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The
Transforming Globe
There
is a popular and longstanding myth in New Zealand by New Zealanders that
because of their geographical and isolated position on the map, New Zealanders'
enthusiasm for the latest media technology is unparalleled in the Western
world. The movies, radio, and, now, the internet connect the small country
to the outermost earthly limits (and purportedly beyond). But this is
surely not a burning desire simply for New Zealanders.
The age(s)
of mechanically and mass produced information has historically fascinated
many for centuries. One might argue that indeed since the introduction
of the movies to a world-wide audience in 1895 the diversity of traditional
cultural differences were radically transformed. The simultaneous
sharing and embracing of mechanically reproduced images and (ultimately)
sound set in motion what some have signaled as the moment for celebrating
the joining together of global cultures-something Marshall McLuhan
and Hillary Rodham Clinton have referred to in different registers
as the "global village." At the other end of this globalized
spectrum, however, are those that see the linking of cultures as the
loss of cultural difference in the service of free-market enterprises.
What emerges instead is a global culture of functional efficiency
that successfully manages and homogenizes capitalist markets. As Andy
Warhol so perversely reminds us - and not without pleasure - a coke
is a coke is a coke.
Is this
all there is? Are the effects (or certainly affects) of globalization
so easily fixed between celebration and homogenization? Is it possible
in this managerial model of culture to identify different ideological
stakes through the filter of nation? gender? race? sexuality? class?
What are the risks when plotting large theoretical generalizations
of "global economics" onto cultural arenas where the technologies
of the West are not even part of the social fabric? To the extent
that the critical discourse of globalization (whether one celebrates
or denigrates it) is a privileged one in Western society, what mediated
experiences might be eked from such conditions that enable an exploration
that, on the one hand, does not glorify the strategies of capitalism
and, on the other, does not reduce cultural practices to abject obsequiousness?
This collection of essays seeks to indulge itself an endeavor to address
these concerns.
To begin, it is useful to put these writings in context. The eight student
essays that follow derive from a third year upper division seminar,
Film and Media Theory. The course was taught in the first semester 2000
in the Film and Media Studies Programme of the Department of Communications
Studies. The course was designed as a "pilot course" in that
it operated as both an "on-line" and "on-site" class.
That is, with the support of a University of Otago curriculum development
grant, the Film and Media course took its shape in both the electronic
and traditional lecture forms. As a new initiative, the course was met
with some hesitation by both student and faculty. What became quickly
apparent, at least to my students and myself, was that form followed
content. In other words, our intense use of the electronic teaching
medium not only challenged and advanced (a troubled term to be sure)
pedagogical formats. Rather, the electronic tool became prima facie
for engaging the theoretical questions about media and the learning
experience. The ideas exchanged and debated here yielded some tremendous
re-thinking of our intellectual and corporeal relationship to the mediated
world. Those ideas returned some very fruitful and provocative points
of departure for the works included here. The questions and contexts
of the Film and Media Theory course are sketched below to give the reader
a point of theoretical reference.
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