What is the current cultural situation in these regions -

Question

Aims:

To develop an area of original research into globalization, media and technology

To apply the research tools, theoretical concepts and academic conventions introduced in this course and previous courses to a specific research question

To develop your lucidity, pith and craft as a writer

TASK

Assignment One is a 1000 word proposal outlining the details of your proposed research project. This is an individual assignment. You will identify the chosen media artefact or text you will be glocalizing, justify its relevance to our course themes and provide a region analysis of the host and target markets.

ELEMENTS

Your proposal should consist of the following elements:

a) Introduction/Rationale (approx. 250 words)

i. Identify the media artefact you are glocalizing.

Note: You want to do slightly more than identify the text/artefact. Where in historical and geographic space/place is this text located? For what historical and geographic space/place will you be glocalizing this text?

ii. Justify your choice

Why have you chosen this artefact/text? And why have you chosen to glocalize for a particular region? Do competing texts in this region lack cultural sensitivity? Or perhaps there is no availability of this particular text/artefact. Is there an economic reason for targeting this market?

b) Region Analysis of Host and Target Markets (approx 750 words)

This section will be divided into two parts. The first part will include an analysis of what I'm calling the ‘host market' or the original region/market for which your product was intended. The second will involve analysing the ‘target market' or the region for which you will be glocalizing. A region analysis could involve a number of issues. Below I outline the three key areas you want to address but feel free to include additional relevant material in your specific analyses (I imagine that much of your analysis will depend on the type of artefact/text you have selected i.e. a videogame, an advertisement, a website, etc.). Also, don't feel that you have to address economic, cultural and political issues separately for each region. What you should be slowly realizing in this course is the extent to which these three lenses are very much connected to each other. Structure this section in a way that works for you, so long as you are addressing and discussing the economic, political and cultural lenses of each region.

i. What is the current economic situation in these regions?
In order to determine how you will go on to glocalize your chosen text, you need to have a good understanding of the current standard of living in both your host and target regions. Have you selected a text that is from a developed nation with a very high quality of life? If so, you need to consider whether your target region can afford to purchase this text or if they even have the resources to use it (for e.g. Internet access). How might you adapt this text to suit the economic conditions of your target region?

ii. What is the current political situation in these regions?

How politically stable are your host and target regions? Is the government in your target region welcoming to foreign imports? Is it a secular state or is it governed by religious laws? What rights do the citizens in this region have? What activities are legal and illegal? What political party is currently in power? Avoid simply answering these questions without drawing connections to how this impacts your text. You need to articulate the significance of the political state in each region to the ways in which your text has been shaped by the host region and how it will be shaped for the target region.

iii. What is the current cultural situation in these regions?

‘Culture' is a much more difficult concept to describe in comparison to politics and economics. For that reason it will require more effort on your part to describe the cultural situation of your host and target regions. You might want to narrow this to a specific analysis of a sub­culture in your region that most relates to the text you are glocalizing. For example, if you have chosen to glocalize a first­person shooter videogame, you might want to do some research on the ‘gaming culture' in your host and target regions. What demographic in each region plays videogames?

What sort of cultural values does this group have? If you want to glocalize an advertisement for a cosmetic product then you might want to devote some of this discussion to understanding the culture of beauty in these regions. What type of beauty is most valued? What practices do these women employ in order to uphold certain beauty ideals? How does this shape the ways in which your text will be glocalized? Another way of putting it is this: What are the cultural demographics of your target market?

*Note* I will say this again because it's very important. You need to be tying your analysis here to the choices you will be making regarding your text. This shouldn't be a region analysis with no application to your text. After reading this section, it should be very clear to me that you understand the basic cultural, economic and political situation in each region AND that you understand how this will affect your re­design.

c) Works Cited (not included in your word count)

This is meant only for works that you have actually cited in your proposal. If you've consulted sources but haven't cited them in the proposal, I shouldn't see them referenced in your Works Cited. Consult an academic style guide to ensure you are correctly formatting your sources. Make sure the references page begins on a separate page and that you organise it alphabetically by author's surname. This is a standard references page, not an annotated one (annotations will not be read or graded if they are included).

Given that this particular option is not as focused on scholarly material, I do not require that all of your sources be academic.You will likely have to consult other, non­academic material in order to gain an understanding of your chosen text and each region. Though your sources do not necessarily have to be all academic, they should be credible. If you're looking up statistics for a certain country, for example, use a credible database or government report. I should not see Wikipedia references or quotes from a video game forum moderator used as reliable evidence. If you are in doubt about the credibility of a source please consult with me first.

For this proposal I would like to see a minimum of 7­10 credible sources. You are welcome to use more than 10 sources but I imagine you will at least need 7­10 in order to provide a comprehensive analysis of your host and target regions and of your chosen text.