Friday, October 8, 2010

Cultural Linguistic and Geocultural Flows

Often we ask ourselves the question, what does this mean for us? I want to ask this question in regards to Thussu's article on cultural linguistic and geo-cultural flows. Today I don't have any answers, just questions. I'm very curious to understand the cultural implications of changes in our world. We can go on and on about what is happening; we can see it in our lives. Or do we?  One particular aspect of this flow has been embodied in 'geo-cultural media centers'. How much of our everyday lives do we Americans actually experience culture outside of our own? Of course, this matters greatly by where we live, and who we interact with on a daily basis, but it is interesting to see what we even consider to be 'our culture' and 'their culture'. We mentioned before that interacting with other cultures over time can create a feeling of oneness, belonging, and possibly acceptance with others, so does this mean that all cultures we interact with are 'our culture'?
In the article, Thussu points out the interaction of foreign based media with their diasporic populations. But what about those who are not in a diaspora (or who do not know/do not believe they are)? What about people watching foreign media on a regular basis? What about people acting in the same function as the media? People bring each other the news, they advertise products, and they tell others what to think. Does that not serve the same function as the media. So when our Indian friend watches Zee TV, our Chinese friend watches Pheonix, and our Turkmen friend watches MBC, and they bring us news from the outside world, what happens to us?

But then, if you do not watch the internews, and you do not have any non-American (or descendants of non-American) friends, you might not at all be impacted by this flow. No?

No comments:

Post a Comment