How the New World Order and Imperialism Challenge Media Studies

Abstract

This article first reviews the notion of the New World Information and Communication Order (NWICO) and lessons that can be learned from it. It then discusses how to best conceptualize a) imperialism and b) media and cultural imperialism today, mainly based on the works of Christian Fuchs. The paper takes issue with Colin Sparks’ article “Media and Cultural Imperialism Reconsidered”, published in the Chinese Journal of Communication in 2012. Both Sparks and Fuchs argue that we have to reconsider the concept of cultural and media imperialism, but they do it in fundamentally different ways. The article exposes the problems of a revisionist approach, as taken by Sparks, but it also advocates a radical approach that is analytical and reflective rather than straightforward and action-oriented.

Keywords

• New World Information and Communication Order
• International communication
• History of communication research
• Critical school
• new imperialism