Revue Economie, Gestion et Société (Jul 2015)
The cultural imperialism paradigm: Implications for media and identity
Abstract
This paper offers an in-depth examination of the cultural imperialism perspective. It outlines its main thesis and theoretical assumptions and discusses their underlying implications for cultural values and identity. It also addresses the issue of foreign media influx, its manifold manifestations and its repercussions. The last part of the article considers the most salient limitations of this paradigm. At the outset, it is important to give a brief account of the main reasons that have motivated this endeavor on the issue of cultural imperialism and its implications. Generally, the rationale that legitimates this undertaking is three-fold. First of all, cultural imperialism (C.I. henceforth) is one of the most well-established and prominent approaches in mass communications which has been adopted by many scholars as a self-contained media-effects model for decades. Secondly, C.I. bears close epistemological and theoretical affinities with powerful-effects media models and theories, mainly the cultivation theory in the sense that they overemphasize the mesmerizing power of media messages, the vulnerability of the audience, and the critical attitude towards TV as a means of cultural and social control. Saito (2007) maintains that the cultivation theory is a model that needs to be “regarded as a hybrid of empirical research on media effects coupled with a critical approach to mass communication” (p. 512). In the same vein, Livingston (2001) proposes a taxonomy of mass media theories in which she postulates that both the cultivation and the cultural imperialism theories can be subsumed under the category of macroscopic theories that “are more concerned with media‟s social role and their impact on culture and society” (p. 7). The third reason pertains to the fact that a substantial fare of TV programs aired on both Moroccan and Arab TV stations is imported from foreign countries, especially from the U.S.A and Western Europe. C.I. is a particularly useful perspective that can illuminate the intricate flow patterns that govern international communications and the social and ideological influences on indigenous and less powerful cultures.
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