Thursday, January 31, 2008

Some question used for Reflective Journal

  • thing I find difficult :challenge
  • changes in my attitude or motivation
  • how I tackles tasks - my strategies
  • things I find out abt myself
  • things abt how I learn best
  • ideas that arise from my studies
  • how different areas of study link uo
  • how my studies relate to real life
  • how well I am doing

Something should be considered :

  • Feedback from tutors
  • start looking at new assignments as soon as I receive them

Example of ineffective learning :

  • work when you are too tired to concentrate
  • listen or read without questioning and challenging what you hear or read
  • sit down to study but let your mind wander to other matters
  • learn thing off by heart w/o really understanding them
  • don't ask for help when u really need it
  • don't make connection between what you learn in different subjects area

Something I need to work out :

  1. Am I selecting particular aspects of my study for improvement today?
  2. Have I thought abt how to make this study as enjoyable as possible?
  3. Do I work productively ?
  4. Am I completing tasks in order of priority?

Areas to develop


-Effective learning strategies
-Timekeeping and organisation skills
-Taking responsibilities for self and others.
-Participating
-Setting priorities and taking decisions
-Assertiveness and risk-taking .
-Reflection and planning
-Analytical and crictical thinking

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Literature Review -Draft

Introduction
Globalisation has defined as a process in which countries throughout the world are becoming closely linked and interdependent.Cultures influence one another and become more alike through trade , immigration , and the exchange of information and ideas in this process , which has existed for many centuries .However , in recent decades , the degree and intensity of the integration among different cultures and different world regions have accelerated rapidly because of advances in telecommunications and media.Consequently , globalization has become one of the most widely topic discussed among many scholars in recent years. The main aspects concerning the globalization theory are related to the conflict of cultural homogenisation and cultural hybridisation .It is important to analyse the two conflict theory .That is,while homogenisation weakens or erodes local culture ,hybridisation encourages increasing diversity in local culture which adopts US style commercialisation.

Literature Review

Recent studies (Morris ,2002 ;Arnett,2002;UN,2003 ) have acknowledged relationship between media and culture and culture identity. A major theoretical contribution to the study of cultural imperialism has been Morris (2002) model which is how culture can adapt new elenments while remaining stable.Although Morris’model may have some weaknesses ,its significant is undeniable and is especially relevant to the aspect of cultural imperialism.

Based on this theory ,Morris (2002) contribution to the study of cultural imperialism has been his model.Tradional culture is made up of a foudation called deep structure which represents the present or existing cultural elements .Outside element or new ideas are brought in which are then accepted by the existing culture.When these becomes established ,they become a part of the basis .There is a cycle in operation ,that is what was once new or external becomes tradional and is considered indigenous Therefore ,cultures can adapt new elements while remaining stable.This is a significant study .

Another important concept underlying the Un’s analysis of how young people deal with local and global infulences is the idea that this hybridisation process is not hamornious but involves conflict and struggle.The UN points out that youth may experience conflict between the desire to be modern and the desire to preserve local tradtions and identities.The Un goes so fas as to suggest that there is a political power struggle going on . It suggests that this power struggle operates at two level : there is a struggle between the local and global forces for power and there is a struggle within local communities between socio-economic groups .
Also,the Un(2003:19) cites Kjeldgaard examing young people ‘s reaction in Denmark to American media .They show how young people use the stories and images of the media to play out their own stories and their lives . The global media become a background against which they see themselves ..but these images ,these ideas are personalised and transformed by young people to suit their own local circumstances .Nevertheless ,The Un argue that the choice of global items and influences ,this menu ,is supplied by global capital and thus limited to what is in the interests of the large corporation that control the global media.The creation of uniform cultures is their interests because this makes marketing of product easier .So it could be argued that this so-called hybridisation is in fact severely limited and ironnically leads to cultural homogenisation .This is very important because it differs greatly from the way most writers talk about hybridisation which is seen as quite a peaceful blending of different elements.


However ,the UN ignore the ability if people to reject foreign influences.The Un concede that youth are not symply respoding passively to global influences and adopting them ,but they actively interact and in a sense use elements of global cultures differently depending on their local circumstances. Although the UN concede that people do not simply respone passively to foreign influence, it does not analyse the idea that cultural identities are more resilient than credited





Idea 1

Just come up with the idea .That is ,taking picture for a blog whose name is "S se lam gi khi den Sydney ".This blog will contain picture of places I want to take S to .Great.

Monday, January 28, 2008

Presentaion

Topic :Reflect on the ownership of media on global media corporation (Time Warner Inc.)
Presentation

Good Morning ,Everybody .Today. I would like to discuss the ownership of media .

Systems coincided with new satellite and digital technologies, resulting in the rise of transnational media giants. The global media system is now dominated by a first tier of nine giant firms. The five largest are Time Warner ,Disney , Bertelsmann, Viacom, and Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation.

Firms like Time Warner have almost tripled in size this decade.Second, have interests in numerous media industries, such as film production, book publishing, music, TV channels and networks, retail stores, amusement parks, magazines, newspapers and the like. The profit whole for the global media giant can be greater than the sum of the media parts. A film, for example, should also generate a soundtrack, a book, and merchandise, and possibly spin-off TV shows, CD-ROMs, video games and amusement park rides. Firms that do not have conglomerated media holdings simply cannot compete in this market

Besides needing global scope to compete, the rules of thumb for global media giants are
the ownership of get bigger so you dominate markets and your competition can't buy you out. Arguments for ownership deregulation favour mergers and acquisitions because they consider these play an important role in the evolution of the media. Mergers are a defensive strategy that achieves economies of scale to meet the demands of modern media consumers and to respond to competition from new outlets and technologies(Thierer, op. cit.)
Eg:

AOL (owners of Time Warner), now control 75 per cent of all prime-time viewing in American homes.(‘Returning oligopoly of media content threatens cable’s power,” Bernstein Research, 7 February 2003.)


However, with so few organisations being allowed to control such a large and powerful medium, what benefits and drawbacks arise for audiences?There are many arguments put forwards by the proponents and those that oppose the ownership of global media corporation .

Supporters of global media corporation that critics falsely claim a loss of diversity in the industry. One makes the point that twenty five years ago there were few programming choices.
Eg:Globally, CNN airs through CNN International and has combined branded networks and services that are available to more than 1.5 billion people in over 212 countries and territories.(Cited Wikipedia.org)

It would deliver lower prices for consumers and better quality services and greater choices. At the same time it would ensure the benefits of ‘a diversity of voices and viewpoints in radio, television and print media’.




Another view, however, is that while the existence of hundreds of television channels can superficially be seen as an indication of diversity, in reality there is a paucity of programming choices. This is because the major corporations act as gatekeepers and decision makers for broadcast approvals and content inclusions.57

There is evidence to suggest that despite realisation of the promised increase in media
sources, ownership deregulation has at the same time reduced the range of media voices available. As such, some critics of ownership deregulation argue it has undermined free speech and homogenised opinion. Everything you read or see, every opinion, every image, and every jot of information would arrive through one corporate filter. For the general public, there are less diverse opinions and voices available in the media.
. If, for example, only one or two media conglomerates dominate in a single market, the question is not only that of whether they will present a diversity of opinions, but also of whether they are willing to present information that may be damaging to either their advertisers or to themselves.


Global conglomerates can at times have a progressive impact on culture, especially when they enter nations that had been tightly controlled by corrupt crony media systems (as in much of Latin America) or nations that had significant state censorship over media (as in parts of Asia). The global commercial-media system is radical in that it will respect no tradition or custom, on balance, if it stands in the way of profits

A argument put forward by McMcChesney that while media conglomerates press for policies to facilitate their domination of markets throughout the world, strong traditions of protection for domestic media and cultural industries persist. Nations ranging from Norway, Denmark and Spain to Mexico, South Africa and South Korea keep their small domestic film production industries alive with government subsidies. However ,the argument does not stop there .It goes further that the dominance of Western media –here is big global media corporation – has been restricted not so much by nation proctectionist policies but by audience perference .This argument is based on the idea that people when they have the choice .will naturally prefer that which seems closer to their own culture .or that which has greater meaning for them .

To conclusion ,I’m goting to summary a number of main argument abt the ownership of media on global media corporation .



References:
http://www.corporations.org/media/
http://www.globalissues.org/HumanRights/Media/Corporations/Owners.asp
http://www.thenation.com/special/bigten.html
http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=1406

A. Thierer, 2005. Media myths. Making sense of the debate over media ownership, Progress and Freedom Foundation, Washington,
N.Morris 2002 The myth of unadulterated culture meets the threat of imported media Publications(London,Thousand Oaks and New Delhi),Vol.24:278-289