GLOCALIZATION

Glocalization is a term coined by sociologist Roland Robertson in the late 20th century. Glocalization describes the blending of global and local influences in culture, business, and society. It reflects the interconnectedness of the world while acknowledging the importance of local context and identity.

In glocalization, global products, services, or ideas are adapted to fit the specific needs, preferences, and cultural nuances of local communities. This adaptation can range from minor adjustments to significant alterations, depending on the target market. E.g. Mc Donalds Veg menu

Cultural Adaptation: Companies and organizations tailor their products, marketing strategies, and operations to resonate with local cultures, values, and traditions. This ensures relevance and acceptance within diverse markets.

Localization of Content: In language and media, glocalization involves translating and customizing content to suit regional dialects, idioms, and sensitivities. This enhances communication and engagement with local audiences.

Hybridization: Glocalization leads to the creation of hybrid products, where global influences merge with local elements. These hybrids reflect both the universality of certain concepts and the diversity of local expressions. Amazon, the multinational e-commerce giant, has customized its services for the Indian market through initiatives like Amazon India. It includes features such as Hindi language support, localized customer service, and partnerships with local businesses for faster delivery and wider product selection. Amazon's glocal approach acknowledges the importance of catering to diverse linguistic, cultural, and logistical needs in India.

Community Engagement: Glocalization encourages active involvement and collaboration with local communities. Companies may seek input from local stakeholders, involve local artisans or producers, or support community initiatives as part of their glocal strategy.

Global Connectivity: Despite its emphasis on locality, glocalization does not negate global interconnectedness. Instead, it acknowledges the constant exchange of ideas, technologies, and influences between different parts of the world.

Brand Identity: Successful glocalization maintains a delicate balance between global consistency and local authenticity. Brands strive to uphold their core identity while remaining responsive to local preferences and expectations

Cyber Culture

The Internet / Cyber world - Few technologies in human history rival the Internet in its speed of adoption and range of impact. The Internet's spread has been compared to the advent of the printing press, which, like the Internet, greatly enhanced the availability of information and the rate of its reproduction.

Many have commented on the Internet's ability to transform business and the broader economy, but perhaps an equally profound change is being felt throughout society and culture, where the Internet and the World Wide Web are transforming how people live and interact.

The Internet's influence generates a range of reactions from different people, ranging from idealism to cynicism, but however it is received, there's no denying that it has led to dramatic shifts in such areas as interpersonal interaction, work culture, relations to time, expectations of speed and convenience, networking between individuals and groups, and even use of language.

The word "cyberculture" is used in a variety of ways, often referring to certain cultural products and practices born of computer and Internet technologies, but also to specific subcultures that champion computer-related hobbies, art, and language.

In the 1970s, cyberculture was the exclusive domain of a handful of technology experts, including mathematicians, computer scientists, digital enthusiasts, and academics, devoted to exchanging and promoting ideas related to the growing fields of computers and electronics. These early cybercultures sometimes advanced a view of the future guided by the progressive and beneficial hand of technological change.

But following the commercialization of the Internet and the World Wide Web in the mid-1990s, cyberculture took on a new life, and computer and information technologies took the dynamics of culture and social relations in dramatically new directions.

The Internet touches many parts of life in advanced industrial societies. Everything from shopping, paying bills, and playing the stock market to news gathering, family interaction, romantic courtships, and play all take place in cyberspace, whereas before the mid-1990s all these activities existed more commonly in the physical world.

The Internet profoundly influences what and how children learn, the vocabulary employed in daily conversation, the way people coordinate their schedules and work habits, and perceptions of distance and time.

 

Ref: https://www.encyclopedia.com/economics/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/cyberculture-society-culture-and-internet

Culture Shock & its Relevance in Media

“Culture shock” describes the impact of moving from a familiar culture to one which is unfamiliar. It is an experience described by people who have travelled abroad to work, live or study; it can be felt to a certain extent even when abroad on holiday. It can affect anyone. It includes the shock of a new environment, meeting lots of new people and learning the ways of a different country.

It also includes the shock of being separated from the important people in your life, maybe family, friends, colleagues, teachers: people you would normally talk to at times of uncertainty, people who give you support and guidance.

When familiar sights, sounds, smells or tastes are no longer there you can miss them very much. If you are tired and jet-lagged when you arrive small things can be upsetting and out of all proportion to their real significance.

Culture shock can take place when people move from rural to urban areas and are exposed to different cultural practices, not just from one country to another.

Let us now look at culture shock and its relevance in Media

Mass communication influences both society and culture. Different societies have different media systems, and the way they are set up by law influences how the society works. Different forms of communication, including messages in the mass media, give shape and structure to society.

Individuals and groups in society influence what mass media organizations produce through their creativity on the input side and their consumption habits on the output side.

Many mass media products transcend social structures to influence multiple societies, and even in societies that heavily censor their mass media the news of scandals and corruption can get out. The mass media and society are bound together and shape each other

With the rise of global computer networks, particularly high-speed broadband and mobile communication technologies, individuals gained the ability to publish their own work and to comment on mass media messages more easily than ever before. If mass communication in the 20th century was best characterized as a one-to-many system where publishers and broadcasters reached waiting audiences, the mass media made possible by digital information networks in the twenty-first have taken on a many-to-many format.

For example, YouTube has millions of producers who themselves are also consumers. None of the social media giants such as Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Qzone and Weibo (in China), Twitter, Reddit or Pinterest is primarily known for producing content. Instead, they provide platforms for users to submit their own content and to share what mass media news and entertainment companies produce. The result is that the process of deciding what people should be interested in is much more decentralized in the digital network mass media environment than it was in the days of an analog one-to-many mass media system.

The process of making meaning in society — that is, the process of telling many smaller stories that add up to a narrative shared by mass audiences — is now much more collaborative than it was in the 20th century because more people are consuming news in networked platforms than through the channels managed by gatekeepers. A mass media gatekeeper is someone, professional or not, who decides what information to share with mass audiences and what information to leave out.

 

On social media platforms, media consumers have the ability to add their input and criticism, and this is an important function for users. Not only do we have a say as audience members in the content we would like to see, read and hear, but we also have an important role to play in society as voting citizens holding their elected officials accountable.

If social media platforms were only filled with mass media content, individual user comments, and their own homegrown content, digitally networked communication would be complex enough, but there are other forces at work. Rogue individuals, hacker networks and botnets — computers programmed to create false social media accounts, websites and other digital properties — can contribute content alongside messages produced by professionals and legitimate online community members. False presences on social media channels can amplify hate and misinformation and can stoke animosity between groups in a hyper-partisan media age.

Around the world, societies have democratized mass communication, but in many ways, agreeing on a shared narrative or even a shared list of facts is more difficult than ever. Users create filter bubbles for themselves where they mostly hear the voices and information that they want to hear. This has the potential to create opposing worldviews where users with different viewpoints not only have differing opinions, but they also have in mind completely different sets of facts creating different images about what is happening in the world and how society should operate.

The world of mass media has witnessed the convergence of media content on digital platforms, the ability of individuals to engage in one-to-many communication as though they were major broadcasters, and the emergence of structures that allow for many-to-many communication. 

Thus we see that with the wide variety of information available on the internet, the masses are exposed to varied cultural practices and are thus exposed to cultures that are different and unique from their own. It becomes easier to accept and understand the variety of cultures as we are now exposed to them via social media / mass media.

In conclusion, it is important to stress that culture shock is entirely normal, usually unavoidable and not a sign that you have made a mistake or that you won’t manage. In fact there are very positive aspects of culture shock. The experience can be a significant learning experience, making you more aware of aspects of your own culture as well as the new culture you have entered. It will give you valuable skills that will serve you in many ways now and in the future.

 

Ref: https://press.rebus.community/mscy/chapter/chapter-1/#:~:text=Mass%20communication%20influences%20both%20society,shape%20and%20structure%20to%20society.

 

 

 

MEDIA, GENDER & CULTURE NOTES

 

Click on the Topic you want to learn about

MODULE	TOPICS	TOPICS	LECTURES
		INTRODUCTION TO CULTURAL STUDIES
I	EVOLUTION, NEED, CONCEPTS AND THEORIES	Evolution, features of cultural studies, Need and significance of cultural studies and media Concepts related to culture- Acculturation, enculturation, ethnocentrism, cultural relativism, cultural shock and its relevance in media Theories: ·         Stuart Hall : encoding and decoding, Circuit of culture ·         John Fiske:  culture and industry ·         Feminism and Post feminism ·         Techno culture  and risk – Ulrich Beck	(12)
		CULTURE AND MEDIA
II	CONSTRUCTION, COMMODIFICATION, IMPACT AND RECENT TRNDS	1.       Construction of culture- social, economic, political, religion and technology Developing & Emerging Economies 2.       Culture, industry and media- commodification, memes, representation, articulation, popular culture, power, cyber culture 3.       Media and its impact on the cultural aspect of the society. 4.       Culture industry and communication - with reference, to film, TV, social media, advertisements etc., 5.       Recent trends in Culture consumption:  Changing values, Ideologies & its Relevance in the Contemporary society.	(12)
		GENDER AND MEDIA CULTURE
III	ROLE AND INFLUENCE OF MEDIA	1.       The influence of media on views of gender (theme, under representation, stereotypes, women and men, stereotype images, roles etc.) 2.       Role of media in social construction of gender, Changing attitudes & behaviour for empowerment of women : Movements of change 3.       Gender equality and media 4.       Hegemonic masculinity in media 5.       Gender issues in news media (TV, radio, newspapers & online news)	(12)
		GLOBALISATION AND  MEDIA CULTURE
IV	GLOBAL, LOCAL, CONSUMER AND THE RECENT TRENDS	1.       Media imperialism 2.       Globalisation and Local culture- Issues and Perspectives, threat to regional and local identities, Impact of global culture and its relevance in media and gender, Language and Media 3.       Consumer culture and media in the era of globalisation. 4.       Digital Media culture: Recent trends and challenges 5.       Media and Globalisation: Global economic flows, global cultural flows, homogenization & fragmentation, glocalization, creolization, globalization & power.

COMMODIFICATION OF CULTURE

Media and culture share a relationship which is both positive and negative. Certain negative effects of media on culture are impact on violence, racial stereotypes, economic exploitation, and mindless consumption of commodities. 

On the other hand, media has helped in providing education opportunities, creating awareness about different and unique cultures, etc

One of the most intriguing and challenging perspectives emerging from critical cultural studies is the commodification of culture – the study of what happens when culture is mass produced and distributed in direct competition with locally based cultures.

Media are industries specializing in the producing and distribution of cultural commodities. As with other modern industries, they have also grown at the expense of small, local producers and the consequences of this displacement have been, and continue to be, disruptive to people’s life.

Some important consequences of lifting bits of everyday life culture out of their context, repackaging and then marketing them back to the people:

·        When elements of everyday culture are selected for repackaging, only a very limited range is chosen and thus important elements are overlooked or are consciously ignored.

·        The repackaging process involves dramatization of these elements of culture which have been selected.

·        The marketing of cultural commodities is done in a way which maximizes the likelihood that they will successfully intrude into and ultimately disrupt everyday life.

·        The elites who operate the cultural industries generally are ignorant of the consequences of their work.

·        Disruption of everyday life takes many forms – some are obviously linked to consumption of especially deleterious (negative impact)  content, but other forms of disruption are very subtle and occur over long periods of time.

In modern capitalist societies, ‘commodification’ points to the relationship between large economic systems and hegemonic cultural ideologies and is mainly concerned with generating profit rather than enriching human feelings or experience. Commodification of culture has had an intense impact on the lifestyle of people.

Critical cultural studies researchers have directed their most devasting criticism towards advertising which is viewed as the ultimate cultural commodity.

POPULAR CULTURE

We are surrounded and invaded by popular culture through our daily activities like listening to music, watching a variety of programs, reading books, comics, sports, etc. This form of culture is a characteristic of industrial societies.

Before industrialization, we were familiar with high culture and folk culture. High culture mostly related to a small, literate, elite group, or the upper class. They and encouraged and sustained such a culture. High culture relates to the classics of literature, the great traditions of art and sculpture. Folk culture on the other hand, was seen among folk people in their expression of serious and significant matter of life like birth and death, man and woman, child and adult, seasons, justice, cruelty, fate and destiny. It was shared by everyone and everyone participated in it. The folk people entertained themselves through it, especially on ceremonial occasions like weddings, religious holidays, harvest celebrations, etc.

Industrialization brought about changes that affected industrial capitalism and human culture. It is due to mass production that we have a mass of consumer goods. Folk culture has receded and now it is the mass media which plays a very important role. Mass media promotes and distributes mass culture. Popular culture is a positive term for mass-produced or mass-disseminated cultural products.

According to some scholars, mass culture and popular culture are terms that can be used interchangeably but other scholars state that there are also differences between the two.

Popular culture relates to the culture which is shared, accepted and liked by people.

Mass culture is the culture which cuts across and includes a wide range of social classes and groups. E.g. TV series attract a varied audience.

Since the 1930s sociologists have contended that the characteristics of different social classes determine their cultural preferences. American sociologists have asserted that high culture and popular culture express different values and represent different aesthetic standards.  There is a distinct separation between high and popular culture, that the two are consumed by different classes, and that the prestige of each class is attached to its culture.

Some conservative critics claim that mass culture is profane and dehumanizing and it encroaches upon high cultural production.

Some radical critics agree with the conservative critics as they focus on the negative impact on those who consume it and upon the society as a whole rather just on the high culture upon which it encroaches.

Radical critics call for ‘cultural mobility’ i.e., raising the masses’ tastes through education, opportunity, and economic redistribution. Cultural mobility would free the people from the economic elite and provide opportunity to appreciate high culture.

Moderate or liberal critics take the position that popular culture is harmful neither to the people who consume it nor to the society as a whole. According to them, all cultures are equal in worth if they meet the needs of the people. These liberal sociologists therefore call for reinvigoration of various cultures or subcultures.

In the late 1980s, many sociologists and communication scholars began challenging the validity of class-based distinction between high culture and popular culture. Some critics claim that modern media, particularly television, create ‘media cultures’ accessible to multiple taste public. Thus media culture sets the standards for culture and shapes popular taste.

FEMINISM

Feminism broadly means advocacy of the rights of women. There is no single accepted definition and feminism encompasses agitation for political and legal rights, equal opportunities, sexual autonomy, and the right of self-determination; for e.g., abortion, contraception, etc. The feminist movement stemmed from the recognition of the subordination of women from the existence of discrimination and inequality based on sex.

Feminism is a set of ideas linked to a social movement for change. It has never been a single unified movement but is made up of different elements, which may unite behind a single campaign (e.g., Women’s suffrage). Different phases of the feminist movement have gone under different labels: suffragette, women’s emancipation, women’s liberation, women’s movement, feminism, social feminism, radical feminism.

The two main divisions seen in feminism are:

-      The advocacy of the rights of women on the basis of similarity (i.e., Women are human beings like men and therefore ought to be granted equal rights)

-      The advocacy of the rights of women on the basis of difference (i.e., women are different from men, and therefore ought to be granted the right to represent themselves).

Suffragette Movement (1860-1930)

The suffragette movement united women of very different backgrounds. In the context of the struggle for votes, feminism developed with great speed. The campaign for female suffrage was an important landmark: women realized that they could not rely on political parties or the organized labor movement for support and that they would have to fight themselves for equality and justice.

Among the famous feminists who contributed to the growth of the feminist movement mention may be made of Rosa Parks. She became the symbol of feminist movement when she refused to give up her seat in a bus to a white man. She contributed to the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement in America in the 1960s. The Civil Rights Movement inspired women to try to obtain better conditions for themselves through campaigns of mass agitation and social criticism.

POST FEMINISM | WOMEN IN INDIA

Characteristics of Post-Feminism

In early 1980s, the media has begun to classify women in their teens and women in their twenties as “post-feminist generation”. After twenty years, the term post-feminist is still used to refer to young women.

Post-feminism is a highly debated topic since it implies that “post” refers “dead” or “after” feminism. Post feminism celebrates sexuality and fueled by advances in abortion, employment and fertility laws and concentrates on furthering the idea of empowerment, celebration of feminists, freedom of choice and liberation.

Women in visual media

Advertisements in both print and audio-visual media reach all types of people. For advertisements, very attractive women and teenage girls are mostly used to promote the product through their acting skills.

Advertisements in the 1980s have portrayed a woman as a homemaker serving her husband and children at home.

Later in the 1990s, even though they have portrayed perfect and complete man, women are showed as a sex pictogram. The women have been shown as sexy, insensitive and hormone-driven female chauvinists. There have been many new advertisements being launched every month but the concept and idea have been often new when compared with the old ones.

The present concepts in advertisements avoid the stereotyping approach. While they portray an independent woman who is successful in her career, which inspires and motivates the young girls and registers a positive note in their minds to no longer spend time on useless activities.

Advertisements are made in a very attractive manner that they appeal to both men and women regardless of their age. Advertisements are often made to celebrate what is happening in the society. Events like International Women`s Day reach a wider audience by commercials which promote consumer items through the concepts based on liberated career-driven women. Most of the advertisements are based on the present scenario. To create the catchy advertisements, there are many private media companies running day and night all over the globe. They come up with apt concepts which are suitable for the target audience based on the products that they are going to sell. In this way, media helps a lot in keeping people aware of the feministic views.

Post-feminist views in media (Internationally)

The term ‘Post-feminist’ with regards to poetry has been, for the first time, used by Carol Rumens in her anthology titled Making for the Open: The Chatto Books of Post-feminist Poetry. Rumens have clarified the use of the term ‘Post-feminist’ in her introduction to the anthology. As a post-feminist supporter, she has applied the concept in the fields of media sector like print and visual media. It has reached earliest in England, Germany, the United States and other countries. The post-feminist ‘equality portrayals’ of women are visible in cinema, electronic and mass media advertisements and also in literature in the form of avoidance from depicting a young woman as passive, inferior, weaker and subordinate to a man. The impact of ‘the girl poser’ has been recognized, and women are represented as more assertive. Self-assured and confident women are shown as having equal footing with men. Even if some portrayals appear sexist, women are not shown as ‘victims’. The new women proclaim their womanhood in a bold manner.

 

Post-feminism has started in the media field in the year 1982. The feminist critics have explored the concept through media. It has shown those traditional felinities which are not allowable through feminism. These include an unabashed return to men, a spotlight on consumerism, reconsideration of motherhood and attempts at home life. The individualism, domesticity and consumerism are presented through powerful TV shows and films like Bridget Jones Diary. One of the modern novels (which also has its film version) concerned with feminist criticism is Bridget Jones`s Diary by Helen Fielding which portrays society`s views of single women in contemporary societies. The protagonist of the novel is a strong and independent person and her worries are that she does not want to arrive finally living alone without the support of man when she grows older.

Post Feminism and Advertising

the ideology of post-feminism as portrayed by visual media in India: Upon watching the advertisements which are always shown on TV and other forms of visual media seven advertisements which permeated the ideology of post-feminism are selected as examples. They are: Forest Essentials Ayurvedic Cream, Wedding Jewellery by TBZ Garlands, Dabur Vatika Hair Oil, Titan Ranga: “Woman of Today”, Havells’ Coffee Maker, Havells’ Fans and Femina

Avoiding Stereotypes

Avoiding stereotypes is an important feature of advertisements which carry the hallmark of post-feminism. For instance, in the advertisement ‘Wedding Jewellery’ by TBZ Garlands, the model Katrina Kaif talks about the concept of the right time for marriage denying the old school thoughts which condition women to stay at home after marriage. The commercial gives awareness to women and makes them catch hold of the post-feminist concept through its strong female character.

Another advertisement by Home Appliances has ideas as endless as their gadgets. The commercial depicts the Indian customary scene of seeing a bride where the mother of the boy laments that her darling son seeking a wife suffers so much in his bachelor life abroad and has to step out even for a cup of coffee. The defiant girl firmly places her coffee-maker before the startled boy, saying “Take this one and settle down, no travel authorization problem either”, as she wants only to be a wife, not a kitchen appliance. This advertisement stands against the stereotyping concept which has been there for ages that emphasizes women’s space in the kitchen. For breaking the stereotype mindset, this advertisement has earned the glorious Cannes award

.

Femina, the advertisement of the brand, opens the scene when a traditionally dressed girl with all her jewels and an expensive silk saree approaches directly facing the audience. Then the camera starts to pan around the house which she has just entered and it lets us know that there is a marriage function happening there. On her way to a room she casually looks at a middle-aged man’s photograph and closes her eyes suggesting that she is looking for his blessings. Finally she enters a room and there is a middle-aged woman in her bride costume looking at the window sadly. The table turns out when the girl calls the middle-aged woman ‘Ma’, it enable the audience understand that it’s the second marriage of the middle-aged woman, and the person in the picture is her ex-husband. The concept totally breaks all the stereotypes rooted in tradition which makes a woman’s life empty after her husband’s death.

Dabur Vatika hair oil advertisement tells us the tale of a woman who has survived cancer and lost her hair due to medication. Even though she looks tonsured, her family and colleagues are very happy with her real beauty. She gets comfortable with the society, and the advertisement demolishes the stereotypical idea of beauty.

Support for Female Characters

Most of the advertisements are made with female actors. It gives the clue that the post- feministic ideologies play a vital role in the marketing industry. An Ayurveda cream advertisement titled “Warrior Princess” directed by Carole Dennis tells us the story of the transformation of a warrior maiden sent to battle. Cream is rubbed on her forehead before she mounts a horse, sheathes a small sword and rides off with a small group. It shows female courage and enthusiasm to the audience.

Individualism

The main goal of post-feminism is a woman’s individualism. Mc Robbie introduces a new `female individualism’ which dismisses the ‘old’ feminism. Feminism itself is seen to belong to the past which characterizes the post-feminist woman of popular culture in individualism, sophistication and choice. The advertisement ‘Woman of Today’ featuring the Bollywood actresses Nimarat Kaur, made by the company Titan to sell their wrist watches, tells the audience that a woman has every right to make the choices of her own. It also has the tagline `Her Life Her Choices’.

Womens’ Identity

Mostly, the female actors from the film industry are used in the advertisements to showcase the women’s identity in the society, since the target audience of these commercials is women. It portrays every individual woman from different fields of the workplace, for example, IT professionals, students, home makers and so on. An advertisement for ceiling fans from Havells had been launched in the year 2013.The concept of the ad was to avoid patriarchy, and it also shares a socially relevant view on changing one’s name after marriage. In the commercial, a couple goes to an office for registration. At that time the husband decides to take his wife`s last name after their marriage, and it shows the female registrar surprised and satisfied. The couple from the ad has given a simple and yet never noticed lesson to the society. The Indian advertisements of the recent times give a lot of importance to womens identity when compared with the old ones.

Impact of Advertisement on Society

Advertisement is a medium of communication to send product related messages to customers along with various features of the products advertised. Each advertisement sells a product with a concept and a trending topic. At present advertisement companies have become a critical component for the overall advertising market.

Social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter are also becoming a powerful platform for advertisements to reach a wider audience. Through media, the message about the product can be heard within minutes. While the viewer’s watch the advertisement, the message gets into their minds and its impact reflects on the society.

In the 21st century, media has reached a cutting edge development in terms of technology and reaches all over the world . visual media is very effective and memorable owing to the use of characters and concepts which can occupy the minds of the audience for a very long time. While the viewers watch the advertisements, the particular products will get fixed in their minds. This is the method how the products and the concept are gain the viewers’ belief and trust.

Thus we see that post feminism ideology is available in Indian advertisements, and they tend to change people’s mindset with every new advertisement launch in the popular visual media.

Ref: https://www.globalmediajournal.com/open-access/ideology-of-postfeminism-portrayal-through-visual-advertisements-in-india.php?aid=82612