Globalization

Stephen Elfenbein
Blog
In class we talked about the article that Professor Burns was quoted in about Twilight, and how the journalist was not interested in the all facts and details regarding the movie, she was just interested in those that would help her story. This led to a class discussion in which we realized that the media has a habit of either over analyzing or crafting facts to fit their stories . In the discussion on Twilight I think at one point someone in the class said, “Get over it’s a love story nothing more”. The basic summary of that discussion was that while some media does stand for something and should be interrupted as more than just a movie or a song some are just songs or just film. In other words Masters of War by Bob Dylan is more than just a song and demands analysis. Whereas Britney Spears’s Hit Me Baby One More time does need not analytical analysis. This is what I believe what Conrad Lodziak was talking about when he said, “media theories often have a tendency to exaggerate the broader social significance of their subject of study”( Mcquail,226) This discussion has made me think of not a just a single medium of media, but a recent development in media, Globalization. Is Globalization really a problem or is it a non issue.
In Chapter 19 John Tomlinson address this very issue of globalization in the media. There are many critics of Globalization; some think it is another form of imperialism, Cultural imperialism. Done just for money. Marxist believe that cultural imperialism and Capitalism go hand and hand and that “capitalism is a homogenizing cultural force”’(Mcquail,229) in other words they believe that capitalism makes everyone the same. Tomlinson brings up an interesting point in that the Modernity of Globalization can be used for and against it.
My main question is, at its most fundamental stage is globalization of media wrong, should we see so much British T.V like The Office or the other works Ricky Gervias should we know what Bollywood is, and should other countries know so much about our media. My personal opinion is yes. I think that globalization is good. Media has the potential to help and impact other forms of media. The globalization of the media has given us the British Invasion, Film Noir and many other positives. Another positive that Globalization has brought is the opportunity to bring in a wider audience and therefore make more money. This is something that David Croteau and William Hoynes address in there article The Media Industry: Structure, Strategy and Debates which is also featured in my Media Studies text book by Eoin Devereux. Croteau and Hoynes give three reasons why Globalization is good for the U.S movie industry. The first however is the one that is most relevant to our discussion, “Domestic markets are saturated with media products, so many companies see international markets as the key to future growth” (Devereux 35) They go on and give an example of a film called The Island starring Ewan McGregor , which did horribly in the U.S. but did rather well in the foreign markets making 124 million dollars, thus making the film a success. In other words they are giving an example of how Globalization helps and is a positive. A recent article form Business Day Online describes just how successful the world wide box office has been this year, “The output of such a combined effort: the tally for 2009 from worldwide box office sales for all films was USD 29.9 billion, which reflects a growth of 7.6% over the previous year. It is estimated that in 2009 over 2500 movies were made across the world, even though in the United States the number of movies produced has declined over the last few years, from 920 in 2005 to 677 in 2009! And, today with the advances in technology, movies are dubbed or sub-titled in almost every language.)
This is describing what we already know, movie making is no longer just an American business.
To make clear my main question is what do you think about globalization and its impact on the world of media.