Hollywood and the Rise of Cultural Protectionism - Coursework Example

The Running Head: Hollywood and the Rise of Cultural Protectionism     Your name:   Course name:             Professors’ name: Date: Question 1 Introduction Protection of local culture or identity has becoming an increasing concern for many government around the world, in this era of globalization and new forms of communication are enabling worldwide spreading of products and ideas (Dovey 2009). Importation of cultural goods from other nations attached with negative values and traditions could potentially cause deterioration of a country culture or local communities. Indeed, these negative cultures from different places may displace existing culture in a country and result in cultural homogenization. Another threat is that posed to cultural industries of a country, where competitive foreign films for other countries may be able to dominate, and this will result in reduction in cultural diversity. However, the local culture of a country should be preserved, but the term “culture” has many definitions and interpretations by different groups and institutions, in different countries. The argument follows that protectionist measures in a country are justified to protect the culture of a country; as a result, there is fears that media industries attached with negative values such as Hollywood, are able to dominate and change the cultural industries of a smaller country. Nowadays, many countries attempts to control culture influences on its society, a good example of such country is France which has a quota systems for cultural imports into that country; would only permit only so many Hollywood movies in a year. This does not mean the demand for Hollywood movies can be regulated in France; with the advent of internet, people in countries which have quotas systems on Hollywood films are able to access Hollywood culture or films by downloading it through the internet (Dovey 2009), but to stop the leakage for this movies, countries are cracking down on file sharing websites, which Hollywood likes. When an individual sees a stunt in a Hollywood movie, does he/she feel like doing the same? Are the teenagers feeling like being as fashionable as his/her favorite actor/actress, to the point of wanting to be them? Many girls in the world including those in the US have attempted to walk like some famous Hollywood stars; many guys in the world including those from US have also wanted to wear what some Hollywood actors have worn. Hollywood movies have a great impact and influences on the way in which masses think and act. It has a way of influencing the behavior of a society both in a positive or negative manner. The positive influence of Hollywood movies is surely celebrated by one and all, but there is need by countries around the world to prevent the media or Hollywood movies from having a negative influence on society (Dovey 2009). Negative Influences of Hollywood movies on children When a child imitates his/her role model of the Hollywood industry, are they thoughtful enough to differentiate between right and wrong? It has been noted that child do imitate their idols blindly (Kim 1999), this is because the negative things Hollywood stars do are always talked about in the media, not forgetting the controversies in the lives of these Hollywood idols are often given the first page by the media, and this usually lead to blind imitation of what appears in the news or movies in which idols are being highlighted. Hollywood movies often hypes the scintillating about their celebrities, the negative of the communities or societies in these movies are often highlighted with an intent to awake the views about the society of modern days, but in reality the hyper that are portrayed in these movies actually are having negative effect on the different societies in the world. Views of these movies are only seeing only the negatives around them, but not positive things that are being associated by them; controversies are constantly being bombarded on them and this thanks to the media (Kim 1999). An average person on the street will wake up and check the Tv news and rely on the media to get the current news and facts, most of people have put their trust on media as an authority to give us news. However, the influence of mass media or Hollywood movies on our kids is so big we should know how it really works (Bradley 2003). Through television channels broadcasting Hollywood movies, we constantly expose children to thousands of images of violence, sex, celebrities and much more negative implications. Research was conducted by Magnetic Resonance Images (MRI’s) on 8 children brains as they watch blockbuster movies, children brains will process violence in the same area of their brain as they process violence has it happens in real life. When a child sees on television violence scenes, they become desensitized to those horrible acts. When a child see someone is being dismembered on a Hollywood movie, most of the times these scene on Hollywood movies will encourage children as low as 9 years of age to try and re-enact the scene they see on the movies; such as, such as pretending to shoot each other and make it a playing game. With the growing rates of violence on our screens, many researchers have shown even the harmless cartoons such as “Sylvester trying to kill Tweety bird”, will make children to believe killing is an acceptable behavior and is acceptable in the society, and they are likely to commit violent and aggressive acts later in their life. Until there is culture protectionism for Hollywood movies, the amount of sex and violence children are being exposed to has continued to rise. For example, in the United States, programs or movies being aired on broadcast networks, and which are associated will violence has increase by 14 per cent since 1994. Suicide among the teens in US has been on the rise in the past 10 years. Another form of violence that our children come into contact with is music. Although music is not the only cause of violence in the US, it is the single most easily remediable contributing factor. When children listen to these music’s, they will start to grow up and are shaping their personality values and belief based on the music. In the past years we have seen cases of children carrying to school guns and even hurting their fellow classmates; these children have been exposed to excessive use of violent music, video games and war images on the television or radio. Negative Influences of Hollywood on women There is a big difference on how Hollywood movies portray both women and men, especially in the advertisement (Bradley 2003). Dr. Catherine has done research on how women are portrayed in the Hollywood movies, most of women in Hollywood movies tend to be sexualized; when you look at advertisement in the newspaper or televisions you will only see their full body, “while men in advertisement their bodies are covered, only attractive women are the one tolerable in the Hollywood industries, but for men is different; they are portrayed as slim and sexy and in search for a man in their life. There is double standard being applied by the media in US in the sense that women who show some skin in magazine are the one selling, but you will see the men being fully dressed and without showing ay skin (Bradley 2003). “This has become a trend in the public perceptions that reduces females to their sexuality. In South Africa the media in that country objectify women and in somehow diminishing their dignity, the use of women bodies as ‘hooks’ to attract customers, in south Africa its allowed and is the norm of the day in various media houses that operate in that country. A study was carried out in South Africa by LaTour & Henthorne, and their findings was that sexual aspect in women in print advertisement in that country is often not received well by the men in that country. They believe such ads may produce negative side effects that include sexual obsession and gratuitous sex. Despite all this sexualized images of women in print media in South Africa remain popular in the advertising industry in that country. Negative Influences of Hollywood on societies in the world Hollywood movies has been made accessible to people in every aspect of the society, these movies have been allowed to shape popular culture and often been allowed to influence different cultures around the world (Jung 2008). These movies have been abused and it has able to harm the values and norms of many societies, this is because majority of viewers for these movies tend to strive to be someone else’s idea of perfect while they are subconsciously ignoring their own values that have been inscribed in their respective societies. The majority of Hollywood movies today often present the perfect body to the society and through these movies products are being advertised; hoping that views will strive to achieve fitness using a certain product being advertised. While this form of advertisement may achieve it intended purpose, many people in different societies are suffering from inner conflicts this is due to failure to achieve the body of a top athlete, actress or fashion model involved in the Hollywood movie (Jung 2008). Along with emotional conflicts that is being experience in different societies in the world, those people who have been influenced by Hollywood movies have experience a number of problems such as: bulimia, anorexia, and the employment of harmful dietary plans (Tumlir 1985). Unless culture protectionism is put in place in different societies, some people in these societies will continue to suffer. The false impression that are being portrayed by Hollywood movies; views are the ones suffering the most from different societies portrayal of the perfect body. The truth of the matter is that these advertisement people see on the television or any other medium will hardly ever happen on them. In different societies in the world today (Rampa 2001), for example, an ugly person will wear sensual cologne or slow runners wear Michael Jordan track shoes. Mentally, people doing these will feel an improvement in their lives but in reality nothing has changed, and when they realize this, it often leads to the demise of many individuals self esteem in the societies. In one way or another, the mental and physical damage done to the different societies will depend on the case of different people. Some people will resort to extreme diets, others will resort to more unnecessary spending, or a decline in social activities, but other people will understand that appearance or personality is the problem- not her perfume (Rampa 2001). An example of such condition is anorexia; occur from trying to lose weight too fast, it a food disorder that is caused by mental insecurities. Often, most girls or women will try to lose exorbitant amount of their body weight through eating very little and vomiting the little amount of food they have consumed, there was one extreme case in which a young girl lost incredible 30 pounds within a month. Also, some teenage girls are abusing steroid in comparable to diet pills and laxatives, teenage girls are abusing these drugs because of inaccurate advertising by their idols as well as the young girls desires to look and perform just like their idols shown in various forms of Hollywood movies (Rampa 2001). According to John Battersby, IMC country manager (UK) said, foreign media’s reporting on African continent or countries does not reflect correctly the truth about the African continent achievements, he went further by saying, African people are made to believe by the US and UK media that the sky is the limit in those countries, although other countries such as China, India, Brazil and South Africa in the past years have been playing a bigger role in shaping the world economy. According to Peter Mann, who is the CEO of Meropa Communications, and agrees with John Battersby, said, you cannot expect sunshine journalism from US and UK; it time for African journalists to start telling their own stories and stop complaining. The western journalists should ensure they report on African continent in a fair, balanced, and accurate, and they should focus on African countries national building perspectives, but they should not base their stories on Afro-pessimism. It is painful African countries are being judged by their superficial social values. The western media should understand African stories and the challenges the unique challenges countries in Africa faces, to be able to give a fair and objective reporting (Graham 1985). Question 2 Worldwide Protectionism Culture protectionism in the globally has increased, many countries have seen the need to protect their film industries. Take example of France, the government through culture protectionism has helped its film industry as per 2001 has recaptured market leadership at home and they have found successes in other part of the world. This is not because French film industry is more subsidized than formerly, but due to culture protectionism of French film industry by the government has led to productions of handful of films whose quality has been appreciated by their public. A Hollywood movie in different countries is considered to be a form of culture imperialist, in other words Hollywood industry has dominate other film industries in different countries through its movies exports. Culture protectionist around the world contend that cultural imperialism such as Hollywood industry prevents the development of native cultures and it also a contributing factor to negative impact on teenagers. Nowadays, it has become a trend for governments around the world uses culture protectionism for their film industries and this is for the specific purpose of protecting their domestic film industry (Manovic 2006), also this is being permitted under existing international trade regulations that are in place; number of film regulating bodies such as: French Film body; who deem it necessary to resort to quantitative restrictions in those sectors. Culture protectionism is also important to protect the culture of a country, according to professor Yin Hong, director of Tsinghua University’s film and television research center in China, said, Chinese can learn from foreign audience such as Hollywood movies and appreciate them, but the culture essence of Chinese people should be protected, then went on by saying, “the country cannot allow Chinese culture to be wipe out and let foreign culture to rule the Chinese filmmaking industry”. In any country movies creations should always be positive and promoting the bright sides of that particular country to the world. For example, popular American movie, Lost in Translation shoot in Japan, which has belittle Japanese people and gave audiences in cinema screen a false image about Japan and its people. Movie making it supposed to belong to art but many directors are politicizing it, this is according to Professor Yin Hong. What is portrayed in many Chinese moves is not the real thing on the ground, many foreigners get surprised and said, “how come your country is like ours and your people are friendlier than ours”. There is the need for local content to encourage local youth to involve themselves in acting, furthermore film industry is a way of employment creation for a particular country (Graham 1985). Other culture Industries needs protection Apart from cultural protectionism in movie industries, there are some areas in which government can protect its local creativity. Such areas are as follows: Counterfeit products; these are imitations products, in 2010 alone (Fourie 2009), it was estimated the counterfeit products in the United States to stand at 200 billion dollars, and this illegal market was continues to grow. The growth of counterfeit products in the country has an economic impact on the marketplace and on the manufacturers of legitimate goods in the United States. Counterfeit products will lower the value of the original product and it has negative impact on sales of the product. Those higher end merchandise shops which depend exclusively to market their well know brand, but they have lost their core businesses because of the effect of knock off products with its origin from China; U. S consumers will switch to lesser known brands that is imitation of an original one. Businessmen have lost their investments, when they have invested in reputable companies which cannot maximize their profits potential because they are unable to sell their products for what it is worth; because it is difficult to compete with counterfeits products which does not have initial cost of bringing a product from raw material to market, counterfeit usually devalue the work and creativity of the innovator of the product being imitated (Hahn 2006). Lastly, Piracy; according to United States Commerce Department has estimated the companies in U.S are losing over one billion dollars each year due to piracy. It has been observed United States digital media which ranges from movies to software to music, these products from U.S is readily pirated in China due to availability of cheap duplication cost relative to their retail street prices. Also in China the level of software piracy is higher. Statistics taken in 2004 noted that China was the sixth largest market for computers, yet only 26 largest for software sales. It estimated companies which deals with software had a loss of 1.47 billion dollars in China, and this was as a result of piracy. If personal entertainments software that has it origin in the United States were added to this calculation, this number would go higher. Conclusion The question to implement culture protectionism from the homogenizing effects of globalization are often tangled with other, some of these motive are questionable because may be for economic benefits or political suppression of the ideas in a country. The question of culture protectionism will encompass human endeavor, but at same time it may be hard to draw the lines around what may be termed as legitimate culture activities in a country, which is worth of special protective measures by the respective governments. Consequently, many culture protectionist are increasingly seeing the need to develop a systematic way to address the issue of culture protectionism. In coming years, most government in the world protecting their traditional cultures are likely to increase, while, the protectionist will try to harness new worldwide forces to cope with the impact of cultural effects. Bibliographies Dovey, J. 2009. New media: a critical introduction. London: Taylor & Francis. Fourie, P. 2010. Media Studies: Policy, Management and Media Representation, Volume 2. London: Juta and Company Ltd. Graham,W. 1985. Protectionism: the -ism which teaches that waste makes wealth. Michigan: H. Holt and company Hahn, M. 2006. A Clash of Culture? The UNESCO Diversity Convention and International Trade Law. Journal of International Economic Law. 9(3): 515-552. Manovic, L. 2007. The language of new media. New York: MIT Press. Kim, H. 1999. The Empirical Study on the Window Effect in Cultural Industry. Cultural Policy Review 11: 19-38. Jung, C & Lee, H. 2008. A Comparative Study of Screen Quota, Grants, and Minor Quota: Analysis of Policy Tool Perspective. Social Science Review 39(1):53-75. Tumlir, J. 1985. Protectionism: trade policy in democratic societies, Volume 28, Issue 6. New York: American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, Read More