Colin Sparks, professor of media studies at University of Westminster School of Media, Arts and Design and director of Communication and Media Research Institute, gave a speech entitled “What’s Wrong with Globalization?” on September 10 at the Garrison Theater.
The lecture was part of the Scripps College Humanities Institute’s “Global Media Lecture and Film Series.” Sparks’ PowerPoint presentation detailed the theories of globalization and the reason why many assumptions about the global media are unfounded and unsupported by evidence.
While today’s culture and economics has been greatly affected by the spread of media throughout the world, there are still examples that point to the fact that there are many different perspectives on media growth and migration unexplored by Sparks’ predecessors.
What is Globalization?
Sparks opened his lecture by speaking about the theory of globalization. Over the past several decades, there has indeed been a significant growth in the movement of “people, of goods, media artifacts, and new technologies of physical transportation and communication that facilitate such movements.”
However, this paradigm (as Sparks calls it) contains many contradictions. Most of his contemporaries ignore presented evidence, and the theory of cultural and media imperialism has been discredited over the past two decades.
However, there are some ‘strong’ theories that have been developed regarding globalization. There are five dimensions of the paradigm: the need for a new non-reductive methodology to deal with cultural autonomy, symbolic production and exchange, the lack of a dominating center, artifacts that can originate from anywhere, and the indication of global and local media. Sparks took the time to detail each one of these points in his presentation.
How the BBC's Programs Have Changed
The first point regarding culture and economics was very interesting. Sparks spoke of the move from family-owned newspapers (and other media outlets) to corporate ownership. He noted in detail that one of the outcomes of this commercial driven market is the BBC’s type of programs that are being produced.
To increase their revenue, they produce “Jane Austen TV,” which would appeal to American audiences, as well as British ones. The second main point about the symbolic production and the global economy referenced how the media is still not as characterized as “Fordist” industries.
Sparks used an example of cars, airplanes, and hotels all having the same character or branding. However, once a viewer turns on the television, there is immediately a change evident, from the language used to the type of programming being aired.
Is There a Global Media Center?
The third main point was whether there is a global center of media in today’s society. Sparks thinks that the United States is still the hub of activity. Although the U.S. economy is not as dominant, American-centered media corporations still run the show (ex: US Media Corp. or Viacom.)
The next main point was if culture is ‘going global’ or not. While cultural products do originate around the world (like Hollywood or Bollywood movies), there are “different dynamics for different industries.”
The example used by Sparks was the Winnie the Pooh enterprise. Disney Americanized the characters to make them more sellable. Sparks notes that in order to “gain global circulation, you must first succeed in metropolitan markets.”
The fifth point is centered on whether the state is withering away. Sparks thinks that states are in fact as strong as ever. Military expenditures have risen 45% from 1998-2008 on an international basis. In fact, the number of states is actually increasing when one looks at a map.
The final main argument made by Sparks is that states still dominate the regulation of media. Likewise, local media outlets are still strong (he noted that there are over 1,400 local newspapers in the United States alone.) While satellites have been used to get around political and criminal activities, recent technology has not served to do away with regulations entirely.
Another point Sparks made is that the media has to contend with the large migration movement that occurs internationally every year. While those of us in California tend to think of immigrants as those crossing the border, Sparks pointed out most migrations occur within countries.
He notes that in 1980, 39% of the world’s population were urbanites. In 2001, the number rose to 47%. By the year 2008, the number increased all the way to over 50%. Sparks thinks that many theorists have ignored the significance of this point when evaluating the media.
