Hollywood Planet

Global media and the competitive advantage of narrative transparency

By Scott Robert Olson

Presentation byKara Daniel

• Topic: Global Media• Focus: Transparency (and cross-cultural

interpretations/effects)• Method(s): Meta-analysis– Analysis of Analyses

• Target(s): Other Studies on global media and culture– Ex) Shekwo (1984)

• Goal(s): Add to/qualify theories of “Americanization”.

• Is Hollywood taking over?• Are we really becoming a homogenous media culture?

Transparency

• “If the polysemy of the American media account for their international success, then another question must be raised: What is it about these movies and television programs that makes them polysemic? This is a complex question, and one with no simple answer” (123).

Meta-Analysis• “…came to the conclusion

that although what was on the screen was more or less identical to the program that aired in the United States, they were not really watching the show in the same way that Americans were. Because of the way they watched it, they were watching a different show” (112).

• T J Ewing (Larry Hagman)

= Gbagwulu, “a trickster worm from Gbagyi mythology” (112).

• Titanic reactions

• Myths

Findings?

• Not True– American cinema does

not convert the views or beliefs of indigenous people.

– That the indigenous people do not watch the film for the American lifestyle

• True?– “The American media do

not so much encode myth as become (or function as) myths themselves. They embody something prior to myth that enables them to satisfy the need for myth” (125).

Culture of Age

Team 1 Team 2 Team 3

Transparency of Disney