Trading Culture: Global Traffic and Local Cultures in Film and Television

This collection explores a variety of contemporary and historical issues related to the trade in cultural commodities between cultures, countries and continents. The contributors write from a variety of perspectives within the fields of film, television and cultural studies, and all touch upon the distinctiveness of cultural expression and the effects of the migration of cultural commodities across national boundaries. In UNESCO's language of international diplomacy, the promotion of cultural diversity has emerged, along with biodiversity, as a new ethical imperative. In 2005 its General Council - with the dissent of only two member states - supported the creation of a new international treaty, the Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions. In exploring some of the links between cultural and economic power, this book echoes the concerns of the Convention - that the neo-liberal international trading regime may have the consequence of reducing the public expression of cultural differences. However, the contributors reveal some of the complexities and contradictions of international trade and cultural exchange whether in the growing cultural markets of China, Brazil and India or in the two-way flows of largely Anglo-Saxon north Atlantic exchanges. And behind these investigations lie some larger questions about the links between cultural expression, cultural suppression and political violence.

Table of Contents:
Introduction: [Cultural Diversity and Cultural Trade], Sylvia Harvey Section One: Rethinking the Trade in Culture 1. Trade wars, culture wars, by Geoffrey Nowell-Smith; 2. Media policy-making in the free trade era: the impact of the GATS negotiations on audiovisual industries, by Des Freedman; 3. The 'wrong type' of Television: New Labour, British broadcasting and the rise and fall of an exports 'problem', by Simon Blanchard; 4. Indigenous culture and the politics of place: regulation for regionalism in British broadcasting, by Sylvia Harvey Section Two: National Industries: Global Currents 5. Ahead of the bandwagon: Lebanon's free media market, by Dima Dabbous-Sensenig; 6. Trading genie out of the bottle: g lobal currents in India's film and television industries, by Manjunath Pendakur; 7. Going global: the Brazilian scripted film, by Lucia Nagib; 8. Copycat TV and new trade routes in Asia and the Pacific, by Albert Moran and Michael Keane; 9. From Latin Americans to Lations: Spanish-language television and its audiences in the United States, by John Sinclair; 10. National cinema as cultural exchange: the international circuit of Scottish films, by Duncan Petrie Section Three: National Cultures in a Transatlantic Context 11. Special Relatinships: Anglo - American screen romance and nationality, by Sarah Street; 12. American production in Britain during the 1950s: culture, economics and geography, by Tom Ryall; 13. Adventure, exchange and identity: British, American, and Un-- American involvement in costume adventure TV series and films in the postwar era, by Steve Neale; 14. Brigitte Bardot and Hollywood 's takeover of the US art film market in the 1960s, by Tino Balio; 15. Crossing over: exporting indigenous heritage to the USA, by Andrew Higson Afterword 16. Trading cultural commodities or promoting cultural diversity? UNESCO's new convention, by Sylvia Harvey and Carole Tongue

About the Author :
Sylvia Harvey is Professor of Broadcasting Policy and Co-director of the Centre for Media Policy, Regulation, and Ethics at the University of Lincoln, U.K. Her recent publications are on film and broadcasting policy in the journals Screen and Political Quarterly.

Review :
"[A]n eclectic mix of arguments... a strength in terms of the array of different positions and ideas explored, from Des Freeman's overview of the ins and outs of the negotiations over the trade in services at the World Trade Organization, to Andrew Higson's work on the exportation of British heritage films... and there is, of course, a strong thread of common interest running throughout the book, with each of these chapters (or papers) exploring an aspect of trading culture, often in very different ways... I found the mix and blend of papers provided an interesting and well-rounded overview of the complex debates in this area...This is an interesting compilation of papers, which, while eclectic in nature, provides a good introduction to the debates around the trade in Culture... the papers are short, necessarily providing a brief overview of their area... one is never bored; a new subject will soon come along... this is an interesting and informative read." Paul Rixon, Screen 2008, issue 49