Welcome,
With so many technological advances in communication it was only a matter of time before different nations begun interacting with one another on a daily basis. This daily interaction has lead to the convergence of all of the world’s separate cultures. Although I found it odd that it appears our Western Culture has seeming dominated the global cultural marketplace. I have written a paper using creditable evidence examining this cultural domination via the use of
Jeff Lukken
Speech Communications in Pop Culture 2360
Roger Stahl
4/28/2011
Global Assimilation
Numerous technological advances in today’s society have provided an untold amount of advantages in regards to workplace proficiency, social networking and the overall ease in which individuals go about their daily lives. Today’s culture of globalized mass media and more specifically, the communication and integration of dissimilar civilizations is revolutionizing global society. Although the advantages of globalized communication and interaction are obvious, I will present creditable evidence provided by articles written by experts in the fields of pop culture, cultural integration, and mass media in order to dispute the common ideas presented above.
How is it that cultural integration via globalized media outlets such as social networking sites, blogs or twitter, can produce a negative impact on today’s society? I will first provide evidence of an extreme cause of concern provided by Jarret Brachman in his article WATCHING the WATCHERS. Brachman examines an individual who is currently an American citizen providing al Qaeda propaganda through internet blogs, twitter and social networking sites. Brachman states that “ In less than two years, under various identities, Chesser had promoted an extensive collection of radical papers, videos, and blog posts to an astonishing array of online outlets, from the hardest core al Qaeda discussions forums to mainstream Islamic websites, to social networking tools like facebook and twitter. He even recorded his own jihad war tunes” (2). According to Brachman, Chesser has since been arrested and is now in prison. Although this may appear to be an extreme case, situations similar to this are by no means uncommon especially with today’s ongoing violence in the Middle East. In this particular situation an American citizen is utilizing various media outlets to promote radical Islamic views that directly align with terrorists that the United States is currently at war with. This negative fusion of media and cultural friction is obvious, but problems pertaining to this matter go deeper than radical terrorists promoting their beliefs.
As cultures
The major media agencies recognize their control over the rest of the world’s thought process and thus they use this concept to their marketing advantage. The writers of this article use the phrase “cultural imperialism” to describe the interaction between Western and non-Western nations. Silverblat and Zlobin’s idea positively correlates with what we have been discussing in class as they point out that “media-owning countries export their culture through the media” (2). In J. Oliver Boyd-Barret’s work he defined cultural imperialism as “the process whereby the ownership, structure, distribution, or content of media interests by one country to any other country or countries is without proportionate reciprocation of influence”(2). Obviously with the Western media agencies accounting for “90 percent of news flow”, there is a large reciprocation of ideas and influence (Silverblat and Zlobin 1). As one culture begins to dominate the global society, where does that leave all other cultures?
According to Livingstone White, cultural imperialism in this context would suggest the creation “of one dominate culture” (2). White proposes that eventually “All media products originate from one-centre (Western) nation, whose motives are to dominate the media of periphery (Non-Western) nations, which is based partly on the view that no periphery country will ever be able to produce media products of its own” (2). White continues on to explain that the situation given above creates a vacuum in which all potential for developing countries to succeed in productive growth, is sucked out leaving them with the only option to live off of the one dominate nation. Instead of nations using the mass media to embrace and share one another’s culture, it appears that whichever country has the advantage in terms of global media production, dominates the global culture. The underdeveloped countries lose the opportunity to voice their political ideas or unique cultural customs because they cannot overcome the given situation, and it only gets worse over time. In order for our country to continue living the lifestyle we have grow so accustomed to over the past fifty years; we must continue to exploit impoverished nations resources. It is clear that we as American citizens must understand that a new “norm” in regards to everyday living, is inevitable. Often times the dominate culture will misrepresent other nations in a negative manner in order to prolong their own supremacy.
According to Hall “Western media tend to portray people in Africa, and Central and South America as childlike, instinctual, and close to nature” (1). Along the same lines Vanderbush and Klak believed that “the history of the US-Latin American relations depends on the ethnocentricity and lack of self critical reflection in the US media representations of people and nations south of the Rio Grande” (1). The Western media represents theses societies as more primitive and less responsible nations, thus further justifying why the Western culture must take control. The article Perceptional Differences of International News: Western Media Influence on Non-Western Media notes that “The heroic European or North American, who saves or rules over people of other regions, is a common figure in films and adventure novels written in the West, yet their scene is set outside of it”(2). This common theme discussed above only helps to ease the cultural penetration as other nations watching these films begin to accept Westernized global society.
Whether the Western cultural domination of the world is intentional or unintentional, it appears to have already begun. Media outlets such as film, radio, and television are helping to forever change the way different societies interact. Although global communication and the Westernization of the world have positive aspects, the domination of one culture by another presents overwhelming negative encounters. As citizens of various nations begin to assimilate into one society, they lose the authenticity that made their culture unique.
Works Cited
Boyd-Barret, J.O. (1977). Media imperialism: towards an international framework for an
analysis of media systems. In J. Curran & M. Gurevitch & J.Woollacott (eds.), Mass
Communication and Society. (pp.116-135). London: Edward Arnold.
BRACHMAN, JARRET. "WATCHING the WATCHERS." Foreign Policy 182 (2010): 60-67.
Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 6 May 2011
Hall, A. (2003). Reading realism: audiences’ evaluations of the reality of media texts. Journal of
Communication, 53 (4), 624-642.
Silverblatt, A. & Zlobin N. (2004). International Communication: A Media Literacy Approach.
NewYork: M.E. Sharpe
Turan, Aykut Hamit, Selcuk Colakoglu, and Bengu Emine Colakoglu. "Perceptional Differences
of International News: Western Media Influence on Non-Western Media."
China MediaResearch5.2 (2009): 55-63. Communication & Mass Media Complete. EBSCO. Web. 6 May 2011.Vanderbush, W. & Klak, T. (1996). Covering’ Latin America: the exclusive discourse of the
summit of americas (as viewed through the New York Times). Third Word Quarterly, 17(3),537-556.