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Media Imperialism Revisited
Agenda
• Functions of Media?• Links between Media and Development?• What is “Media Imperialism” and why is it so
widely subscribed?• Evidence for and against the MI thesis• What are the alternative frameworks?
Functions of Media?
What are the functions of Media?
• Public Service? • To inform? • To educate?• To propagandize?• To entertain? • Social control?• Culture?
Media and the Public Sphere
Links between Media and Development?
Paradigms of Development
– Western societies as a model – emphasis on economic growth
– Causes of underdevelopment inherent in the countries themselves
– Focus on the nation-state
– Emphasis on individual freedoms
– Vertical pattern of communication – from the elite to the people.
World systems perspective – development defined in terms of center and periphery
Underdevelopment ascribed to the industrialized capitalist powers of the West
Information gaps – underdevelopment in the periphery is prerequisite to development in the center
A country in the periphery must strive for self-reliance and liberation from the world system
Emphasis on social equality.
Modernization Dependences
Mass media accorded a central role in the development process
The mass media reinforce the dominance of the metropole over its satellites
Emergence of the Media Imperialism thesis
The McBride Commission
Report (1985)
• international character of the media, their structures, world-views and markets
• One way flow of media• Globalization: concentration of media ownership,
monopolization of markets, and a decline in diversity• Emergence of the information society• Self-reliance and cultural identity
Media Imperialism
• Key assumptions?• What are the links between globalization, neoliberalism
and media imperialism ?• Why is this thesis so dominant in the media and
development literature over the last few decades? • Is this popularity justified in terms of its explanatory
power and empirical support?• What accounts for the weaning of the thesis' popularity
in recent years? • What are the changing perspective on “local” versus
“Western” content?
“The 20th century has been characterized by three developments of great political importance: the growth of democracy, the growth of corporate power, and the growth of corporate propaganda as a means of protecting corporate power against democracy.”Manufacturing Consent: the Political Economy of the Mass Media, Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky, 1988
• Media Concentration – Global Oligopology – Transnational ownership– Acquisition of local outlets
Why media concentration?
• Media Logic and the Free Market Capitalism• Media ownership and funding sources• Government policies and citizens roles
http://nwothesis.blogspot.ca/2011/04/military-industrial-complex-in-5.html
Key Claims
• Reinforcement of Neoliberalism – Consequences – Consumerism, trade policies,
labour practices, inequality, etc...
• Cultural homogenization– Death of local culture
• Erosion of the Public Sphere
http://iletisim.ieu.edu.tr/flows/?p=749
Essentialism• Mass media and reception– Agencies – Consent
• Unequal power• “The West and the Rest”• Power to “Representation”
"Power is the ability not just to tell the story of another person, but to make it the definitive story of that person". Chimamanda Adichie: The danger of a single story
http://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story.html
Evidence in support and against the MI thesis
http://www.visitourchina.com/guide/hengdian_world_studios.htm
http://cctv.cntv.cn/lm/africalive/01/index.shtml
Interpretations and Alternatives
• Hypodermic needle model of media consumption
• Reception Theory• Agency• Self-Identity
Everett Rogers
• “development as a widely participatory process of social change in a society, intended to bring about both social and material advancement (including greater equality, freedom, and other valued qualities) for the majority of the people through their gaining greater control over their environment” (Rogers, 1975)
Refer to assigned reading
Everett Rogers
• Diffusion of Innovations and Development• field experiments and network analysis• communication effects gaps and audience
participation• Diffusion is uneven• Local innovation and local problem solving
• “what is really new about communication technology is not the technology per se as much as the social technology of how the new communication devices are organized and used.” (1976: 34)
• Importance of interpersonal network in knowledge transmission (not through “opinion leaders”)
• 4 main elements that influence the spread of a new idea: – the innovation, communication channels, time, and a
social system. • Diffusion is the process by which an innovation is
communicated through certain channels over time among the members of a social system.
• Innovations progress through 5 stages: knowledge, persuasion, decision, implementation, and confirmation."
Rethinking Media Imperialism
• Is the power of the Western mass media overstated?
• What are the roles of the state and local organizations?
• What are the roles of the “audience”?• What about local cultural contexts?
