Core Post, Week 14

Curtin’s piece highlights the particular ways in which globalization does not necessarily mean an “imperialist media” at work but rather a complex dynamic that occurs via sociological, political and economic affordances. I found this piece thorough in understanding the logistics behind media produced within a global system. Curtin cites three principles of “media capital” that aid in the structuring of cinema and broadcasting: a logic of accumulation, trajectories of creative migration and forces of sociocultural variation. While otherwise understood superficially, these principles lay out the incremental ways capital plays into global media.

What I find interesting is the output that we receive in understanding a ‘global’ platform. In particular, the ways in which international news and television shows are broadcast stateside. With the proliferation of cable during the late twentieth century, international news is readily available, as opposed to public broadcasting that allocated specific hours for ‘global’ news programs. Subsequently, the role digital platforms have assumed garner the potential for consumption. Presently, satellite or subscription services like Murdoch’s Star counter with platforms like YouTube.

I find Curtin’s initial discussion of an “imperialist media” useful in further arguing his conclusion in favor of culturally apt media that can “foster identity, enhance social cohesion, serve local businesses, enhance property values, and provide spaces for public discourse.” Introducing particular television shows within a culture works both ideologically and politically. We can see an active example of this during the Vietnam War when American television programs, previously unavailable, were introduced to incite cultural values. In the same way this polarizing argument frames imperialist media as a benefit Hollywood film might come to inspire on a region, media was precisely used as a political tool for the indigenous population. In this lens, the implementation of media capital is a direct tool in promotion of imperialist ideology.