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