Telenovelas push social issues

During our class discussion and the reading about telenovelas in Latin America, I was interested in the concept of “social merchandising.” The reading discussed that in these telenovelas, many of the plots were based on real social problems that these countries were facing. The idea was, and still is, that telenovelas are so popular that people take the messages, that are being related through the characters and the plot, to heart. In an article that I found on the internet (see link below) it mentions that everyone in these countries watches telenovelas.

“Residents of shacks in frontier towns in Amazonia and high-rise apartments in São Paulo, wealthy matrons and humble maids, children and their grandparents, attorneys and janitors (and even many intellectuals who insist that they despise television) all share a common fascination with the characters and the plot convolutions of hit novellas.”

The creators of these telenovelas strongly believe that this a great way to reach audiences about incredibly important subjects. In the reading, it mentions that in Brazil specifically, many telenovelas’ messages go toward reducing the infant mortality rate. The article I posted below is specifically about the telenovelas in Brazil. It also mention that sometimes they use “social merchandising” even when it isn’t worked into the plot. The example that it gave includes a character seeing a poster on the wall about a particular issue or campaign and stopping in the middle of the telenovela to promote the campaign.

Also, in class, it was mentioned that “social merchandising” may also exist in the United States through an accepted body image. I believe that it shouldn’t be called “social merchandising” because I don’t think that pushing this image on people, both men and women, is intentional necessarily. I think the American society has come to except these images and it isn’t intentionally putting them on display on television. However, I do think that “social merchandising” exists in shows like “Secret Life of an American Teenager” where the message of preventing teenage pregnancy is so obviously being shoved in the viewers’ faces.

In closing, I think American people are so overexposed to media that “social merchandising” isn’t as effective and shows in America don’t have as much power of voice because there are so many that are popular.


The Brazilian Telenovelas Social Merchandising

Hollywood's multiple levels of dominance

When considering the reasons for Hollywood’s dominance of the film industry I think of multiple reasons and in reality there are probably hundreds of reasons that people could think of. Hollywood has always been a dominating force in the film industry and most countries around the world consume form of media from our country as well as many other forms of media in the United States.

One main reason I can think of as a reason for this dominance is Hollywood produces the best films. This may seem like such a simple reason, but it is logical. If the films that were being produced in Hollywood weren’t the highest quality, than other countries would be less likely to consume these productions the quantities that they do.

Another reasons for Hollywood dominance, I believe, is it has grown so dominant that there is very little chance that anyone will be able to take over that dominance. Essentially, Hollywood is an oligopoly, because there are few dominant companies and they can control the condition of the market because of this. And with the oligopoly creating top quality products, it makes it even harder to compete with it.

Third, the Hollywood film industry is much more technologically advance than a lot of other places around the world. By the use of this prolific technology other film producing countries cannot keep up with Hollywood. Although there are many other countries that produce films, Hollywood produces so many high quality films because of the advanced technology.

And lastly, I believe the whole “ambience” of Hollywood plays a huge role in their dominance. Hollywood is the place to be for people who want to make it big and become famous, particularly in the film industry. This attracts all of the best talent, in every aspect of the production, from around the world and therefore making the talent pool in Hollywood the greatest.

China's resistance to media giants

Media giants or conglomerates have been dwindling. There are now only seven major media giants: The Walt Disney Company, Viacom, New Corporation, Bertelsmann, Vivendi Universal, Sony, and AOL Time Warner. These companies own the vast majority of the media around the world. With so few media outlets competing, there is less pressure to provide the public with all of the information.

These companies are able to continuously provide only the information that they want to provide because there is no threat of them being passed up by another media source. These seven companies are what local media are constantly competing with. The local news is an important source of many communities around the world but with media giants airing national news at the same times as local news, there is a fear that local news will be faded out.

However, there is one part of the world that has fought back against these media giants: China. China has slowly let these media giants into their country through certain mediums and airwaves. However, the difference between China and many other countries is that they make sure to maintain control of their airwaves. In some form or another, China is a media giant in itself because of the information flow it controls.

In the article posted below they mention “the major theme is, the government is focused on promoting its local media to a scale and profitability that it can withstand competition.” Although, some of these media giants appear in the China media circuit, they aren’t the big names in town. The article specifically mentions News Corp, who is owned by Rupert Murdoch, and the fact that out of the $30 billion in company revenues in 2009, China made up for less than 1% of that total. One of the television channels they own, Xing Kong, is a top ten channel but still only has a 3-4% share of viewership.

China has made sure that media giants haven’t come to own their airwaves and done an excellent job at that. They do control what their citizens can look at in all forms of media, but they recognize the importance of local news and make sure these outlets have enough power.

Many media giants and other large companies, such as Google and eBay, have failed to gain any power or revenue in China due to the Chinese-based companies that sell the same thing. Some corporations have found success by selling programs to China’s top broadcasting companies. Disney has had success in China as well in the merchandising and theme park industry, building Disneyland in Hong Kong, with plans to build one in Shanghai.

Do you think other countries should take a lesson from China and start putting more regulations on the media giants and pushing toward more local media?

Link: Global media titans hit China wall, take local route