Pop Cosmopolitanism
Reading the article “Pop Cosmopolitanism” by Henry Jenkins III, I found it interesting that a lot of American technology is actually produced in different Asian countries. It really brought the term “globalization” to life, or to produce and distribute media on a global scale. It also touched on the economics of the media industry, and how globalization can affect economic changes, which was heavily talked about in the article “The Economics of the Media Industry.” I think this also can be connected to Free Market Capitalism, because this article spoke about how many media companies in America use companies in Asia to produce a product, film, or television series. The idea behind free market capitalism is that any industry can be exploited for a profit which was defined in the article, “The Internets Unholy Marriage to Capitalism.” This idea of free market can be found in the article when Jenkins states, “[m]any of the cartoons shown on American television are actually made in Asia... often with limited supervision by Western companies.” This all adds up to economics in the industry, everything is for a profit and it becomes cheaper to produce content in other countries where workers wages are lower and the cost of production is lower as well. After the production these products can be released to an American audience to gain a higher profit than the production cost, plus a little extra for the company. This affects the American industry because a lot of our content is not actually being produced within the United States, yet we maintain access to this content because we have the economic standing to afford said product. In short, this article really reflected on how capitalism works, that everything we produce and distribute had one main concern: profit. Without profit it almost seems as if the world would come to a screeching halt. Companies main concern is making money, and every day they care less and less about the consumers that are receiving these products.
