Capital Media by Michael Curtin
PART I
Curtin argues that Hollywood, Hong Kong, and Chicago all have different ways
of dominating the media world, allowing them to all be identified as media capitals. He
argues that Hollywood (the most Western culture) is no longer the only dominating
source of media, as Chicago and Hong Kong are becoming more powerful. They are
unique in their range of flows (econonomic, demographic, technological, cultural, and
ideological) and also at the level in which they operate (local, national, regional, and
global).
PART II
The textbook talks about cultural imperialism in which media comes from one
dominant source, usually the West, and moves East. As seen in the class game of
MIPCOM, the Western cultures were less likely to buy direct imports from Eastern
cultures because their audience doesnt typically watch television that is edited and
dubbed. In addition, Eastern cultures were more likely to buy an American-made show
and edit it for their audience, or buy the format. This shows that Hollywood may have
more dominance when it comes to television shows because they put more money into
their creations, and can also charge higher prices for their work.
However, this has been recognized by Eastern countries and they have shifted the
way they distribute media. Knowing that Western cultures are to unlikely enjoy their
media, they have begun to focus more on local cultures and markets. An example from
the text is the creation of localized versions of MTV (pg. 338). There is now MTV Asia,
MTV Brasil, MTV Russia, etc. This way, the media markets in Eastern cultures are
getting what they want and the corporations are still able to control how it is formatted
and created.
Curtain argues that Chicago and Hong Kong are close behind Hollywood with
holding power in the world of media. Eastern culture has made advances and even have
Bollywood as a response to Hollywood. Bollywood specializes in musicals, romantic
feature films, and melodramas and produces many more films than Hollywood does each
year (pg. 337).
PART III
Other than The Office, a very popular television format is Survivor. Other
countries have their own twists and variations to the game show since they are able to
edit the content of the actual show. Variations in the show consist of: how many
contestants, rules of the game, challenges, locations, gender differentiation, age
differentiation, etc. Survivor is then able to become more audience-specific for
whichever country it is being aired in. If you cant beat em, join em is how I imagine
the Eastern cultures are changing their ways to adapt to popular Western media and
become successful themselves.