MIXING CIRCLES

Films today have a variety of aspects from other cultures mixed in; they are no longer just Hollywood movies, now a strong element of Asian culture is evident in films. Karate and Kung Fu are often used in Hollywood movies ie. Bullet to the Head 2012. Conversely, American actors are often used as lead actors in Asian films ie. The Karate Kid 2012.

Films are now made to be mass marketed to the world with elements from many different cultures filtered into make the films appealing to a more global audience and marketable worldwide. This increases the amount of revue earned from the release of the film; making all those involved happy. It also gives the audience a chance to view what life is like in other cultures, both the flattering and unflattering parts. For example in Slumdog Millionaire we saw a story of triumph from a boy who had nothing going on to win the Indian version of an American game show, (another example of Hollywood mixing into other movie cultures), we also saw an example of how women were treated in this particular aspect of Indian culture.

Another example is the remake of the Karate Kid with Jaden Smith playing the lead alongside Jackie Chan. The karate kid is traditionally an Asian film revolving around karate and also a coming of age story for a young boy. The two main characters are American and they move to China. This is yet another example of how both Hollywood and Asian cultures intermix.

There is no longer really a clear distinction between Hollywood and Asian movies now both hold elements of the other to entice a larger audience. However neither audience seems t0 really mind the intermixing instead these movies are often viewed as a more thrilling ride.     

WHO ARE YOU REALLY?

Celebrities have become a large part of the focus of individuals. There is always talk regarding what they are doing, who they are doing it with, what do they endorse and why etc. We all want to know absolutely everything there is to know about them! New technologies such as twitter and Facebook have allowed us a larger glimpse into the lives of the people we consider to be our idols. The question that remains though: is what we see real or is it just crafted to make us like our favourite celebrities more?

Twitter and Facebook accounts for celebrities are managed. Celebrities make sure to post what they want people to see, they make sure that they’re ‘followers’ perceive them the way that they want to be perceived. That’s not to say that they aren’t who they claim to be but they are always mindful that they are on a global stage and their own personal reputation is not damaged as their future income depends on whether or not these celebrities can maintain their audience/followers.

Most celebrities make sure that they always stay current news, like the old adage ‘any publicity is good publicity’. There are celebrities that feel this is important and so they take some edgy risks like Miley Cyrus and her ‘twerking ‘ incident. Although the ‘twerking’ incident happened weeks ago, it is still talked about and the public still wonder how she can be so careless as to do something like that on a public stage in front of her colleagues and most of the world.  The event captured You Tube. At one point Miley was a role model for young girls her age and was idolised for her music but, in her desire to break out of her good girl image she has damaged her reputation.

With social media being such a large platform it’s hard to know whether what we see is real or whether its crafter to illicit a certain emotional response from us. But the question needs to be asked are celebrities the only ones who engage in such behaviour? Aren’t we all guilty of the same thing? After all we manage our own social media pages so that an aspect of our personality is transmitted online for all our own ‘followers’ to see, so that we can remain popular in our own circles.      

GAMES ARE ALL AROUND US

A large part of society nowadays is gaming, with everyone seeming to participate in one form or another: whether it’s in the form of apps on their iPhones, or logging in online engaged in multiplayer games on their computers, Xbox or PlayStation.

Gaming provides people with a distraction from work, responsibilities or their troubles. Of course gaming is inherently meant to be about entertainment, but with the high level of engagement that is now being observed, it has to be considered a form of escapism from the more mundane day to day tasks that are considered boring. Gaming is more accessible now than it has ever been as it is provided as mobile entertainment through mobile phones, iPads and portable lap top computers. Gaming is now an accepted part of our culture and everyday lives, with even toddlers participating. For example my two and three year old cousins both have an iPad each especially devoted to their games: once the television was considered the ‘psuedo baby sitter’, these days iPads with games seem to have become the norm. If my baby cousins are anything to go by, it is what they spend most of their time playing!

Games these days are heavily reliant upon an online culture with people from all over the world talking and communicating with each other without ever having met beforehand. Online gaming now also gives people the opportunity to create relationships with people, who casually chat while playing.

While gaming is now a large part of our society and culture there are people who have now become very reliant on gaming to provide their element of social communication. While gaming can provide social communication with other people from around the world it is important to note that it is not a replacement for face to face communication. There are some people who become so engrossed in gaming that they forget about all their other responsibilities, friends and family.

Gaming has become an accepted part of our society, with almost everyone participating even if all they play is Candy Crush. Games are used as a pass time, to interact with other people and even as a distraction from everyday problems. Gaming is fun and interactive allowing the gamer total control over the entire environment, something that is not possible with everyday life. However, there are some people who get so caught up in gaming that they forget everything else and they even can sometimes forget what kinds of behaviour are considered socially acceptable. While gaming is fun it’s important to always remember that there are other important things that can occupy our time.

WHAT DID YOU SAY?

The internet has provided people with many different avenues to voice their thoughts and emotions and one of the most used avenues is the blogosphere. For many people blogging has become an extremely useful tool to air their emotional grievances and none more so than disgruntled employees. Blogging provides people with a perceived anonymity that neither Facebook nor Twitter gives them. The fear always exists that somehow, some way word will get back to their bosses and they will be fired. Now with blogging, this fear has been significantly reduced but it still exists.

There are many people who take to blogs to simply vent their anger at being ‘mistreated’ in a work place. Many people know that if they go to their superiors and complain it might result in a termination of their employment. Blogging provides people with the capability to vent their anger to an audience, albeit an anonymous one. There are so many disgruntled employees who take to blogging, that with a Google search you can find more than a few blogs where people have shared their bad experiences. This occurs as a result of people trying to find others who have had similar bad experiences and they all wish to share their misfortune and consolidate sympathy or to just get it out of their system. For example, one of the best and funniest blogs about angry employees is The Bitchy Waiter. http://thebitchywaiter.com

Multimedia has empowered many people to share their thoughts and feelings. Blogging has become very central to modern communication. Everyone can create their own space so that they are able to express their own thoughts and feelings about what ever aggravates them. Employees have taken advantage of this opportunity perhaps more than anyone. Blogging as a type of social media has given individuals a chance to just blow off steam.   

DO I STILL HAVE PRIVACY?

Everyone uses the internet whether it’s for work, education or recreation. We sign up to many different sites that all have their own terms and conditions outlining their uses policy and many other things. Normally this wouldn’t be a problem; after all would people really sign a lengthy legal document without reading it first and finding out what they were committing to? The answer would almost always be no, no one would take the chance that they were signing away something important like their privacy. However when it comes to the internet there seems to be a different protocol that is generally followed. The problem is that most people are so impatient to get to where they are going, ‘the end point’ of the website so that they can start using these websites, such as Facebook, that they never really pay attention. The majority of people never stop to actually read the terms and conditions instead they just hit the accept square and continue with the registration process. The problem being that they have essentially said 'Yes' to something without knowing what they have automatically agreed to: added to this is the ridiculously 'long' legal contract it is unreasonable to expect everyone might read or understand!

Throughout our continued use of the internet we are being inspected, through mediums such as cookies, worms and perhaps the biggest one Google earth/street view. Most people value their privacy but very few realise how little privacy they have once they open a web browser. For example with Google street view, you can get such a good view of someone’s house that you can count the cracks on the exterior walls. Social media sites constantly track user’s likes and dislikes and even go so far as to tailor make what advertisements are seen by each user, possibly creating a very narrow-minded view of the world for that individual if they are constantly bombarded with similar stuff, where then is the possibility of growth or new learning’s and appreciation?

The major surveillance though is unavoidable. Users do retain the power to say 'no', but then they are unable to access the websites that they wish to, so they always say 'yes' to avoid lock out. Users will give up their privacy, so the uninhibited access to the internet won’t be compromised. People would never want their privacy compromised in an off web situation, so why then are they always so quick to tick accept when it comes to internet sites' terms and conditions and consequently have their online privacy compromised?       

AM I STEALING?

Plagiarism is wrong as it deprives people of deserved income or recognition of their creative works.

People rarely stop to question the legality, morals and ethics of plagiarising or downloading a song, book or movie. It is clearly wrong to do so. Many people fail to recognise that they are committing a crime as they are stealing from others; such as singers, actors, writers and producers, etc: depriving them of entitled income.

There are many people that hold the view that illegal downloading saves you money and justify it by saying ‘it isn’t really a crime’, because you aren’t really hurting anyone. What they fail to consider is how they might feel if it was their personal content being plagiarised? There is an acquaintance that I know that spends almost all his free time engaging in illegal downloading, anything from movies to books. I once challenged him by asking if he ever saw anything wrong with his actions? He didn’t! It never even occurred to him that he may be committing a crime.

People that download illegally will often give you a justification for having done so that seems valid or plausible to explain their objectionable behaviour. My favourite is; …”it was only something I was ever going to watch/read/listen to once.” To this statement I can’t help but think; in that case why didn’t you just rent it? 

There is never a good enough reason to plagiarise or illegally download anything. People enjoy being entertained through many different forms of media so the least they can do is support the creators of these works of art and media by legally paying for the pleasure of reading, listening or watching their chosen entertainment to ensure future success of the industries, but unfortunately some people will never be able to understand that and they will continue to rob rightful owners of their income.

CROSSING BOARDERS

Globalisation is a sense of belonging to a community beyond the perimeter of our own neighbourhood. It implies membership of a wider social network that crosses borders and territories and includes the span and influence of the internet. A strong element of belonging to this World Wide Web is the shifting of social attitudes and values that influence the evolving generations of web users to change and challenge attitudes on a world wide scale. Globalisation is a challenge to governments who try to stem the tide of public opinion and debate. Globalisation encourages sharing of opinions and attitudes beyond local borders and influences change to happen at a rate that has been unprecedented in the past. For example the shift in changing values and beliefs by young people to living for the moment rather than planning for the future. The trend in acceptance of once unacceptable behaviours by the young such as  over consumption of alcohol, and the large shift in attitudes towards tattoos, which have become a fashion feature that were once considered social taboo, unless part of cultural rituals.

Many young people see over consumption of alcohol as a way that they can fit in socially with their friends so that they can seem cool. This has occurred increasing in female circles with more and more young girls binge drinking for a ‘good’ night out on the town. As a result very little consideration to the other side effects that may occur such as future health problems, also very little consideration is given to whether violent behaviour may ensue as a result of over consumption of alcohol.  Globalisation via use of social media has made such behaviours seem ‘normal’ as people publish their photos on Facebook inviting public scrutiny and challenging social norms.

Tattoos are now a socially accepted behaviour with almost everyone having a tattoo of some sort whether it’s big or small. Getting tattoos used to be viewed as a type of behaviour that only delinquents used to engage in. However there is a very different attitude towards tattoos as most of the population have now gotten ‘inked’. Now people even proudly show their tattoos off even in their wedding photos.

Globalisation has demonstrated how easily attitudes are influenced and changed towards certain behaviours. Globalisation continues to evolve and as more people connect and engage with each other the more social attitudes will continue to evolve.

THE MEDIA

Globalisation and the media have very strong links with each other. As cultures continue to change and grow, so does the media, therefore the mutual relationship that the two share continues to evolve. There are many elements to globalisation which include cultural, social, political, economic and technological. All these different elements of globalisation are present in all societies and allows each society to understand and communicate with each other; even though each society is made up of many individual and varying elements.

It is not only differences in countries or status that impacts our use of the media and therefore the way we see globalisation, but there is also a large generational gap. When considering just how little technological input my grandparents have to how much technological input I have, it’s quite easy to realise that with the increased level of technology it has really allowed global communication to occur on a much larger scale.

An important element of globalisation is supposed to be global communication; the free communication of everyone around the world. However this isn’t always the case. Although the media does provide us with an exceptional tool for communication not everyone has free access to the media or even the means to access it at all. For example in many third world countries many people are too poor to have access to the different types of media that most of us enjoy free and uninhibited access to every hour of every day. Despite these drawbacks for some communities due to poverty, the developed world is contributing freely to all aspects of social and political interaction that is literally changing the landscape of how we view our world and our everyday life.

About Me

Hi

My name is Jasmin and this is my second year at Deakin. I am really looking forward to learning about globalisation. :-)