Course: CLIT 2025

Visual Culture The Circulation of Visual Culture

Kathy and Cherry

14th April, 2008

The Central Changes in 20th Century

• Globalization– The flatness of world– Global village– Global imperialism

• Convergence– Technological advancement and collapse of boundary

• E.g. Multimedia integration• E.g. Media conglomerates

• Synergy– Corporation conglomerates: vertically integrating

programming, production, and distribution and horizontally integrating across a geographic scope that no one entity could have reached alone

Thomas Friedman’s “The World is Flat”

• Forces that flattened the world– Political flatteners

• The breach of Berlin Wall in 9th Nov, 1989– Technological flatteners

• Netscape, the internet browser went public in 9th Aug, 1995• Open source movement • Work flow software• In-forming• The Steroids, Digital, Mobile, Personal, and Virtual, wirelessness

– Economical flatteners• Outsourcing• Offshoring• Insourcing• Global Supply-Chaining

Thomas Friedman’s “The World is Flat”

• Triple Convergences1. All the flatteners converged with one another, eac

h flattener enhanced the other flatteners.2. Instead of collaborating vertically, businesses

needed to begin collaborating horizontally. Horizontal collaboration add value creation or innovation to the companies.

3. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, communist countries like India, China,Russia, and the nations of Eastern Europe, Latin America and Central Asia began to open up their economies to the world. They added new brain power and enhanced horizontal collaboration across the globe.

MuLuhan’s Vision of Global Village

• MuLuhan’s ideal image of a media-based global village– Collapse of geographic distance and national boun

daries– The decline of the central power of the sovereign n

ation-state, individual becomes more important– Internet democratized society– Communities formed based on shared interests acr

oss geographic, national, and cultural boundaries

The Transnational Media

• Television, the internet, and the World Wide Web erase national boundaries and creating cross-cultural exchange– Cable News Network, e.g. CNN– Film production chain and circulation, like in Inte

rnational Film Festivals– TV programmes– youtube

The World is Really Flat?

• Censorship of information – blocking SMS message on cell phones that contained any

reference to Tianamen Square or even the numbers 6 and 4 during the anniversary of Tiananmen Square massacre

• Many people live in the twilight zone between the two, flat world and unflat world– too disempowered– too sick– too frustrated

• Domination of western cultural product– Hollywood films in Asia market

• Trade politic– WTO

• External forces V.S. internal forces– US radio Voice of America was broadcasted into communist Cuba du

ring Cold War era– Fidel Castro use media as propaganda tool

• Resistent forces– E.g. Independent

documentary filmmaker in China

– E.g. Anti-globalization movement, e.g. the Korean farmer demonstrate against WTO in HK

– Special culture events for minority or alternative political position, e.g. gay and lesbian film festival

– Fair trade policyresist inside the system

of globalization

Cultural Imperialism

• “How an ideology, a politics or a way of life is exported into other territories through the export of cultural products.”

• Cultural invasion with images and messages – E.g. The Voice of America, Radio Marti,

TV Marti to Cuba promote global acceptance of US political values

Cultural Imperialism

• Media intervention an act of cultural imperialism

• Spread of democratic ideas OR demonstration of cultural power?!

• Cultural product move across national boundaries from big power to the rest of the world

• The global flow of Popular Culture - not a mere relationship of cultural exchange BUT more complex relationship

• Armand Mattelart & Ariel Dorfman’s “How to read Donald Duck”

Cultural Imperialism

• “How to read Donald Duck” - a submission to the cultural power - cartoon = imperialistic domination- Disney promotion and seek for new markets Sub-products like movies, cable

channels, newspapers, magazines, books, music, videos, toys, theme

parks- the U.S.A. in dominating position

Cultural Imperialism

• “Corporations have a vested interest in destroying indigenous cultures and societies and forcing Third World countries to adapt, as much as possible, to consumption patterns dictated by the corporate patterns of production and investment.” Marty Jezer’s The Dark Ages: Life in the United States 1945-1960 (Boston: South End Press, 1982) P.66

Cultural Imperialism

• help spread messages across boundaries

• global flow of information homogenization

• Specific cultural identities under brand– Coke in 1980s Vs McDonald in 21st

century in China

Cultural Imperialism

Alternative circulations

• Hybrid and diasporic images• Diasporic communities generate hybridi

ty– Integration of people and culture – complicated the relationship between First

World and Third World• Arjun Appadurai’s new framwork for a

nalyzing global flows– “-scapes”

1. Ethonoscapes 2. Mediascape 3. Technoscapes 4. Financescape 5. Ideoscapes ** Alternative to traditional model of

how culture flows globally

Question

• talking about globalization, do You think there is a tendency that we are inclined to regard the west as the core of globalization and the east is considered to be globalize

• For the case of circulation of films, how is the scenario like??