In this week’s episode, guest Bruno Guaraná discusses his article “Taís Araújo: The Black Helena against Brazil’s Whitening Television,” which traces key moments in the television career of one of Brazi’s most popular television celebrities Taís Araújo, including the several times she has been slated as “the first black protagonist” on different television shows. Guaraná argues that, against Brazilian television’s practices of whitening raced subjects and pushing forth a colorblind ideology, the construction of Araújo’s star image has ultimately turned her into a popular symbol of black female resistance.
The End of the American Media Empires (with Michael Curtin)
In this week’s episode, guest Michael Curtin discusses his article “Post Americana: Twenty-First Century Media Globalization” a wide-reaching examination of the political and social forces that shaped the United States’ dominance in global media during the 20th century. Curtin argues that, after nearly a century of American hegemony, media industries are today growing more plastic and complicated, scaling their ambitions and operations in an increasingly dynamic environment filled with new technologies, shifting audiences, and emerging economies.
Translating Television in Latin America (with Laurena Bernabo)
In this week’s episode, guest Laurena Bernabo discusses her article “Progressive Television, Translation, and Globalization: The Case of Glee in Latin America” which analyzes the behind-the-scenes production process to dub the TV show Glee into Spanish for Latin American audiences. Bernabo demonstrates how managerial choices, talent availability, and narrative particularities shape the creative decisions for a show’s dubbing. In the specific case of Glee, these creative decisions significantly impact the translation of the show’s attempts at representing various identities, such as gender, race, and sexuality. Bernabo argues for the importance of studying production processes and translated texts together to account for how ideologically rich representations circulate across linguistic and national contexts.
Anime against Neoliberalism in Chile (with Camilo Diaz Pino)
In this week’s episode, guest Camilo Diaz Pino discusses his article “Weaponizing collective energy: Dragon Ball Z in the anti-neoliberal Chilean protest movement” which analyzes how the 2011 student-led protests in Chile borrowed icons from the popular anime show to foster a sense of collective struggle. The mobilization of the “genki dama” captured the need for solidarity among various protest groups as they fought the continued privatization of public services in the country. Diaz Pino argues that this case study illustrates the powerful influence of Japanese media in Latin America and the need to study transnational media flows that do not intersect with Anglo-American perspectives.
Welcome to the Global Media Cultures podcast!
In this short episode, I recount the origins of the series and explain what I hope listeners take away from these conversations over the next three months.
This is a public humanities project in that it aims to connect scholars of global media studies, particularly those early in their careers, to an audience beyond the academy. The podcast series is intended as a teaching resource for those in higher education and as an introduction to these topics for anyone interested in how media shapes our understanding of the world.
Episode Transcript (opens as PDF)
Show Notes
00:50 The article on luxury movie theaters in India: “A Global Cinematic Experience: Cinépolis, Film Exhibition, and Luxury Branding”
00:53 The article on digital technologies used at airports: “The Datalogical Drug Mule”
00:57 The article on Netflix original series in Mexico: “Luis Miguel: La serie, Class-Based Collective Memory, and Streaming Television in Mexico”
Global Media Cultures Podcast 