Australian national cinema is primarily government-supported, with Essay

Australian national cinema is primarily government-supported, with limited infrastructure and with a small population. Discuss k - Essay Example This inconsistency is evident from the box office results which showed that since 1995, the local box offices taken by homegrown has rarely gone beyond five percent. Ginnane (2009) suggests that the key to a successful film industry and ample percentage of the Australian box office (minimum of 10%) is the number of titles totaling to more than five million dollars box office every year. To attain this, it is fundamental for domestic filmmakers to uphold a trend of stable growth to bring about some measure of economic self sufficiency in the domestic film industry. Various issues are associated with developing, supporting and sustaining a national film industry. This essay will focus on these issues in the context of the Australian film industry. In order to develop a large scale national film production, a country needs to secure a secure domestic distribution base that has well developed exhibition circuits. Litwak (2003) suggested that the major impediment facing most filmmakers is how to secure distribution for their motion pictures. Without a secure distribution, the likelihood of a profitable return on investment in film production is nonexistent. O’Reagan (1996) argued that Australian cinema needs to interest different agents such as cinema marketers, producers and critics so as to translate the purposes and ends of the Australian films. Distributing films is one of the challenges that most filmmakers face once a film has been completed. Finding an audience locally and internationally can be resolved by a secure distribution. The objectives of the federal regulatory and financial support in Australia have always been strengthened by a cultural as well as a commercial mandate. Cones (2010) points out that in case a film successfully acquires a distributor, the producers makes every efforst to cooperate with the distributor to come up with the most favorable release pattern in all pertinent constraints. The scope of distribution progressively expands , adding theaters and cities to meet demand as the film meets is audience base. This means that a country needs to secure a domestic distribution base for developing, supporting and sustaining a national film industry. The second most important aspect in developing, supporting and sustaining a national film industry is to understand people viewing habits, the kind of movies that they want to view. The Marketing Branch of the Australian Film Commission (1999) highlighted that it did not find as much support for alternative films or specialist as it did few years ago. According to the commission, the younger generation who were used to start off being involved with those alternative films at the university level no longer frequented foreign movies any longer and they also preferred the bigger films. A survey conducted by Roy Morgan Research (2010) on Australian films, documentaries and fictional television revealed that fiction television viewership is driven by strong existing person al preferences and passive factors showing dependable repeat viewership. Most of the Australians experienced high levels of satisfaction with the Australian screen content nonetheless they did not enjoy screen content because of aspects related with badly written and unbelievable writing and also slow, boring and non entertainment across documentary formats, feature films and television fiction. O’ Reagan (1996) argued that Australian cinema- like those of other countries- is more effectively understood as a set of processes rather than as a fundamental

(How has the oil wealth affected the prospects of democratization in Essay

(How has the oil wealth affected the prospects of democratization in the Arab Gulf) and ( Evaluate the role of civil society in - Essay Example Political science and economics studies have found that there is limitation of advances in democracy where countries in the Middle East have vast oil reserves. Oil wealth has a long-term effect on Middle Eastern democracy efforts. While extraction activities normally take place over an extended period, major oil discoveries take place during these countries’ peak production years (Ehteshami 37). Oil discoveries made in democratic countries such as Norway have no effect on their democratic trajectories. However, where oil is discovered in non-democratic countries, it is less likely that these countries will transition to democracy. Oil discovery has little effect on democratic countries politically. While Iran has been under theocratic rule for over 20 years, oil was discovered when they were a democracy, which can be seen to date as the country holds regular elections compared to its other Middle Eastern oil producers. The country only became less democratic after the Western- led coup of 1953 before transitioning back to elective democracy. This is in contrast to Qatar that discovered oil as a monarchy and has not made any strides towards democracy (Ehteshami 37). Prior to the early 50s, Egypt had one of the most vibrant democracies in the region with limited supplies of oil peaking in the mid 60s after which oil production declined from the 90s onwards. A similar history is shared by Tunisia, which was also a democratic country when they discovered oil. The relatively peaceful transitions in these countries are not a coincidence (Ehteshami 38). This is in stark contrast to Syria, whose major oil discoveries were made during authoritarian military rule. The transition from Bashar Al-Assad’s government to another has seen a bloody civil war erupt, as is the case with Iraq where oil discoveries were made during authoritarian rule. Oil rich non-democratic countries spend more on their military in order to stay in power, which enhances their political power and prevents the democratization of their countries. Lucrative reserves of oil also provide dictators with the incentive to want to stay in power longer since they fear they will loose everything if another leader comes in (Ehteshami 38). While civil society has played a critical role in the democratization of countries in Latin America and Eastern Europe, this has not been reflected in the Middle East. In this region, NGOs have been tamed and weakened since they can be co-opted using oil money (Ehteshami 98). Meanwhile, the EU and the US have continued to emphasize how important it is to develop civil society. Funding by the west for Arab NGOs has seen a significant increase since the September 11 attacks. The amount of money channeled to Middle Eastern countries by the US has tripled in the 12 years since. However, empowerment of these NGOs remains flawed and aimless because the countries’ leaders also have money that can co-opt them. Most of the NGOs in Arab countri es are government organized with staffing and funding provided by the government. Their main idea in funding the NGOs has to do with managing and controlling change, rather than inspiring or instigating change (Ehteshami 98). Even where it is relatively easy to establish organizations that fight for democracy, these are still under strict