Globalization, sustainablity and the media

Notes taken in lecture
I only caught the second half of this lecture but from my notes have tried to make a clearer understanding of it.

Do certain countries dominate culture?

Globalization is something which is on the increase and is resulting in the world turning to America to take on its western cultures this is leading to the assumption that the caucasian culture is something to aspire to.

Most news, cultural, factual, and entertainment corporations are now owned by time warner which have created and is now providing us with a commercial culture with the same messages on different subjects to suit their cultural needs. This in effect is taking more and more power and money away from smaller corporations in eastern countries that then can't develop their own cultures, and is making us more dependable on America.

Examples of globalization

• The speading of culture lifestyle, and attitudes to life which leaves to one world with an all american dream.


• There has been things like skin lightening creams which have encourage the eastern world into believing white, is the way to a better life.


• this has lead to one culture and a western dominated world.

In doing this there has been no consideration to the potential affects on the planet which has now lead to global warming.

Global warming was made an example of in the lecture

we talked about:

Green washing- a tactic move inorder to encourage the public to continue to buy into things which are said to be 'environmentall friendly' this takes away the guilt but inevitably is still damage us and the planet.

The media is telling us that Global warming is on the rise and is encouraging us to do something about it. We are being manipulated into believing we are the result of this global mess and that we are responsible for cleaning it up. they have created even more things which they green wash and encourage us to buy but if we look closely at where they have come from the result was the same in that something had to be distroyed to make it.

If we look at current estimates on which countries pump out the most emissions it is clear that there is a serious case of pollition going on in America which adds up to the most then China, and then filters down further. A large percentage of these emissions are being pumped out by big factories which are making billions of pound every year, but yet we are the ones who have to pay for it. This is a mere example of how the media influenced by these corporations, can manipulate society into believing we should all conform to behaving in a certain way depending on the business and financial status of the western world and the result is always so that the big bosses at the top can make maximum amounts of money for themselves.

Channel 4 did a documentary called 'Great global warming swindle', which investigated the topic, and they faced a controversy as it was found that they used selective information to prove the government was lying about how serious this subject was.

According to ofcom as long as a topic is debateable it is ok for there to be controversy and selective information released except in the news, but as soon as it has been proven then there is no excuse for using selective facts to create a story. So it makes me think through magazines, the newspaper are we being told some untruths?

Channel 4 was questioning whether human activity played a large part in the effects of global warming, and according to scientist this has been proven. This makes it sound as thought we are at fault, but compared to what the government owned factories are creating id consider human pollution to be a less of a problem. Or maybe thats the human activity they are refering to after all we require the factories dont we to make all our 'commodities'.

Bibliography

Ofcom, Office of communication. http://lightbucket.wordpress.com/2008/07/25/great-global-warming-swindle-ofcoms-rulings/-26/02/2010

Lecture notes.