History of the concept[edit]
The concept of media imperialism emerged in the 1970s when political leaders, media producers, and some citizens in postcolonial countries began to criticize the ownership and control Western and American media conglomerates wielded over much of the global communication and media system. Representatives of postcolonial countries proposed a New World Information and Communication Order (NWICO) at UNESCO to contest and counter-balance the enduring and enlarging global communication and media powers of old and new imperial countries (e.g., the United Kingdom and United States). Supported by the MacBride report, "Many Voices, One World", countries such as India, Indonesia, and Egypt argued that the large Western and American media corporations should have limited access to the fledgling communication and media systems of postcolonial countries. They argued that national cultural and communication sovereignty was integral to their broader national sovereignty and economic and social development projects. The assumption was that Western and American media corporations (and their products) would undermine or subvert the national development process of postcolonial countries by institutionalizing inappropriate media models, business practices and content. In response to the postcolonial countries' protest against media imperialism and proposal for a NWICO, the United States and United Kingdom left UNESCO.
Key Theorists and Definitions[edit]
Herbert I. Schiller[edit]
In Mass Communication and American Empire, Herbert I. Schiller emphasized the significance of the mass media and cultural industries to American imperialism, arguing that "each new electronic development widens the perimeter of American influence," and declaring that "American power, expressed industrially, militarily and culturally has become the most potent force on earth and communications have become a decisive element in the extension of United States world power."
In his 1976 book Communication and Cultural Domination, Schiller conveyed the very first definition of cultural imperialism, describing it as:
Criticisms of Media Imperialism Theory[edit]
Critics of the media imperialism "theory" have been around since the early 1980s.[45] Often, critics of the media imperialism theory tend to reject or deny that media imperialism exists, or alternately, present a meta-critique of one or more of the statements and claims made by the scholars associated with the media imperialism theory. As summarized by Tanner Mirrlees in Global Entertainment Media: Between Cultural Imperialism and Cultural Globalization,[46] critics of media imperialism theory tend to make one or more of the following points when dismissing media imperialism theory or criticizing it to complicate or revise in some way: 1. The US is not an imperialist power, ergo media imperialism doesn't exist; 2. postcolonial countries such as China and India headquarter large and internationalizing media corporations; the idea that postcolonial countries are victims of a US-centered media imperialism is simplistic and irrelevant in the 21st century; 3. the media and cultural trade relationship between the US and other countries may not be balanced, but there is more than a one way flow of media and cultural goods from the US to the rest: while the US exports a lot of media to the world, it also imports media from the world, suggesting a two-way or multi-directional flow of media goods; 4. consumers around the world are not forced or coerced to watch, listen to and read US media and cultural products; they may select and choose these "foreign" goods instead of "domestic" or nationally made and available media; 5. the texts of US media and cultural products do not communicate a one-dimensional American imperialist ideology to the world; they offer a multiplicity of competing narratives of America, warts and all; 6. the local and national reception contexts for US media and cultural products are complex, as consumers make a wide variety of interpretations of US media and sometimes adapt them to their own local and national cultural environments; 7. political and business elites in countries purportedly afflicted by US media imperialism may weaponize the concept for political ends: the censorship of unwanted or subversive ideas to maintain national propaganda regimes, the protection of fledgling or established national media corporations from international competition, and the promotion of the growth of national media oligopolies, first at home, then abroad.