OUGD501: Globalisation, Sustainability and the media.

OUGD501.

Lecture 6.

The medias role in perpetutating an ever expansive global system based on dominant interests and capitalist powers. One system of organising the world into a larger system. 

A world were a series of radically different culturees were existent has now been taken over by a mono culture. Unified into a single society to function together. A combination of economic, technological, sociocultural and political forces. Globalisation was desired as it was seen as a change in which would push people to join together. 

Capitlism. 

The elmimination of state-enforced restrictions on exchanges across borders and increasingly integrated...

Globalisation:

- About the process of spereading free market policies across the world. 

- Conciousness, thinking about the world and eachother - dominance of a western culture, the spread of an american or western way of life. 

- Technology makes us interelated. 

- Realizing one single culture - negative or positive?

Cultural globalisation:

- Capital marketing becomeing existent and growing within other cultures. 

- 'McDonaldization' Taking over the globe, as mcdonalds can be found in any major city. 

- A particular way of ordering the world, an amerian way transposed into other cultures. 

- Fast food - Eating quickly. No bonding through eating, fragmented culture. 

- Work under american capitilist model. 'Mcjob' a job someone has to do but doesnt want to do. 

- Work as a way of contributing to society, taking an identity with your work. 

- A forced spread dominating society. 

Marshall Mcluhan. 

'Today after more than a century of electric technology, we have extended our central nervous system in a global embrace, abolishing both soace and time as far as our planet is concerned' 

- An extension of our senses. 

- Radio means we can hear stuff on the other side of the world as well as tv.

- We can experience the effect of our actions on the rest of the world. 

- Our ability to empathize with others will bring us closer into a global embrace. 

Global villagige thesis. 

The world shrinks to be a global villaige, our realationships become those like villaigers, a community. 

1964 - Prophet of the internet. 

We are able to view events in live time - tradgedies in other countries. 

Contrary to this, this global embrace has not happened, we are not necessarily sympathetic. We are nor aware of the consequences of our actions in such a way.

We live integrally, The electronic age has sealed the entire human family into one tribe. 

Rather than a global system emerging, Rival ideologies are emerging and tearing the world apart. 

Centripetal forces - Bringing the world together in a uniform global society. 

Centrifugal forces - tearing the world apart in tribal wars.

We DO NOT have a global embrace 

GLOBALIZATION:

Sovereingnty: Challeneges to the idea of nation-state. 

Accountibility: transnational forces and organizations, who controls them?

Identity: Who are we? nation, group community, we lose ourselves. 

When a company is based in more than one country, it become impossible to police, you can pass a law in england but it wont apply in other countries. Effectively businesses are almost more powerful than governments, multinational can act outside of the control of governments. In the spread of multinationalist capitilist businesses. the process of mcdonaldization is occuring. One particular culture is being spread across the world. 

Cultural impreialism.

Chomsky. 

The spread of culture through art design television and film, is as much a product of multinationalal business such as mcdnoalds. 

The whole world is a market, everyone is on a playingfield, all equal/fair - free market. 

- Media conglomerates operate as oligopolies. 

- Giant clusters of businesses in the control of one central business.

Six companies are controlling the entirity of the worlds media, all of which are american. 

Time warner. 

Umberella company, lots of sub companies. All of these comapies which impart lots of the worlds media are all earned by one american comapny. The one company controls the cultural output of a vast percentage of the worlds media.

America is the prime market (North America)

Western Europe, Japan and Australia. 

Developing economies (India, china, brazil, eastern europe)

The rest of the world (Africa)

Concerns of northern america will be prominent in magazines that are distributed in africa. Because American business’ have the most money. tHEY ARE INDOCTRINATED TO ACCEPT THAT THIS CULTURE IS ‘THE’ WAY OF LIFE. AND SO THEY ASSOCIATE THEIR NEEDS ETC WITH THOSE OF THE AMERICAN CULTURE. You are what you own, not appropriate for other countries such as Africa, as they cannot keep up with money fuelled countries such as North America. 

Cultural packages sold all over the world but presented as iunique, repackaging the ska ecommodities eg. big brother. 

India - Skin whitener, to get the american look. the whole world is being assimilated.

Chomsky - Manufacturing consent. 

The news- we believe we can watch the news and know what is happening. The news reader is the key part of propaganda. 

• Ownership: Larger percentage of newspapers owned by Rupert Murdock. His agenda is to make as much money for himself as possible, most of his papers run stories appearing as factual, the stories are self serving. The sun determined the output of U.K elections, Tories made a deal with Rupert Murdock, Tories allowed him to buy more news organisations. The media have immense power. It is a mistake to think that stories reported in these newspapers are without bias views. 
• Funding
• Sourcing: What is reported is what is allowed to be reported. Funders of these media organisations will not have it. Advertisers will withdraw there money, bosses at newspapers will not allow it, and journalists would lose their jobs. They must print stories which are sympathetic to the governing body. 

Flak.

US based Global climate coalition. 

Get stories into newspapers, stories that paint oil companies in a great light.

Propaganda disguised as news. 

Visual communication is an incredibly powerful media for influencing the consciousness. 

An inconvenient truth - film. 

Flat earthers - People who believe the world to be flat. 

Global summit- Kyoto. Try to thrash out a solution to global warming. Ever sanction is stopped by the US and China because it would cause money loss for both of these countries. Polluting the world is secondary to profit. To save the planet it is not to overthrow these countries, produce less CO2 and plant more vegetation. Deforestation is decreasing at a must faster rate than we can keep up with. Solutions to world problems is to buy more things, The American culture are the reason for these problems, they want you to buy to solve these. 

Sustainability:

• Supposed to be sympathetic towards this. 
• introduced in the 80’s - has a view towards stopping the depletion of all the worlds resources, allow societies to sustain themselves. 

Erin Balser. 

More expensive to be sustainable. 

Solve the problems of capitalism by capitalism is flawed from the start. companies are exploiting the fact that people are concerned about the planets welfare. Green washing - Comapanies make a green product. 

‘Most things are not designed for the needs of people but for the needs of the manufacturers to sell to people. The media plays a role in perpetuating this system. The way to challenge this is to challenge the system.