The globalization process has been affecting
our daily lives in different aspects, our culture, economy, politics and
communications, are all being globalized. Starting from the
traditional media era to the digital era we are living now, the process of globalization
has even further been promoted by the exchanging culture and information
through Internet and any other kinds of media. The high interactivity and flow
of information are allowing us to make culture through the Internet and the
social media platforms such as Facebook, twitter, forums or any other tablets
or smartphones are actually giving us a virtual space, as referred as ‘public
sphere’ (Mckee, 2005) to interact and exchange information without time and space
restriction. Indeed, the technology advancement brought our ways of
communication into a new level, but as well brought changes to our lives in
other aspects.
Alongside the globalization is the concept
of westernization, or to be more specific, Americanization, which refers the
transfer of value from the US to the Europe (Schröter, 2008) or even the rest of the world, ranging
from hamburgers to Hollywood cinema or even TV programs (Study Guide, 2012). The
media allows us to know about the Hollywood culture, Hollywood stars and their
news from the media, such easy access to different types of media allows
celebrities to disclose themselves and it is common to see celebrities
promoting themselves through the media, what they do and what the say can all
be found. Technology advancement has made it easier than ever for anyone to be
a celebrity, even a hilarious normal citizen can be a popular celebrity having
his dramatic story posted on YouTube!
As a matter of fact, celebrities nowadays
are having great influences on our society, particularly on the younger
generations obsessed with pop stars, sport players and actors. Many of my
friends were worshipping local stars in Hong Kong and tried to act like them because
of their appearance and ‘cool’ behavior such as smoking. As Marshall (2010) has
suggested, the reach of celebrities goes beyond entertainment, with both
positive and negative influences on the society and the general public. There
could be some positive contributions if a famous celebrity like David Beckham
is doing something ethical; such as devoting himself to charity or volunteer
work as a ‘Goodwill ambassador’ (UNICEF, 2012). However on the flipside, there's
no guarantee that a star will stick to a lifestyle that kids can look up to, or
that you'll approve of (Knorr, 2012). Paris Hilton had
been a hot topic recently with her sex tape scandal (Morrissey, 2011); TV ads
with super models or stars nowadays are emphasizing the standard of beauty with
“a young, symmetrical, skin-and-bone, tanned
woman or man swishing back their gorgeous hair, smiling with blinding even
white teeth at your screen” (Tween, 2010). However,
there has been a debate to argue whether such ads are promoting health. Knorr
(2012) has made a good example showing the negativity of celebrity culture –
smoking. Such behavior is undoubtedly unhealthy, while the media stars however
are trying to make it cool, or even more, addicting to drugs. Some of the
celebrities are even suggesting marijuana, a drug that is listed as “highly
addictive” to be legalized (Lipton, 2012). Perhaps when we look at the
teenagers nowadays, it seems that the celebrity culture is indeed affecting the
society. It is further suggested that the media portraying thin stereotypically
attractive bodies should be responsible for the increase in the prevalence of
eating disorders (Champion & Furnham, 1999).
As examples provided, it is obvious that the
celebrity culture is altering, or transforming our socio-cultural values, and such
alteration is leading to other social problems among the audiences,
particularly the teenagers. As researched and analyzed, the media including TV,
Internet, video games or magazines and so on, are having significant influences
on teenage girls with the term of sexualisation, and eventually lead to an
over-sexed society along with mental issues such as shame and anxiety because
of the lack of confidence (Tween, 2010). Furthermore, many children are being
affected by the celebrity culture. As interpreted by teachers, their
educational aspiration is being damaged by the cult of celebrity (BBC, 2008).
The media nowadays is the source that we
receive information from, and to a certain extent, we could say that media is
making popular culture within a society. They manipulate what or what not to be
revealed; as a result the general publics are receiving ‘filtered’ and
‘selected’ information from the media. Take the TV ads emphasizing
skin-and-bone female body shape as an example; such ads are actually altering
our aesthetic
standard. However, would the general public still consider ‘skin-and-bone’ as
ideal body shape if those TV ads use fat women as models? According to the
research made by Hawkins, Richards, Granley and Stein (2004), exposure to
thin-deal magazine images increased body dissatisfaction, negative mood states,
eating disorder symptoms and decreased self-esteem. In other words, the more
the public exposes to those media images, the more is the consequences. Hence,
it could be seen that how media could influence the society and the general
public.
“…Young girls dying to be on TV,
they won’t stop till they reach their dreams,
Diet pills, surgery, Photoshop
pictures in magazines,
telling them how they should be…”
telling them how they should be…”
From the song “Crazy” by Simple Plan, 2007
In fact,
thin ideal body shape portrayal does not apply only in local scale, but in a
global scale instead. To a very large extent, such aesthetic standard is
brought by the Hollywood culture from the United States, and the United States are indeed manipulating the process of
globalization. During the Olympic game 2012, there had been tweets talking
about McDonald culture, ‘McDonald's being the official restaurant of the Olympics
is like smoking being the official medicine of cancer’ (Sarcasm, 2012). A
global junk food restaurant sponsoring a healthy global sport event, being
re-tweeted by thousands of users on Twitter, such sarcastic phrase is
understandable and reasonable. There are uncountable international businesses
around the world, why is it the McDonald, an U.S. based corporation being the
official sponsor of the Olympic games? Being regarded
as the leading nation in the Earth, the US standard of things has expectably
become a role model for the other countries, and you can’t blame people for
learning things from the successful ones. However, looking at the flipside,
Americanization doesn’t only promote positive value to the rest of the world, the
thin ideal body shape producing undesired effect on adolescent women, McDonald
is promoting fast food culture to the world, which is scientifically approved
as potential cancer cause.
Hence, it is
necessary to understand that globalization or Americanization is actually
affecting our daily lives and altering our socio-cultural values and standard
towards different things in both positive and negative ways. There is no doubt
that the globalization process is bringing certain benefits to the world, the
technology advancement is offering us positives as the way of communication has
been improved and the ‘distance’ between people is getting closer, but certain
undesired effects are also brought along with the globalization process.
BBC News
2008, Celebrity culture 'harms pupils', retrieved at 4 September 2012,
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/education/7296306.stm>.
Marshal, D
2010, The Specular Economy, Society, vol.47, no.2, pp. 47-52,
retrieved on 02 September 2012, <http://ehis.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?sid=06343fae-2275-40fc-b18e-61cda1dbde0a%40sessionmgr13&vid=1&hid=3&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=a9h&AN=54618364>.
Mckee, A
2005, The public sphere: An introduction, Cambridge University Press,
Port Melbourne VIC.
Schröter, HG 2008, ‘Economic culture and its
transfer: an overview of the Americanisation of the European economy,
1900-2005’, European Review of History – Revue européenne d’histoire,
Routledge, Vol. 15, No.4, pp. 331-344.
Tween,
N 2010, The impact of celebrity culture on our ordinary lives’, Elim Training,
retrieved at 21 September 2012, <http://www.elim.org.uk/Articles/187528/The_impact_of.aspx>.
UNICEF,
2012, ‘David Beckham OBE, Goodwill Ambassador’,
retrieved at 21 September 2012, <http://www.unicef.org.uk/UNICEFs-Work/Our-supporters/Celebrities/David-Beckham/>.
Hawkins
N, Richards P.S, Granley H.M & Stein D.M 2004, ‘The impact of exposure to
the thin-ideal media image on women’, Eating
Disorders, Vol. 12, pp. 35-50.
Knorr,
C 2012, ‘Why Media Role Models Matter’, Common Sense Media, retrieved at 21
September 2012, < http://www.commonsensemedia.org/advice-for-parents/celebrity-role-models>.
Sarcasm, 2012 Twitter, retrieved at 2 October 2012, <https://twitter.com/SarcasmTube/status/232173203743723520>.
Morrissey
T.E., 2011, ‘Sex Tape
Scandal Made Paris Hilton Feel Like Less Of A Princess’, Jezebel, retrieved at 2 October 2012, <http://jezebel.com/5807352/sex-tape-scandal-made-paris-hilton-feel-like-less-of-a-princess>.
