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Theoretical approach 4: Theory on timespace disjuncture

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Time no longer relevant with 24-hour news (e.g. BBC, CNN, Al Jazeera, Online news) ... distant places in real time (Football World matches, funeral of Princess Diana, ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: Theoretical approach 4: Theory on timespace disjuncture


1
Theoretical approach 4Theory on time/space
disjuncture
  • MEVIT 3220/ 4220 Fall 2007
  • Media and Globalization
  • Sarah Chiumbu - 23 November 2007

2
This lecture
  • The last in the series of the four Theoretical
    approaches
  • 1 Structuration theory
  • 2 Network society theory / Information society
    theory
  • 3 Theory on global flows of communication
  • 4 Theory on time/space disjuncture

3
Structure of the lecture
  • Theoretical Debates
  • Mediated Globalisation
  • Time, Place and Space
  • Channels of mediation
  • Television
  • Internet
  • Examples from the curriculum

4
Revisiting the theory of structuration
  • Anthony Giddens
  • Structure / Agency
  • Agents and structure are not independent of each
    other (dualism)
  • But dependent upon each other (duality)
  • Structure is not external to individuals
  • The duality of structure is always the main
    grounding of continuities in social reproduction
    across time-space.

Picture from Wikipedia
5
From Wikipedia
  • The structuration approach does not focus on the
    individual actor or societal totality "but social
    practices ordered across space and time". Its
    proponents adopt this balanced position,
    attempting to treat influences of structure
    (which inherently includes culture) and agency
    equally.

6
Conceptualising Time-Space
  • Time-Space distaciation (Giddens, 1990)
  • The interlacing of social relations at distance
    with local contextualities
  • Social relationships are becoming stretched
    across great distances
  • Time-Space compression (Harvey, 1990)
  • Involves the shortening of time and shrinking of
    space the time to do things is reduced
  • Social relationships become more intense and
    robust
  • Harvey, D (1990) The Condition of Postemodernity
    An Inquiry into the Origins of Cultural Change.

7
The Globalising of Modernity
  • Modernity is inherently globalising.
  • Since social life is ordered across space and
    time, the problematic of space-time distanciation
    is key to modernity and globalisation.
  • The complex relations between local involvements
    and interaction across distance.
  • Relations between local and distant social forms
    are stretched. Globalisation refers essentially
    to that stretching process.
  • Local transformations are part of globalisation.
  • Giddens The Consequences of Modernity pp.
    63-65

8
Globalisation
  • Anthony Giddens defines globalisation as
  • the intensification of world-wide social
    relations, whic link distant localities in such
    as way that local happenings are shaped by events
    occuring many miles away and vice versa
  • (Giddens, 1990 4)
  • Giddens does not tell us how these happenings are
    shaped, but implicitly he points out to the role
    of the media in globalisation - a mediated
    reality.

9
John B. Thompson (1995)
  • An aspect of technical media is that they allow
    for some degree of space-time distanciation
  • Any process of symbolic exchange generally
    involves the detachment of a symbolic form from
    its context of production it is distanced from
    this context, both spatially and temporally, and
    re-embedded in new contexts which may be located
    at different times and places (p. 21).

10
Thompson ...
  • All forms of communication involve some degree
    of space-time distanciation - but the extent of
    distanciation varies greatly (p. 21)
  • gt Globalisation
  • Mass communication extends the availability of
    symbolic forms in space and time (p. 30).
  • gt Mediated interaction
  • gt Mediated experience

11
Mediated Globalisation
  • A focus on mediation means that we
    increasingly experience globalisation through the
    media (Rantanen, 2005)
  • Globalisation through the media transforms
  • Peoples social relations
  • Forms of interaction
  • Peoples experience

12
Mediated Globalisation
  • Mediated globalisation refers to the reality
    that one of the salient features of globalisation
    today is that it takes place increasingly through
    the media and communications.
  • Thus Rantanen (20058) defines globalisation as
  • a process in which worldwide economic,
    political and cultural and socialrelations have
    become increasingly mediated across time and
    space
  • it is too simple to think that the media just
    connects people rather they mediate, which is a
    far more complex process that involves
    individuals and their practices (Rantanen,
    200511)

13
Hjarvard A Mediated World.Globalisation and the
Role of Media
  • Sociological conceptions of modernity (esp.
    Giddens) with detachment from time and space, and
  • disembedding lifting out of social relations
    from local contexts
  • re-embedding creation of new, less personal
    social networks
  • Globalisation represents a radicalized form of
    modernity (an immanent consequence of
    modernity)
  • The scope make globalisation a new social order.

14
Hjarvard on the role of media in globalisation
  • Media as channels of communication
  • the media are prerequisites for action from a
    distance
  • results in mobility and disembedding of social
    acts
  • coordination of action over time and space
  • Media as messengers
  • the consequence is a heightend reflexivity
  • Media as social infrastructure
  • the media profoundly influence the global
    infrastructure
  • the media mold the ways in which interaction
    takes place

15
Time, Place and Space
  • Mediated globalisation changes our sense of
    time, place and space
  • Time, place and space are social constructs and
    are not natural and stagnate.

16
Time, Place and Space
  • Place and Media
  • In pre-modern times, time and place was in one
    place - no knowledge of anything beyond ones
    experience.
  • Place - physical settings of social activity as
    situated geographically
  • Place helps us form our identities
  • New forms of media encourage placelessness
  • Media leads to nearly dissociation of phyisical
    place and social place

17
Time, Place and Space
  • Time and Media
  • Calendars and mechanical clocks
  • Introduction of time-zones
  • Scheduling (e.g. Trains, news)
  • Telegraph
  • Electronic media (e.g. Radio, TV and Internet)
    have created new concept of time.

18
Time, Place and Space
  • Space and Media
  • Space and place are related, but space is more
    abstract (Malls, Supermarkets, Community Halls)
  • Spaces are flexible and can be constructed in a
    symbolic way
  • Media and new technologies are bringing time,
    place and space closer to each other.
  • Media transforms place and space
  • connecting places with each other and shortening
    distance through them
  • Creating new spaces within and outside places
    where former rules and norms dop not hold

19
Channels of Mediation
  • Television News
  • Time no longer relevant with 24-hour news (e.g.
    BBC, CNN, Al Jazeera, Online news).
  • Place becoming less important as we experience
    events in distant places in real time (Football
    World matches, funeral of Princess Diana, Iraq
    War, Tsunami, etc)
  • New spaces are created as we are able to watch
    news in airports, buses, mobile phones etc

20
Channels of Mediation
  • New Media ( Internet / Mobile Phones)
  • Time no longer important (internet shopping
    anytime of the day) emails cut down time as
    messages are received instantly
  • Place no longer important (wireless
    connections). We can send email from anywhere
    (under a tree, on the train etc)
  • New spaces are created (MySpace, Facebook,
    YouTube and other chat rooms)
  • Mobile phones have changed social interaction
    (SMS, MMS)

21
Examples from the literature
  • Kirsten Frandsen Globalisation and Localisation
  • TV coverage of the Olympic Games in Sydney 2000.
  • Constant interplay between forces of
    globalisation and localisation
  • Decisions and productions simultaneously take
    place on
  • global level
  • European/regional level
  • local/national level
  • Globalisation is expressed by various forms of
    localisation of the global event.

22
Examples from the literature
  • Kevin Robins Beyond Imagined Community
  • Article concerned with cultural and media
    practices of the Turkish-speaking communities in
    London.
  • Proposes the use of transnationalism as opposed
    to diasporic and imagined community.
  • Questions the utility of the use of identity,
    community and nation when discussing
    consequences of satellite television.
  • No such thing as Turkish culture or behaviour
    in a transnational setting Turks in Europe
    involved in a complex process of negotiation
  • Kevin Robins makes us think differently on issues
    of the so-called diasporic media, imagined
    community and identity and effects of global
    flows of communication.

23
Announcements...
  • MEVIT 4220 - compiled reading list for term
    papers to be submitted by Friday (23 November).
  • Next week lecture summing up, exams and term
    papers.
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