Please enable JavaScript.
Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.
Postmodernists- Media, Globalisation, Popular Culture - Coggle Diagram
Postmodernists- Media, Globalisation, Popular Culture
-
Participatory Culture
Consumers can reinvent and subvert existing media products of global corporations in inventive ways- power is no longer concentrated in the hands of large corporations
Distinction between producers and consumers has become less clear cut due to the shift in media production from global corporations to individuals e.g. through social media, blogging
Global culture has become more democratic as users and audiences are increasingly involved in the production of culture themselves, don't just listen or watch without actively participating
Shirky: sites such as Facebook have resulted in the "wiring of humanity" and free time- a shared global resource as we share images, videos and information.
Jenkins
Participatory culture creates new forms of community as those involved feel connected to one another- care about what other people think of what they have created/ shared online
If audiences are not getting involved in actively shaping flow of content on social media, it is unlikely that the media will globally expand. Thus participation is essential for the survival of new media.
Globalisation of protest
Itzoe: new media is the freest form of free speech to exist in history and has allowed people to harness mass support for causes to create social change (e.g. BLM movement), and to coordinate mass political responses to issues e.g. plan protests on Twitter
- Spencer-Thomas: mass anti-gov protests in Burma in 1988 failed to receive a lot of media attention because the military regime banned overseas journalists from the country.
- In contrast the mass protest of 2007 received far more global attention because the Burmese people had access to new media tech (phones) and could show the violent actions of the military= condemnation of the Burmese gov from politicians worldwide
Murthy: social media sites e.g. Twitter, Facebook can help increase global political awareness on issues of human rights abuses, repression and protest as eyewitnesses can share first-hand accounts, take videos/ pictures as evidence (e.g. George Floyd's murder which was filmed and shared, sparking international outrage and protest)
Shaping Identity
Cochrane and Pain: ordinary people are increasingly shaped by decisions and actions that take place far away from where they live and work, through use of the media
New media allows more choice in terms of personal identity and lifestyle. Smartphones and social media sites have spread the consumption of global images, logos and brands, which have become an essential feature of how people present themselves to the rest of the world.
Society is so media saturated that media is now more influential in shaping identities than class, gender, family, community, nation or ethnicity
Strinati: in the post-modern world, distinction between "high culture" and popular culture has become blurred. Whereas the theatre, opera was previously a preserve of the ruling class, we can now watch these things on TV. High culture now uses techniques of popular culture for marketing
Cultural Hybridisation
Glocalisation: local cultures are not swallowed up or eliminated by global culture- they are instead using media in their own way e.g. Bollywood, inspired by Hollywood but suited to culture of India, Nollywood etc
Tomlinson (Pluralist): There is no direct cultural imposition from the West. Local/ folk culture can adapt global products and "pick and mix" what to keep/ change to suit their own needs and to what makes sense in the local community.
Cohen and Kennedy: people do not abandon their own local/ folk culture just because of the mass media- their values and traditions do no simply disappear. They appropriate elements of global culture and mix and match them with elements of local culture.
- In the Arab world, some countries have blended Western cultures and created their own Arab versions e.g. popular comic "The 99" is similar to X-Men, Marvel superheroes but characters take on abilities based on 99 attributes of Allah
Evaluation
Ignores the inequality of the new media divide- not all people globally have access to tech which allows them to benefit from globalisation
Ignores negative/ exploitative consequences of globalisation e.g. global sweatshop wage slavery caused by transnational corporations which find cheapest, most vulnerable workers globally to maximise profits. This has created a dehumanised global workforce that is ruthlessly exploited whilst TNCs are not held accountable.
Exaggerates the role popular culture plays in our identity- many people still see family, ethnicity, nationality, class background as more influential in their lives in shaping their identity
Barnett and Seymour: Popular culture is created for mass consumption as opposed to for its own sake- little aesthetic, cultural or artistic value (like high culture). This superficial candy floss culture simply dumbs down intelligence/ creativity, has no real meaning
Global media has led to cultural homogenisation as people's consumption of popular culture has become very similar despite where they are in the world. This has led to an erasure of folk/ local culture which are disappearing as they're being rejected for mass produced culture.
Globalisation
Cohen and Kennedy: societies used to be different, distant and independent from each other. Now they are increasingly interconnected via globalisation. Despite 196 separate nation states in 2015, we have become a global village
Globalisation: increased interconnectedness of societies across the globe that are now exposed to the same cultural and media products
McLuhan: the world is rapidly becoming a global village in which rapid technological change has caused space and time barriers to collapse. People around the world can now communicate instantaneously on a global scale