Which comes first the celebrity or the culture?

Firstly; What is culture? Culture is ‘a way of living within an industrial society that encompasses all the meanings of that social experience.’ (Fiske, p.284)

As a big fan of music, I am going to relate this weeks blog to music again. This time I’m going to discuss the pop punk scene, which came bursting onto the scene about 10 years ago, so here is the question I pose to you, what came first, the celebrity or the culture? It is really one of those chicken/egg questions again, you could spend countless hours arguing with someone about what you think came first only to have it go nowhere, so I’m not picking a side, I want you all to tell me your thoughts after reading.


To have a celebrity burst into popularity from nowhere, you would have to consider that there was already a scene in the first place for them to come bursting into? If there is no market, why would a label sign them? But was the culture always there? Or has it, do you think, simply evolved from another culture? The scene has started again? And how does the culture begin if there is no celebrity there to be influenced by?

Look at punk pop as an example, rock to hardcore, to death metal, to goth, to punk rock, to pop punk, to emo, to indie? This is highly debated lineage, I spent hours googling, and only ended more confused.


Another option is that the culture has always been present, as with punk culture which is said to have been present since the Ramones in the 1960’s, but then, were the Ramones the first band out? Or was the culture already there, hidden away in some other unknown band?


So what came first guys, the celebrity or the culture? The chicken or the Egg?

Fiske, J 1992, British cultural studies and television, in RC Allen (ed.), Channels of discourse, reassembled, 2nd edn, Routledge, London, pp. 284–326.

Get Glocalised!

Music. It is all around us. Think about the genres of music you listen to and where did they originate from? Do you still listen to the original music, or do you listen to a version of it?
Hip hop is the most well known example of how Glocalisation in music works.

Hip Hop originated in America, when you think of hip hop, what springs to mind? Bitches and hoes, parties, gold bling bling, black American men rapping (yes I know Eminem is white, I’m excluding him from my description), girls in little to know clothes. That’s my view anyway.
Now think about Australian Hip Hop, can you imagine Australian hip hop in this way at all? It’s definitely not in our immediate ‘culture’ like it is in the American hip hop culture. What do Australian hip hop artists sing about? The same thing? Different things? Some say its similar, others say it is not, it depends who you listen to and how interested you are in it.

Glocalisation is making this possible. Glocalisation is a world-wide phenomenon that is localised for your area. Such as; hip hop is world wide (UK, Asia, America, Europe all have versions of it), but they have their own version of it. The music sounds different, the scene surrounding it is different, this is how culture can affect globalisation in that the culture of your location changes the objectives in the music, we deal with different issues to the Americans, so therefore we have different music.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bZkp7q19f0 

I'm THAT pretentious wanker!

Do we live in a network society?

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17450140601101218#preview

Recently as I was stumbling around the internet hungry for something new to learn, (I like to know things ok?) I came across an article about our current state of life. BEING A PART OF A NETWORK SOCIETY!

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17450140601101218#preview

It’s almost like a cult in some ways.

Be on Facebook or we won’t invite you to our parties! They said. Update your status so I know what you’re always doing! They said. In the life of a current teenager, not being online is a downfall.
Think about it, you couldn’t do your University work if you didn’t have the internet, or know how to use it.

We are being forced into an internet generation! Our parents think we waste time on our computers (and we probably do) but you couldn’t get your homework if you didn’t use the internet.

The real reason for this blog however is to speak about the idea of transnational spaces and a network society. Many use the internet to network, even without knowing it. Every time they look up a product, purchase something online, like a status on facebook, log into twitter, google something, add a friend we are networking. In the dark ages, (pre internet, so 1950?) people used to network socially in real life situations! Not anymore! Thanks to the internet we can now network with people from other countries, receive other cultures and enjoy others thoughts at the click of a button.

The internet is converging the world, and the internet is our middle ground, how else would we learn about other cultures? (I mean besides going, but isn’t the internet just so much easier?)

True Blue, through and through.

True Blue, through and through.

What does that even mean? An Aussie would know! It translates simply to; I am 100% Australian. “How is that even possible? Australians are not blue!” many would ask, “it just makes no sense!” they would state.

SLANG

Australians are so well known for their slang. For saying words or phrases that people just have no chance of understanding, meaningless random rubbish! The use of Australian slang in other countries and therefore with people of other cultures can be either completely unrecognisable or strongly misinterpreted as being insults or even swearing (Menner 1946, p120, as cited in Bartolo, K. 2008 p.7) However, growing up in Australia, you learn the slang without even realising it.

http://idontdomornings.blogspot.com.au/2007_05_01_archive.html

Ambo
Arvo
Bloody Oath
Blowie
Bogan
Bogged
Cockie
Cubby House
Dero
Dickhead
Fair Dinkum
Off your face
Feral
Flake
Hoon
Lollies
Maccas
Mozzie
Mate
spewing
No worries
Op shop
Outback
http://www.koalanet.com.au/australian-slang.html/

I honestly could write a list going on and on! I picked some of the most common words, how many of you say these words without thinking about it? Or know the meanings just by reading the words?
Australian culture is full of Slang. Here is a video of Arj Barker, from the Melbourne 2010 comedy festival, discussing slang and how difficult it is for tourists to understand it! It starts at 2mins. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0oOluUWczE

People feeling discomfort or having a non-understanding of the culture around them is regarded as Cultural Dislocation. Cultural Dislocation is how people handle coming somewhere with a different cultural, economical and/or political, background to the one we have here, and the slang, isn’t making it any easier for them to fit in! How would someone fit into this country of ours, which may already have language barriers! Slang is a major cultural difference in any country, this can help lead to feeling culturally dislocated. Spreading the slang through globalisational flows can help reduce that cultural dislocation.

 
References

Bartolo, K, 2008, ’Bogan: Polite or not? Cultural Implications of a term in Australian Slang’ Griffith Working Papers in Pragmatics and Intercultural Communication, Volume 1, issue 1, Queensland, p.7

I AM THE GATEKEEPER!

This week I learned that four major Western news agencies control the bulk of the world’s news flows, this leads to question exactly why we see the news that we do. It explains why we see American or British news over the happenings in a country such as Iraq or Ethiopia.

What is meant by this is that the media controls what we see, who we see and how we see it. I was watching the Gymnastics with my friend (she made me!) and they focused mainly on the UK, USA, Australia (of course), China and then the powers in the sport which she explained to be (Romania, Russia sometimes Japan). We saw very little of the other competitors. I found also while watching other sports it focuses on the 3 power countries, plus Australia and whoever is expected to win. The media is controlling what we see.  The media are being what are known as ‘Gatekeepers’, which is where, the media/parents/teachers “exercise certain control of information through society.” (Weerakkody, 2006, p.8). Essentially this means the media control what we see, when we see it and how we see it. In this case the media is playing to what they think we want to see and what will be the most entertaining.

You could also examine this in regards to media and informational flows. Who are we getting our information off? Does that explain why we are seeing who we are seeing? If the four major western news agencies control the bulk of the news, does that mean we are seeing their news? Or explain why we are seeing what we are?

Weerakkody, ND 2006,’Tracing the history of mass media effects theorising and reasearch’ unpublished manuscript. P. 8

Nickipedia

24/01/2064

Nick Thuys was born in 1994, and is the owner of the world’s largest Media Global Empire. His empire, known as AFBPD was first established in 2012 at the mere age of 18. He created a blog that became an overnight success. People were hanging on to his every word. In 2015 he graduated Deakin University with his successful blog which had expanded to a website. He was literally raking the money in due to web advertising and by 2020 he opened up his own company based around online media. They created multiple websites, one news, one blog site, one social networking site and a photography site (because that’s what he had minored in at university.) This company then expanded once again in 2022 when he bought a music studio (he was a drummer), and then a film studio (he double majored in film and media and communication). These both took off and then in 2025 he created a newspaper for his older demographic, which worked in conjunction with his internet news site. At the end of 2025 he bought a television channel. He then moved into fashion and food and opened up a chain of restaurants and retail outlets around the world.
All his success has led his company to “Australianise” the world; this is similar to the Americanisation; “the process of globalization by which American cultural forms become more widespread and eventually supplant others” (Dictionary of media Studies, 2006) This ‘Australianisation’ was due to cultural imperialism; his company’s products were place all around the world. He eventually had a television/newspaper/store/webpage in every part of the world. He believed cultural imperialism worked because you could always rely on his products being there, which made it safe and feel a touch like home when in a foreign country. He also knew his products success was so large they were unavoidable too.



References Dictionary of media Studies, 2006, London, A&C Publishers, p. 101

Defining Globalisation

Theorists have been defining Globalisation for years now. To prove this, I have a quote from 12 years ago, however the ideas behind globalisation have changed considerably in that time.

“Globalization refers to all those processes by which the peoples of the world are incorporated into a single world society, global society” (Albrow, 1990 p.45)

The basics are still there, the idea is that globalisation refers to the world becoming one, but that’s just it, there are so many things wrong with the idea of the world becoming one and to say that globalisation is happening is completely and utterly wrong. Globalisation is said to occur due to technological advancements that allows peoples cultures to be shared, such as an increase in physical flows resulting in an increase in cultural flows. Globalisation is occurring due to the use of internet which allows you to be able to communicate with anyone from around the world, but anyone, really? We are expected to believe that people in third world countries such as Ethiopia have the money and means to travel overseas to spread the culture? Yeah I know what you are thinking, if they cannot afford travel surely they can afford internet at least! Wrong. There are people in the world in famine, living in huts built of wood or clay, with no internet, no television, no food at the same time many government bodies also censor and limit who and what people can do online. How are these people supposed to spread their culture or in turn receive ours? So to say, even now, 12 years after that quote was written, that Globalisation is in affect is so completely and utterly wrong. It may be occurring in first world countries there is no denying that, but to say we have become a ‘single world society’ is just not true. “…what is striking about the definitions of globalization is that they do not make a distinction between defining the phenomenon itself and its CONSEQUENCES.” (Rantanen, T 2005 p.6) The consequences are how people ignore and miss parts of the world because we are said to be a ‘single world society,’ so those not involved simply get forgotten.

For example;

How often do you see Ethiopian news on the television?
How often do you see a Nigerian film?
If globalisation has made us a ‘single world society’ we are indeed missing a large chunk of world.

References

Rantanen, T 2005, ‘Theorizing media globalization’, The media and globalization, Sage, London, pp

Is it Globalisation or Globalization? What is Globalisation?

Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong, England, France, Scotland.  All of these places are large tourist destinations, but other than that they all have something in common. What you ask? I ate a Big Mac in each of them.  This delicious coincidence is due to something theorists have grown to recognize as Globalisation.

Globalisation is the process of a world becoming one through cultural, physical and technological advancements. “Globalisation … questions capitalism, inequality, power, development, ecology, culture, gender, identity, population…” (Nederveen Pieterse, J 2004, p.7)  It is said to be about all the countries joining together, becoming seemingly ‘borderless’.
Globalisation is said to have 5 flows, physical (physical bodies actually flowing), the cultural (food, television, beliefs, behaviours), information flows (thanks to the internet), Media flows (news, television programs, movies and so on.), and flows of capital (finances).

Mostly on my trip I saw cultural and physical flows, this being said they are interrelated; one being necessary for the other. Every place I visited was extremely multi-cultural (physical flows), so there was always a touch of home anywhere I went. Even though I only visited these places I was experiencing things from the US, Japan, India and even Australia (cultural flows). I found it remarkable that Fosters beer is on tap in every pub in every country except Australia. Upon arrival to every hotel I received a Holy Bible even in the countries whose main religion isn’t Christianity. (Hong Kong, Singapore) This is yet another example of cultural flows.

Overall my trip helped show examples of Globalisation even before I knew what it was. Globalisation is a showing how the cultures are flowing into other countries due to physical flows of people which is a large aspect of globalisation. Physical flows take with them Cultural flows.

The comical part of all this being, Big Macs actually originated in the USA, and I am still yet to set a foot in America.

References
Nederveen Pieterse, J 2004, ‘Globalization: consensus and controversies’,

Globalization and culture: global mélange, Rowan & Littlefield, Lanham, Md., p.7

Yeah look guys, this isnt about Angry Fire Breathing Pirate Dinosaurs.

Welcome to my Globalization blog for ALC215 at Deakin, my name is Nick Thuys and i will be your guide for the next 8 weeks, if you are reading this you are

1. A Fellow ALC215 Student doing your homework, reading my blog (Good job on doing your homework)
2. My Tutor or Unit Chair in which case, hey mate you hair looks good today, is that a new tie? i like it.
3. You are still reading this thinking there will some how still be references to Angry Fire Breathing Pirate Dinosaurs, There wont be.
4. You are in the wrong place, lets face it, this blog will be about as interesting as the Twilight series and also written just as poorly HOWEVER it will have some actual content so it is one step up on Twilight.
   
   But yeah guys enjoy it,
   
   Nick Thuys