The Impact of Satellite Television on Turkish-Australians
Changing Notions of Identity in Diaspora
By
030402068
Submitted to
Gokcen Karanfil
For
MMC220 Theories of Mass Communication
Faculty of Communication, Izmir University of Economics
(Fall 2008)
Abstract
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Keywords:
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The Impact of Satellite Television on Turkish-Australians
Changing Notions of Identity in Diaspora
Introduction
The modern world is developing through a new stage in which the interaction between global
and local interests is gathering momentum. Customary barriers - imagined as cultures,
communities, nations or even geography - that previously restricted exchanges between
different social groups have become more fragile. The developments of the new global order
which assist the movements of people, ideas and things - through technology as much as
politics - are pushing the boundaries of traditional ways of identity formation. Arjun
Appadurai notes, for instance, that the loyalty of the people of the Philippines to American
popular songs has exceeded the limits of the American people, in that the population of the
Philippines, "seems to have learned to mimic Kenny Rogers and the Lennon sisters, like a vast
Asian chorus" (1990: 298). At the centre of this process lies the tension between cultural
homogenisation and cultural heterogenisation.
at the core of discussions on globalization, “at the political level, one question has
predominated: that of the nation-state. Is it over and done with, or does it still have a vital role
to play?” (Jameson 2000: 50i) For some cultural theorists, globalisation is a process towards a
homogenised, “borderless world” as a consequence of global flows of capital, culture,
information, trade and people (Ohmae, 1996). The argument is that the production of a
universally homogenous consumer culture renders national and natural borders obsolete.
Kenichi Ohmae (1996ii) claims that globalisation leaves us with a global logic which functions
in
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holding nation-states together” (18). This particular perspective on globalisation announces
the diminishing of the nation-state, the rise of Western cultural imperialism and the
replacement of national culture with the global.
Globalisation as cultural heterogeneity
Mike Featherstone is one among many strong opponents of the discourse proclaiming the
demise of nation-states. According to Featherstone, it is
misleading to conceive a global culture as necessarily entailing a weakening of the sovereignty of
nation-states which, under the impetus of some form of teleological evolutionism or other master logic,
will necessarily become absorbed into larger units and eventually a world state which produces cultural
homogeneity and integration (1990: 1).
Furthermore, as an answer to his question regarding the vitality of the nation-state in the
current late-modern condition, Jameson argues, “that the nation-state today remains the only
concrete terrain and framework for political struggle” (2000: 65).
It is a key component of homogenisation theory that globalisation promotes a
synchronised and standardised culture, promoting and benefiting from the global spread of
consumerism. However, the major problematic underlying the notion of homogenisation, in
relation to the conventional globalisation theory, is that it suggests a hegemonic agenda, an
idea to which many theorists do not subscribe. One such theorist, Tomlinson, argues against
the claim that “globalised culture is the installation, world-wide, of one particular culture born
out of one particular, privileged historical experience” (1999: 23). The Turkish-Australian
subjects of this study offer valuable lessons about the ways in which a migratory experience
can promote diversity in one’s identity rather than becoming overwhelmed by a homogenous
global culture.
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List of References
Abadan-Unat, N. (2002) Bitmeyen Göç: Konuk İşçilikten Ulus-ötesi Yurttaşlığa. İstanbul:
İstanbul Bilgi Üniversitesi Yayınları.
Abadan-Unat, N. and Kemiksiz, N. (1986) Türk Dış Göçü 1960-1984 Yorumlu Bibliografya.
Ankara: A.Ü.S.B.F. ve Basın-Yayın Yüksek Okulu Basımevi.
Ahmed, S. (1999) Phantasies of Becoming (the Other), European Journal of Cultural Studies
2, 1: 47-63.
Aksoy, A. and Robins, K. (1997) Peripheral Vision: Cultural Industries and Cultural Identities
in Turkey. Environment and Planning. 29, 11: 1951.
Appadurai A. (1990) Disjuncture and Difference in the Global Cultural Economy, in
Featherstone, M. (ed.) Global Culture: Nationalism, Globalisation and Modernity. London:
Sage.
Barker, C. (1999) Television, Globalization and Cultural Identities. Buckingham: Open
University Press.
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