HBO to Netflix The speculation around Viacom's disconcerting performance detailed in "Viacom is Having a Midlife Crisis" by Felix Gillette was especially eye-opening in relation to mass media and how I think about TV/entertainment today. I don't really watch TV or any of the "popular" networks under Viacom's umbrella. However, I do occasionally watch Friday Night Lights and … [Read more...]
National Identity and Globalization: “Orange Nation”
Lechner's article, "Orange Nation: Soccer and National Identity in the Netherlands," was particularly interesting as I hadn't really thought much before about the relationship between sports and national identity. Lechner argues that globalization creates a national identity in the Netherlands through the medium of Dutch soccer and the world cup. He goes on to assert that … [Read more...]
“Copyrighting Che”
I found "Copyrighting Che: Art and Authorship under Cuban Late Socialism" by Ariana Hernandez-Reguant informative and educational. Her piece touches upon conflicts of which I was completely unaware and also provides a survey of the recent evolution of socialism in Cuba. Hernandez-Reguant uses the lawsuit a Cuban photographer undertook over the extensive use (which prompted … [Read more...]
Why Slumdog Millionaire wasn’t popular in India
"In the same year that Jurassic Park grossed $6 million, Hum Aapke Hain Koun...! grossed $60 million," (Terrell 376). In Bollywood versus Hollywood, Heather Tyrrell situates Bollywood against Hollywood in order to explain western cinema's inability to monopolize the cinematic market in India. For starters, Bollywood actively offers popular anti colonialist sentiments because it … [Read more...]
Environmental Advocacy: All Talk and no Action?
Margaret E. Keck and Kathryn Sikkink use logging practices in Malaysia as a platform to spark conversation around deforestation and environmental advocacy networks. Keck and Sikkink argue that the Malaysian state of Sarawak and their logging campaign was different than most for three reasons. First, the conversation surrounding tropical forest logging took on a new form in the … [Read more...]
