‘What effect has globalisation had on media representations?’

The last ten years has seen a dramatic rise in the use of digital media. This has contributed to growing cultural and technological globalisation. Which has had a dramatic impact on society in positive and negative ways. Platforms, like Youtube have created a space for minority groups to have a voice and represent themselves in a way that they couldn’t do before. This essay seeks to explore the ways in which globalisation has impacted on media representations of a variety of different groups.

One area in which media representations have changed quite dramatically is gender. Laura Mulvey wrote a hugely influential work Visual pleasure and narrative cinema (1975) where she argued that Hollywood films were a product of male dominated and controlled industry and the pleasure came in viewing from ‘voyeurism, narcissism and scopophilia.’ Voyeurism, is gaining pleasure from watching other people’s behaviour especially secretly. Mulvey also stated that ‘there is an obvious interest in the analysis for feminism, a beauty in its exact rendering of the frustration experience under phallocentric order. It gets us nearer to the roots our oppression, it brings closer an articulation of the problem, it faces us with the ultimate challenge: how to fight the unconscious structured like a language ( formed critically at the moment of arrival of language) while still caught within the language of the patriarchy?’ (Mulvey, 1975,P.15)

Mulvey also argued that women are always objectified in media representations. One interesting case study to analyse when looking at changing representations at women in the media is the James Bond franchise.

Dr No and Casino Royale are particularly interesting to show how women are portrayed in cinema. Dr No was released in 1962 and directed by Terence Young. The 60’s was a time of social and political change including second wave feminism. Feminists argued that there was emphasis on sexuality and physical appearance on women representations.

During, Dr No the women are highly sexualised as a ‘sexual object’ which is also know as ‘scopophilia’ for men, as the costumes of the women are made to stand out. An, example, of this is when the a women is wearing a red dress which makes her stand out more the ‘male gaze’ and another example is when Bond on a beach he is as a ‘voyeur’ because he is seem staring at a woman secretly without her knowing. Bond, has a very sexualised relationships within women because of his past and not having a ‘mother’ figure in his life because he was orphaned.

Compared to the 2006 Casino Royale; Directed by; Martin Campbell.

Whilst arriving at the hotel while bond is studying the camera’s outside the hotel two women are see as the the ‘Voyeur’ because two tennis girls’ stare at him whilst he pretends to do up his shoe lace. Also, when he checks into the Hotel the receptionist looks him up and down. Even know he still sees women as a ‘scopophilia’ at times because he jumps from women to women. The film doesn’t highly sexualise them compared to DR NO.

Although, in my opinion the Bond films are changing the way they respect women. Because during the latest Bond Film Spectre 2015; Director; Sam Mendes

Bond is shown to have a more of a ‘romantic’ relationship with a character called Dr. Madeleine Swann, as he saves her on more than one occasion and saves her during a big part of the film where the old M16 building was going to be blown up. Also, at the end of the film he left with her in his re-build Aston Martin.

Another area of representations that has changed as a result of globalisation is sexuality. Judith Butler, wrote Gender Trouble (1990) and has a contemporary approach to gender representation. She suggests that gender is not the result of nature, but is socially constructed. Male and female behaviour and roles are constructed and reinforced by society through media and culture. Butler argued that there are, however, a number of exaggerated disruptive ‘tongue in cheek’ representations of masculinity and femininity, which draw attention to the idea that gender is socially constructed. She coined the term ‘gender trouble’. This term refers to any behaviour and representations that disrupts culturally accepted notions of gender.

Queer theory is a critical theory that emerged during the 1990’s. It explores and challenges the way in which heterosexuality is constructed as normal and the way the media has represented women and men. Judith Butler suggests this is a result of nature, but is socially constructed and the men and women's behaviour roles are not the result of biology but are constructed and reinforced by society through media and culture. Butler stated that ‘there is no inquiry , then , into ontology pre se, no access to being without a prior injury into ‘being’ of the phallus, the authorising signification of the Law takes that sexual difference as a presupposition of it own intelligibility’ (Butler, 1990, p. 43/44)

Youtube and social media have created a platform for people and for all sexualities and genders to share their experiences online. ‘Looking for Lewys’ is a grand example of someone who shares a difference experience online compared to other male Youtubers, like Alfie Deyes. Lewys, is a British Youtuber who makes beauty videos, ‘hauls’ and does makeup tutorials. He has 160,000 subscribers on Youtube, 54.9k on Instagram and 23.5k on Twitter. He has became popular on the beauty side, as in January 2017 he became a face of the Rimmel London UK Campaign which is fantastic as Rimmel are adding men into their campaign and not just using women. This has a positive reaction to the change in globalisation as even now it is still uncommon, more and more males are not afraid to show off their real selves, as society is becoming more accepting of the both sexes showing of their real selves through the nature of society.

Class is another area of representation that has changed with globalisation, it has given the internet and the use of digital media to lower classes. Karl Marx, is a 19th century Philosopher, who wrote a book called ‘Das Kapital’ (1867). In which he said that in a ‘Capitalist Society’ there are two fundamental classes; Proletariat/workers who sell labour to survive and the Bourgeoisie who own range of different types of capital. Marx argued that Bourgeoisie dominated and exploits the proletariat pursuit of profit. He suggested that ideology, values and beliefs are persuading the ‘Proletariat’ to accept the power of the Bourgeoisie. Marx’s, ideas have been applied to media in contemporary society and that the view on of life is world constructed and that mainstream media contributes to persuading the proletariat. Another, theorist Antonio Gramsci introduced the concept of ‘hegemony’ which is a process by which power relationship is accepted , consented and seen as natural ‘common sense’.

‘Marxism is a difficult and contentious body of work. But it is also more than this: it is a body revolutionary theory with the purpose of changing the world’ (Marx, 1867 P.47)

Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, is a prime example of a Marxist text because it shows how Will Smith’s character adapts from being a proletariat who lives a lower to working class lifestyle, whom then moves to ‘Bel Air’ and has more of a bourgeoisie lifestyle. It also shows how Will shows a bit more of ‘common’ life to the bourgeoisie lifestyle. How even though his uncle, aunt and cousins have this ‘perfect’ bourgeoisie lifestyle. He doesn’t change one bit, as he keeps to his proletariat lifestyle.

Post Colonialism is another media theory that has changed because of globalisation. The theory of post colonialism suggests that race and the legacy of colonialism has a high influence on the media and media representations and it also looks at race within the media. Edward said wrote a book called Orientalism (1978) in which he said; ‘Contents that Orient , as much as the occident is not an inert fact of nature it is, rather an idea that has a history and a tradition of thought, imagery and vocabulary that has given it reality and presence from the west’ (Said, (1978), P. 4 / 5 )

In 2002, Gurinder Chadha directed Bend it like Beckham. Bend it like Beckham is a great film to analyse in terms of Post colonialism, as it shows a breakthrough; an Asian family in a non stereotypical way. It shows an Asian Girl called; Jessica or ‘Jess’ who dearly loves football and looks up to David Beckham, and doesn’t want to fall into the stereotypical life of an asian family, having arranged marriages and being the stay at home wife. The film touches upon sexuailty during the film, as her best friend Tony is a gay, but is from a culture which is against the belief.

Postmodernism has developed along with globalisation. Postmodernism is a theory that works on a a structural and political level. Within the media structed world, we can hop between channels; click on different internet pages all whilst listening to music on our iphones or any other music listening device. There are a lot of products being produced which are merging and blending across different boundaries. There are two main theorists when it comes to postmodernism; Jean Baudrillard and Jean-Francois Lyotard. Baudrillard, is one of the most influential theorists when it comes to postmodernism because of his understanding of the relationship between the media and and the contemporary post-modern world. He also argued that we live in a hyper- reality world; which means that distinction between the real world and the ‘media’ world is vanishing; ‘Hyperrealism, he claims is the characteristic made of postmodernity’ ( Storey, 2004 p.133)’

Fleabag and House of cards are both great examples of PostModernism at they both break the ‘fourth wall’ as both ‘fleabag’ and protagonist Frank Underwood both talk directly to the camera and ‘address’ the audience. Underwood is a Postmodern man, as he is detached from and is very critical towards the traditional concept of morality. Also, fleabag; which follows the story of the women whom is very sexualised. This shows psychoanalytic themes towards the character, as the show goes on you find out how her ‘best friend’ died, this was due to ‘fleabag’ sleeping with her best friend’s boyfriend. Which caused her best friend to take her own life. This is a form of the oedipal triangle, as there is a love rival between fleabag, her best friend and her best friends boyfriend.

In Conclusion, it is clear to see that the rise of globalisation has had an impact on media representations, as demonstrated. A wide range minority groups in terms of sexuailty and ethnicity are being given a voice for the first time. As globalisation increasing rapidly will it always be a tool for good or is there potential to do society damage?