More on Cultural Diversity

What is most striking about the whole attempt to regulate the globalization of media flows, from 1976 to 2005, is how it became more and more narrowly focused on audiovisual products, in particular those coming out of the United States.

Back in 1980, the 312-page report of UNESCO's International Commission for the Study of Communication Problems contains about seven pages on film and television; the rest deals with a myriad of issues, from journalism to technology to censorship.  (Point of minor interest: the lead writer of that report, Sean MacBride, was the son of Maude Gonne, the legendary Irish activist and muse to William Butler Yeats.)

The recent Cultural Diversity Convention, by contrast, is full of incredibly repetitive and (to my mind) vague references to "diverse art practices" and "diverse cultural identities," but as Canada's Globe and Mail put it, all that clotted language was really just "code for 'let's all get together and protect our national cultures against Hollywood."
May 12, 2008 11:00 AM |

Categories:

Soundtrax

PRC Pop 

The Chinese pop music scene is like no other ...

Remembering Elvis 

The best part of him will never leave the building ...

Beyond Country 

Like all chart categories, "country" is an arbitrary heading under which one finds the ridiculous, the sublime, and everything in between. On the sublime end, a track that I have been listening to over and over for the last six months: Wynnona Judd's version of "She Is His Only Need." The way she sings it, irony is not a color or even a set of contrasting colors; it is iridescence.

Miles the Rock Star? 

Does Miles Davis belong in the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame? Here's my take on his career ...

Essay Contest 

Attention, high school jazz listeners ...

more trax

Me Elsewhere

Edward Hopper 

Painter of light (and darkness) ...

Dissed in Translation 

Here's my best shot at taking Scorcese down a few pegs ...

Henri Rousseau Revisited 

"Henri Rousseau: Jungles in Paris" appeared at the National Gallery of Art in Washington this fall ...

Paul Klee's Art 

Paul Klee was not childish, despite frequent comparisons between his art and that of children...

Our Art Belongs to Dada 

Rent my "Dadioguide" tour of the Dada show (before it moves to MoMA) ...

more picks

Blogroll

About this Entry

This page contains a single entry by Martha Bayles published on May 12, 2008 11:00 AM.

Still Alive was the previous entry in this blog.

Love Hate Relationship is the next entry in this blog.

Find recent content on the main index or look in the archives to find all content.

Creative Commons License
This weblog is licensed under a Creative Commons License.