Global Media, Culture, and Identity, Reaction Paper Example

In the introduction to Global Media, Culture, and Identity: Theory, Cases, and Approaches, editor Rohit Chopra declares that there is indeed a relationship between media, culture, and identity. However, there appears to be some problems associated with defining the term “culture.” Anthropologists have provided numerous definitions over the years, such as the “highest form of aesthetic expression of a people” and the “basis for a shared humanity” (2010, p. 3). In simple terms, culture is the way in which a group of human beings (or perhaps a nation or country) wishes to live and how they express their inner feelings, wants, and desires. In my opinion, culture is very closely related to art, due to the fact that cultures can quickly be identified via their art, such as the ancient Greeks, Romans, and the cultures that existed during the Renaissance.

This brings us to the question “What is media?” Chopra calls the media the “instrument of cultural domination” (2010, p. 4) or an entity that controls what people in a given culture see, hear, and read, such as a corporate media giant like CNN, a publisher like Random House, or a textbook publisher like Prentice-Hall. In many ways, these entities create cultural identity or how a person identifies with the culture in which he/she lives and works on a daily basis. In essence, these are not new ideas but they are relevant to today’s excessive obsession with technology and anything that attracts a global audience.

In Chapter 4 “The Global Nomad,” author Michael Jensen introduces the term “deterritorialization” which refers to the idea that “social, economic, and political spaces are no longer necessarily geographic” (Chopra & Gajjala, 2010, p. 52), meaning that geography is playing less and less importance in today’s world via advances in technology and the Internet. In fact, Jensen goes so far as to suggest that cultural spaces are beginning to have “no tangible connection to geographical places,” such as the Internet and what is referred to as the computing cloud that only exists in cyberspace. Jensen also mentions the concept of space/time which in relation to cyberspace is a universe all its own and one that exists outside (or perhaps inside) the physical universe about us. This is also not a new idea, for it is related to some of Einstein’s mathematical equations concerning the space-time continuum. However, something that is new (at least to me) is the idea put across by Paul Virilio that “spatial boundaries” or real spaces in physical reality have been transformed from a “stone facade” (i.e., the face of a real building) to “screen” or a computer screen/monitor, and then to an electronic interface or the World Wide Web inside of the cyberspace cloud (Chopra & Gajjala, 2010, p. 60). This brings us back to Chopra’s introduction via the idea that the new cultural media is the Internet and cyberspace. This raises an important question–what does the future hold in relation to cyberspace?

In Chapter 6 “Reading the i-Pill Advertisement,” author Nayantara Sheoran delves into the idea that advertising, one of the oldest methods for selling a product or service, is the new cultural identity entity via the advertising for the “i-Pill,” an emergency birth control pill that is readily available in the nation of India. Sheoran suggests that the identities of women in India are manipulated through advertising on television which places them in a particular class or class boundary (Chopra & Gajjala, 2010, p. 97). However, Sheoran doers not explore how this type of advertising for birth control could be vastly increased through the Internet and cyberspace. In my opinion, printed material, i.e., physical material that you can hold in your hand, is on its way out and will someday be replaced permanently by the Internet and cyberspace.

Lastly, these three readings could serve as excellent starting points for final papers. For example, Jensen’s idea of “deterritorialization” would make for an excellent discussion on how physical geography is playing less of a role every single day in our lives because of technology. Also, an excellent topic for a final paper would be on the future of the Internet and cyberspace and how it will affect and change our lives forever.

References

Chopra, R., and Gajjala, R., eds. (2010). Global Media, Culture, and Identity: Theory, Cases, and Approaches. London: Routledge.