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. -- Course Website
Instructor: Paul Thomas
Prerequisites: First year International studies sequence or permission
