Discussion: A world without “traditional” media?
“People lack many things: jobs, shelter, food, healthcare and drinkable water. Today, being cut off from basic telecommunications services is a hardship almost as acute as these other deprivations, and may indeed reduce the chances of finding remedies to them.” - Kofi Anan.[1]
Discussion: Social network dynamics within a “productive” global narrative vs an un productive event/issue.
The Oxford dictionary definition of the term “productive” is: “achieving or producing a significant amount or result”, and that is the context in which it is applied in this discussion. Like the law in a democracy, I believe that the strength of a comprehensive definition lies in its objectivity. [3] Despite what I think of Lady Gaga’s eccentric style as an example of an unproductive media event, her style, along with the rest of the celebrity culture world has become an increasingly common media experience that clamors for our attention, just like the productive media events. Thankfully, news on such unproductive events doesn’t usually propagate into global discourse like the international response to a narrative like Neda’s murder[4]. I am yet to see the day’s news disrupted by 'breaking news' on what Lady Gaga is wearing. God forbid the world ever pays such media events anymore attention that they are getting now. Perhaps there will be less people releasing sex tapes as a get-famous-quick ploy, or making money off not-so-glossy topics like teenage pregnancy[5] if such media events didn't gun so much attention. Nevertheless, the strength of the definition of a media event as stated by Hepp and Couldry definitely lies in its objective nature.
[1] Norris, Pippa: Information Poverty and the Wired World. The Harvard International Journal of Press/Politics, Volume 5, Number 3, Summer 2000. Pages 2
USA, France, England, Germany are examples of the post industrial economies being referenced here.
[4]Thomas, Anthony: For Neda, 2010. HB0 Documentary.
http://www.hbo.com/documentaries/for-neda/synopsis.html Web. Jan 20th 2011.
[5] Even if you don’t watch the show on teenage mums, these young girls have been propped into the lime light by glossy paged magazines in any grocery store and gas station in America. It’s a topic that many adults are so opinionated about but one can only wonder what message the teenage girls might be taking from the fame of these teenage mothers.
That's very interesing what you've said and unfortunately, very true. It does seem that the world is being divided digitally nowadays, and the countries with the smartest and highest levels of technology are coming out far better than those without. For instance, India has become something of a major economic force since they are a very important role in the call center industry, which creates hundreds of thousands of jobs for the Indian people.
ReplyDeleteIt seems like technology has also furthered globalization nowadays. Indian call center jobs relate to how much (for instance ) Americans purchase on consumer goods which are made in China. As such, all of the countries listed play a vital role in the global economy since technology has improved communication exponentially.
You are absolutely right about the rising economies of the developing world. Like the HBO documentaries on globalization highlighted, the future looks favorable for developing economies, especially with the advent of the internet.
ReplyDeleteHowever, despite this upward trend,the statistics on access to the internet are still daunting, hence Kofi Anan's comment at the top of my entry.
Here are some statistics to better illustrate my point.(Source,Norris, Pippa: Information Poverty and the Wired World. The Harvard International Journal of Press/Politics, Volume 5, Number 3, Summer 2000. Pages 2-3)
Archive:
"As of 1999, there were more internet hosts in New York than in all of Africa , and the emerging technology has only increased this gap over the years . Today, almost two-thirds of the world’s on-line community is located in just five countries: the United States, Japan, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Germany. These are some of the post industrial economies and developing democracies that have 97 percent of all Internet hosts; 92 percent of the market in production and consumption of computer hardware, software, and services; and 86 percent of all Internet users. In contrast, the whole of sub-Saharan Africa contains only 2.5 million Internet users, or less than 1 percent of the world’s online community. There are actually more users within affluent Sweden than in the entire continent of Africa, notes Norris and Pippa (2000)."