After the lecture I've decided to find out a bit more about what is globalisation? And is it good or bad?

Wikipedia:

Globalization (or Globalisation) refers to the increasingly global relationships of culture, people, and economic activity. It is generally used to refer to economic globalization: the global distribution of the production of goods and services, through reduction of barriers to international trade such as tariffs, export fees, and import quotas and the reduction of restrictions on the movement of capital and on investment. Globalization may contribute to economic growth in developed and developing countries through increased specialization and the principle of comparative advantage. The term can also refer to the transnational circulation of ideas, languages, and popular culture.

Critics of globalization allege that globalization's benefits have been overstated and its costs underestimated. Critics argue that it has decreased inter-cultural contact while increasing the possibility of international and intra-national conflict.

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Found this gcse bite size really useful for making it all really easy to understand!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/geography/globalisation/globalisation_rev1.shtml

We now communicate and share each other's cultures through travel and trade, transporting products around the world in hours or days. We are in a huge global economy where something that happens in one area can have knock on effects worldwide. This process is called globalisation.

What is globalisation?

Globalisation is the process by which the world is becoming increasingly interconnected as a result of massively increased trade and cultural exchange. Globalisation has increased the production of goods and services. The biggest companies are no longer national firms but multinational corporations with subsidiaries in many countries.

Globalisation has been taking place for hundreds of years, but has speeded up enormously over the last half-century.

Globalisation has resulted in:

• increased international trade
• a company operating in more than one country
• greater dependence on the global economy
• freer movement of capital, goods, and services
• recognition of companies such as McDonalds and Starbucks in LEDCs

Although globalisation is probably helping to create more wealth in developing countries - it is not helping to close the gap between the world's poorest countries and the world's richest.

The animation shows how wealth is distributed. Click on the income brackets to see where the richest and poorest countries are located.

Reasons for globalisation

There are several key factors which have influenced the process of globalisation:

• Improvements in transportation - larger cargo ships mean that the cost of transporting goods between countries has decreased. Economies of scale mean the cost per item can reduce when operating on a larger scale. Transport improvements also mean that goods and people can travel more quickly.
• Freedom of trade - organisations like the World Trade Organisation (WTO) promote free trade between countries, which help to remove barriers between countries.
• Improvements of communications - the internet and mobile technology has allowed greater communication between people in different countries.
• Labour availability and skills - countries such as India have lower labour costs (about a third of that of the UK) and also high skill levels. Labour intensive industries such as clothing can take advantage of cheaper labour costs and reduced legal restrictions in LEDCs.

Transnational corporations

Globalisation has resulted in many businesses setting up or buying operations in other countries. When a foreign company invests in a country, perhaps by building a factory or a shop, this is called inward investment. Companies that operate in several countries are called multinational corporations (MNCs) or transnational corporations (TNCs). The US fast-food chain McDonald's is a large MNC - it has nearly 30,000 restaurants in 119 countries

The majority of TNCs come from MEDCs such as the US and UK. Many multinational corporations invest in other MEDCs. The US car company Ford, for example, makes large numbers of cars in the UK. However, TNCs also invest in LEDCs - for example, the British DIY store B&Q now has stores in China.

Factors attracting TNCs to a country may include:

• cheap raw materials
• cheap labour supply
• good transport
• access to markets where the goods are sold
• friendly government policies

Positive impacts of globalisation

Globalisation is having a dramatic effect - for good or ill - on world economies and on people's lives.

Some of the positive impacts are:

• Inward investment by TNCs helps countries by providing new jobs and skills for local people.
• TNCs bring wealth and foreign currency to local economies when they buy local resources, products and services. The extra money created by this investment can be spent on education, health and infrastructure.
• The sharing of ideas, experiences and lifestyles of people and cultures. People can experience foods and other products not previously available in their countries.
• Globalisation increases awareness of events in far-away parts of the world. For example, the UK was quickly made aware of the 2004 tsunami tidal wave and sent help rapidly in response.
• Globalisation may help to make people more aware of global issues such as deforestation and global warming - and alert them to the need for sustainable development.

Negative impacts of globalisation

Critics include groups such as environmentalists, anti-poverty campaigners and trade unionists.

Some of the negative impacts include:

• Globalisation operates mostly in the interests of the richest countries, which continue to dominate world trade at the expense of developing countries. The role of LEDCs in the world market is mostly to provide the North and West with cheap labour and raw materials.
• There are no guarantees that the wealth from inward investment will benefit the local community. Often, profits are sent back to the MEDC where the TNC is based. Transnational companies, with their massiveeconomies of scale, may drive local companies out of business. If it becomes cheaper to operate in another country, the TNC might close down the factory and make local people redundant.
• An absence of strictly enforced international laws means that TNCs may operate in LEDCs in a way that would not be allowed in an MEDC. They may pollute the environment, run risks with safety or impose poor working conditions and low wages on local workers.
• Globalisation is viewed by many as a threat to the world's cultural diversity. It is feared it might drown out local economies, traditions and languages and simply re-cast the whole world in the mould of the capitalist North and West. An example of this is that a Hollywood film is far more likely to be successful worldwide than one made in India or China, which also have thriving film industries.
• Industry may begin to thrive in LEDCs at the expense of jobs in manufacturing in the UK and other MEDCs, especially in textiles.

Anti-globalisation campaigners sometimes try to draw people's attention to these points by demonstrating against theWorld Trade Organisation. The World Trade Organisation is an inter-government organisation that promotes the free flow of trade around the world.

Graphic Design & Postmodernism

jean-baudrillard-and-postmodernism

The most interesting aspect of this Baudrillard and post modernism lecture for me was about the advertising from about the 1950's in America that seeked to address consumer desires and aspirations, rather than showing how the products might be useful.

As the TV show Mad Men is popular at the moment, I could find quite a lot of examples of real adverts from this era (a lot that they wouldn't be able to get away with anymore!) and I found these interesting as they suggest fulfilment as the commodities are made equatable to desires and aspirations.

So here are some examples, that suggest to the viewer that buying a certain product will make them who they want to be,  or products that seem to suggest they will improve something maybe unrelated if you buy them.

I looked through so many examples which can be found by accessing these links, but I have just included a few that stood out to me:

Mad Men style advertising

New Yorker

you will stand out if you wear these clothes

a car for a bold new generation abcnews

This 1960s advertisement for Lucky Strike cigarettes shows a businessman lighting up. The caption on the photo reads, "Big Meeting!" The hit TV show "Mad Men," set in the 1960s, stays true to the time period when smoking was widespread. 

Graphic Design & Censorship and Truth

This is a subject I found quite interesting and even did some extra research for after the lecture. [see blog post]. It kind of relates to what I did my essay about - body image - as the use of photo manipulation is not only altering the image but allowing the way people feel about themselves and their bodies to be altered as they compare themselves.


I have found some examples of famous photographic manipulations examples used in advertising:


How much truth are we allowed to see with photographic manipulation?

guardian

The touched-up film poster

Keira Knightley is famously proud of her elfin figure. But it seems she was simply not up to scratch when it came to the poster for the movie King Arthur, and it was up to a Photoshop artist to invent what nature had only suggested, as these before and after shots demonstrate.

Emma watson has a missing leg in this burberry campaign! I found lots of examples of photoshop manipulations gone wrong following this.

In Ralph Laurens adverts the models were made digitally thinner, to the point where they are unrealistic and look ridiculous.

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I have also considered the issue of censorship and graphic design, finding these examples that have been banned by the advertising standards agency. It was interesting to talk to my friends about what is acceptable and what is not as we all had different opinions on what we as the viewer find offence. This is an issue I am quite interested in and can maybe lead into some ideas for my dissertation. 

- Censorship - what does society define as being right or wrong? What will we accept when we see it?

Ryan Air 2

 

These are very recent examples that were banned, as Ryanair were advertising the cabin crew in a pin up style, which left some feeling as if they were being sexually objectified.

Oh Lola

This advert was banned as it features the teenage Dakota Fanning posed provocatively with a flower bottle placed in between her legs, symbolising sexuality. 

D&G 2

 

This strange series of advertisements for D&G left many feeling offended as they depicted glamorous scenes of gang rape, for men and women.

H&M

H&M was criticised for using too skinny models.

Phones4u

This disrespectful ad had to be removed.

The question is should we be protected from images?

What are the ethics of digital manipulation? What should be censored?

Following on from the censorship and truth lecture, I have found examples of graphic design that have been edited, so we don't know the truth about the image, or have been censored from us. [see blog post].


I've done a bit more research by looking in to the ethics of digital manipulation. The question posed is: how much truth are we allowed to see with photographic manipulation?


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http://www.astropix.com/HTML/J_DIGIT/ETHICS.HTM

How can we believe anything we see anymore? With today's technology, we can literally do anything we want with images.



When photography was first invented, its overwhelming power came from the fact that it recorded nature more realistically than any other art form had ever done before. Because of this, people trusted it and believed it portrayed "reality" and "truth".
But, just as story telling could portray the "truth" with an accurate accounting of the facts, it could just as easily become fiction. Fake and manipulated photographs - visual fiction - began circulating not long after the invention of photography.

This is maybe one of the most famous examples of image manipulation before the invention of photoshop. In 1917, Elise Wright, age 16, and her cousin Frances Griffiths, age 10, used a simple camera to produce what they claimed were photographs of fairies in their garden in Cottingley, England

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When we correct, manipulate and enhance images in Photoshop, we must deal with questions of both ethics and aesthetics.

Aesthetics, on the other hand, deal with the nature of beauty, art and taste, and things that are pleasing in appearance.

Ethics are a set of rules that we invent that define what we think is good and bad. The dictionary says ethics are "a set of moral principles or values" and that ethical means "conforming to accepted professional standards of conduct".


With digital processing, there is almost no limit to what can be done to an image, and many things are done to images with the best intentions. The question is, when does the pursuit of aesthetics violate our ethics?


Changes can be made to images that are undetectable, so much so that there is now discussion that photographs will no longer be allowed as evidence in courts of law.


Today's viewers however, are very sophisticated visually. They know full well that anything, literally, can be done to an image. They have seen dinosaurs and aliens portrayed with lifelike realism in the movies. Problems arise though because viewers expect to be fooled in the movies, and tend to get upset and feel betrayed when they are fooled in an allegedly factual medium such as the news business.


How much is too much, how far is too far?

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Graphic Design as Communication


This example shows how graphic design can be powerful, and maybe even have negative effects, so it does need to be censored to protect the viewer.

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The last example made me look on the ASA website, and I found their  codes of advertising, which give advice for advertisers, so that things aren't made that could potentially offend people.

Points include:

• Care should be taken when featuring or addressing children in marketing communications.
• The way in which children perceive and react to marketing communications is influenced by their age, experience and the context in which the message is delivered. Marketing communications that are acceptable for young teenagers will not necessarily be acceptable for younger children. The ASA will take those factors into account when assessing whether a marketing communication complies with the Code.
• Marketers should take account of the prevailing standards in society and the context in which a marketing communication is likely to appear to minimise the risk of causing harm or serious or widespread offence.

Graphic Design & Identity

You can chose who you want to be with your identity - using your website and business skills to say things about you to potential clients who haven't met you yet.


Here is an example of how identity can be shown using graphic design: Business cards from previous LCA students.


There are so many different examples of identities for graphic designers out there. The most obvious, and example that has to get the identity over the quickest is business cards, but there are many other mediums, such as websites, stationary, leaflets etc that can be used.

What does your identity say about you?

This can be seen through graphic design from not only what your actual design looks like, to what stock you print on, what print finishes you choose etc... For example, a business card that is embossed or has foiling on it may suggest that the designer is superior to others, as the use of this print finish proves that they know how to do this process.

I have researched what is identity in graphic design? [see blog post]