A global imagination now plays a crucial role in how people engage with their everyday lives, consider their options and make decisions within the new configurations of social relations that are no longer confined to local communities but potentially span, either directly or indirectly, across national boundaries (Rizvi 2009 in Mills & Green 2013, p. 115).
Through my BCM 288 course, I have developed an understanding of the issues that results in transnational development of global media and culture. We have studied the production, distribution and cosmopolitanisation of media, looking in detail at topics such as the translation of popular culture, film co-production, film and media policy, global hegemony vs. diasporic audiences, and film festivals.
All thanks to this subject I started to question what a co-production was, how the new media innovation could appeal to an audience and why is it important. Moreover, I also wondered for a long time how has cultural industries came to this level today, and how has international film festivals raise its presence and value.
Prior to studying this course, I had knowledge about people working for films are skilled and are specialised from different origins of the world. Co-production in Films was an interesting topic to learn and have a chat about, movies like Karate Kid were co-production. Yes, there is a possibility that the movie production or even starting point would have been difficult because of the cultural integrity clashes and cultural distance (McFayden, Hoskins, and Finn, 1998).
Another topic that intrigues me was cosmopolitanisation, cosmopolitanism refers to the capacity to appreciate and understand different values and ways of living (Beck, 2011). Alternatively, cosmopolitanisation is an ongoing process that refers to the erosion of clear borders, separate markets, civilisations, and cultures, which implies the involuntary inclusion of the global other (Beck, 2011). Cosmopolitanisation by no means indicates a cosmopolitan society.
Cosmopolitanism was also a notion that I found myself engrossed in. Cosmopolitanism is the ideology that all human beings belong to a single community, based on a shared morality. Through a class debate, our group was to argue for the statement ‘Does unprecedented rise in global media flows and human mobility always lead to cosmopolitanisation of culture and political values?’ I found this task very challenging though we were able to explore key concepts such ‘Ethnocentrism’ which is the evaluation of other cultures according to preconceptions originating in the standards and customs of one’s own culture.
In regards to global media flows, I think that cosmopolitanisation is fundamentally about challenging creative and cultural flows from the US, and opening up perspectives to, and dialogue about, other cultures, but also different genders, sexualities and religions.
Furthermore, one of the most important parts of cosmopolitanisation is the “rediscovery and redefinition of the local” (Beck 2006, in Mills & Green, 2013, p.115). Global media flows and human mobility affect local media and culture in both positive and negative ways, and I think this is a particularly significant, but often overlooked aspect of globalisation.
In conclusion, I am thankful for taking up the subject Transnational Media and Culture Industries. It gave me an opportunity to jump into certain topics that I lack knowledge about, it allowed me to research and expand my thinking in these aspects. This course not only touched the basic elements, but it went to the extent that raised my awareness and knowledge of the things which I never even thought about before. I will carry along the understanding that I gained from this course.
Signing Out,
Khan Sultana Nazish
References:
Beck, U. 2011, ‘Multiculturalism or Cosmopolitanism: How Can We Describe and Understand the Diversity of the World?’, Social Sciences in China, vol. 32, no. 4, pp. 52-58
McFadyen, S, Hoskins, C and Finn, A. (1998), The Effect of Cultural Differences on the International Co-production of Television Programs and Feature Films. Canadian Journal of Communications
Mills, J. & Green, B. 2013, ‘Toward a New Pedagogy of Cosmopolitanism’, Journal of Popular Film and Television, vol. 14, no. 2, pp. 106-116
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