American Creative Industries - The Research Proposal

This presence has changed much of the personal behavior of individual spectators. A most relevant example in this case is given by the Cosby Show. In the series, Bill Cosby played a father of five and his real life expertise and education in child psychology offered screen information on how to deal with young and older children. This inspired several viewers to change their approach to children and learnt valuable parenting lessons. As a result then, series and films represented one more step in the process of cultural globalization.

Another important mention that has to be made refers to the stories at the basis of the American films. In this line of thoughts, many works are based on real life events outside the United States, which introduce the world watching the American films to the foreign stories of the movie characters (Marling, 2006). Examples of this category include Schindler's List, Last of the Mohicans or the Passions of the Christ. Leaving aside the controversy raised by Mel Gibson's picture, movies of foreign theme support globalization (and not Americanization) as they present to the entire world a story from another region. Schindler's List has for instance revealed the struggles in Nazi Germany and has introduced the world to some heart touching stories from the period. Cold Mountain was for instance filmed in Romania, a European country often revealing a damaged international reputation. The film has however managed to capture the beauties of the land and has opened the eyes of foreigners to the region. American films often promote local cultures and have the ultimate result in an increased number of tourists who want to visit Romanian setting of Cold Mountain or the Tunisian settings of Star Wars. Finally, the Hollywood films play the role of introducing the viewer to a more open minded society and the most relevant examples in this sense is the integration of homosexuality in the film topics. Brokeback Mountain is the most outstanding member in the category.

5. Concluding Remarks

Globalization is often understood in terms of economy, technology and politics. However, it must also be assessed in terms of cultural influences. Globalization represents the totality of processes by which national features transcend boundaries and are adopted by foreigners. A significant determinate of this state of events is the creativity industry, represented hereby by the American film making industry. It plays major parts in expanding globalization from three notable standpoints.First of all, American films introduce the multinational brands to global markets, open doors to international success and increase demand for their products. Secondly, they promote the American values to the world; and third, by basing the film stories on non-American events and by filming in different regions, they introduce the international viewer to different parts of the globe and support tourism in the respective zones.

The American film industry is the most relevant example of international trade with cultural products. Despite its massive importance however, the Hollywood movies have been blamed for promoting Americanization and for stifling local cultures. Nevertheless, in spite of the negative perceptions, the American film industry is likely to continue its exports of creativity products and to massively distribute entertainment creations all over the world (Yale Center for the Study of Globalization, 2002).

References

Beck, U., Sznaider, N., Winter, R., 2003, Global America?: The Cultural Consequences of Globalization, Liverpool University Press, ISBN 0853239185

Bogart, L., 2000, Commercial Culture: The Media System and the Public Interest, 2nd Edition, ISBN 0765806053

Dorthea, N., 2007, Why the American Film Industry is So Popular, http://www.daria.no/skole/?tekst=9099lastaccessed on March 19, 2009

Eckes, a.E., Zeiler, T.W., 2003, Globalization and the American Century, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0521009065

Kawachi, I., Wamala, S.P., 2007, Globalization and Health, Oxford University Press, ISBN 019517299X

Marling, W., 2006, How "American" is Globalization? JHU Press, ISBN 0801883539

Nash, C., 2009, the Positive Effects of Globalization, Enzine Articles, http://ezinearticles.com/?the-Positive-Effects-of-Globalization&id=1126427lastaccessed on March 19, 2009

Pillai, P., 2008, Negative Effects of Globalization, Buzzle, http://www.buzzle.com/articles/negative-effects-of-globalization.htmllastaccessed on March 19, 2009

Stephan, a., 2005, Americanization and Anti-Americanization: The German Encounter with American Culture After 1945, Berghahn Books, ISBN 1571816739

2002, Hollywood in the Era of Globalization, Yale Center for the Study of Globalization, http://yaleglobal.yale.edu/display.article?id=479&page=2lastaccessed on March 19, 2009

2003, American Film Industry, Knowledge Rush, http://knowledgerush.com/kr/encyclopedia/American_film_industry/lastaccessed on March 19, 2009

2008, Ford Cars in Movies, World Car Fans, http://www.worldcarfans.com/2060223.001/ford-cars-in-movieslastaccessed on March 19, 2009

2009, Introduction to Creative Industries: The Case of United Kingdom and Implementation Strategies in Hong Kong, Honk Kong Arts Development Council, http://www.hkadc.org.hk/en/infocentre/research/report_200005lastaccessed on March 19, 2009

2009, Movies Tagged with McDonald's, Spout, http://www.spout.com/members/0/tags/McDonalds/MemberTagFilms.aspxlastaccessed on March 19, 2009

2009, What Is Globalization? Globalization101, http://www.globalization101.org/lastaccessed on March 19, 2009.....