In this week’s lecture, I came across this new yet foreign hypothesis that the fundamental source of conflict in this new world will not be primarily ideological or primarily economic but the great divisions among humankind and the dominating source of conflict will be cultural (Huntington, 1993). This statement proves evident through the various news media broadcasting about International conflicts such as wars and violence. The most recent news to hit me was the war between Iraq and Gaza, Russia and Ukraine. A quick glance through these happenings shows the obvious signs of a difference in culture that provoked these wars. Huntington’s claim that the clash of civilizations will dominate global politics are somewhat true, however not in every case does violence solves our problems.
Media capitals, then, are sites of mediation, locations where complex forces and flows interact. They are neither bounded nor self-contained entities (Curtin, 2003). One example that comes to mind is Nickelodeon, an American basic cable and satellite television network broadcasting cartoon programs aimed at children and adolescents aged 8-16. I’ve been a loyal viewers even at the age of 20, and my favourite program by far is The Legend of Korra.
The series follows Avatar Korra, the successor of Aang from the previous series, as she faces political and spiritual unrest in a modernizing world. The feature of this series is Korra’s ability to “bend” all four Elements: fire, water, air and earth. Though this program’s young audiences are mostly in the West, the animation was set in an Asian-influenced world. With Korra’s ability to “bend” elements, this is the classical myths of a type of Chinese Martial Art that has been long foretold in Asian histories. The drawings are very similar to Japanese anime and has faced various claims that it is an anime work.
In the synopsis alone, I have been able to identified three different culture that has come together to work on a project that has since became a critical and commercial success in the West. This program obtained the highest viewers for an animated series in the United States in 2012. Therefore, this goes back to my understanding of our ever evolutional world that even though claims of the negativity of the clash of civilizations has been evident and has spread all over the media. There is no saying that it is a bad thing, from what I see, the clash of civilizations in “The legend of Korra” was an amazing art piece. And I can so say about this because media capitals are places where things come together and, consequently, where the generation and circulation of new mass culture forms become possible (Curtin, 2003).
Reference:
Curtin, M 2009, ‘Media capital: Towards the study of spatial flows’, International journal of cultural studies, Vol. 6, No. 2, pp. 202-228
Huntington, S 1993, ‘The Clash of Civilizations’, Foreign Affairs, Vol. 72, No. 3, pp. 22–49.
WASTED Paradise 