Sunday, November 11, 2007

Communication and Culture


Introduction:


Culture is a way of life
Mass medi are key components in any nation's culture
Culture Industries:

Coined by aAdorno and Horkheimer: They developed a theory called 'Critical Theory'
The Two believed that the real purpose of mass media was to provide ideological justification for the capitalistic soicieties where these industries developed.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) 1999, describes culture industries as important national economic resources that allow expressions of creativity to be “copied & boosted by industrial processes and worldwide distribution.”
Business has its own set of cultural characteristics
Any organization has its own culture that keeps people attached to it and allows members to identify with it
We all belong to multiple groups, each with its own characteristics culture, including schools, religious organizations, civic groups, and even neighborhood groups
Transmission of culture:

Geertz: 'culture is an historically transmitted pattern of meanings embodied in symbols, a system of inherited conceptions expressed in symbolic forms by means of which men communicate, perpetuate, and develop their knowledge about and attitudes toward life'
print capitalism: newspapers
How West Dominate in Production of Culture:

Schiller: Mass Communication and the American Empire
Nordenstreng and Varis: the one way flow was based on historical conditions related to the introduction of TV and eco. resources and dem. characteristics of the exporters and importers of programs
Tunstall: the Media are American
Tomlinsonm: Cultural Imperialism
What Cultures do to defend cultural autonomy?

Countries with large domestic markets for cultural products always have an advantage in films and television production because they are:
able to charge less
able to remain competitive with other exports
Countries with low productions markets employ these strategies:
1- Quotas
2-Subsidies and Grants
3. Regional alliances (co-productions)
4.Adaptations of programs produced in other cultures
5. Resistance measures

Not ALl Pop culture is American


•Despite an international film and television market dominated by the U.S., people still tend to prefer their local cultures and local cultural products
•In India, Japan, Russia, and Brazil, 70-90% of television content is produced domestically
•Bollywood music and movies appeal to larger audiences, Indian and non-Indian alike, throughout the world


Role Of Journalists in Production of CultureIs objectivity an unattainable myth?*

U.S. news formats are adopted by other news organizations. CNN has large influence- sound bites, voiceovers, etc. internationally used
Journalists are suppsed to detach themselves from what they write
Managing Cultural COnflict:

Globalization vs. Fragmentation, Jihad vs. McWorld
Kurdish; not allowed to have their own channel
broadcast from London to preserve a distictive identity
Hybrid Cultures and the Media

Melting Pot, hybridity, creolization or glocalization: Mix of cultural frames for all of us
Amercian Culture
fusion
media imperialism: interpreted according to local culture
What we can conclude:

Journalism, American Style, is also exported around the globe in broadcasts and print media