Ideals and Images
Representations of Globalization in the Cuban Press: Critique or Affirmation of Neoliberal Hegemonic Discourse?
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Karyn Hollis
My study examines the discourse around globalization in the official Cuban Communist Party (CCP) newspaper, Granma. What political, economic, and cultural effects are associated with globalization in Cuba by CCP officials and journalists writing in Granma? And are these effects compatible with Cuban socialism which claims to offer an alternative to neoliberal hegemony by promoting economic democracy and the collective good? To answer these questions, I compile a corpus of Granma articles published in 2018 and conduct a computerized content analysis of them. Through word counts, frequency tabulations, and collocations, I examine terms related to globalization in the Cuban press to show whether or not this Cuban discourse constructs a world in opposition to multinational corporate power. My rhetorical investigation will be situated conceptually through the work of Foucault, Fairclough, Van Dijk, and Wodak. I also select one or two representative articles for qualitative examination using Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). CDA is a multidisciplinary method of investigation, employing a wide variety of linguistic tools. Using CDA, I show how rhetorical devices such as implied audience, genre, style, and historical/contextual representations may hide power imbalances, erase subjectivities, and perhaps, unwittingly, naturalize corporate hegemony and exploitation.
Making Poland Great - Tales of "Repolonisation"
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Joanna Orzechowska
The year 2015 marked a significant shift in Polish politics. The new set of reforms put forward by conservative right-wing government regardless of their nature were all based on the same principle: the departure from international cosmopolitan values and a focus on national and domestic interests. This paper focuses on one particular set of processes, that especially well embodies this logic, i.e. the process of "repolonisation”, which has gained momentum after 2015. "Repolonisation” is a form of economic nationalism and as such is based on two fundamental assumptions. The first is that globalization has its limitations, it leads to the deepening of income gaps and favors some countries/social groups at the expense of others. The second argument is that capital is not nationally-neutral, and does in fact have nationality. In Poland those arguments have been used to legitimize certain forms of actions, i.e. the substitution of foreign private capital by Polish national public one. This process of domestication understood here as nationalization was not only intended to change the banking system, but was also planned to affect the energy sector and possibly the media. In this paper I suggest to analyze "repolonisation” not as a mechanism based on economic rationality, but as an ideological tool, a certain form of narrative. Through the analysis of public appearances of key Polish opinion leaders during the years 2015-2018, I aim to determine different narratives (stories) of "repolonisation", trying to establish key narrative arguments used to either legitimize or delegitimize various policies and actions.
How EU Plans to Link-up European Culture and Media with Globalisation and Not Lose Its Core Cultural Values: Creative Europe 2021-2027
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Bożena Gierat Bieroń
The European Union established its Cultural Policy (1993) as the answer to that global processes, which deeply affected the EU member states’ culture on national, regional, and local levels. The EU decided then to protect richness of cultural and lingual diversity, mutual understanding, inter-cultural dialogue, which were standing in the way of the marching globalization forces. The EU faces an analogous situation right now. The digital era “has facilitated the distribution of cultural and creative content and services, but it has also intensified competition of content across borders on a global scale.” Audio-visual sector of the EU is internationally recognised but it is not competitive enough within the Digital Single Market. Therefore in the next multiannual financial framework (2021-2027) the EU is planning to re-open “Creative Europe” programme dedicated to culture and media in post-industrial and global era. This paper defines and explores links between the principles of the “Creative Europe” programme and increasingly competitive international markets. It also investigates which particular instruments are used to protect European culture from global-market players. Furthermore, it attempts to understand how the EU would like to connect cultural and audio-visual players into the communication/online platforms, webcast portals and social media pages while at the same time still maintaining core European values. Finally, the paper offers analyses (critical and constructive) and tries to offer an answer to the question whether the EU’s proposals codified in “Creative Europe” will strengthen the position of European actors in both the European and global markets.
The Filmic Reinvention of Rio as an Aspiring Global City
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Else R. P. Vieira
This paper considers the bravura reinvention of Rio as an aspiring global city in the run up to Olympics. Carlos Saldanha’s Rio (2011), conceived in the heat of Brazil’s euphoric economic period when the city was the first in South America to be selected by the International Olympic Committee for the 2016 Games, shares with a number of media campaigns a cinematic redeployment of Rio designed to change negative images of the city. The film’s seemingly simplistic basic plot and themes are also seen to incorporate global subject matter and to reference media initiatives related to the US Good Neighbour Policy intended to create an aura of integration and a positive urban imaginary for Rio, this time as a welcoming emerging global power.
