Cultural Imperialism
Cultural Imperialism is defined as "...how an ideology, a politics, or a way of life is exported to other territories through the export of cultural products." Here is one prime example of that. Above are two pictures of The Twilight Sagas movie--New Moon--in Korean in the top photo, and Japanese directly above. As New Moon and the Twilight Saga ultimately being a love story, these photos show the movie's exportation to Korea and Japan as also an export of America's youth's idea of ideal love. The love story then becomes applied not only to the youth of America as an ideal, but also to the youths of other countries.
And this is not the only example; it's just the only example I could find a picture of. Basically any movie made in Hollywood finds its way to other countries nowadays. Hollywood has something of a niche market in movies, and as such, its products generally find their ways into other countries in today's global society. It may not be that Hollywood or other American movie makers are intentionally trying to impose their views on other cultures, just that in today's world, they find their way there anyhow.
Niche Marketing
The Global Fund for Women
This organization was founded in 1987 by Anne Firth Murray who said,
" I'm a person who had a dream and was lucky enough to make that dream a reality—a dream of a worldwide network of women who would be both givers and receivers. A dream of an organization that would be open, curious, inclusive and trusting. A generous organization, that would work evenhandedly with women's groups around the world, with donors and volunteers, with staff and with others who joined our path. I came to believe in my nine years creating the Global Fund that it is vital to transform the world by changing the way people treat each other, and by modeling that kind of change behavior ourselves. We can count the achievement—the number of grants and donors, the amount of money raised—but I truly believe that the way we have done our work has been as important as what we have done."
She was succeeded by Kavita N. Ramadas.
This organization is promoting rights for women worldwide. They raise money to run several programs. The following are some of the programs they set up throughout the world:
- · Economic security – Help advance women’s benefits for what they contribute economic growth and development
- · Violence against women – Support programs that offer services to victims and raise awareness of their rights.
- · Education – Ensure access to education for females
- · Health – Education about basic health and sanitation and ensure good public health policies.
- · Leadership – Help women to become involved in leadership in all levels of government.
They are active in 171 countries and give grants to groups who submit proposals. Of the 3000 requests they receive each year, they are able to fill about 500 requests. Each grant is between $500 and $20,000. They are funded by donations. The following table show the percentage of the flow of money.
They are involved with larger organizations like the United Nations in promoting rights for women.
They also have links to several global social networks.
http://www.youtube.com/globalfundforwomen
http://feeds.feedburner.com/globalfundforwomen
The United States and a few other places in the world have promoted women’s rights for years. Organizations united across the globe are trying to help women achieve similar freedom and rights. Global Fund for Women started in 1987 and has been successful in advancing awareness to the concerns of women internationally. They have a specific agenda and join with other similar organizations that are also trying to make a difference in the world for women. They use marketing through radio, television, and newsletters and social networking online to bring awareness of their efforts and gain new members and raise more money. They hold events throughout the world promoting rights for women. For example, in November of this year they were in Durfar. Organizations like this one are gaining ground by promoting awareness throughout the world and in turn new organizations are founded to promote women’s rights. They have been successful.
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://blog.webjoogler.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/
Global Niche Market
Visual images and the media help shape the globalization of capital through global niche markets in which a sharing of a cultural identity is exchanged from country to country. Some media examples are television networks such as the Spanish channel "Telemundo" that is geared toward Spanish-speaking individuals around the globe. One unique example is FIFA, the Federation Internationale de Football Association, a worldwide soccer organization for men, women, and children. The sport of soccer unites individuals across numerous countries around the world. It has its own culture, its own visual language, and it shares an identity with its global audience. Fans are passionate about the game and view the competitions as exercises in country loyalty and strength. Games are broadcast around the world and even though the languages may vary, the images of the game and the rules are universal. Video games, websites, and films are dedicated to the sport with great anticipation. Founded in Paris in 1904, FIFA became the official global organization to oversee the popular sport and to date recognizes 208 national associations. FIFA even has its own anthem composed by German composer Franz Lambert in 1994. Adding to the global market is the sponsorship by such international giants such as Adidas, Coca-Cola, Emirates, Hyundai-Kia Motors, Sony, and VISA.
http://www.fifa.com/
Global Brands
As the Internet continues to spread and provide access to information and ideas from around the world, we need a way to search through that information. Google has emerged as a global company by providing the ability to translate results into more than 125 different languages and provides a portal to the Internet in 183 countries. http://www.google.com/language_tools?hl=en This has made the internet available to developing nations and helped to break through the language barrier creating a global village. Google is also markets many products under one company name on a global scale, referred to as Google Apps. These Apps include Google Maps, Gmail, Blogger, and hundreds more and they help us to use information from and contribute information to the Internet.
Google has also worked for global free expression, and includes many posts on their official blog concerning free expression. http://googleblog.blogspot.com/search/label/free%20expression They recently participated in the Internet at Liberty 2010 conference discussing freedom of expression on a global scale including representatives from countries where free expression is often frowned upon and regulated by governments like the Middle East and Africa.
Some nations have attempted to limit their nations access to the Internet and the ideas it contains. Google has also introduced a new tool in the fight against censorship by developing a new tool that shows the requests that they have received from world governments to provide user data or to remove information from search results. http://www.google.com/transparencyreport/ They have also worked with some repressive governments, including China, to provide Internet search capabilities to their citizens.
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