Summary - The Contemporary World, Globalization and Global Media Culture
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Course
Gecc107
Institution
Don Mariano Marcos Memorial State University
The globalization of culture is often chiefly imputed to international mass media. After all, contemporary media technologies such as satellite television and the Internet have created a steady flow of transnational images that connect audiences worldwide.
Global Media Cultures
Globalization of Culture Through Media
The received view about the globalization of culture is one where the entire
world has been molded in the image of Western, mainly American, culture. In popular
and professional discourses alike, the popularity of Big Macs, Baywatch, and MTV are
touted as unmistakable signs of the fulfillment of Marshall McLuhan's prophecy of the
Global Village. The globalization of culture is often chiefly imputed to international
mass media. After all, contemporary media technologies such as satellite television and
the Internet have created a steady flow of transnational images that connect audiences
worldwide. Without global media, according to the conventional wisdom, how would
teenagers in India, Turkey, and Argentina embrace a Western lifestyle of Nike shoes,
Coca-Cola, and rock music? Hence, the putatively strong influence of the mass media
on the globalization of culture.
The role of the mass media in the globalization of culture is a contested issue in
international communication theory and research. Early theories of media influence,
commonly referred to as "magic bullet" or "hypodermic needle" theories, believed that
the mass media had powerful effects over audiences. Since then, the debate about
media influence has undergone an ebb and flow that has prevented any resolution or
agreement among researchers as to the level, scope, and implications of media
influence. Nevertheless, key theoretical formulations in international communication
clung to a belief in powerful media effects on cultures and communities. At the same
time, a body of literature questioning the scope and level of influence of transnational
media has emerged. Whereas some scholars within that tradition questioned cultural
imperialism without providing conceptual alternatives, others have drawn on an
interdisciplinary literature from across the social sciences and humanities to develop
theoretical alternatives to cultural imperialism.
Cultural Imperialism and the Global Media Debate
In international communication theory and research, cultural imperialism theory
argued that audiences across the globe are heavily affected by media messages
emanating from the Western industrialized countries. Although there are minor
differences between "media imperialism" and "cultural imperialism," most of the
literature in international communication treats the former as a category of the latter.
Grounded in an understanding of media as cultural industries, cultural imperialism is
firmly rooted in a political-economy perspective on international communication. As a
GECC 107 – The Contemporary World -Module III-
, school of thought, political economy focuses on material issues such as capital,
infrastructure, and political control as key determinants of international
communication processes and effects.
In the early stage of cultural imperialism, researchers focused their efforts
mostly on nation-states as primary actors in international relations. They imputed rich,
industrialized, and Western nation-states with intentions and actions by which they
export their cultural products and impose their sociocultural values on poorer and
weaker nations in the developing world. This argument was supported by a number of
studies demonstrating that the flow of news and entertainment was biased in favor of
industrialized countries. This bias was clear both in terms of quantity, because most
media flows were exported by Western countries and imported by developing nations,
and in terms of quality, because developing nations received scant and prejudicial
coverage in Western media.
These concerns led to the rise of the New World Information Order (NWIO)
debate, later known as the New World Information and Communication Order (NWICO)
debate. Although the debate at first was concerned with news flows between the north
and the south, it soon evolved to include all international media flows. This was due to
the fact that inequality existed in news and entertainment programs alike, and to the
advent of then-new media technologies such as communication satellites, which made
the international media landscape more complex and therefore widened the scope of
the debate about international flows.
The global media debate was launched during the 1973 General Conference of
the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in
Nairobi, Kenya. As a specialized agency of the United Nations, the mission of UNESCO
includes issues of communication and culture. During the conference, strong
differences arose between Western industrialized nations and developing countries. Led
by the United States, the first group insisted on the "free flow of information" doctrine,
advocating "free trade" in information and media programs without any restrictions.
The second group, concerned by the lack of balance in international media flows,
accused Western countries of invoking the free flow of information ideology to justify
their economic and cultural domination. They argued instead ·for a "free and balanced
flow" of information. The chasm between the two groups was too wide to be reconciled.
This eventually was one of the major reasons given for withdrawal from UNESCO by the
United States and the United Kingdom-which resulted in the de facto fall of the global
media debate.
A second stage of research identified with cultural imperialism has been
associated with calls to revive the New World Information and Communication Order
debate. What differentiates this line of research from earlier cultural imperialism
formulations is its emphasis on the commercialization of the sphere of culture. Research
into this area had been a hallmark of cultural imperialism research, but now there is a
GECC 107 – The Contemporary World -Module III-
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