http://blog.commarts.wisc.edu/2010/08/19/chinese-deadwood-in-malawi/ Responses to Media and Culture Fri, 12 Feb 2016 19:35:04 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.7.5 http://blog.commarts.wisc.edu/2010/08/19/chinese-deadwood-in-malawi/comment-page-1/#comment-24964 Fri, 20 Aug 2010 15:38:25 +0000 http://blog.commarts.wisc.edu/?p=5609#comment-24964 The unofficial circulation of media content is, to me, an understudied aspect of globalization. Along these lines, yesterday’s NYT coverage of Sarkozy’s attempts to expel Roma camps from France included a brief detail of the group’s unofficial economy: salvaging and restoring television sets, selling them to Africans in France, who then export them to Africa.
It makes me wonder what this, and your examples of pirated DVDs, change about our notions of globalization (does this refocus us on “lesser” players involved in production/consumption of content and material goods? move us beyond a more typical scenario of, say, US-China relations and official economies? and, if so, what do we learn?) and about the function of “Africa” as a conceptual and linguistic holding place (or absence) in these convoluted translations of media content and transferals of material goods. (I realize this is all somewhat tangential, but your report got me thinking along these lines.)
I look forward to seeing where your findings will land you.

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