Globolization and Hollywoodized

Globalization has been linked to facilitate exchange of ideas, culture among other aspects between international societies.  Globalization is growing intensively hence facilitating global interaction with its benefits mostly felt in film and martial arts industry. Use of social media has ultimately facilitated growth of globalization as media information is widely spread all over the world. Objective of this blog is to critically analyze impact of globalization in film industry and martial arts.

The attributes of Hollywood art is evident to have been spread all over the world with its impact being felt in film and art industries.  This process of its spread and its implications can be termed as Hollywoodization. As a matter of fact, its effects are mostly felt in other parts of world eluding the values of American society.  Hollywood values can be indentified on the manner at which people acts aggressively, their mode of acting, communication and their relationship between the sexes.  Due to globalization other film makers such as Bollywood has resulted to copying acting values of Hollywood scenes. According to Evans, (2011), Indians has resulted to seek training from Hollywood which has impacted the way they produce their movies. A good example of Hollywoodization can be seen in the production and making of Bakit Bughaw and langit which has aspects and values as that of American actors.  The acting and production of every scene of the movie represents the acting scenario of American movies.  To a far extent Hollywoodization can be seen as cultural colonialism as it effects have been largely felt in a non-Western film, music, television, games and other entertainment industry text( Uricchio & European Science Foundation, p.178).

Growth of globalization with combination of technologies of arts and media has accelerated spread of Hollywoodization across all parts of the world. Other arts and film industries have not only copied but also incorporated American values in their production works. This can be proved by the Indian movie Bakit Bughaw and langit which has characteristics of Hollywood movies.  Globalization has supported and enhanced growth of film and martial arts industry. Globalization has also facilitated spread of Hollywoodization with its effects being felt in other parts of the world.

To sum up, globalization has played a major role of enhancing growth of film and arts industries all over parts of world.  It has sported exchange of ideas and cultures between different societies of world. Its impacts can be felt in films industries where Hollywoodization values are mostly seen colonizing them.

 References

Evans, S 2011, 'The Hollywoodization of International Training', Back Stage (19305966), 52, 44,             pp. 3-6, Business Source Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 23 September 2013.

Uricchio, W., & European Science Foundation. (2008). We Europeans?: Media, representations, identities. Bristol, UK: Intellect Books.

Celebrity

The concept of celebrity and the public performance of self in the modern era has totally change and all these can be attributed to social media and parallel media specific websites like YouTube. Man is increasingly inhibiting spaces where they are not only on display, but also think about their mediated construction of themselves. There is a complete proliferation of the public self in the sense that even advertising is used sentimentally inflected messages to convince various demographics of the value of goods for better relations and better lives. Everybody wants to lead a specular lifestyle that is designed by the media and portrayed by the celebrities. We are all celebrity stalkers and we live our lives as the mirror, what we see in them is that we do. Weird!

Consider this quote from marshal, (2010);

“The boundaries of public, private and intimate have always been a province of intriguing and tantalising debate about celebrity as people seek to find out what the famous are really like,"

Miranda Kerr is a tweeter, a female Australian supermodel, a Victoria’s Secret Angel, the founder of KORA Organics & author of Treasure yourself-a female self-help book. Miranda Kerr has 1,689,191twitter followers and 630 twitter accounts that she follows. So far, she has tweeted 1,658 tweets in her account.

Despite being a public figure, Miranda has managed to curve herself a private lifestyle. However, the public surveillance has not left her alone as she often has to live with the caution that the big brother is watching. She has used all form of social media to publicize herself, and rise to prominence. For example Miranda’s twitter activity does in fact contribute to her overall public image. Through twitter, one establishes that Miranda is not only Australian but also a Supermodel with a very high profile. We are also able to establish that in her modelling career she has been able to land a job as Victoria Secrets angel, has had a photo spread for vogue magazine, and more recently has been involved in the Rebook campaign. She mostly is willing to share her success with her followers, such as modelling as well as the different jobs she does on here tweeter page .She is living up to the expectations of her followers and staying professional in the social media environment.

Globalization has encouraged sharing of personal issues. Referring to Miranda, it is seen that she was able to share her dreams and aspirations with the international society. Miranda’s dream and aspiration was to sail and through social media.Globalization has ensured the growth of less popular celebrities to fully popular celebrities. Taking Miranda as an example, she acquired a lot of recognition from the global society. Many people through social media admired Miranda since she struggled to accomplish her dreams and become a super model. This made Miranda acquire fame and recognition.

Not only has globalization implicated the celebrities, it has also affected the audiences. Many people are striving to act and behave like celebrities. People try to imitate the lifestyles of celebrities in various aspects like clothing, language among other aspects. This effect has negatively affected the society in that people are abandoning their aspirations trying to embrace aspirations of celebrities which obviously lead them nowhere.       

Globalization has had negative implications on celebrities. Putting into account Tiger Woods, his entire career and reputation was ruined through social media. The spread of negative information can ruin a celebrities’ image making his fans and colleagues ashamed to be associated with the celebrity hence destroying his reputation.

From the entire discussion, it is seen that globalization issues have had more positive implications compared to negative implications. Therefore, globalization should be encouraged to ensure that people globally exchange ideas and information for the growth of the global society

References

Marshall, D, (2010). ‘The Specular Economy.’ Society, 47, 6, pp. 498 – 502, Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 31 August 201

Marshall, P. D Watson, J. 2010. Official Jessica Watson Blog, weblog: http://www. 2009. Tiger,       Tiger Burning Bright.... Tiger Woods and the contemporary celebrity juggernaut. David        Marshall, weblog

Computer Games as a Form of Participatory Media Culture

Participatory media is not only limited to the type of computer games  but also the peer to peer networks formed in the playing of a computer game. The culture can be seen to be formed around media but computer games have also specific characteristics that make it a form of media and a participatory culture; multimediality, virtuality, interactivity and connectivity (Raessens, & Kattenbelt, p. 425).

There is a great difference between the participatory culture found in computer games as opposed to other forms of media such as film and television. Film and Television allows the viewers to watch what the television has programmed, but it doesn’t allow the user to change or make any alterations to anything, however computer games and video games, the player is able to alter the game by adding new feature or reconfiguring the existing ones. The player is also able to choose which direction or action they want to take. Computer games unlike other forms of media have an active audience that interacts and reacts to particular game elements.

The concepts of participation have been used to back up the characterization of computer games as a participatory culture and as a media culture. The participatory concept has been divided into three domains; Interactivity which refers to the distinctive mode of relating to the audio –visual representations or fictions. This concept is depicted in video games since the player is able to take control of what happens in a game given the controls (Darley, p. 156).

The second domain is the reconfiguration of an existing game. This refers to the exploration of the unknown. The player of the game makes strategic decisions about the alternative actions or path to take without necessarily making any changes in the software or history of the game. Configuration can also be seen when the game player builds a virtual world by selecting objects and actions from a fixed set of system (Raessens, pg.380). The third domain is the is construction which is the addition of new game elements which exists in the making of games or the modification of an already existing game which is also described as the deconstruct and alter of the existing game to suit the players needs (Raessens,pg.381).

The combination of the three domains and the inclusion of rules that govern the playing of the games give video games a feel of reality. The persuasion to play is brought about by the seduction of winning. Games can therefore be defined as part of participatory culture that allows the players to interact with the games

References

Darley, A. (2000). Visual digital culture: Surface plays a spectacle in new media genres. London      and New York: Routledge

 Raessens, J. & Kattenbelt, C. (2003). Computer games and the complexity of experience. In: M.     Copier. Raessens, J. (Eds.), Level up: Digital games research conference2003 (pp. 420–       425). Utrecht: Utrecht University,Faculty of Arts.

Raessens , J (ND). Computer games as participatory media culture.

http://blog.lib.umn.edu/nich0185/myblog2/2012/03/video-game-causes-boy-to-shoot-his-parents.html

Globalization, work place blogging and employee cynicism

While companies often consider blogs as an inbound marketing concept, individuals consider blogging as a branding concept through which they tell their tales and spread gossip. However, to scholars blogs are one of the best examples that market the age of presumption. Just like the other social media, the civil society or the third sector of the society is relying on blogs as source of information, as the prosumers tend to relay news better than the mainstream media. Citizen journalism is demonstrated by blogs because of their cost effectiveness both to the audiences and to the journalist (Bryne, &, Hochwarter, 2008, pp. 54–72).

In the corporate environment, employee cynicism and whistle blowing have also benefited from blogging. However, globalization seems to the driver of work blogging because as the world shrinks into a digital village, employee awareness is the new norm as they are more aware of their rights at the workplace. Many employees are now sharing their experience in the globalized world. Employee cynicism has two implications: power and control to the employee as they no longer have to die slowly at work because of injustices.

Richards, &, Kosmala, (2013) posits that gone is the age of oppressive organizational cultures and regimes with the coming of blogs and social media.

 Thorough employee cynicism is considered more of Americanization especially with the increasing case of employee demonstration and negative blogging like in the case of Wal-Mart, and MacDonald. Employee cynicism is now a worldwide phenomenon because even the employees of multinational companies are increasingly becoming more outspoken about their company’s practices, and culture such that no organization in the UK, and a number developing economies can now force their employee to work against their will especially if they know something’s wrong.

While employee cynicism is increasingly considered in the negative light, it is quite clear that most organizations have conformed and many changes have been realised as a result of employee activism thanks to blogs. Many employees are whistle blowing and many organizations are increasingly becoming more careful of malpractices (Andersson, 1996, pp. 1395–1418). According to Bryne, &, Hochwarter (2008, pp. 54–72), workplace blogging is one of the best forums where employees can express their opinions to the management without fear of victimization. Employee can nowadays reject corporate culture initiatives through their workplace blogging. Employee cynicism may be impedance to organizational change because organizational culture initiatives are intended to colonize the employee identity. However, cynicism tends to thwart such culture change initiatives. The problem with such thinking is that it is myopic to consider employee cynicism as tactic of transgression.

Employee blogging is useless if cynicism is not allowed. Blogging is one of the most effective way by which employee overcomes corporate hegemony and identity colonization. Perhaps, organizations should accept workplace blogging and employee cynicism just as they have accepted change in the current global scape. Blogging is not only a media scape, but also a tool that can be wielded to realize individual and organizational aims. 

References

Andersson, L. (1996), ‘Employee Cynicism: An Examination Using a Contract Violation     Framework’, Human Relations 49, 11, 1395–1418.

Bryne, Z, &, W. Hochwarter (2008), ‘Perceived Organizational Support and Performance:        Relationships across Levels of Organizational Cynicism’, Journal of Managerial    Psychology 23, 1, 54–72.

James Richards and Katarzyna Kosmala, (2013). ‘In the end, you can only slag people off    for so long’: employee cynicism through work blogging. New Technology, Work and       Employment 28:1