Week 10 RAT

Thussu, Mapping Global Media Flow and Contra-Flow

1.According to Thussu, why have global media flows grown in direction, volume and velocity in recent decades?

the glocalisation of US media products, content tailored to local needs for commercial reasons

the privatisation & proliferation of TV outlets/channels

a shift to media defined by consumer interest & transnational markets


 * all are true

2.Which is NOT part of Thussu's typology of global media flows?

Geo-Cultural: caters to specific audiences (may be scattered across the world, e.g. diasporic), but not necessarily defined by language


 * Indigenous: originating in & characteristic of a particular country

Transnational: a strong regional presence but also aimed at audiences beyond their primary constituency

Global: have regionalised and localised their content to extend their reach across the world and create the 'global popular'

3.Thussu's analysis

largely ignores the audience and media content, that content; i.e. can be interpreted differently by different audiences

focuses on global media flows, particularly of TV and film

explores how the rest of the world relates to, adopts and/or adapts Western media genres/ formats


 * all are true

4.Which is FALSE? Why are transnational and geo-cultural flows increasing?

the digitisation of technology


 * none are false

population movements, partly because of economic globalisation (e.g. of professional workers & students

state or government-supported policies and initiatives

5.According to Thussu, 'dominant' global flows

are promoting a global, hybridised Americana

can encompass both transnational and geo-cultural flows

are primarily North to North (i.e. US to Europe)


 * all are true

6.Which is FALSE? According to Thussu, 'subaltern' or contra flows

have become increasingly important in the circulation of cultural products

show that global media traffic is not just one way, even though traffic is disproportionately weighted

help in the articulation and formation of identity


 * none are false

7.Which is FALSE? Thussu argues

for caution against the tendency to valorize/celebrate the rise of non-Western media

that changes in the direction of flows may simply be a refiguring of hegemony, i.e. through the legitimising of privatised, free-market capitalism


 * that the South is becoming more dominant in global media flows

that there are large disparities in the volume and economic value of media flows

Katsuno & Maret, Localising the Pokemon TV Series for the American Market

8.Which is FALSE? The localisation of Pokemon for America

was influenced by political, economic & historical discourses within and between Japan and the West


 * was not required because US and Japan share many televisual and discursive codes

is a process of adapting a global product for a specific market, i.e. America

was influenced by sociocultural differences between America & Japan

9.Which is FALSE? According to Katsuno & Maret, the translation/localisation of Pokemon

shows power in East-West relations is not so clear cut; e.g. Japan is influencing the look and content of Hollywood

was facilitated & complicated by cultural hybridity inherent in mediascapes of increasingly interconnected world


 * shows Japan and the West are mutually incomprehensible, autonomous or distinct

is part of an ongoing dialogue, they increasingly share aesthetic traditions, cinematic codes, frames of reference & intertextual assumptions

10.Which claim is NOT fully supported by Katsuno & Maret? Translation (& power)

indicates Hollywood's domination is extending to localisation & global marketing of foreign cultural goods

is influenced by fans; producers/authors have power but not exclusive control over global circulation

the original aesthetic & 'cultural odour' is retained (in spite of translation)


 * is ethnocentric and racist, it reinforces unequal power relations between source and target cultures