How has the rise of the media empires and celebrity culture has affected the history of national events.

This year’s 2012 Olympics Games, hosted by London, were broadcasted by channel Nine which ended a 5 consecutive games rule by channel Seven. This historical event has now become part a world dominated by consumerism, a world motivated by the flows of capital. What should be a celebration of national identity and a celebration of elite sportsmanship has since become a battle of the media empires for advertising space and airtime ratings. How has this affected the tradition and history of the game as well as the way we view the sport and these athletes in the modern day.

The media empire is affecting all national events whether it be the Olympic games, the soccer world cup, the rugby etc and we are now seeing what is known as a monopoly when it comes to the broadcasting of these events. There was once a rule known as the duopoly rule which prevented one organisation from owning more than one station in the same area that provided a similar type of service as well as preventing companies from owning more than one AM, FM or TV station in the same area (Pringle et al 2006 p234). This rule promoted fairness and healthy competition as well as the diversity of viewpoints that comes from having more than one organisation dominating the news shelves. These rules have since relaxed and as a result of the lack of competition the quality of information is starting to suffer. This is obvious from the poor reception in regards to Channel Nine’s broadcast of the Olympics.“Why bother to become more efficient? Sometimes producers can make more money by simply raising prices” (Straubhaar et al 2002, p40).  This point also leads into the way a lot of services operate nowadays; one that particularly stands out in my mind is the charging for online newspaper subscriptions. Newspapers haven’t traditionally made their money from selling papers but rather from the advertising space. Now that they are online and there is no physical paper, saving the industry tones of money in printing and distribution, they are deciding that they can get more money out of consumers by making them pay for a subscription fee. The paper is not better by any standards, the articles have to be shorter to fit the online format and the process is now cheaper than ever before but the desire of the industry to increase their flows of capital was one that could not be over looked.

There was another way to watch the Olympic’s in Australia and that was through a payed subscription. This gave consumers choice but the product was essentially the same. We were merely paying for what we should’ve had on free to air TV. This is the beauty of the monopoly, they can charge what ever they want for what should be an essential service, the flows of information. The flow of capital has become the primary concern of the modern media. One thing that stands out in my mind from the Olympics were all the ads that were supposedly for the Olympics but doubled as ads for Coca-Cola, McDonalds, Visa etc. These companies tried to use the love audiences had for the events and their country as a way of moving stock and selling products. Hasn’t this made the Olympics seem trivialised? The immense access to so much media and sporting has degraded the importance of the Olympics to a large degree and it’s unlikely that it will ever become as important as it once was. Some athletes even considered refusing to compete in this years Olympics due to financial reasons and lets not forget all of the controversies surrounding this years Olympics including certain members of the Australia swim team being banned for online behaviour.

Sporting events are less and less becoming about the sports and more about the celebrity status of the elite athletes that compete in them. “Sport business is an estimated $213 billion industry; of this figure, advertising is 14.1 percent, spectator spending is 13.4 percent, gambling is 9.7 percent, media broadcasting rights is 3.6 percent, and endorsements is 1 percent” (Hyman et al 2009, p1). There is no doubt that the sporting industry capitalises on the celebrity of sports stars to increase the flows of capital. Whether it’s an elite golfer endorsing a sugary sports drink, or an elite basketballer eating a greasy cheeseburger, these and many other examples have helped to spread products on a global scale whether the product is even used by the athlete to perform at peak levels or not.  This works because “In addition to being well known and famous, celebrities are attractive, likeable, and trustworthy – at least in the minds of the public to whom the advertising message is directed” (Leslie 2011, p45). But lets be honest, they didn’t get to the top by eating too many of those cheeseburgers or sugary waters. The celebrity culture is also one that has become a hot topic of interest for discussion. These types of topics include a scandalous affair, what kind of car someone is driving, a drug or over the top party habit/lifestyle among many other areas of interest for audiences. Many people would argue that this has taken away from the essence of what the Olympics are really about and that is the sports themselves and getting behind your nation in the spirit of competition and sportsmanship’s.

So have we really lost anything or is this just merely the way of preserving an ancient tradition in the modern era? Although this is the way that these kinds of events are all moving and you cant blame brands and organisations for trying to capitalise on that the consumer is the one suffering. Whether its an advertisement on TV aimed at children about drinking a certain drink to perform well in sport, over years of hard work and training, which is deliberately misleading naïve audiences who will them blame the success of these athletes on genetics and natural talents when they fail to see instant results. Or whether it’s having to pay extra for a service which should free such as the flows of information on our online subscription and pay TV services. These monopolies need to end, as lacking competition is what’s driving the consumer focus into the ground. Consumers don’t understand that the mass array of publications out there are generally coming from the same 2 or 3 people. The same views are merely being churned through different mediums to reach a mass audience. Organisations need to start looking after their consumer because one day another competitor may enter the race and leave them all high and dry

References

Joseph D. Straubhaar, 2001. Media Now With Infotrac: Communications Media in the Information Age. 3rd Pkg Edition. Wadsworth Pub Co.

Peter Pringle, 2005. Electronic Media Management, Fifth Edition. 5 Edition. Focal Press.

Michael R. Hyman and Jeremy J. Sierra , January 1, 2009, Sport Celebrity Idolatry: A Problem?

Larry Z. Leslie, Larry Z 2011, Celebrity in the 21^st Century: A Reference Handbook, ABC-CLIO

Celebrity Obsession

Today I pose a question to you instead of putting forth my views on this certain matter. Why is it so important to us what is going on in the lives of those in the spotlight?

“We believe ourselves to be much close to them than we are to individuals with whom we might have regular, professional contact” (Leslie 2011, p15)

We often know more about celebrities than we do our closest friends. Hours can be happily spent reading and gossiping about what their latest adventures are. Whether its Kristen Steward cheating on Robert Pattinson, John Travolta getting a massage, Charlie Sheen having a meltdown. We are so obsessed with what is going on in the lives of these people we have never met, even more so than our own lives. This to me is hard to comprehend even though I find myself getting caught up in it from time to time.

The act of idolizing stems from the religious tradition of idolizing gods and saints, and in my thoughts its quite possible that the celebrity is acting as a substitute for this in the decline of faith in western culture.

Don’t you think it’s time for us to stop worrying about the turmoil’s in the life’s of those in the spotlight and start worrying about our own lives which usually aren’t that much better held together?

References

image from http://cheezburger.com/4533004032

Leslie, Larry Z 2011, Celebrity in the 21^st Century: A Reference Handbook, ABC-CLIO

Culture shocked

The other day I watched a wonderful animated movie called Sita Sings the Blues(2008). It is an Indian tale of a jazz singer called Sita. There was one particular scene in the movie, which I found to be a great example of relatable Diaspora. Because I’ve lived in Australia my entire life I can’t completely empathize with those who suffer from Diaspora, but what I can relate to is culture shock while on holidays. “Being plopped down in the middle of an unfamiliar and markedly different culture can be overwhelming, lonely and often even depressing.”(Culture shock 2012). In the film a wife(Nina) travels to India to be with her husband(Dave) after he gets a job over there. When she lands in India she runs up to her husband to hug and kiss him. He pulls away and says, “we’re in India” as this is not something allowed in public. Later that night she tries to seduce him in her underpants and he just says “goodnight” and goes to sleep. Nina then roles up into a ball. Pureness is a very important trait in Indian.

I’ve experienced this form of culture shock myself when travelling through Asia for several months. For me these were things like not being able to show any affection, having to remove shoes before going into a store, the differences in road laws, not understanding communication, feeling ripped off as from not understanding the custom of bartering etc. The homesickness we get and lack of confidence from not understanding the foreign customs is the closest thing to Diaspora for migrants.

Bibliography

http://www.cultureshock.com.au/

Sita Sings the Blues(2008) 

Blogging in the public sphere

Blogging along with twitter are two of the latest fads. So much so that my autocorrect doesn’t even recognise the word “blogging”. These things are new right? New concepts and new ways for us to share information that have completely revolutionised the world?

Pfffft. Hardly. These are old old old. It is purely putting your thoughts out there into what is known as the “public sphere”.

The public sphere is “a realm of our social life in which something approaching public opinion can be formed”(Habermas et al 1964, p1). It is something that can be accessed by everyone and is someone what of a conversation.

The real innovation of a blog is that it’s easier for anyone to do it. The Internet has been booming since the late nineties and anyway with a computer and half a brain had the ability to create a website. Matter of fact I had my own web page when I was about 12(I’m 20 now). Things take a while to catch on and now anyone can have a blog and you don’t even have to be a functioning human being to share you thoughts. Isn’t this a great world we live in.

All this said, its easier than ever to get lost out there in the sea of information and rubbish, but I do commend those who have managed to use these tools effectively and have a positive impact on the life’s of others. J

Reference

Habermas J, Lennox S, Lennox F, 1964, The Public Sphere: An Encyclopaedia Article, Germany, New German Critique 

image from - http://hahafunnylol.com/post/26762916938/im-amazing-too#.UDItoNConoN

Who's going to help you?

War has broken out in Australia. The government has fallen apart and the economy has sunk. Goods and supplies are scarce and the majority of your time is spent wondering how your family is going to make it and who is going to die first. You grab all your money and you give it to a man you’ve never met before who promises he’ll take you to a better land, one not torn by war and where a new beginning will enrich the lives of your loved ones. You travel for weeks on a beat down boat with sick people and you give up proper nutrition and hygiene until you get to safe land. After all of this you are labelled a criminal in the eyes of the government who’s land you arrive at and then you are sent back.

“There has been no compensating commitment to refugee resettlement or even a ‘refugee visa’ that would provide a legal migratory option for those in need of protection. Instead refugees have had to run the gauntlet of illegal migration” (Morrison 2003, p475). So many people who we treat like this we don’t understand the sacrifice that it is they are making. We label them as selfish and evil. Not to mention the loss of their culture that they will suffer trying to fit into a new foreign land in which they don’t speak the language and they have left their friends and relatives and will struggle to find work. This isn’t a selfish choice that these people are making but rather a desperate last resort. 

References:

Morrison, J 2003, “The dark side of globalisation”: the criminalisation of refugees’, in R Robertson & KE White (eds), Globalization: critical concepts in sociology, Routledge, London, pp.474-7

The Olympics – Sportsmanship on the world stage

Today’s hot topic is the Olympics and whether you’ve noticed or not the reason for this is the coverage that is enabled because of globalization. “Many millions more people than ever before now have access to news and information, especially in such countries as China and India” (Hachten et al 2002, p4). It is being broadcasted in close to 150 countries including for the first time ever 3D broadcasting….hasn’t technology come a long way.

Sure we watch it because we are patriotic and we love to support our country in a global event but it’s the personal battles that we see these athletes face and they do what we perceive to be humanly impossible that we celebrate. But what happens when the two greatest super powers are in the battles for the top place. At this present time USA has 21 gold medals and 43 medals in total while China has 20 Gold medals and 42 medals in total. So what happens when a 16 year old girl from China beats the world record of an American male swimmer. It can’t be true can it? She must have been doping right? This surprised me so much when I saw this reported on the news. But what surprised me even more was that I too was jumping on the she must be on drugs bandwagon. Despite how far we’ve come the West is awfully afraid of not being the dominant power.

Reference: Hatchen, WA & Scotton, JF 2002, The worl news prism: global media in an era of terrorism, 6^th edn, Iowa State Press, Ames, pp.3-14

Globalisation in practice

I’ve always envisaged globalisation as this romantic story where all cultures and countries come together embracing differences and becoming one global village. But the more I look at it, I see a culture being continuously dominated by western views and values. Huge corporations seem to be dominating the world on a global scale whether it’s McDonalds, Nike, Apple, Fox, Hollywood, Ford etc. The world is growingly adapting to what the west sees as normal and there’s no question as to why the west has embraced globalization so much.

This unifying process is largely to do with the introduction of new technologies in the field of communications. These technologies include the television set, the introduction of web 2.0 and the mobile phone. “One of the salient features of globalization in the modern world is that it takes place increasingly through media and communications” (Rantanen 2005, p8). We live in an age where a message can reach just about anyone, anywhere, at any time. This isn’t just the big new sectors who have this reach but also the individuals. As long as I have the contact details of the person I’m after, which isn’t that difficult to get nowadays with the world wide web, I can make almost instant contact using either my mobile phone or my laptop. This has completely changed the way that we interact with others and has very much shrunk the world as we no longer have to wait for travel or for mail to reach someone in order to make contact.

Reference:

Rantanen, T 2005, The media and globalization, Sage, London, pp. 1-18. 

Media Ownership

Do you ever watch several newscasts and find that they’re quite similar? Maybe read several magazines and find out they’re all talking about the same content? How could this possibly be? There are several reasons for this. One is because these are the prominent events happening in our world on those particular days. That’s an obvious point that you could argue. But it’s not just the stories that are the same but also the perspectives on them and the spin that is put on them. This is because most of those tv channels, newspapers, magazines etc are owned by the same people! The major player being Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp and in Australia News Limited. This includes the Herald Sun, The Australian, the entire fox network including fox movies, sports, and a 25% share in foxtel, magazines such as the Australian editions of vogue and GQ, Network Ten and much much more. 

This type of ownership is what is known as a monopoly, meaning one(or few) owner(s). “In the worst cases of monopoly a firm spends a great deal of time and money blocking other from entering the market” (Steven 2003, p41). Why would someone want to do this you might ask? Well the more media real estate you have, the greater chance you have of influencing the dominant views of the public as your material is primarily what they’re consuming whether they know it or not. Everybody wants to have his or her say. But those with billion dollar corporations will always get theirs first. Better start saving!

Reference:

Steve, P 2003, the no-nonsense guide to the global media, New Internationalist, Oxford, pp. 37-59

Information Flows

Stop for a second to imagine a world without Globalisation. Look around you and notice the all the foreign things you have taken for granted all your life. Consider the music you listen to, the food you consume, the films and TV show you view, the car you drive, the books you read, the people in you work with, hopefully now you’re starting to see the effect of globalisation. As you can tell there is a lot to talk about in relation to globalisation and for this reason I’m choosing to just focus in on one topic of it. That is the topic of Information Flows.

“The boom in information and communications technologies (ICT) forms part of the infrastructure of globalization in finance, capital mobility and export-oriented business activity, transnational communication, migration, travel, and civil society interactions” (Pieterse 2004, p9). The information flow refers to the way information is distributed instantaneously and with never ending access and how we are able to exchange information where ever whenever we want. Every time I want to find something out I always go straight to Google and search for it. I did this the other night when I didn’t know how long I needed to heat my pasta for; its about 10 minutes for those of you who don’t know. Another way I could’ve settled this problem the other night would’ve been to use my mobile phone to call and ask a friend. As you can see the information flows relate to how technology has become essential to how we gain and exchange information.

References: Nederveen Pieterse, J 2004, ‘Globalization: consensus and controversies’, Globalization and culture: global melange, Rowan & Littlefield, Lanham, Md., pp.7-21

Hello all of you out there on the interwebs!
My names Andrew and I'm studying the BA Media and Communications.
This blog will be updated with weekly posts for the unit ALC215