Student Moderator: Erik Gudris
Faculty Respondent: Martin Roberts
(Ph.D., Cambridge University)
Mr. Roberts is a former faculty member in the Film and Media Studies program at MIT. He is also trained in French and comparative literatures. His current research interests are globalization processes related to media, documentary and ethnographic film and video, and global music. He has been published on a wide range of subjects, from French social theory and conceptions of "bricolage" to global music and the film, Baraka.

PANEL:

Vivek Rai
The Impact of Media Globalization on the Third World Rural Viewership
(Click here to download paper)

Abstract: Using India as an example, this paper will examine the effects of multi-national cable and satellite television. Primary focus will be on public broadcasting (i.e., the introduction of competition for advertising revenue), and the subsequent change in content towards a more urban middle-class consumer audience and away from rural society. The former has greater access to electronic media while the latter finds itself increasingly marginalized in terms of content. The presenter will link issues of increased rural-to-urban migration due to these influences, as well as an increase in crime, as a result of higher aspirations, which are not backed by adequate economic infrastructures while looking at the cultural impact of an urban medium on a rural sector.

Tatiana Reis
Globalization Theories and the Role of the Internet in Political Struggle
(Click here to download paper)

Abstract: This paper discusses the balance of power in a globalized world and the role played by the Internet. With regard to world order, the presenter will analyze and draw critiques from key concepts in the book Empire that exemplify the existence of supranational power and the role of the multitude as an alternative for capitalism. Further analysis will show that national boundaries and state power still represent the driving force in creating and maintaining the contradictions created by capitalism. Also, in using the framework of Empire, these critiques can be applied to the role of Internet in creating a space for discussion and a new type of social movement capable of change.