reaction paper 5

In chapter 4, the author evokes the concept of convergence, which talks of the effects of globalization on the work and the impact of major media conglomerates. Before globalization, specific organizations were involved with specific industries, with little overlap between them. However, after the beginning of the privatization trend and the development of media technologies, and especially after deregulation, media organizations slowly started to incorporate other elements into their range of work. A massive wave of acquisitions and mergers made it so that all kinds of industries were increasingly controlled by a single organization. Eventually, by the end of the 1990s and the beginning of the 21^st century, most media industries were at the hands of “less than ten corporations”, and one single corporation was likely to be in control of at least one platform from all different forms of mass media.

The transnational nature of these corporations also mean that the media platforms can be from a broad range of different locations and target all kinds of different audiences.

The major players that the chapter talks about are Time Warner (United States), Bertelsmann (Germany), Viacom (United States), the Walt Disney Company (United States), and Sony (Japan). These major corporations are all from Western countries, with Sony being a sort-of exception, although it is from one of the most developed countries in the world and a major economic force.

I think the convergence tendency that happened after globalization can have pretty negative consequences over the quality and diversity of media content. Overall, convergence has become synonymous with dominance. This becomes a problem when an organization has a specific view, especially when it comes to political affiliation, as certain views can be shared across all their platforms and be presented as different sources to the public, when in reality they come from the same ideology. This severely limits the co-existence of different points of views and their ability to be expressed equally.  In some cases, this can lead to a modern form of propaganda. A recent example that comes to mind is when several local television channels from different states in the United States broadcasted the same speech about “Fake News”, which falls under the Trump ideology. It was the same words spoken by different news anchors as if it were their own, but unknowing publics would not be aware of this. This is something that is very easy to miss, and under current trends of convergence could actually be very common. Because of this, it is very important to be aware of the major media corporations and what platforms fall under them, in order to be able to discern the message behind the media content that we consume.

reaction paper 8

In Chapter 7, the author demonstrates how the emergence of the internet and mobile telecommunications have accelerated the growth of international communication.

With the internet being by far the fastest-growing media industry, the increasingly reduced cost of use and the huge potential for revenue, media corporations are more and more reliant on electronic media, if not completely. Statistics going back almost 20 years ago show that sales were already dramatically increasing online back in 1999, with websites such as Amazon.com making $610 million dollars that year.

Media companies’ response to internet growth is to develop strategies of immersion into the “connected” world. One example is the creation of an “Internet-based media giant valued at around $350 billion”, the result of a merger between America Online and Time Warner. The merger was meant to bring together a diverse range of content, ranging from television, music, news broadcast to radio and other industries into one accessible platform, and perfectly represented the value of the internet as a content and service provider.

It is undeniable that the internet has taken over our world, and that the media industry is slowly moving away from the “traditional” to the digital world. This is especially happening in the news industry.

 I think it is a very positive thing, as the internet is one of the cheapest and most accessible platforms that allows people not only to have access to knowledge and information, but to have that knowledge come from a variety of different sources and from international perspectives rather than just a national one. As much as media platforms try to be objective, newspapers and television broadcasts remain mostly a one-way information flow, but the internet allows for people to do their own research and open up their minds to other viewpoints. It has also allowed for people to have a platform to express themselves and to relay the things that are happening around them, which means a much bigger flow of information.

However, the internet has also paved the way for a much greater amount of propaganda and of unverified and biased information to pass around freely and without restrictions or fact-checking. In a climate of fear-mongering and seemingly never-ending tragedies, these “news” are very much believed and have a huge influence on how people see the world, and as we have seen, can even change the course of elections as important as that of the president of the United States.

This trend has also been a death sentence for many media platforms, as the increase of online services and the easy accessibility have led people to stop purchasing traditional services, which is why many newspapers have had to shut down due to lack of funding and increasingly lower subscriber counts. But it is simply a part of the evolution of life and technology, and all platforms have to adapt if they want to survive.

ASFF Extra Credit - Option 1

ASFF: Short Film Screenings

The first event that I attended was the screening of the short film festivals. The night started with the showings of the documentary features, followed by the fiction features. I was pleasantly surprised by the quality and the creativity that was displayed. The documentary subjects were all very touching, and I liked the diversity of the subjects going from electronic festivals to hacking to an orphanage to the individual personal journeys of people.

I was very proud of what AUIers made and particularly of Soulaima’s documentary, especially because she was actually my teammate all throughout the introduction to filmmaking class that we took, so seeing her progress from the beginning was great. I thought her documentary was the best story-wise.

The fiction short films also showcased the talent of young filmmakers in Morocco, who were able to tell great stories with such a limited budget and time length. I especially noticed the influence of Western ideas from Western productions, but I thought they were well-adapted to the Moroccan context in general. 

Overall, I thought this event was very successful.

ASFF: Burnout Screening

The next event I attended was the screening of Noureddine Lakhari's movie, Burnout, followed by a discussion with the director and some of the actors.
The movie was great, and followed Lakhmari's tradition of telling individual stories of pain and tragedy with Casablanca as a backdrop. Although this movie was certainly more daring than his previous ones, it is consistent with Moroccan filmmakers pushing away from the limits of censorship more and more.
I also noticed here the pattern of depicting the rich, privileged elite of Casablanca as living like Westerners, using foreign cars, displaying foreign art, and speaking French almost exclusively, while the working class was the one depicted as speaking the local language, wearing traditional clothes, and listening to local music. This movie did not shy away from showing the huge influence of the West in what our society considers as "high class" culture.
I really enjoyed the talk after the movie, and getting the opportunity to hear about the behind-the-scenes feelings and impressions of the cast while filming the movie, and after its reception by the Moroccan public. It was also a very important discussion when it concerns the state of Moroccan cinema.

Paper sources

reaction paper 7

In Chapter 6, the author showcases the efforts that Western media conglomerations have made to penetrate foreign markets and to create the “global popular”, through various strategies. With the help of Western globalization, they were able to reach beyond the elites and into mass foreign audiences in developing countries, helped with the creation of a multitude of satellite and cable television channels. This had positive consequences, since it led to a huge growth in the media industry and the creation of many jobs in all areas that are related to media and media production. Another positive effect evoked is the potential for the promotion of democratic principles, freedom of speech, equality and universal human rights. Opening up to foreign markets also allows citizens of developing countries to discover a wide variety of programming and have more choice. It has also influenced journalism, since news organizations started to adopt a liberalist, independent (from the government) format in many areas of the world. Moreover, content creators such as authors and filmmakers had platforms that were willing to publish/broadcast their work, sometimes in multiple languages.

All of these changes are undeniably positive and have served to greatly improve the media industry. Ultimately, because of the huge influence of the media, it has contributed in changing people’s daily lives for the better. But nevertheless, all these positive changes remain the product of Western involvement, and is the result of Western dominance when it comes to technology and media infrastructures.

I think this is similar to the dependency theory, as the credit for the development of culture and production of content in developing countries is only attributed to either their adoption of Western models or to the Western influences themselves directly investing and involving themselves in that market, making any development depending on Western states.

This personally reminds me of something that is common in Morocco, with the fact that the overwhelming majority of Moroccans that are internationally known or have succeeded on a global scale, are either born abroad or have been able to succeed because they had an opportunity that came from abroad. Still, Moroccans take credit for them as Moroccan success stories and proof of the development of Morocco on the international scene. I think it is the same logic as thinking entertainment and media platforms in developing countries are improving when the sole reason for that improvement comes from outside Western involvement. It might be considered development, but it will always be seen as a development that was dependent on a Western model and on Western thinking.

Reaction paper 6

Chapter 5 explores the effects of the rapid evolution of international communication and its relationship with globalization. The chapter particularly talks of the way globalization can be said to have become synonymous with Americanization, and how this Americanization impacts global communication.

The Americanization trend involves the sheer number of imported products, especially entertainment-related programs, from the major Western states and most notably from the United States to other countries. Case in point, in Latin America almost all imports are from the US, and even in the UK and the EU, which already have fairly solid production systems of their own, there is a lot of reliance on US imports for entertainment programming. Here, the chapter talks of a “Hollywood Hegemony”, which the author proves through statistics showing the dominance of movies coming from the United States in foreign markets, as they take a huge chunk of that market even compared to locally-produced movies. 

When it comes to Europe, the market for movies is usually considered when it comes to statistics as homogeneous, which is one of the explanations that can be offered for US domination: since Europe is an eclectic mix of languages and has no official “lingua franca”, English is one language that “works” all throughout the continent. When it comes to movies that are locally- produced, it is evident that they would not profit from the same distribution as English-language movies since they can only target a much smaller portion of the population worldwide. In general, this is an issue that concerns all non-English movies. Usually, people tend to stick with the languages and the culture they know, and since everyone is so exposed to the American/English-language culture, and considering the enormous quality of Hollywood productions that cannot be compared to any other market today, US domination in entertainment is only natural.
I think this can be changed by encouraging people to open up to other markets, cultures and other genres of movies away from "blockbuster" movies that are intended to mass audiences. The language barrier can also be improved by promoting the use of subtitles and dubbing.
But I would not qualify the Americanization trend as hegemony, as I believe each market does allow space for other trends as well. In Morocco, as much as the U.S. has a huge influence, there were also trends that were very influential coming from Mexican productions, Egyptian productions, and most recently Turkish productions. These trends have not translated to the filmmaking industry, but their presence on television, which is the biggest media influencer in the country, is undeniably impactful.

Reaction Paper 4

International communication was majorly impacted by the growing trends of privatization and deregulation worldwide.

The results of the Uruguay Round, of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade that later evolved into the World Trade Organization, established a worldwide trade structure based on liberalization of the market and free flow of information, including, and most importantly for international communication, in the services sector. Free flow of information was especially important for the WTO as one of the key component for an effective communication infrastructure that would allow optimal economic growth and trade. The efforts for market liberalization and state deregulation by the WTO had the goal of opening up foreign markets to outside competition, especially in the telecommunications sector. The latter’s quality as a particularly fast-growing and profitable market made it a priority for Western advocates, which resulted in a GATS (General Agreement on Trade in Services) Annex on Telecommunications. This annex allowed private companies, generally from the West, to make investments in the private sector of developing countries. The privatization of infrastructures in developing countries meant that national suppliers had no advantage over foreign suppliers, and were to be considered in the same respect.  In short, the purpose was to establish the structure for Western corporations to be able to integrate foreign markets especially in “Southern” countries.

Trade is a major part of international relations, and a very beneficial one at that. Seeing the importance of commercial trade, it was only a given that free trade and free flow of information rules would spread out to include the services sectors, and of course the telecommunications sector, of which the importance surged at the time and continues to grow even today. In general, I do not regard privatization as a negative thing, especially when it comes as a response to state control and regulations. It also avoids creating a monopoly by the state. I also agree with the liberalization argument that competition makes for a better service and better prices for customers.

However, that only applies when there is the potential for fair competition. Often, and especially in the case of developing countries, privatization of the market means that a Western foreign competitor is able to come and dominate the sector, simply because national corporations lack the means and the infrastructure to be able to compete. In this case, the argument for better services and better prices becomes invalid as the market simply switches from state monopoly to corporate monopoly.