Undergraduate - UnitATS2627 - Global cultures, local traditions: Creating and consuming (popular) culture

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Notes

Synopsis

Consumption (and re-creation) of Jazz in Japan, McDonalds in Madrid and karaoke in Kuala Lumpur are just a few of the examples of transnational cultural flows which are visible the world over. The mass electronic media of cinema, television, and the Internet have speeded up the transnational flow of images of modernity and created local desires to consume cultures originating in distant places. Unit looks at the implications of globalisation for a variety of cultural phenomena, tracing transitions from local to global cultural practices. It looks at specific cases of local consumption of global cultures, including television, video games, popular music, fiction and comics, and the Internet.

Outcomes

Students successfully completing this unit should have:

1. A deeper knowledge of the concepts of modernity and tradition, and the problems of cultural ownership and authenticity, as epitomized in copyright law;
2. Acquired knowledge about the challenges to cultural nationalism by transnational cultural flows, and the role of electronic media, especially the Internet in this;
3. Studied in depth some cases of cultural production and its local consumption, and critically analysed web-based and mass media material relating to these case studies;
4. Improved their oral skills by participating in tutorial debate, both face-to-face and on-line cross-campus, on specific instances of cultural flows and local identities created through their consumption;
5. Improved their written skills by producing a journal (second-year students) or a well-reasoned and well-documented essay on an aspect of the globalisation debate (third-year students);
6. Developed independent research skills (third-year students);
7. Developed the ability to critically assess the ideological implications of global cultural flows (third-year students).

Assessment

Written work (2 tasks - 2500 words): 55%
Class tests/quizzes (1000 words): 20%
Group online discussion project (1500 words): 25%

Chief examiner(s)

Paul Thomas

Contact hours

One 1-hour lecture and one 1-hour tutorial per week

This unit applies to the following area(s) of study

Japanese studies
International studies
Asian studies

Prerequisites

First year International studies sequence or permission

Prohibitions

ATS3627