Viewing the poor through Western eyes
"In global campaigns on issues like landmines, trade, medicines or small arms, international non-governmental organisations (NGOs) face dilemmas of control. How much of the management and publicity of a campaign should they keep and how much should they give away?
...
Interational NGOs (INGOs) are often the intellectual originators of campaigns. They are also some of the few global organisations with the requisite money, sophistication, media expertise and brand recognition to run a global campaign. For efficiency's sake, they need to drive global campaigns.
In countless NGO communications, civil society heroes from Asia and Africa are presented as dependent second class citizens, defined primarily by their relationship to the international NGO.
Pioneering local campaigners are introduced as an "Oxfam partner" or a "CARE project". There is a colonial echo here in the implication that it is really INGOs who are saving the situation as the primary movers and shakers.
Part of the reason for this kind of post-colonial choreography by INGOs is because they are still required to be the visual mediators of the poor world to the rich world.
In Western society, our INGOs are inter-cultural gatekeepers. They know both worlds and report the one to the other."
(Hugo Slim, 30 Apr 2007)
CONTRIBUTOR
Simon PerkinsSHARE
Advertising and globalisation in India
"This study explores the profile of contemporary advertising in India in the wider context of trends in international advertising, the recent changes in Indian economy and society, and issues concerning the cultural impact of foreign advertising in India. Findings are complemented with a case study of outdoor advertising collected in two visits to India in 2000 and 2001. In the 1990s India has witnessed a massive expansion of advertising, and the advertising sector has quickly been taken over by foreign advertisers and agencies that are affiliated with foreign advertising agencies. The whole advertising sector demonstrates a remarkable degree of concentration. There has been a rapid expansion of the television and satellite television in the 1990s but print is still the dominant media. The profile of most advertised products is dominated by advertising for personal products. The strategies used in India have undergone significant change in recent years, and there has been increased customisation to the local culture alongside a major intensification of strategies aimed at targeting rural markets, to stimulate the purchase the products of foreign companies."
(Lynne Ciochetto, 2004)
CONTRIBUTOR
Simon PerkinsSHARE
