BCM288

BCM288 Reflection

Throughout the course “Transnational Media and Culture Industries” in my first semester, I have built up a comprehension of the issues that outcomes in transnational advancement of worldwide media and culture. In the course, we have studied quite a lot of different topics such as “Reality TV“, “International Film Festivals Economy and Global Cities” and “The Rise of Cosmopolitan Politics and Fake News “. Personally, these three topics were the most interesting topic for me.

Reality TV is one of the chapters which drew my attention due to its content. Reality TV is a type of television programming which aims to show how ordinary people behave in everyday life, or in situations, often created by the programme-makers, which are intended to represent in daily life.¹ We got to know why is Reality TV so popular, it is because it is cheap to produce. In reality Tv, they bring back old actors or actresses that are voted out initially in order to stir up controversies and increase public interest. One example of this is Big Boss that has crucially obtained TRP by bringing back old contestants.

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Media Piracy is pretty common these days, as the internet holds ample space in people’s daily life. “The amount of data we produce every day is truly mind-boggling. There are 2.5 quintillion bytes of data created each day at our current pace, but that pace is only accelerating with the growth of the Internet of Things (IoT).”² Mostly the internet is used for streaming videos on popular platforms such as YouTube and Netflix. As for music, people use search engines to look for downloadable songs from various websites where it is free and of average quality. Through this topic, I was exposed to the severity of piracy. As I was working on my essay for this topic, I came across the shocking fact that “piracy causes $12.5 billion of economic losses every year,”³ this fact directly reflects the amount the under-appreciation is shown to the artist.

Lastly, il talk about “The Rise of Cosmopolitan Politics and Fake NewsFile“, the word “Cosmopolitanism” comes from the Greek word kosmopolites which mean “a citizen of the world.” People used it to identify people as belonging to two distinct communities: the local and the wider “common.”. Cosmopolitanism is the philosophy that every single person have a place with a solitary network, in view of a common profound quality.

I would say it is a very challenging topic, we had a debate on ‘Does unprecedented rise in global media flows and human mobility always lead to cosmopolitanism  of culture and political values?” The Question itself was very confusing, we didn’t find out till the last moment that we had to do agree on this question instead of disagreeing. During our debate, we learned that human mobility and Global media flows influence nearby media and culture in both positive and negative ways such as how one piece of news shown differently in two different countries.

In conclusion, I would like to say that after the first lesson of this course, I have realized that I want to retain the things I learned from this course as I would not learn it from anywhere else. It gave me so much knowledge on what’s behind all those Media and finding out what is real and what is not. I am grateful that I was able to take this course.

REFERENCES:

    1. Definition of ‘reality TV’. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/reality-tv
    2. Marr, B. (2018, July 09). How Much Data Do We Create Every Day? The Mind-Blowing Stats Everyone Should Read. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2018/05/21/how-much-data-do-we-create-every-day-the-mind-blowing-stats-everyone-should-read/#2db114b960ba
    3. Music Business Worldwide. (2014, December 19). Why does the RIAA hate torrent sites so much? Retrieved from https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/why-does-the-riaa-hate-torrent-sites-so-much/
    4. Obo. (2018, October 19). Retrieved from http://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780199756384/obo-9780199756384-0133.xml

 

WHO TO BLAME FOR MEDIA PIRACY?

How happy do you feel when you download something without actually buying it? What made you do that despite knowing it is illegal? Ever thought why so many people like you do it? I can let you know that the “it” is called Media Piracy.

A lot of people like to download things for free from the internet e.g music, movies, software etc. There are a lot of reasons why people do that and in an article by Aditya Tiwari,¹ it tells us reasons why people download illegally and it was found that they were not willing to pay for the software as some of the software or music cost a lot e.g Adobe Photoshop “it is a software to edit photos” cost US$9.99 per month which is very costly. Therefore, people would prefer downloading illegally rather than paying for it. It was also stated that they want to use it once only. Just like movies, people prefer to watch it once so why not just download it instead of paying for it? Also mentioned that the creator earned a lot of money already, they think that one person wouldn’t harm their business much but they do not know that most of the people do that and a lot of money are lost by media piracy.

According to an article and statistics of it, it is said that by 2022 the amount of revenue lost to piracy will increase staggering to US$52 billion from US$37.4 billion in 2018.²

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You can actually see how much money is lost by media piracy nearly 60%-65% of what they earn. Even though they earned a lot, on the other hand, they lose a lot too. But, is it really because of the people media piracy exist or is it because of someone else? Is it the government? keep reading the blog!

Talking about governments, did you know some products are not available in some countries which leads to Media piracy. Take China as an example, a lot of websites are blocked by the government e.g YouTube, Netflix, Amazon Prime, Soundcloud etc. Moreover, many movies are banned showing in cinema in China due to many reasons like it is a superstitious film, gay or homosexuality “sensitive topic” or even having a problem with an actor could lead to a ban of a film! Having so much restriction in a country will definitely lead to Media Piracy.³

People have an interest in other cultures and if you do not let them do it, they will find another way to fulfill their desire. In Australia, a co-director of the cinema, Vijay has explained the 80% drop off people visiting cinemas in Australia to watch Indian movies is due to long working hours and the widespread of selling low-priced DVDs.4

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Moving onwards to diasporic media, it is a platform where identities of one are mobilized. In Hong Kong, the televisions mainly provide local languages series, using like Chinese, Putonghua or Taiwanese, however, it doesn’t help the population of over 263, 593 of ethnic minorities. Yet, networks like TVB, RTHK or FTV provide English channels for serving cultural and social needs for the ethnic minority. These channels encourage and support the ethnic minorities to participate and make them feel like home.

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Communication and networking are a vital part of a diasporic life possible through media technology.5 -Kim Knott

It is not shocking that diasporas have regularly been at the bleeding edge as far as planning and embracing new media. Regardless of whether through print or communicate media, the web or long range informal communication, they have been dynamic transmitters and also recipients of data. They have had a remark, not exclusively to loved ones far and wide, yet as faultfinders of political restraint back home, and in light of their treatment in the new area.

Summing it all up, it is both the fault of government and the people that caused media piracy. Moreover, we’ve seen the positive side as well as the negative side of the diasporic media. I say we should always be aware of the harm these things can bring up to our lives.

 

REFERENCE:

  1. Tiwari, A. (2017, May 29). 10 Reasons Why People Pirate And Illegally Download Movies, Songs, And Software. Retrieved from https://fossbytes.com/10-reasons-why-people-do-piracy-and-download-movies-shows-albums-software/
  2. 13:00, 3. O. (2017, October 30). Piracy to cost TV and film industry US$52bn by 2022. Retrieved from https://www.digitaltveurope.com/2017/10/30/piracy-to-cost-tv-and-film-industry-us52bn-by-2022/
  3. Film censorship in China. (2018, September 18). Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_censorship_in_China
  4.  n.a. (2017) Lecture 6: Piracy and Diasporic Media, Moodle, Retrieved October 14,2018 from https://moodle.uowplatform.edu.au/pluginfile.php/1517664/mod_resource/content/1/W6%20Reading%202%20Global%20Dynamics%20of%20Indian%20Media%20Piracy.pdf
  5. Moving People Changing Places. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.movingpeoplechangingplaces.org/identities-cultures/media-migration-diasporas.html

Where will it Conquer? 

Big Brother is a reality TV show based in the Netherlands, contestants have to stay in a house away from the outside world, being away from their families and friends with zero contacts. Most of the contestants are old-well known celebrities. This show gives them an opportunity to build their popularity once more. Each week, one contestant will be eliminated by public voting and the contestant that survives till the end wins the cash prize.  It’s a reality show that consists of drama, excitement, conflicts etc.

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Referring to The Wikipedia, in November 2017, there are 387 seasons in a total for  Big Brother in over 54 franchise countries and regions. Nevertheless, Big Brother was based in the Netherlands, it stopped airing in 2006. Also, as of September, out of 54 franchises, 38 of them has stopped airing and four of them are currently unknown.¹ This shows that in most of the countries, the show could not survive. So where is Big Brother successful when it isn’t even successful in the country that the show was based on?

The most successful and most popular Big Brother also known as Celebrity Big Brother shows are in The UK and in India but in India, it’s called Bigg Boss. What’s the difference? Which one is better? Let’s find out.

  • Big Brother in The UK airs 6 days a week except for Saturdays, running one hour from Mondays to Fridays and airs for two hours on Sundays while Bigg Boss airs on TV every day for 45 minutes. Whereas on the Bigg Boss website, 24 hours live feed is being displayed.
  • The number of episodes of Big Brother decreased from 71 episodes in 2011 to 54 episodes in 2018 and also the days of contestants staying in the house has dropped too. On the other hand, Big Boss airs more episode than it used to, it increased from 86 episodes in 2007 to 106 episodes in 2017, airing for around 3 months’ time.
  • In terms of content and cultural wise, Big Brother intends to have more open-minded contestants, they tend to have more explicit content, having Public Display of Affection PDA”  between a couple or even between different contestants while Bigg Boss does not have any major explicit content compared to Big Brother as it is known to be a family show and in Indian cultural, kissing and those affections you show to your loved one in the public are not treated in a good way and people will assume you that you are from a bad cultural family. Moreover, Big Brother intends to target Adults and over 18 years pluses in the western side, kissing and hugging in the public tells other how much you love your other half.
  • In terms of emotions, Bigg Boss has a higher level of intensity shown to the audience as well as they will make them wait for the next episode more because the higher the level of intensity the more the audience feel attracted towards the programme. Comparing to Bigg Boss, Big Brother has fewer viewers than Bigg Boss as it is telecast in a lot of states in India. According to the articles, Bigg Boss had 11.8 million viewership in their premiere episode ² while Big Brother only 1.4 million on their Saturday Night show which was also said that it was the Most watched episode in the last 4 years.³ You can see how much of a difference there is in viewership between those two shows. You can watch their promo and decide for yourself which one you prefer!

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Whatever these similarities and differences are, both shows share one common thing, ENTERTAINMENT. Big Brother and Bigg Boss currently remain to be one of the most popular reality shows, in India and the UK! -Anuj Radia (2014)


REFERENCES:

  1.  Big Brother (franchise). (2018, September 22). Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Brother_(franchise)

  2. Team, A. (2017, November 08). Bigg Boss 11 leads viewership game in reality TV; reaches 151 mn viewers. Retrieved from https://www.adgully.com/bigg-boss-11-leads-viewership-game-in-reality-tv-reaches-151-mn-viewers-74868.html

  3. Celebrity Big Brother viewing figures rise as Roxanne Pallett leaves. (2018, September 02). Retrieved from https://tellymix.co.uk/reality-tv/big-brother/371773-celebrity-big-brother-viewing-figures-rise-as-roxanne-pallett-leaves.html

  4. Big Brother vs Bigg Boss: Similarities & Differences Between The Two. (2014, December 07). Retrieved from https://www.koimoi.com/bollywood-popular/big-brother-vs-bigg-boss-similarities-differences-between-the-two/

  5. Day 1 Promo Trailer | Celebrity Big Brother 2018. (2018, January 03).  Retrieved from https://youtu.be/-HJXaLSNrZU

  6.  Bigg Boss 12 – बिग बॉस 12 – 22 September 2018 – Promo. (2018, September 21). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LovIGi-kqj4