Globalization, Americanization and Contemporary Popular Culture

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Globalization, Americanization and Contemporary
Popular Culture Istanbul, May 2004 THE MYTH OF
POLITICAL DISCOURSES GLOBALISATION THROUGH THE
MEDIA THE WAR ON TERRORISM CASE
STUDY   Cristina Archetti
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PRESENTATION OVERVIEW An increasingly globalized
media is not creating a homogenization of local
political discourses at the international level
1. Introduction the War on Terrorism (WOT) 2.
Theoretical debate challenging common
assumptions 3. Empirical research observations
in different national contexts 4. Interpreting
the data 5. Conclusions
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1. THE WAR ON TERRORISM
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• 2. THEORETICAL DEBATE
• though communications technologies are
  absolutely central to the globalization process,
  their development is clearly not identical with
  cultural globalisation (J. Tomlinson, 1999)
• Questionable assumptions in the globalization
  literature
• - The media reproduce political ideology
• A one-way flow of information
• Passive audience
• Annihilation of space

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• 3. EMPIRICAL RESEARCH
• Research design comparisons
• - media discourse (national newspapers)
• - political discourse (Govts public statements)
• - Contexts U.S., Italy, France, Pakistan
• Multidisciplinary approach
• - Methodology content analysis, framing
  discourse analysis

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• OBSERVATIONS
• Political discourses
• no reproduction of the U.S. WOT ? variations
  (new features, different meanings, omissions)
• Media discourses
• - an international common ground
• (is this globalisation?)
• - distance from political discourse

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• 4. INTERPRETING THE DATA
• The factors limiting a homogenisation of
  contents
• Geography
• - Institutional affiliations
• - Identity
• - National culture (history and values)
• - Existing political agenda
• - Role of national media
• Interactions/information exchanges among the
  actors

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• 5. CONCLUSIONS
• With reference to the WOT case study
• No homogenisation of political or media
  discourses
• Importance of the local national level
• Active appropriation of frames by local media
  and politicians
• Methodology appropriateness questions