Blog 7: Brief of Ghana's media

*In this week, I learned about African media. For me, African continent itself is not familiar with myself, and I noticed my stereotype-image about African Media. Actually, I was surprised about the freedom of media in Africa. Especially last week I learned a lot about media limitation in the Middle East so I was more surprised about free media in Africa, even though both countries have a history of colonialism from European countries. In addition to my stereotypical image about Africa, a lot of African countries  are still developing countries and have many poor people so media access is not as big deal as other areas. However, for real, it was wrong, rather their lives are improving along with the media developing. Throughout the reading, I feel such  a strong power of language. I had no idea about that, because I have never felt such a power of language in Japan, where there is almost only one ethnicity. Also, in the class of reading discussion, the guest speaker, Naa from Ghana, told us a lot of interesting facts in her country. Then I was interested in some points about Ghana media, in this blog I want to show the brief of media facts in Ghana and media power there.

- According to GHANA EMBASSY HP, Ghana has 75 different ethnic groups. About the language, the official language is English but school uses both English and nine other local languages. The most widely spoken local languages are Ga, Dagomba, Akan and Ewe. In terms of education, Primary and secondary school are free and compulsory between the age of 6 to 14. In 1996, 76% of primary-school aged children were enrolled, but only 31% of secondary-school aged children entered school. Higher education is provided by University of Ghana etc.
- I think these facts relate with media developing in Ghana. Ghana is the country which has media diversity, such as broadcasting TV, Radio, print media, and internet. As Naa said in the class, getting internet access is not as expensive as we think. So I think the biggest influence for media diversity is education level. When people try to get information from print media, they have to being able to read and understand English, which is common thing with internet but Education is needed. However, in terms of TV or radio, which is almost run by local, people can get information even if they can only understand local African languages, which Education is not necessarily. In fact, the rates of radio owning is highest in Ghana. And then, it was really making sense that Naa said in even university, internet is not big deal because it is not indispensable for people. Their lives' central media is radio or TVs rather than internet. I think this is really good trend because easy radio access make more and more people possible to get information and it connects to Ghana itself's development. If you see this Modern Ghana HP, you can tell how their online-media is developed and expanded. It shows the level of people who are taking advantage of internet because it should fulfill the demand of users who are educated.

-From the Press reference HP, I learned how important for Ghana's developing the media influence is.  The head of article says "Ghana has vibrant press that plays a key role in political discourse, national identity, and popular culture. " in 19th century, the media worked as civilization's voice and this role is still continuing now. It helped the developing democracy in Ghana. Throughout entire statement inside this homepage, media takes an important role at every aspects of Ghana development.
-I could know media is indispensable element for Ghana. Media helped a lot of changing such as democracy acting or  campaign for independent. I didn't know these facts before this week's lecture, discussion and my small research. Because of my stereotyping, I was blind about rapid changing in Ghana or other African countries. Now I really know in the near future African countries would have big powers because they have a media free, which promotes the countries development, or more media free is necessarily for countries' growth.

Blog6: Media in Syria

* In this week, I learned a lot of countries' media in Middle East. In common, media in Middle East is strict controlled by government. Then, I was wondered what is civilizations' entertainment in such a restrained media countries. Generally speaking, now is the media-entertainment generation. Of course, media is one of methods of getting information but I think the entertainment aspect is really important. From the class lecture, Syria is the one of most media controlled countries. So, I am interested in Syria's entertainment TV channels. In this blog, I will show the Syria's media control,  one of Organizations which is making efforts toward media free, and finally Syria's entertainment channel.

-According to BBC news's Syria media profile, Syria was the world's deadliest country in 2014. Syria is actually " enforce an information dictatorship" country. The government and ruling party operate broadcast and print media. Media in government-controllled areas are strongly supportive of the president. While, Satellite TV is the most popular medium and non-Syrian TVs have big audience. Also, radio and internet are key platforms for Syria's opposition media. Some radio stations are run by NGOs, with Western support. In the terms of Internet, there are 5.9 million users, by 2014. There are heavy government controls like filtering but still internet service, such as Facebook, is used to platform for journalists or some dissenting civilizations.
-I could know how strict the government restraint media is, especially TV broadcast and print media. On the other hand, I could know that people are using media for entertainment too, like Satellite TV. Also a number of watching un-Syrian TV programs show people's interest out of country. Radio and internet take really important rules because people who are challenging media free need methods of transmitting or exchanging opinions, even though these media are still watched by government.

-Related with acting toward media free, as I mentioned, there are a lot of victims, who are  heroes fighting with enormous knowledge and courage against government or other forces. I found an organization homepage, Free Syria's Silenced Voice. This is an organization gathered by some international, regional and Syrian organization in order to the campaign for the release of civil society activities, media and medical workers arbitrarily detained forcibly disappeared in Syria, through  documentation, raising awareness, advocacy and mobilization. Inside the page, there are many heroes' photos with explanation about the date they are arrested, abducted or even killed. This is really shocked for me. They didn't do anything wrong! They were just trying to get media free which is of course the right for citizens! At the same time, I was surprised about this strong messages because if people say something against government, they are always exposed fear of death. I just want everyone outside of Syria to know these fact and their courage.

-Finally, as I said, I was interested in Syria's entertainment channel. I searched and found one of some, which is Syrian National TV. The introduction says that it is Syrian Satellite Channel which providing a variety of general-interest programs. The channel is owned by RTV Syria and broadcasting mostly Arabic but also English or some languages. This shows the entertainment aspect of Satellite TV. Also showing the people's connection with other countries because they can watch some foreign programs. In my opinion, civilization needs outside power to get their media free. In order to that, the TV broadcasting is going to be the entrance for Syria's connection with other countries. I hope finally people could get media free in the near future.

Blog5: Bollywood's Influence

Introduction

    I read"The 'Bollywoodization' of the Indian Cinema: Cultural Nationalism in a Global Arena" (2008 by New York University), and there are a lot of interesting discussions in the book. It is said that Bollywood is" Indian pop culture"or Cultural Industry. The element of cultural representation is emphasized a lot. I really agree with it and I think Bollywood is actually the biggest Cultural Industry in India.

   Then, in the reading discussion on Wednesday, I came up with some ideas about the question of " Does Bollywood work as preventing people or government  from conflict between countries or is it just under covering the conflict?" I think this is really interesting to think about and I will try to find an idea for that.

Some elements for Bollywood
- According to India Together , Indian culture  is difficult to say like this is India. Rather there are many varieties of civilizations, beliefs, religions,values and cultures. These diversities influence to Bollywood movies because, as I mentioned, Bollywood is Cultural Industry in India. Movie is basically an entertainment for citizens so normally it is allowed to many varieties, but Bollywood should include some certain cultural elements as an Indian Culture representation toward the world. So cultural diversity makes making film in Bollywood a little difficult. However, it is also said that there is a common sense of Indian, which are very direct and open, like they wear their hearts on their sleeves. And also it says " You can recognize "Indianness" by tuning into People's hearts rather than by their external trappings." We can see it through Bollywood movies. The explanation of feeling by dancing and singing, which is the feature of Bollywood movies, is actually common points of all movies of Bollywood. This is cultural thing in India, at least Japanese people don't explain their feeling like that, and they have never tried to change this point. I guess it shows "Indianness" such as obeying their hearts, even if Bollywood movies are created toward the world consciously, and explanation of feeling by dance and song is not common all over the world.
- Also India is famous of diversity of religion. The biggest religion here is Hinduism, 84 present people have beliefs, and India is the biggest hinduism country. Religion influences culture and people's lives. The people who have another religion beliefs or don't have anything have no idea about other beliefs. Bollywood movies reflect some aspects of Hinduism. So it also shows what Hinduism is. People knows the diversity in India so Indian people are flexible about difference of religions and can enjoy as an entertainment.

Conclusion
  Bollywood movie is actually very popular all over the world.  This article says that Bollywood movie is full of action, music, dance, drama, romance, or fashion and these things are all family-friendly. I think this is one of important points of Bollywood. People from children to adults can enjoy Bollywood movies together on both of inside and outside of India. And then, throughout movies, people out of India can know Indian culture. As one idea for question of " Does Bollywood prevent India from conflict?", in my opinion, based on some research in this blog, at least Bollywood works as one of great industries that shows Indian culture. I cannot say Bollywood prevent India from conflict with other countries, which is over my small research, but it is certain that these movies make country of India more open and create opportunity for people in other countries to feel familiar with India. Perhaps, these small occasion would become linked to conflict-free. 

Blog4: Japanese Media system( from presentation)

*Japan's relationship with foreign countries.

-3 countries that influences to Japan by historical facts.-

South Korea: Japan occupied once and there are arguing about South Korea's injury from Japanese dominant.

China: Japan also occupied once and from that time to still now the two countries have a Senkaku Island Ownership dispute.

USA: Japan is an ally of USA after WW II. Okinawa was the place for terrible fighting at that time, so it has sad memories a lot. And still Okinawa is military base of USA and then sometimes protestant actings occur.

Japan x South Korea

-Korean wave

Japan has experienced huge Korean waves two times. The first Korean wave was 2004. The Korean Drama, Winter Sonata, was big hit in Japan and 50~60 women were crazy about Korean stars. At that time, Korean wave was old women's stuff so young generations were not interested in it at all. Then in 2005~2010, the number of watching Korean drama was increasing constantly then some K-pop groups are coming into Japan. One part of young generations are starting to have some interest about Korean music. Finally, in 2010~2011, this is called 2nd Korean wave. It includes both of K-drama and K-pop. This is like kind of  social phenomenon. The word of K-pop was expanded quickly and many broadcast stations competently made special program about K-pop or k-stars. Naturally, wave is calming down after some times, and from 2012, K-pop was forgotten by social. But still there are core fun of Korean culture, so I can say there is still Korean cultural soul in Japan.

Japan x China

-United movies

These two countries sometimes make united movies. One of succeeded movies is Red Cliff in 2008. The origin of movie is the Chinese old stories, The romance of the three Kingdom. So the director, many actors or filming place are almost China, and also language inside the movie is Chinese. But it also includes Japanese actors or staffs. In addition, it was published in both countries at almost same time. It means this is united movies. Japan and China are making movies together because their history's relation is really deep.
-China is famous about imitation of Japanese stuff in Japan. Their imitation is so accurate that everyone is laughing at that, rather than angry. The expansion of imitating is so big, like from Animation character to Clothing shops. More funny point is that their way of pretending is really rough and Chinese people don't feel guilty about that at all. I can say this is one of funny relationship between Japan and China.

Japan x USA
-Japan is ally of USA after defeat of WW II. The biggest relation is Okinawa and USA. Okinawa was the actually fighting place of Asia & Pacific theatre of WW II and dominated by USA. It has many sad memories about war here and still is one of military base of USA. Then sometimes protestant actings occur even now a days.
-I can say the huge connection between Japan and USA is Internet. In Japan, twitter, Facebook, Google, and Amazon are so famous and the center of Internet life. Every companies are from USA but there are also Japanese version, like Amazon Japan or Facebook Japan. It reflects cultural difference. The difference between Japan and USA is so huge that these companies needed to make Japanese branch to satisfy the Japanese people. For example, in terms of Facebook, the privacy setting was born in FB Japan. Japanese people hate the total exposure of their information, then FB Japan started the privacy setting service. This is also expanded all over the world now. I think the relationship of Japan and USA is really good balance inside of internet world.

* An extraction from Presentation on February  6th, Friday.