The SAGE Handbook of Globalization, Editorial arrangement © Paul Battersby, Joseph M. Siracusa and Manfred B. Steger 2014 Voice Over Script
Media and Political Globalization
An essential process of globalization is political. Globalization has transformed world politics in profound ways. It led to the formation and then the overthrow of kingdoms and empires. It led to the creation of the nation-state. And now some argue that the nation-state is being weakened as people and borders become ever more fluid in our globalized world. Some argue that transnational political actors, from NGOS (non-governmental organizations) like Greenpeace to corporations to the United Nations, now rise in prominence in our age of globalization. When we add the media to the admixture of globalization and politics, we touch upon some key features of modern life.
Of utmost importance, though media corporations are themselves powerful political actors, individual journalists are subject to brutal and intense intimidation as more actors contend for power. There has never been a more dangerous time to work in media.
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) estimates that on average close to 100 journalists and media workers are killed in the line of duty each year. They die in war zones. They die from car bombs. They die covering earthquakes, floods, and hurricanes. They die in drug raids. Many though are specifically targeted, hunted down, and murdered because of their work.
More troubling, the journalists die without justice. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) estimates that fewer than 15 per cent of the murders of journalists are solved or prosecuted. It is the ultimate form of censorship. The voice of the journalist is for ever silenced. The intimidating message chills newsrooms far and wide. And no one pays a price. Mexico, Russia, and the Philippines top the list of places where journalists are slaughtered with impunity. Each nation displays the new array of forces now threatening journalists in the global village. In Mexico, drug cartels brazenly target journalists who dare to report on their trafficking and their murderous wars against the police and rival cartels. In Russia, journalists who report on the separatist movement in Chechnya have been tracked down and killed by loyalists of the Russian military as well as the Chechens. Journalists who seek to uncover extensive fraud in Russian government and business are also targeted. In the Philippines, journalists who report on political corruption also face death.
It did not used to be this way. Though journalists were sometimes targeted because of their reporting on organized crime or drugs, the assassination of a journalist was relatively rare and was met by public outcry. Journalists were primarily at physical risk in war zones. Now, in our age of globalization, the entire world can be a war zone. Numerous forces compete for wealth and power, within and across borders, including governments, state militias, paramilitary groups, political parties, drug cartels, religious organizations, insurgents, corporations, terrorists, and others. All these groups can be threatened by the work of a crusading reporter. All have targeted reporters. Globalization has made the world a harrowing place for journalists.
Media are subject to other pressures in this age of high-tech persuasion, manipulation, and propaganda. Economic, political, and personal pressures shape the news around the globe. For years in international communication studies, scholars pursued what was called ‘the CNN effect’. According to the CNN effect, foreign policy – especially the actions of the US government – seemed to be driven by dominant stories appearing on CNN and other 24-hour news networks (Bahador, 2007). Media appeared to be driving foreign policy. The concept seemed logical and attracted some interest. But eventually other scholars pursued the CNN effect in earnest, testing and retesting its hypothesis. For them, the concept did not hold up to scrutiny. Policy making, they found, was driven by numerous factors, and the news was not often of primary importance or consequence to the decision making of policy makers (Robinson, 2002).
In fact, in an age of political globalization, the opposite hypothesis appears to be true: governments shape and manipulate the news. It is another key feature of media and political globalization. Officials around the world are extremely successful at influencing and molding the news so that it builds support for their domestic and foreign policies. All of humankind’s considerable persuasive techniques – from cajoling to coddling to conniving to coercing – are put into play so that news media report favorably on government actions and initiatives.
TOP-10 Scripts from Edge Studio's Voice Over Script Library
[Skyrim opens with an Imperial wagon driving four prisoners down a snowy mountain pass. All are seated and bound; the one dressed in finery is gagged.]
Ralof: Hey, you. You’re finally awake. You were trying to cross the border, right? Walked right into that Imperial ambush, same as us, and that thief over there.
Lokir: D**n you Stormcloaks. Skyrim was fine until you came along. Empire was nice and lazy. If they hadn’t been looking for you, I could’ve stolen that horse and been half way to Hammerfell. You there. You and me — we should be here. It’s these Stormcloaks the Empire wants.
Ralof: We’re all brothers and sisters in binds now, thief.
Imperial Soldier: Shut up back there!
[Lokir looks at the gagged man.]
Lokir: And what’s wrong with him?
Ralof: Watch your tongue! You’re speaking to Ulfric Stormcloak, the true High King.
Lokir: Ulfric? The Jarl of Windhelm? You’re the leader of the rebellion. But if they captured you… Oh gods, where are they taking us?
Ralof: I don’t know where we’re going, but Sovngarde awaits.
Lokir: No, this can’t be happening. This isn’t happening.
Ralof: Hey, what village are you from, horse thief?
Lokir: Why do you care?
Ralof: A Nord’s last thoughts should be of home.
Lokir: Rorikstead. I’m…I’m from Rorikstead.
[They approach the village of Helgen. A soldier calls out to the lead wagon.]
Imperial Soldier: General Tullius, sir! The headsman is waiting!
General Tullius: Good. Let’s get this over with.
Lokir: Shor, Mara, Dibella, Kynareth, Akatosh. Divines, please help me.
Ralof: Look at him, General Tullius the Military Governor. And it looks like the Thalmor are with him. D**n elves. I bet they had something to do with this. This is Helgen. I used to be sweet on a girl from here. Wonder if Vilod is still making that mead with juniper berries mixed in. Funny…when I was a boy, Imperial walls and towers used to make me feel so safe.
[A man and son watch the prisoners pull into town.]
Haming: Who are they, daddy? Where are they going?
Torolf: You need to go inside, little cub.
Haming: Why? I want to watch the soldiers.
Torolf: Inside the house. Now.
Galadriel: (speaking partly in Elvish)
(I amar prestar aen.)
The world is changed.
(Han matho ne nen.)
I feel it in the water.
(Han mathon ned cae.)
I feel it in the earth.
(A han noston ned gwilith.)
I smell it in the air.
Much that once was is lost, for none now live who remember it.
It began with the forging of the Great Rings. Three were given to the Elves, immortal, wisest and fairest of all beings. Seven to the Dwarf-Lords, great miners and craftsmen of the mountain halls. And nine, nine rings were gifted to the race of Men, who above all else desire power. For within these rings was bound the strength and the will to govern each race. But they were all of them deceived, for another ring was made. Deep in the land of Mordor, in the Fires of Mount Doom, the Dark Lord Sauron forged a master ring, and into this ring he poured his cruelty, his malice and his will to dominate all life.
One ring to rule them all.
One by one, the free lands of Middle-Earth fell to the power of the Ring, but there were some who resisted. A last alliance of men and elves marched against the armies of Mordor, and on the very slopes of Mount Doom, they fought for the freedom of Middle-Earth. Victory was near, but the power of the ring could not be undone. It was in this moment, when all hope had faded, that Isildur, son of the king, took up his father’s sword.
Sauron, enemy of the free peoples of Middle-Earth, was defeated. The Ring passed to Isildur, who had this one chance to destroy evil forever, but the hearts of men are easily corrupted. And the ring of power has a will of its own. It betrayed Isildur, to his death.
And some things that should not have been forgotten were lost. History became legend. Legend became myth. And for two and a half thousand years, the ring passed out of all knowledge. Until, when chance came, it ensnared another bearer.
It came to the creature Gollum, who took it deep into the tunnels of the Misty Mountains. And there it consumed him. The ring gave to Gollum unnatural long life. For five hundred years it poisoned his mind, and in the gloom of Gollum’s cave, it waited. Darkness crept back into the forests of the world. Rumor grew of a shadow in the East, whispers of a nameless fear, and the Ring of Power perceived its time had come. It abandoned Gollum, but then something happened that the Ring did not intend. It was picked up by the most unlikely creature imaginable: a hobbit, Bilbo Baggins, of the Shire.
For the time will soon come when hobbits will shape the fortunes of all.
To sit in solemn silence in a dull, dark, dock,
In a pestilential prison, with a life-long lock,
Awaiting the sensation of a short, sharp, shock,
From a cheap and chippy chopper on a big black block!
Do I really look like a guy with a plan, Harvey?
I don’t have a plan …
The mob has plans. The cops have plans.
You know what I am, Harvey? I am a dog chasing cars… I wouldn’t know what to do with one if I caught it.
I just do things. I am just the wrench in the gears. I hate plans.
Yours, theirs, everyone’s. Maroni has plans. Gordon has plans.
Schemers trying to control their worlds.
I am not a schemer. I show the schemer how pathetic their attempts to control things really are.
So when I say that you and your girlfriend was nothing personal, you know I am telling the truth.
I just did what I do best. I took your plan and turned it on itself.
Look what I have done to this city with a few drums of gas and a couple of bullets.
Nobody panics when the expected people gets killed. Nobody panics when things go according to plan, even if the plan is horrifying.
If I tell the press that tomorrow a gangbanger will get shot or a truckload of soldiers will be blown up, nobody panics. – because it’s all part of the plan.
But when I say that one little old mayor will die, everybody lose their minds.
Introduce a little anarchy, you upset the established order and everything becomes chaos.
I am agent of chaos.
And you know the thing about chaos Harvey?
“IT is FAIR.”
Hello, ladies, look at your man, now back to me, now back at your man, now back to me. Sadly, he isn’t me, but if he stopped using ladies scented body wash and switched to Old Spice, he could smell like he’s me. Look down, back up, where are you? You’re on a boat with the man your man could smell like. What’s in your hand, back at me. I have it, it’s an oyster with two tickets to that thing you love. Look again, the tickets are now diamonds. Anything is possible when your man smells like Old Spice and not a lady. I’m on a horse.
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