Outline the main criticisms of the cultural imperialism thesis made by media globalisation theorists. Are these criticisms valid?
Introduction
With the “intensification of worldwide social relations which link distant localities in such way that local happenings are shaped by events occurring many miles away and vice versa” (Giddens,1990, p.64), it has become a norm to expect restaurants such as McDonalds and Starbucks to be available in almost every corner of the world, from Mecca in Saudi Arabia to Saint Petersburg in Russia. Television shows like The Simpsons and South Park are being watched and broadcasted around the globe, enabling the creation of ‘global’ culture and shared cultural reference points amongst people from a diverse range of backgrounds. Many would …show more content…
The theory of cultural imperialism started gaining prominence in the 1960s and 1970s when the debate concerning unequal communication flow between the First World and Third World opened up (Sparks, 2012). Ever since then, cultural imperialism became the major catchphrase in the critical language of many cultural theorists, scholars, international bodies such as UNESCO and national representatives. Several critical media scholars and theorists, including Herbert Schiller, Jeremy Tunstall, Thomas Guback and Tapio Varis, argued that the expansion of Western media and business corporations has enabled proliferation of consumerist and capitalist values and weakening of local cultures (Curran, 2002). However, in the 1980s and 1990s, the notion of the one way flow of influence and communication from the West was disputed by the critics who argued against the wrong assumptions that every transnational media flow, practice and relationship was reducible to “Americanisation”/ “Westernization”, especially in the face of evidence of an increasing hybridisation and
Introduction
With the “intensification of worldwide social relations which link distant localities in such way that local happenings are shaped by events occurring many miles away and vice versa” (Giddens,1990, p.64), it has become a norm to expect restaurants such as McDonalds and Starbucks to be available in almost every corner of the world, from Mecca in Saudi Arabia to Saint Petersburg in Russia. Television shows like The Simpsons and South Park are being watched and broadcasted around the globe, enabling the creation of ‘global’ culture and shared cultural reference points amongst people from a diverse range of backgrounds. Many would …show more content…
The theory of cultural imperialism started gaining prominence in the 1960s and 1970s when the debate concerning unequal communication flow between the First World and Third World opened up (Sparks, 2012). Ever since then, cultural imperialism became the major catchphrase in the critical language of many cultural theorists, scholars, international bodies such as UNESCO and national representatives. Several critical media scholars and theorists, including Herbert Schiller, Jeremy Tunstall, Thomas Guback and Tapio Varis, argued that the expansion of Western media and business corporations has enabled proliferation of consumerist and capitalist values and weakening of local cultures (Curran, 2002). However, in the 1980s and 1990s, the notion of the one way flow of influence and communication from the West was disputed by the critics who argued against the wrong assumptions that every transnational media flow, practice and relationship was reducible to “Americanisation”/ “Westernization”, especially in the face of evidence of an increasing hybridisation and