Mediated Society

1
Mediated Society
About Globalization Theory, evidence, and
applications

• In-Class Notes
• January 27, 2006

2
Last Week

• The gender analysis shows us that, through
  coding and collecting of signs, we can find
  chains of signification
• These chains show a gendered Japan
• One that is very different in its treatment and
  perception of men and women

3
The Purpose of Semiotic Analysis

• Look for associations around us and think about
  the deeper structure of the surrounding world
• Not only gender
• Economics
• Power
• Others (can you imagine what?)

4
In the Case of Gender Analysis

• Are these real things that the researcher is
  finding or are these invented things?
• I.e. is this a subjective process in which the
  researcher is influencing what s/he is finding?
• If invented, who are these things invented by?
• The possibilities are that the researcher
  invented it OR else society invented it
• The latter is what is called social
  construction

5
Look at Semiotics using Hall

• Encoding/Decoding involving
• sign-makers (producers)
• sign decoders (consumers of image)

6
Understanding Barthes

• Focus on his 2 levels
• How a signifier and signified create a sign which
  serves as the signifier at a second level,
  calling for a new signified
• This latter is the level called myth
• Example of Doraemon in Hong Kong signifying
  Japan. This sign Japan then serves as a
  signifier calling for a signified at the next
  level.
• It might be technology or modernity
• But it gets us to a deeper level of conversation

7
Other Myths

• What other myths are out in the world that we can
  find from media analysis?
• Nationalism
• Identity
• Global values
• Development (by comparison)
• What media would you use?
• Movies
• Animation

8
Globalization

• What is the connection between advertising and
  globalization?
• Initially, the kind of globalization associated
  with capital did not really have advertising at
  its heart
• If you look at Marx and Engels writing, it was
  about the production of things and their
  movement, not the representation of those things
• Question Could we say that advertising has
  become a major motor of capitalism?
• Part of the Frankfurt Schools argument was that
  the cultural industry was convincing us to
  consume things that we didnt need
• Advertising has come to support unnecessary
  activities and introduce inefficiencies in markets

9
Globalization and Advertising

• If advertising invents needs, what are some of
  the outcomes?
• Change us as people
• Works to make us think of the world in a
  different way. In terms of
• Satisfaction
• Desire
• Wasting precious resources

10
Globalization and Advertising

• Another connection between advertising and
  globalization Sports
• A lot of the worlds current development is
  based on the globalization of sport
• This cannot happen without marketing and support
  of corporations
• Ex Chinese Olympics and Coke and McDonalds

11
Globalization and Sports

• Holden Sportsports
• Athletes are imported and exported from countries
  to participate in sports
• In Japan, who are sports imports?
• What is the result of having sports imports in
  Japan?
• Limits on players from other countries what is
  the thinking here?
• How is this different than putting a tariff or
  import restrictions on beef, sugar, cars?
• Idea is to protect a market, but at the same
  time, try to level up the talent pool

12
Globalization

• What is the outcome of a foreigner becoming the
  top performer in a country not his own?
• If it is a sacred sport then it raises issues
  of nationalism/national identity
• These athletes are signifiers of something
• What would it be?
• In the Encoding/Decoding process (in Japan) they
  generate all sorts of thoughts and feelings and
  reactions from the (generally Japanese) audience

13
Sportsports

• Japanese baseball and soccer players are sports
  exports but also media re-imports
• What gets reimported?
• National identity because we see players
  performing at an equal level with foreign stars
• These players are representatives of the nation
• They also communicate ideas about the nation,
  Japan

14
Mediated Identity

• Ueda-san looking at Ichiro, I feel that he is
  an alien.
• This brings up the idea of Mediated Identity
  (Holden)
• Making sense of self by reference to others
• Doing this through the reports passed through the
  media

15
Views of Globalization(in theory) I

• McLuhan as an early globalization theory
• Extensions of man
• media enable us to see parts of the world we
  couldnt see before
• They compress time and space
• What once took me hours to read about I can now
  see immediately (live)
• I dont have to be there, even in the same
  country, but I can experience it. Media,
  therefore, extend my world they are extensions
  of my senses of sight and hearing and touch

16
Views of Globalization(in theory) II

• Appadurai and Scapes
• To understand globalization, you have to think in
  terms of 5 scapes
• A physical analogy / a physical image
• Like terrain
• Technoscapes
• Financescapes
• Ethnoscapes
• Ideoscapes
• Mediascapes

17
Appadurai and Scapes

• Importantly, these scapes can often brush against
  one another, creating disjuncture.
• Example Hip Hop
• A mediascape, also an ethnoscape
• Because of its sale in Japan, also a financescape
• As an Ideoscape, though, it has a very different
  idea-set than it does in American culture. The
  American version would create great disjuncture,
  so it has been modified.
• This is called indigenization