Global Media Empires

The 'prezi' presentation for ALC215 Globalisation and the Media, Week 3: Global Media Empires

W3. Globalisation and the Media on Prezi

(you can navigate the prezi with the play button, which moves the timeline along to the next point, or use the mouse directly on the screen to move through the material).

Globalisation: Definitions, Scapes and Flows

The 'prezi' presentation for Week 2, Globalisation and the Media : Definitions, Scapes and Flows.

W2. Globalisation and the Media on Prezi

interconnectedness of all things...

Pieterse (2009, p.44) considers theories of globalisation fixating on the unequal distribution and imperialism of global ‘interconnectedness’ (especially those arguing it leads to McDonaldisation), as underestimating the power of cultural hybridisation afforded by such connectivity. 

Image via  http://sayedkhadri.wordpress.com/2010/06/14/dirk-gently-holistic-detective-agency/
I will always be a fan of Douglas Adams for his appreciation of the concept of interconnectedness and its use in his novel Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency.

The mediated and technological nature of these interconnections has resulted in the rapid change of previously dominant media institutions and industries. One clear example is the transformation of what we think of as professional journalism and the news industry.

Broadcast media - TV, Newspapers and Radio - were once synonymous with the concepts of ‘news’ and ‘current events’, and were gatekeepers to information that made them perfect discoursive vehicles of cultural hegemony.

The effects of interconnectedness can be seen as the dominance of broadcast media wanes, in terms of the content and context (what is considered to be ‘news’), but even in the punctuation of our everyday lives.

The recent Melbourne earthquake is a good example; pre-social media, I would have waited until the radio or television brought the news to me, with more detailed coverage and analysis usually perhaps found in the paper the next day.

Social media and the interconnectedness of our informational and social networks enables me to chase the information in a self-mediated fashion: Google leads me to the overloaded official site, so I moved to Facebook, Twitter, and then to Reddit, finding the personal, mixed with the professional, selecting the information, analysis and conversation that I required.

The question remains, however, is this model is less susceptible to the operations of hegemony?

Pieterse J.N. 2009, Globalization and culture : global mélange, Plymouth : Rowman & Littlefield.

What is globalisation?

Zygmont Bauman (Davis and Tester, 2010) saw globalisation as a consequence of postmodernity. Perspectives shifting as technologies increased the compression of time and space, changing geography, societies and cultures, reordering even the way we express ourselves and the view the world around us.


The origins, etymology and composition of the word ‘globalisation’ is interesting. Three parts; the ‘global’, meaning the globe, the whole of Earth; and the ‘isation’, including both the ‘ise/ize’ and ‘ation’ suffixes. The ‘ation’ is noun forming, while the ‘ise’ is a transitive verb, and together the meaning takes on a ‘doing sense’.


Globalisation also has a historical dimension to its processes. Technologies are improved, and new networks and physical and mobile connections are engineered with bigger bandwidths and higher capacities. The effects are magnified.


Once it was expensive to phone other countries, now the cost of a computer, Internet connection and Skype is absorbed among our other daily utilities like power, water, and rent.


 Previously major political protests were covered by radio, television and print news with giant distribution agencies, now a story can break instantly around the world across Twitter, Google and Facebook on billions of screens.


Globalisation is acceleration, an increase in the pace of change, but it is also the lag, and the economics of politics, the failures of governance and the intensity of the military and judiciary. 


It occurs as regions rise, banks cripple economies, and billionaires challenge the Catholic church in the Vatican City, Rome over female contraception in Africa. 


Globalisation is the process of integration as national identities evolve, markets boom and bust, and borders are refashioned. 


Davis, M. and Tester, k. (2010) Bauman’s Challenge: Sociological Issues for the 21St Century, Palgrave MacMillan

being broadcast

One of the consequences of globalisation is the tension and unease that accompanies the feeling of being broadcast all the time – very Trauman Show. The sensation that our every move, statement, and action is recorded and filed away to be later viewed and judged. Or is that Santa? 

For other's, there is a feeling of being broadcast that is far more gratifying. I got over being surprised at the scale, popularity and power of the feeling of being broadcast around the rise of social networks and series three of Big Brother. The amount of money to be made via SMS and texting for a time in Australia  – preTwitter - was incredible.

I suffer from both senses of being broadcast and noted a pang of Socratic irony today as I descended into the giant evil villain’s lair that is Lecture Hall 13.

We tested the new recording technology for the iLecture series, but I think the mp4 download is of a very low quality. The streaming version on the high setting is fine for those with phatter pipes for your interwebz.

Can’t speak for the general quality of the lecture, but really enjoyed monologging and it showed I have been watching Despicable Me with my younglings. I noted I thought the ABC programs Dumb, Drunk and Racist and Myf Warhursts Nice were very complimentary works to view and a student later asked what other programs would I recommend watching. I replied with, Four Corners, but later realised I should have also said Tribal Wives. 

successful experiment

I'd consider today's experiment, with the 'hangout' feature of the G+ tools, a success. I managed to reverse the polarity on the wireless flux capacitor during the first tutorial in order to get the laptop to be friends with G+ and broadcast during the second tutorial block at 1pm until 2pm. Thanks to Courtney Collins, Elizabeth Murray, Airlie Slessar who joined us online in the G+ experiment. 

It seems the iPad can join active ‘hangout’ sessions but not initiate ones, and I’m not sure about the Android side of things yet. I did record the audio on the tutes via the iPad and will see about getting that uploaded to the DSO site. 

I’m looking forward to the lecture tomorrow and testing out the new recording software for the iLecture series. I’m thinking about posting the material to YouTube or Vimeo and/or Apple podcast network, and will investigate further.

I’m also looking forward to the adding all the new blogs to the list this week, and a student (I should have noted the name) pointed out that we will probably need accounts for both Blogger and Wordpress in order to leave comments as part of the peer review process but having a blogger account will automatically connect you to gMail and G+ which is useful for the live tutorials and access to Google docs. More soon.

Week One

I'm looking forward to the start of the new session here at Deakin today, and I will be experimenting with Google's G+ Hangouts for live online tutorials later today at 12:00, 13:00 and 14:00. 


My rough guide to the tutorial this week via Prezi.com...

Globalisation and the Media on Prezi