Brand New World
– claimed
Evidence
and
2 It has been
that before and for
3 Critics
argueAgainst
that because of time,
1 145 million people worldwide use
social networking sites such as
Facebook, Bebo and MySpace.
allowing people to build friendship
worldwide- cultural exchanges.
(T)
4 Microsoft dominants computer
operating systems, 92% of the
market. 55% of internet users use
Internet explorer and their Office
applications have made the company
over $11bn.
(T)
7 Disney products are popular across
the world, the company has profits of
$34 billion dollars. (LE)
10 French people would argue that
food is part of their national cultural
identity and mass produced fast food
undermines this identity.
(CP)
13 Despite concerns about working
practices and high level boycotts,
Nike has increased its profits.
(CP)
16 To protect Chinese language,
officials look at the names of new
products entering the country; they
have forced companies to change
over 2,000 to more Chinese sounding
words. (CP)
19 Microsoft’s dominance of
personal computing led to worries
that it had a monopoly, less choice
for consumers and potentially higher
prices. As a result the European
Union has forced Microsoft to make
its code open to other developers, so
that their programmes will work with
Microsoft’s systems. (T)
during the Iraq war, News
Corporation gave bias coverage,
failing to mention any opposition to
the war in the USA, UK or Iraq.
(NM)
5 Many bloggers use applications
that are provided by Multi-national
companies such as Google and
Microsoft.
(T)
8 Disney has popular theme parks in
Tokyo, Paris and Hong Kong.
(LE)
11 Italians are concerned at the
growth of Starbucks and their fast
coffee culture, in Italy the coffee
shop is the hub of the community, a
place to socialise and be friendly on
pavement locations. In the USA it is
natural to buy a coffee and run…
(CP)
14 In countries that produce Nike
products there is a huge trade in
counterfeit products of the same
brand!
(CP)
17 Fast food culture has lead to a
rapid increase in child obesity
problems across the developed
world. This has lead some
Governments, such as the British, to
ban junk food advertising to children.
(CP)
20 Google has started to digitised
millions of English language books,
which are out of copyright, so they
can be searched. (T)
language and cultural differences,
people on social networking sites
making friends only within a small
social sphere, that don’t cross country
boundaries. (T)
6 It has been claimed the multi-national
media companies have too much
political power; Margaret Thatcher,
John Major and Tony Blair all sort the
backing of Rupert Murdoch. In the
1992 election of John Major the Sun
printed the headline ‘It was the Sun wot
done it.’ (NM)
9 Google dominants internet searches,
37 million searches by over 750 million
users. (T)
12 In China it was seen as impolite for
children to choose or buy their own
food, the introduction of Happy Meals
by McDonalds has changed this
practice.
(CP)
15 In Saudi Arabia Barbie dolls are
banned from being sold, the
government says the dolls are antiIslamic and portray Jewish role models.
In the Middle East a number of
alternatives
are
manufactured,
including Fulla, who is sold in Brazil,
China and Egypt. (CP)
18 Local alternatives to multi-national
products have been developed, such as
Quibla Coke in the United Kingdom,
an Islamic alternative which gives 10%
of all its profits to charity.
(CP)
21 Commentators have argued that
Disney Theme parks disneyify (cleanse)
culture, would main street American
really look they that! Many French
people were against the Paris theme
park, believing it encouraged American
consumerism. Workers were also angry
at strict dress codes, which they
believed went against the French
culture of individualism. The park has
not been popular and has seen losses
each year from 1992. One commentator
called it a ‘culture Chernobyl’.
(LE)
22 The top ten grossing films of all
time have been all been produced by
American companies such as
Universal, 20th Century Fox and
Paramount. Titanic produced by
Paramount and 20th Century Fox
grossed $1.6 million dollars.
(LE)
25 McDonalds is the world’s biggest
fast-food chain, it operates in over
120 countries and sells to 54 million
customers a day. It employs 465,000
people. (CP)
23 There are 60 million bloggers
worldwide, allowing people to share
news and information that isn’t
dependant
on
multi-national
corporations. (T)
28 The European Union requires
50% of all T.V. programming to be
from Europe. France has increased
this to 60% but requires 40% to be in
native French language. (LE)
29 71% percentage of the global
music industry, worth $40 billion is
owned by four main companies, EMI
(UK), Universal (France-largest
share 71%), Sony (Japan/Germany),
and Warner (USA). (LE)
31 In some countries, such as China,
the internet and access to certain sites
is censored, so that the population
doesn’t
access
subversive
information.
International
Corporations, such as Google and
Yahoo, have colluded with the
government so they can have access
to growing markets. (T)
34 Because of the dominance of
Western multi-national companies
controlling music, it is difficult to get
reliable figures on the sales of nonEnglish language performers… (LE)
32 The best selling artists of all time
are the Beatles, Michael Jackson and
Elvis Presley. All English language
artists. The best selling album of all
time is Thriller by Michael Jackson.
(LE)
37 McDonalds has seen falling sales
due to concerns about health,
working practices and their impact
on the environment. (CP)
40 The film industries of other
countries can not compete with the
resources of the American multinational companies, meaning a
decline in home grown movies. 80%
of the films seen in Europe are
American. (LE)
26 It has been claimed that
McDonalds has been keen in
changing local taboos, such as eating
whilst walking in Japan! (CP)
35 We increasingly get our news
from a number of huge multinationals, Times Warner, Disney and
News
Corporation.
News
Corporation for example owns Sky,
Fox TV, the Times and Sun
Newspapers and My Space, this is
just a few! (NM)
38 A worker for Nike in Indonesia
would take a month to earn enough
for the trainers that they produce.
(CP)
41 The India sub-continent has a
thriving film industry, Bollywood
studios produce over a 1000 films per
year and have ticket sales of over 3.6
billion. The films show to audiences
in continents across the World. (LE)
24 Arabs have been incensed by their
portrayal in Disney films, such as in
Addalin, True Lies, and the Siege.
They believe that Disney portrays
Arabs as terrorists or murderers. In the
Middle East there have been
widespread boycotts of Disney
products. (LE)
27 In 1996 McDonalds opened its first
restaurant in India, the majority of the
population is Hindu and therefore
vegetarian, the cow is sacred. Some
people believed it showed that
McDonalds wasn’t sensitive to local
cultural differences. It was also accused
of selling French Fries cooked beef fat
within the country. This sparked
widespread
demonstrations
and
boycotts. (CP)
30
Worried
about
Microsoft’s
domination of the market, programmers
have come together to produce free
operating systems such as Linx, free
browsers, such as FireFox and free
word processing programmes such as
Open Office. (T)
33 Regional news broadcasters, such as
Al Jazeera, have become increasingly
popular. During the Iraq war the
network showed the impact of the war
on civilians, images that were being
censored by Western media. (NM)
36 McDonalds states that is offers
cultural alternatives in its different
restaurants across the world, in Chile,
customers can add avocado paste to any
sandwich! (CP)
39 McDonalds’ restaurants have been
the target of terrorist attacks in Russia,
Indonesia, Egypt, Ecuador, and Saudi
Arabia… Extremists attacking a
symbol of America. (CP)
42 In 1999 Joseph Bove concerned at
the impact of McDonalds on farming
practices, particularly the use of growth
hormones in beef farming, dismantled a
McDonald’s in his town of Millau.
(CP)
43 American owned Mattel is the
largest toy company in the world, its
main product Barbie has been sold in
150 countries across the world and
the company estimates that two are
sound every second. (CP)
46 Concerned about the rise of
English language culture on the
Internet, the French government has
funded a project to digitise French
literature. (T)
44 Mattel has adapted Barbie to
reflect different cultural groups,
including Hispanic and AfroCaribbean Barbie. (CP)
45 Only 18% of the World’s population
have access to the Internet, the lowest
penetration is in Africa with 4.7 %. The
Internet is not really the worldwide web
but North America Net (70%) (T)
47People
are
concerned
that
dominance of the media by a small
number of multi-nationals means
there is a limited number of
perspectives on World events. (NM))
51 Nike is the world’s largest
sportswear manufacturer; it operates
in 40 countries and has profits of
over $17 billion. (CP)
52 Children’s birthdays were not
usually celebrated in China, the
introduction and marketing of
McDonald’s birthday party meals has
changed this practice. (CP)
48 China has a quota on American
films, it allows only twenty a year to be
shown in the country (with are
politically appropriate), so that local
films receive a 50% share of the
market. (LE)
53 American movies collect half of all
their revenue from non-English
speaking audiences. (LE)