NATIONALITY, GLOBALIZATION, & GLOCAL: INTRODUCTION

NATIONALITY, GLOBALIZATION,& GLOCAL: THE CREATION OF IDENTITYby Cristina De Miranda, DivyaPathak, Julia Romeo, and Sennah YeeVISA 1120 / Prof. Shelley Hornstein / TA Cara SaidMarch 4, 2011

NATIONALITY, GLOBALIZATION, & GLOCAL: INTRODUCTION • identity is constantly negotiated, especially today when most (if not all) of the world has been discovered, explored and changed • globalizationhas created a web of connectedness between everyone, in some shape or form • visual language, technology and new forms of communication, create a system that transforms people and their communities, though identity can still defined by nationality, gender, race and religion • visual culture enables people to learn about different nationalities and cultures; but the transmitter of this information, the medium of the transmission and the underlyingintentions, all influence how people and communities identify themselves

with the help of scholars Margaret Mead, Marshall McLuhan, Anderson Benedict and relevant examples, the meaning and affects of national identity, globalization and the making of communities will be investigated • Margaret Mead helps us understand the idea of national identity her case study on Samoan girls • Marshall McLuhan explains how through technological advances, society has come together and transitioned into a “global village” • Benedict Anderson writes of the “imagined communities,” and we relate his article to the ‘I AM CANADIAN’ ad campaign and its messages of community and self-identity

MARGARET MEAD & HER DEPICTION OF SAMOAN GIRLS

EXCERPT “[A Samoan girl] sat cross-legged on the ground, and to sit upon a chair made her stiff and miserable. She ate with her fingers from a woven plate; she slept upon the floor. Her house was a mere circle of pillars, roofed by a cone of thatch, carpeted with water-worn coral fragments.” -Margaret Mead in Coming of Age in Samoa, p. 7

SIGNIFICANCE • during her fieldwork, Mead recorded the Samoan culture and took photographs • all these photographs strengthened this former idea of definingnationalidentity

MEAD & NATIONALITY: CONCLUSION • as an outsider looking in, Mead reinforced her imagined community of Indo-European culture • created an imaginednation-ness of Samoan girls.

THE INTERNET AS A MEDIUM IN MARSHALL MCHLUHAN’S GLOBAL VILLAGE

THE ‘GLOBAL VILLAGE’ AND THE INTERNET • globalization has extended to a space in which there are no geographical boundaries-- “as electrically contracted, the globe is no more than a village.” (McLuhan 5) • the Internet has had a significant impact on how we act and react within our culture and visual culture in particular • enhanced communication has enabled cultures and subcultures to form much easily, as well as exposed ones that we may not be exposed to otherwise in mainstream visual media

SIGNIFICANCE • with features such as social networking, search engines, and image/video/music hosting, the Internet has become an idealmedium for McLuhan’s ‘global village’ • enables and/or encourages communication, research, artistic expression • this is achieved through creatingandsharingmedia that contribute to visual culture. • as a result, our ‘lens’ in which we view the world has significantly larger. • social networking in particular has been ground-breaking in terms of creating communities, cultures, and subcultures that surpass geographical boundaries • we are involved in each other’s lives more than ever before.

OTHER EXAMPLES • a dialogue between the producer and the consumer has been enabled through advertising preferences • sites such as LiveJournal (shown above) and Facebook allow their users to select their interests so that the website may alter their advertisements accordingly, thus giving them far more control over their visual culture than the offline advertising industry. • this is only one example of how the Internet causes everyone to be a participant in everyone else’s affairs

GLOBALIZATION & GLOCAL: CONCLUSION video excerpt from: Peter Hirshberg’sTED Talk on TV and the Web, December 2007 URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8J6uEUXlR0 • “The global village is as big as a planet and as small as the village post office.” -Marshall McLuhan • Hirschberg discusses how one may substitute the words ‘blogosphere’ or ‘the Internet today’ in McLuhan’s description of ‘global village,’ and how his words still ring true • McLuhan discusses how globalization is notnecessarilyharmonious • the Internet perpetuates a globalidentity, and may be both advantageous and disadvantageous, depending on one’s opinion on their own culture, nation, and/or identity

NATIONALITY IN ADVERTISING

NATIONAL IDENTITY • according to Anderson, “[a nation] is an imaginedpoliticalcommunity”, “[…] it is imagined because the members of even the smallest nation will never know most of their fellow-members, meet them, or even hear of them, yet in the minds of each lives of their communion.” • this imagined sense of communion, or national identity, is built upon points of perceived commonality • it is through these points of commonality that”[...] millions of people [are], not so much willing to kill, as willing to die for such limited imagining”

MOLSON • Molson was looking for a new way to connect with their customers • the ‘I AM CANADIAN!’ commercial aired in 2000, during the Academy Awards • in 2005, Molson retired the ‘I AM CANDAIAN’ slogan • rant URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRI-A3vakVg

SIGNIFICANCE • advertisers work to build rapport with perspective consumers by introducing Canada as independententity from its American counterparts, (“I speak English and French, not American”). • the rant dismisses images of “The North”,(“I don't live in an igloo or eat blubber”), and replaces them with images representative of Canadian identity, (“the beaver is a truly proud and noble animal”).

OTHER EXAMPLES • uses words such as ‘we’ and ‘us’ to create commonality with customers • associates Canadian ‘freedoms’ with Molson beer • “Molson Canadian, made from Canada” • URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5aQkrV3ppAw • “Tim Hortons celebrates hockey as it brings together all Canadians who love this game.” • using hockey and the Canadianidentity to sell coffee • URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95J1TzzwvX0

MOLSON & NATIONALITY: CONCLUSION • using national identity as an advertisingtool has proven to be very effective • national identity allows advertisers to build rapport with potential customers • furthermore, since national identity is a relatively stableentity, the advertisement will continue to have a prolonged existence

NATIONALITY, GLOBALIZATION, & GLOCAL: CONCLUSION • these cases provide several methods by which national and global identities are constructed, understood and maintained • Meadcreates an Indo-European identity that is negates the cultural practices of the Samoan girls she studied • McLuhanrefers to technology as a major determinant in learning about the world and personal perceptions • Molson’s patriotic commercial allows Canadians to understand one another, from coast to coast, based on shared characteristics • globalization provides many advantages(understanding and acceptance of diversity, increased technological advances) and disadvantages(exploitation, contrasting notions of identity) • it is crucial to be conscious of our beliefs and the beliefs of others and to achieve a balance so we may expand the ‘lens’ we use to view the world

by Cristina De Miranda, DivyaPathak, Julia Romeo, & Sennah YeeVISA 1120 Prof. Shelley Hornstein / TA Cara SaidMarch 4, 2011

NATIONALITY, GLOBALIZATION, & GLOCAL: INTRODUCTION