Going for English” as the artificiality of stereotypes, etc.

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Narrative Techniques of GGM

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Sketch comedy: Use of parody, reversal of stereotypes

Deliberate lack of realism, exaggeration: Because realism is not real, but constructed

Plays on inside cultural knowledge: not everyone will get all of the jokes all of the time.

Careful use of language: capturing rhythms of Indian, British speech and parodying them to show the constructed nature of stereotypes

Combines liberal conventions of Bollywood, Hollywood, Musical theatre.

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Politics of the show

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The show was a hit because of its accessibility to both Britasian and other British audiences. For the first time on the BBC, Britasians represented the humor. The show poked fun at Indian, British, and Britasian cultures and inverted the cultural stereotypes.

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Stereotypes and strategies of inversion in Goodness Gracious Me

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Presenting Britain through colonial lenses, folk art from India

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GGM as Postmodern Television –

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A shift from a modernist representation of a single identity, to a postmodern sense of multiple identities. Blurred the lines between ‘essentialist’ identity and anti-essentialist identities of multicultural Britain

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GGM as Postnational TV

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Represented a shift from predominantly racially conceived programming for minorities to a focus designed to address the multicultural experiences of a nation. Understanding India and Britain as cultural, rather than just physical, spaces.

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Mahabharat`

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An ancient Hindu Epic told anew by India television.

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Kauravas, Pandavas, Draupadi

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Characters in the Mahabharat, Karauvas were the bad guys: 100 brothers, Pandavas were the good guys: 5 brothers, Draupadi was the wife of the Pandavas.

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Passive Audience theories

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That TV audiences are couch potatoes who do not make any meaning of the show, but just soaking in the content. Dumb media, dumb audience. Argument that TV is a passive medium. Critique by Active Audience theories.

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Active Audience theories

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TV viewers are not simply passive couch potatoes, but rather, active participants in the meaning making process of the show.

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3 Audience Positions –

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Dominant-Hegemonic: the audience accepts the message put forth by the program

Negotiated: Audience negotiates the meaning of the message. Ex: so bad, its good

Oppositional: Audience reads an opposite meaning

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Producer’s Reading vs. female viewers reading of Draupadi’s disrobing

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Producers’ view: Use the TV show to provide social commentary like a modern day civics lesson. Women are the cornerstone of family and nation.

Viewer’s reading: some saw it as the producers intended; others went a step beyond and identified with Draupadi’s plight.

For producers, it was an abstract issue, but for women, it was a very real issue.

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Recent transformations in Bollywood as global industry

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Bollywood today is a more diffuse cultural conglomeration involving a range of distribution and consumption activities.

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Bollywood vs. Bombay Cinema

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Bollywood is a very recent phenomenon as a result of the synchronous developments of international capital and diaspora nationalism. Indian cinema has been around for over 100 years.

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Swades

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“We the People” was a great example of the diasporic genre of Bollywood cinema as it focused on a NASA engineer living in Houston who returned to India.

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Genealogies of Bollywood

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Parsi Theatre: Urban theatres, vibrant community with a strong theatre tradition

Muslim courtesan drama: Muslims represent about 20% population

Legacy of the melodrama genre: Very central theme; almost a defining characteristic

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Mother India vs. Chandini Bar

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Chandini Bar was the recent adaptation of Mother India that focuses on a single woman who must endure many hardships and struggles. In Mother India, after all of the tribulations, she came out on top. However in Chandini Bar, there is no redemption, only a cycle of bad.

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Impossibility of Mother India in Bollywood

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Nationalist cinema like Mother India cannot be made anymore because of the changed nature of India and Bollywood. It is too outdated to make any sense. Mother India is no longer a relevant character, now it is the diasporic son who best represents India.

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Common myths about globalization –

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Reification of globalization: As one, superhuman force and all powerful

Globalization as a recent process: Only as a result of new technology, neoliberalism

Globalization produces homogenization: Argument of cultural/media imperialism

Disjuncture and Difference theory: True, but the theory goes too far.

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Transterritorial

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A phenomena that is similar to deterritorialization, but connected to specific national television industries, producing content for their specific national audiences even as they expand.

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6 Factors in Transnationalization of telenova industry –

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1. Export to other Latin American countries, US, Europe, Asia, and Middle East

2. Many telenovela companies have offices abroad to manage transnational sales

3. Telenovelas now include more multicultural casts

4. Joint productions between at least 2 Latin American countries

5. Joint productions in in Argentina & Italian media

6. Joint productions in Miami and Madrid by Latin American producers

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Telenovelas and Cultural Identities

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Telenovelas participate in the production of identity by representing local, national, and transnational identities as Hispanic, Latin, Latin America, Spanish American, etc. It has created a new common identity for Spanish speakers around the world.

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Geo-Linguistic Region

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Region defined virtually, by commonalities of language and/or culture.

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Net Exporters

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Countries that export more content than they import, including Mexico and Brazil

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New Importers

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Countries with new, up and coming television industries, but still lag far behind those of Mexico and Brazil. Countries like Argentina, Venezuela, Colombia, Peru

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Net Importers –

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Small countries with no substantial television industries, these countries are the markets for Net and New exporters.

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Mexico’s Televisa

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A Quasi-monopolistic, cross media conglomeration under the Azcarraga family. They were among the first media corporations to see the benefits of using satellite technology to reach far flung audiences. They used that technology to build up a Spanish-language network, Univision, in the US.

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Brazil’s TV Globo

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Brazil’s dominant TV producer and broadcaster, which began in the 1960’s. TV Globo commercialized Brazil’s telenovela industry and turned it into and export product, but because Portuguese is Brazil’s national language, they focused more on the European market.

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Not yet Post Broadcast Era

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In most parts of the world, TV is gone. But in Latin America, TV is not at all gone. Ex is TV Globo, who have become even more dominant, incorporating new technologies. TV is still king because of Telenovelas. Out of 48 million households, only 10% have cable, so broadcast is still the most important medium.

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Love, TV, Power

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Soap Opera drama vs. real life Presidential scandal. When the two came to a head on the same day, newspapers headlined the soap opera over the presidential scandal. The blurring of fiction and reality and the power of melodramatic imagination.

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Global Youth Culture

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A transdisciplinary category to understand the emergence of complex forms of hybrid culture and identity due to the proliferation of new and old media.

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Frankfurt School critique of cultural industries

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Basically, corporations have taken over our culture so there is no way for young people to counter the corporate dominance. School is very critical of the pretentious pop music revolutionary messages, because they are a part of corporations. Very cynical of musical revolution.

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British Cultural Studies and Youth Cultural Studies

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Agree with Frankfurt School’s critique, but disagree that the only way to be revolutionary is to overthrow the system. They talk about how youth culture can work within the culture and transform it. Using mainstream culture in a subculture way.

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Hegemony

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ideology that becomes common sense through the processes of naturalization and normalization.

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2 Aspects of Hegemony –

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Consent: To gain consent, hegemonic forces use coercion

Coercion: But also grant some concessions to social groups in order to secure their compliance

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Dick Hebdige: Punk as Subculture

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Punk works from within the system to change it.But there will always be parts of punk that will never be mainstream

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Strategies of Resistance in Subcultures

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Appropriation

Bricolage

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Appropriation

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reinterpreting part of hegemonic culture and recontextualizing it to give it alternative/oppositional meaning.

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Bricolage

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recombining traditional forms of culture to create new cultural and political alternatives

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Post-subculture

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A postmodern adventure. Postmodern subcultures are different than previous subcultures. Earlier were place based in local communities. Postmodern subcultures are more globally dispersed using technology. More technologically savvy and more dispersed.

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Technopolitics

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Politics of the post-subculture are technological as opposed to more traditional politics of old subcultures. Postmodern subculture is technopolitical.

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Smart Mobs

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Non-organic, globally dispersed group members around the world that coordinate using technology. Ex: Flash Mobs, or coordinating protest activities around the world.

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Hacktivists

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Hackers who are hacking into corporations to mobilize for social causes. Most famous example today is the group Anonymous. Combining activist ideals with hacker skills for a specific social cause.

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Google Bombing

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The other side of corporate sponsorships. Hacktivists who figure out how to put normally marginalized links at the top of Google search results. Essentially bombing Google with a bunch of terms that tricks Google into misreading your website to move it up the list.

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Hegemonic culture’s response to subcultural resistance –

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1. Prohibiting/criminalizing/regulating subcultural activities

2. Recontextualizing subcultural meanings into hegemonic context

3. Incorporating subcultural forms and styles into hegemonic culture

The struggle for hegemony transforms both mainstream and alternative culture.