9.

Diaspora.

When I first saw this word, all that was happening in my head was massive question marks floating around everywhere. But then I did my research and realised that my family’s history relates greatly to the meaning of this word.

Diaspora: used to “describe practically any population which is considered ‘deterritorialised’ or ‘transnational’ -- that is, which has originated in a land other than which it currently resides, and whose social, economic and political networks cross the borders of nation-states or, indeed, span the globe.” Steven Vertovec

My grandparents were forced to migrate to Australia back in 60’s from Italy because conditions were so poor that they couldn’t raise their family. My Grandfather was forced to leave his family for a good year to move to Australia, to earn a sufficient amount of money in order to move the rest of his family here.

They fortunately located to an area in Australia where a minority of Italians formed however they struggled to ease into the Australian culture and mingle with fellow Australians because the Australian’s weren’t accepting of their foreign culture and race.

It brings into question, if being evenly dispersed into a new culture, are they better off as they will find it easier to fit in, as they aren’t holding onto their homeland ties?

After reading Colin Palmer’s article ‘Defining and Studying the Modern African Diaspora’, I was able to understand that nowadays as most cultures have a variety of cultures in it, that we are more welcoming to foreigners, especially in Australia as a large proportion of our citizens are immigrants or have family members who have migrated to Australia.

References:

http://www.historians.org/perspectives/issues/1998/9809/9809VIE2.CFM

http://www.transcomm.ox.ac.uk/working%20papers/diaspora.pdf

8.

I'm your biggest fan, I'll follow you until you love me,

Papa-paparazzi

“The paparazzi are some of the lowest forms of life on planet earth.” (Vice, May 2012). That’s a statement right there. However as they stalk the celebrities as their chosen career, it pays for their living and supports their family, they provide us, as viewers and readers, a “given... outlet for our imagination,” Jill Neimark. Celebrity culture has a huge impact on our everyday lifestyle. What they snap, what is presented on these personalities and what we view or read then creates our thoughts and opinions and then sometimes the way we act and interact with people. I, personally, can relate myself a lot to a few celebrities, not going to mention names, to save myself some dignity, but after reading Jill Neimarks article, I discovered that a lot of my chosen words and sometimes presentation have been drawn from what I see from a paparazzo’s picture or video and the following published article. According to Deborah King, “celebrities are our new gods,” and it is clearly evident and proven within society because they impact us on what we purchase, as they are in advertisements throughout majority of stores we shop in, our social interactions are influenced greatly by their shows we see on television and our behavior is encouraged by what the media and paparazzi publish in the many means they have available to us. Whether it is a positive or negative flow in society, the media using paparazzi’s work to present celebrity behavior will always play a powerful part within our societies to shape our imagination and behaviors.

http://www.paparazzi-reform.org

http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/199505/the-culture-celebrity

http://www.deborahkingcenter.com/resources/celebrities/

7.

THE Australia Culture

How can we describe THE Australia culture? Notice how I put ‘THE’ in capitals… In my personal opinion there is no set Australian culture simply because we are made up of multiple cultures. My family origins are from Italy, and we have based our lifestyle on traditions back in Italy and somewhat of their culture. However, there are some unique features to our culture that does stand out from the rest of the world such as our figure of speech, our love for sport and the famous term ‘the aussie bogan’. We are a country or culture that is “embracing of the concept of multiculturalism.” Our country has been globalized simply by us welcoming immigrants into our culture. The question is, has our culture benefitted from allowing foreigners to live amongst us or has it doomed us? From what you see on TV, in particular news reports, our culture has suffered socially with the introduction to foreigners simply because our nightlife is threatened by gangs that come from other countries, in particular Asia and Europe, that start fights between one and other, rape women, murder people and bash other civilians with out a valid reason. A country can’t be perfect though. Our culture has benefitted too from combining all cultures together with immigrants and “aspects of their home culture, including food, music and customs, which have enriched Australian society.” Now, we stand out from the rest of the world, we are a culture mixed from other cultures but include our own traditions to form a place we are proud to call home.

References:

http://www.skwirk.com/p-c_s-57_u-507_t-1374_c-5292/globalisation-in-australia/qld/sose-geography/the-global-citizen-ecology-and-economy/globalisation

http://www.aussieeducator.org.au/tertiary/subjects/history/australian/culture.html

http://www.adelaide.edu.au/apsa/docs_papers/Others/Conley.pdf

6.

5. The Olympics, forming us as one

The purpose of the Olympics are said “to… link sport with culture and education; promote the practice of sport and the joy found in effort, help to build a better world through sport practiced in a spirit of peace, excellence, friendship and respect. The Olympics is an excellent example where globalisation is clearly evident, where we see our verse countries forming as one big nation, supporting, encouraging and backing one and other to strive to the best of their abilities. In history, “Greek men were allowed to participate in the Olympics.” But as the years have carried on, more countries had been introduced, women have been given the right to participate and slowly our globe has been forming as one. Although it is a competition to see who comes out on top, it is also a time of celebration where we respect our differences, form friendships with one and other and unite as one to back the best athletes from our countries. It too, is rewarding for all media companies, as they’d be making massive profit from us, the supporters, whether it is by travelling to London, purchasing their sponsors food products to just sitting in front of the TV and watching it. Large profit will be coming their way. This, all the above, has created a cultural flow to the fact that we all have been united as one for the love of our sport that is played by many athletes all over the globe.

References:

http://www.olympic.org/Documents/Reports/EN/en_report_668.pdf

http://www.athensguide.org/olympics-history.html

http://resources1.news.com.au/images/2012/07/28/1226437/390009-london-olympics-opening-ceremony.jpg

5.

4. Media ownership

I work for one of Australia’s biggest retail giants; Target, and on numerous occasions I have had customers coming to me and complaining about the items of clothing we stock for children. Oh the joys of being a supervisor. The issues these customers have with the clothing are the fact that they are very revealing and designed to suit older aged children or even youth. I agree with these customers because I look at these clothing items and compare them to what items you’d see advertised by leading brands and too, those American mum’s parading their daughters around in beauty pageants. All Target cares about is making profit, I know that personally, and they constantly compete and keep up with the demands that media deliver to maintain the demands of share holders pockets. According to Rob “The media should diversify a nation’s democracy”, his discussion paper proves interesting as he questions whether the media is really “hearing the voices of the many or simply the few.” It is clearly proven that it doesn’t with Target’s choice of stock to range as they know that they won’t make as much profit if they were to stock an item of clothing that didn’t meet the demands of the fashion industry. “Australian mass media is concentrated into the hands of a very small number of proprietors” thus providing a lesser variety of products available but yet keeping many civilians happy as they too want to keep up to the demands 

of fashion and to be noticed within society.

References:

http://cpd.org.au/2011/08/media-ownership-and-regulation-in-australia-discussion-paper/

http://www.independentaustralia.net/2011/philosophy/democracy/concentrated-media-ownership-a-crisis-for-democracy/

http://shop.target.com.au/girls-heart-print-tee

4.

Oh America!

Our Australian culture is considered by the following statement: an “emphasis on physical as opposed to mental achievement, the concept of mateship, Australian idiom, language and humor.” We have developed a youth culture where we talk like bogans, drink ourselves stupid, party and enjoy the company of our mates. But when you study carefully into the concept of the Australia culture, you realize the close or EXACT depiction that our culture is derived from the country that influences not only their own behavior but the rest of the world in relation to media… Y’all know it as America. From what I see, or from my personal lifestyle, we draw our behaviors and interactions from many shows that are firstly streamed in the US and gradually make their way around the world. I am speaking particularly of one show that I know a lot of youth watch, that myself, watch and greatly relate to, it is one of MTV’s favs... Jersey Shore. Jersey Shore is best described as ‘regionalism at its best.’ Guido’s and Guidette’s working out, partying, using fowl language, fighting and brawling and using and abusing people. Relating back to my opening statement, our culture, nowadays, I believe has been influenced greatly by MTV shows like Jersey Shore and other shows that incorporate American culture into it. I notice our youth enjoy to party hard, drink til they are stupid and hook up with ‘grenades’ and so on. America and its great ideas of reality lifestyle shows greatly influence the culture of youth in Australia. Thank you America, “you suck dick for skittles.”

Jersey Shore, ‘Australian’ style:

References

http://www.aussieeducator.org.au/tertiary/subjects/history/australian/culture.html

http://www.ironbarkresources.com/articles/guild2004americanisation.htm

http://www.frankwbaker.com/using_reality_tv.htm

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/03/24/jersey-shore-lingo-dictionary-of-snooki-pauly-d-situation-more.html

3.

 We all are sad and constant users and abusers of globalisation. It didn’t really hit me that I am a major dependent of globalisation and media forms until I started studying media. I too realised just before I started writing this, when I was doing my research that I have been dependent on globalisation for a period way too long. I always, when in public, get so annoyed at the people around me because I don’t see their faces. They’re too caught up in their latest gadgets with their eyes glued onto them. But I got thinking about it, and realized that I can’t judge them because I do exactly the same as them. My head is constantly glued to my phone or computer. I am a sad dependent on technology that connects me to my peers in a globalisation situation. I have friends who live overseas, they’re from Italy, I rely on Facebook and my phone to keep contact with them. What I’m getting at is that, “globalization encourages productivity and product diversity.” So I take back my opening sentence to instead say, globalisation has inevitably benefited the many communities around the globe by giving us the opportunity to connect and form our many diverse cultures and traditions to create a better flowing global community.

“The integration of rich and poor nations is not a zero-sum game where the gains of one come at the expense of the other. Driven by the rapid democratization of information, technology, and finance, globalization is turning out to be a remarkably progressive, liberating force.” 

DOUGLAS S. NOONAN

References:

http://suite101.com/article/panacea-or-worker-exploitation-a29571

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v53/MagikGuy/Globalisation.jpg

http://www.free-eco.org/insights/articles/the-benefits-of-globalization.html