Panel 1: Imperialism and Globalisation
Chair: Dr Prasun Sonwalkar
The complexities of American cultural imperialism in Kuwait and the Middle East: from Hollywood defamation to soft power attraction
Sulaiman Arti, Loughborough University
imperialism, orientalism, propaganda, film, kuwait
The research deliberates the evolution of post-Cold War foreign policy and rise of Nye’s soft power’ strategy designed to offer a more subtle approach than that identified and critiqued by prominent detractors such as Herman and Chomsky with their ‘propaganda model’.
Bush era ‘war on terror’ and Charlotte Beers initiatives and potential impact on Arab audience, the uses of public diplomacy through various media channels to promote ‘Brand America.
Arguably one key arena where public diplomacy is evident and possibly influential is cinema, especially of the multiplex Hollywood kind. American domination of film production and distribution has enabled them to promote US cultural norms and values across the globe and notably in the Middle East. The dominant frame of this material tended to be pro-Israel and critical of Arabs as represented by various characters. Shaheen and others have done extensive work on cultural representation of the Middle East through film.
Post 9/11 it would appear arguably influenced by US public diplomacy strategies, major Hollywood producers have abandoned the negative stereotype of Arabs identified by Shaheen and others. Sines then a number of films have appeared to provide more nuanced, complex depiction of these characters, some of whom have been portrayed in a positive manner.
To gauge the impact of US public diplomacy is it useful to explore one informal dimension of this, that is film, and its reception by Arab audience. The latter are, by definition, heterogeneous and it so it is necessary to focus of a particular strand of the population to examine the topic. Kuwait is not representative of wider Arab society but it is nevertheless a part of it. Its relative prosperity and freedom of movement have provided. Methods of research:
The main goal for this research is to answer some of the questions raised by the developing changes in American cultural rhetoric towards the Middle East through analysing the complicated relationship between the sender (Americans) and the receptors (Middle Easterners). The research will be based on the study of both documentary analysis and deductive testing of hypotheses and theories that are strongly related to the current situation, so a combined "quantitative and qualitative approach" is suggested.
Negotiating globalisation: media representations and popular perceptions: a case study in eastern Thailand
Unaloam Chanrungmaneekul, Loughborough University
globalisation, mainstream media, alternative media, social movement, modernity
Drawing on original fieldwork in a village community in Eastern Thailand, Ban Noen Putsa-Pluak Ked, this paper explores the complex relationships between processes of globalisation; representations in mainstream and alternative media; and villagers’ responses to change.
Globalisation has had major impacts on this community and brought about substantial changes in the economy, the environment and culture. These transformations have been generally endorsed in the mainstream media. However, in 2005, alternative media emerged promoting anti-globalisation and localism.
The research, summarised here has three interrelated objectives: First , to examine how globalisation and industrialisation are represented in the mainstream and alternative media .Second, to investigate the role played by alternative media in promoting counter visions possible futures. Third, to investigate the practices and ideas that local people have developed to resist or accept globalisation. The research employs a multi-method approach combining ethnographic methods, a questionnaire survey; textual analysis; and focus groups.
The findings point to a complex relationship between mediated representations and visions of modernity. They also demonstrate that villagers’ responses are strongly stratified by age, length of residence , and relation to the pivot of the new industrialisation- a major chemical plant, and that they remain strongly influenced by the crucial nexus of traditional Thai society, the patron client system.
Oh, God! It's News: Using Mythology to Construct Saleable News in Indian Channels
Venkata Vemuri, University of the West of England, Bristol
John Langer, while examining the role of ideology in 'soft' news or trivial news on television, refers to the "use of common sense as a mode of address" for winning consent and legitimising broadcast of such news. This paper examines the Indian situation with reference to Langer's observations. Television broadcasters in the west have innovated several methods for showing non-essential news as "sedimented bedrock wisdom". In India, private news broadcasters have turned to mythology, the surreal world of the gods, for gaining ratings and profits. This paper focuses on a recent live news programme in a private news channel which goes on to prove that once common sense is attained, broadcasters can do away with even basic journalistic norms of news presentation and get away with it.
Panel 1: Imperialism and Globalisation
Panel 2: Online Citizens and Democracy
Panel 3: Television Audiences
Panel 4: Mediating Identity 1
Panel 5: Reporting the Conflict
Panel 6: Journalism and Social Responsibility
Panel 7: Sexual Representations in Cinema
Panel 8: Popular Culture
Panel 9: Still Image
Panel 10: Branding, Advertising and Corporate Cultures
Panel 11: Film and Theatre
Panel 12: Alternative Film
Panel 13: Feminism, Gender and Identity
Panel 14: Fan Culture and Online Audiences
Panel 15: Public Service Broadcasting and Radio
Panel 16: Design for Screen
Panel 17: Uses of Music and Sound in Film
Panel 18: Mediating Identity 2
Panel 19: Citizens, Interaction and the Public Interest |
