Cultural globalization and new hegemony issues in the age of platforms
The recent spread of VoD platforms, particularly North American ones (Netflix, Amazon Video), has rekindled debates around the forms of hegemony associated with cultural globalization and which are materializing in more complex ways, linked to new industrial and economic issues regarding digital technology, as well as geographical contexts (national, and “Global Souths”). Focusing on the case of India, this article examines the hegemony issues raised by VoD platforms, including their cultural, industrial and technological dimensions. It seeks to better understand how the strategies surrounding the production of cultural content are part of broader industrial and financial issues, involving complex relationships of competition and collaboration between Indian and foreign players. Drawing on field work carried out in India between 2018 and 2020, it also argues that these strategies rely heavily on a set of digital services and infrastructure largely dominated by foreign players.
- platforms
- audiovisual industries
- Political Economy of Communication (PEC)
- hegemonies
- India