A general description of a research program Global Media Cultures A Research Programme on the Role of Media in Cultural Globalization STIG HJARVARD The objective of the research programme is to un- advance a comprehensive understanding and cri- dertake an extensive and focused analysis of the tique of globalization both as a concept and a socio- ways in which media cultures take part in processes cultural phenomenon. of globalization, including how they challenge ex- The media have an important impact on cultural isting cultures and create new and alternative sym- globalization in two mutually interdependent ways: bolic and cultural communities. The research pro- Firstly, the media provide an extensive transnational gramme will address these questions through a transmission of cultural products and, secondly, theoretical discussion and reexamination of existing they contribute to the formation of communicative international research and through a series of indi- networks and social structures. The rapidly growing vidual empirical studies. The programme is cross- supply of media products from an international me- disciplinary in nature, and involves a series of me- dia culture presents a challenge to existing local and dia. Thus, theories and methodologies draw upon national cultures. The sheer volume of the supply, both humanistic and social science disciplines and a as well as the vast technological infrastructure and multiplicity of media cultures is examined: televi- financial capital that pushes this supply forward, sion, Internet, advertising, news, sports etc. have a considerable impact on local patterns of cul- The point of departure is the crucial role played tural consumption and possibilities for sustaining an by media in particular electronic and audiovisual independent cultural production. Global media cul- media, in the cultural, political, economic and social tures create a continuous cultural exchange, in processes that together constitute the process of which crucial aspects such as identity, nationality, globalization. By globalization is meant a develop- religion, behavioural norms and way of life are con- ment through which the constraints of geography on tinuously questioned and challenged. These cultural social and cultural structures are reduced, an in- encounters often involve the meeting of cultures creased social and cultural interconnectivity across with a different socio-economic base, typically a time and space is created, and a heightened con- transnational and commercial cultural industry on sciousness is developed about this secession of so- one side and a national, publicly regulated cultural cial and cultural interaction from geographical con- industry on the other side. straints. Globalization, however, is neither an unam- Due to their very structure, global media pro- biguous concept, nor does it refer to a single and mote a restructuring of cultural and social commun- specific socio-cultural phenomenon. Similarly, ities. Just as media such as the press, and later radio globalization is not a historically new phenomenon and tv have been very important institutions for the that is only confined to the 20th century. Conse- formation of national communities, global media quently, one aim of the research programme is to support the creation of new communities. The Internet, for example, not only facilitates commun- ication across the globe, but also supports the Department of Film & Media Studies, University of formation of new social communities in which Copenhagen, Njalsgade 80, DK-2300 Copenhagen S, members can interact with each other. And satellite [email protected] tv and radio allow immigrants to be in close contact 71 with their homeland’s language and culture while enisation and differentiation, and this duality will be they gradually accommodate to a new cultural envi- a central feature in the analysis of cultural globaliza- ronment. The common point of departure for the re- tion. search programme and its individual projects is the 2) Socialisation and the formation of cultural assumption that a series of international media con- identity. The media have increasingly become an in- stitutes a global cultural supply in itself and serves dependent institution for socialisation and the de- as an independent agency for cultural and social velopment of cultural identity. With a rapidly expan- globalization, in which cultural communities are ding international communication flow bringing continuously restructured and redefined. media representations of foreign cultures into local cultural environments, the premises of cultural metabolism have changed and cultural reflexivity Thematic Areas has increased at the level of the individual. On the The research programme is organized around a set one hand, global media cultures represent a cultural of thematic areas of particular relevance to the pro- otherness, at times a threat to cultural tradition and cesses of cultural globalization. These thematic ar- autonomy. On the other hand, global media cultures eas will each be taken up in one or more of the often contribute to a development of local cultures, subprojects and concern: 1) the experience of mo- bringing them into contact and on a par with the so- dernity, in particular time/space categories, 2) cial reality of a globalized modernity. The research socialisation and the formation of cultural identity, programme will pay particular attention to the ways 3) mediated communities and action, and 4) demo- in which the media contribute to the differentiation cracy and political culture. These thematic areas in- of this continuous exchange between local and glo- volve cultural globalization at both: a) the general bal culture and to its consequences for socialisation cultural and societal level; b) the institutional level, and the formation of cultural identity. c) the social group level, and d) the individual level. 3) Mediated communities and action. The media 1) The experience of modernity in a global cul- and the communication technologies in general ture. A key element in the analysis of the experience have facilitated the formation of collective com- of modernity as both a general form of mentality munities. They have also made possible commun- and a mode of aesthetic production, is the loosening icative and social action across time and space. of time and space from the bonds of locality and Concomitant to globalization we also see the forma- tradition. In the globalized reality of high moder- tion of communities that are almost exclusively nity, the disassociation of cultural and social activity established by means of media cultures (for instance from local constraints has radical consequences: al- music fan clubs, Internet chat groups etc.). This in- most all of those institutions that during the 19th and creased ”medialization” of cultural communities has 20th century have ensured a modern structuring of an impact on how interaction takes place in such cultural and social experience, typically at a local or communities; in particular, interactions take on a national level, have either been significantly influ- more abstract and symbolic character as compared enced by globalization or have been challenged by to those taking place in social situations with non- other transnational institutions. The family, the na- mediated interpersonal encounters. The notion of tional educational system, the arts, the political sys- social action changes character as well. Through the tem, the mode of industrial production etc. have all media and the communication technologies, social been influenced by the transnational networks and action increasingly takes place on a global scale; po- institutions that have emerged in the wake of glob- litical action is carried out through the international alization. news media, and economic action is taken through At the same time, the very processes of globali- various interactive exchange services, for instance zation have made it apparant that in spite of the ex- Reuter’s financial services and similar organiza- istence of globalized cultures, including a global tions. Mediated action also takes place in the cul- media market, the experience of modernity is not a tural field, but the concept of mediated cultural ac- unified phenomenon. The experience of modernity tions and communities must be investigated further. among the well-educated and economic elite living The research programme will examine the mediated in industrialised regions of the world is literally character of cultural communities, and in particular worlds apart from the ways modernisation processes scrutinise and develop the concept of social action are experienced by immigrants in the same regions when applied to mediated social encounters. of the world or by people living in the third world. 4) Democracy and political culture. An import- The media play a significant role for both homog- ant consequence of globalization is the growth of 72 multicultural societies, in which people of different and the humanities will be examined. Secondly, to cultural backgrounds (ethnic, religious etc.) must present an elaborated theoretical account of the role coexist. Although the individual cultural groups of media in cultural globalization. Thirdly, to under- may maintain their own language, culture, and tradi- take two empirical case studies regarding trans- tion, the different groups in a multicultural society national news coverage and advertising in order to are obliged to deal with their mutual,