By UoC Media Students
A lot of the world’s media consumption is either clustered, communities consuming their own country’s productions, or the consumption is greatly westernised, writes James Edwards, one of the new first year media students.
James explains further: By Westernisation, we refer to the ‘west’ of the globe and how their media productions are shown and consumed across the world. Media in the southern hemisphere isn’t as commonly exported globally, due to the domination and competition of Hollywood and the economic and political constraints within. However, there’s a significant boom in global consumption of Eastern Asian media, in its animation / anime. Its popularity has grown with introductions of subtitles/dubbing of foreign films. This allows for a greater accessibility to consumers as they can now consume it in their native language.
Demi Hudson reflects on this issue of accessibility and notes that there isn’t a huge variety of non-English-speaking media found on streaming services such as Netflix and Disney+. The fact these media pieces are not readily available is a shame, suggests Demi, however, it may make people more inclined to purchase and keep physical media from different nations, which I believe is beneficial because it prevents ‘lost media.’
To explore some of these ideas about global media, accessibility and media flow, we – the first year media students – took part in a Global Media Challenge in the first few weeks of term, with the goal of watching or listening to something from somewhere in the world we wouldn’t normally consume media from.
For some of us, this was a good opportunity to get out of our traditional comfort zone, as Ole Meredith writes: Traditionally, I tend to stick to more British and American media; however, the course has broadened my horizons to include more Asian media. As a professional wrestling consumer, mainly within the WWE realm and only briefly touching on Japanese wrestling, I decided to watch the masterclass of AJ Styles vs. Shinsuke Nakamura. Amongst wrestling purists, this is a bout that is considered a must watch. The Japanese audience tend to appreciate the pure wrestling aspect of the match in comparison to the WWE audience, who prefer the storytelling side of wrestling and earning the big payoff. Perhaps this is why many professional wrestlers initially want to perfect the art of wrestling in Japan before making the jump to WWE and being recognised on a global scale.
Like Ole, Jess Jones looked to Japan for inspiration. I watched Studio Ghibli’s Howl’s Moving Castle (2004), writes Jess, a film about a young girl (Sophie) who gets cursed and turned into an elderly woman. The animation style and story were beautiful and watching it in Japanese with English subtitles was unlike anything I’ve tried before, but I really enjoyed it.
Similarly, Billy Buckley also found that the challenge broadened his horizons. Billy says, I watched Monos (2019),from Colombia, a country that I have very little knowledge of in terms of both culture and its film industry. I chose this film, which is based on child soldiers within a fictional modern-day war, because it had a premise that intrigued me and seemed like the type of film I would typically watch.
Sticking with a familiar genre while looking further afield was a popular choice, as Celyn Williams found when choosing to watch the German-language dark comedy Netflix series How to Sell Drugs Online (Fast). The concept felt familiar, says Celyn, in spite of being in a completely foreign language to me. Overall, it was extremely captivating from beginning to end. Keisha Bartlett also went with familiar theme, explaining: The theme of paranormal is heavily explored in different aspects of media around the world, and it’s amongst the themes of media I tend to consume often which meant the language barrier wasn’t a problem. I watched the 2017 film Veronica and found that even though it was a local Spanish film, the storyline and dark themes correlated to what you’d find in a traditional Hollywood ghost/horror movie.
The influence of Hollywood in global cinema was also evident in the Finnish film The Hatching (2022), watched by Fiers Lewin, who notes that horror can be found in every corner of the internet across the globe. Hanna Bergholm’s 2022 psychological body horror perfectly encapsulates this. Following a young girl’s perspective as she comes across a bird’s egg which she cares for and it goes horribly wrong as her ‘perfect family’ slowly disintegrates and the cracks begin to show. The film itself has a very Americanised take on what perfection looks like despite the language barrier.
Elsewhere, the global film viewing experience offered quite significant differences. Owen Ashton watched the action/comedy Bollywood film Chennai Express (2013) and found it to be vibrant and lively. Whilst it shares similar genres to media I already consume, adds Owen, the way it’s executed is fairly different and I found some of the plot points and pacing to be bizarre but in the best way possible. I would personally recommend Bollywood films, especially ones starring Shah Rukh Khan, the King of Bollywood!
For some of us, it wasn’t just about consuming media from a different nation, but giving something new a chance. Conal Dwyer watched the Irish film The Young Offenders (2016)because of his Irish heritage but, as he explains, also because it is a low budget film. Conal says, the benefit this film has is that I learnt more about Irish culture, for example the slang, humour, the setting and even the odd bit of Gaelic dialogue. This is different to something I would normally watch because I would usually choose to watch a high budget Hollywood film based in the city.
Like Conal, Sam Beacall stayed close to home to discover something new. I chose to listen the album Mezzanine by Massive Attack, explains Sam, because I heard from others that it was very good and pioneered a new genre of music called ‘Trip Hop’. The whole project is dark, ominous and moody, and I consider myself a listener to a wide range of music, but Massive Attack was never on my list. As a bassist, I was drawn to the slow driving bass lines throughout much of this album.
Hong Kong was also well-represented in our global media challenge, with Abi Drew and Ben Holdsworth both choosing a film from there. Abi watched Happy Together (1997),a romance drama about two guys who get stuck in Argentina after running out of money and we watch their journey as they both find different ways to survive in a foreign country. It’s a very heart wrenching coming of age movie, slow paced but worth the watch with its beautiful cinematography and score along with all main actors giving an incredibly authentic performance.
Meanwhile, Ben watched Ip Man (2008), a biopic about the legendary Bruce Lee, which is rooted in 1930s China during the invasion from Imperial Japan before WW2, a period and event often not talked about outside China. I wanted to watch this film, explains Ben, because I’ve been exploring the martial arts genre.
Even for those of us who frequently consume media from different countries, the challenge threw up some welcome surprises. Blake Everett watched the Hungarian movie Kontroll (2003). I enjoy watching films from different countries, says Blake, but I realised that a lot of central European countries have slipped under the radar for me. I found this movie to be a pleasant surprise, it is a multi-genre masterpiece that is hard to describe, yet absolute worth it, if you are willing to look in an unlikely place you might find something worthwhile that goes against your expectations.
Overall, says Owen, I feel like you gain a lot from consuming media from different cultures as it opens the doors to different worlds, stories and joys and I think it helps you keep an open mind. Ben suggests that the major benefit of consuming from wider culture is this education in more local, yet important, events of history, which is echoed by Billy, who adds that you are able to further your understanding of how the rest of the world live and view themselves, and learn more about other people’s ways of life, leading us to become better and more understanding people. Perhaps most importantly, I really recommend trying to watch something unfamiliar, writes Jess, because you could be missing out on a world of content you never knew existed or hadn’t really considered trying before.
Contributors: Owen Ashton, Keisha Bartlett, Sam Beacall, Billy Buckley, Abi Drew, Conal Dwyer, James Edwards, Blake Everett, Ben Holdsworth, Demi Hudson, Jess Jones, Fiers Lewin, Ole Meredith, Celyn Williams
