Consumerist Values
Other problems that the media imperialism theory offers is that this flow of western media upon their less well-developed world neighbours is that they convey the capitalist nature of the western world through an expression of consumerist values. This though is not entirely the case, as it seems to ignore the immense diversity that is obtainable through the images, themes and information, which invariably appears on the commercially funded television, which occasionally includes material that is highly critical of corporate interests (Branston & Stafford: 1999: 253).
The theory of media imperialism also heavily implies that the audiences of the so-called developing countries are extremely passive and are simply brainwashed by the elements of foreign television. In a study on audience perception Liebes and Katz (1993) found that audiences were not subjected to the hypodermic effect, where the content of a particular media became drug-like, but constructed an array of different meanings. There is a notion that this expression of consumerist values would make the audience become, or want to become consumers, simply as a result of watching programmes like the 1980’s soap, Dallas. Research found that this was not the case as, for instance, Israeli Arabs and Moroccan Jews found that what they gained from such a programme was an emphasis on kinship relationships, whereas Russian refuges believed that on the whole, the writers, directors and producers manipulated the characters attitudes and direction (Branston & Stafford: 1999: 253-254).
Films
As for culture, the “Hollywood juggernaut” and the presence of U.S. cultural domination remain a central concern in many countries, for obvious reasons. Exports of U.S. films and TV shows increased by 22 percent in 1999, and the list of the top 125 grossing films for 1999 is made up almost entirely of Hollywood fare. When one goes nation by nation, even a “cultural nationalist” country like France had nine of its top ten grossing films in 1999 produced by the Hollywood giants. “Many leftist intellectuals in Paris are decrying American films, but the French people are eating them up,” a Hollywood producer noted. Likewise, in Italy, the replacement of single-screen theatres by “multiplexes” has contributed to a dramatic decline in local film box office. The moral of the story for many European filmmakers is that you have to work in English and employ Hollywood moviemaking conventions to succeed (www.monthlyreview.org).
Whereas action movies had once been the only sure-fire global fare—and comedies had been considerably more difficult to export—by the late nineties comedies like My Best Friend’s Wedding and The Full Monty were doing between $160 million and $200 million in non-U.S. box-office sales. When audiences appear to prefer locally made fare, the global media corporations, rather than flee in despair, globalised their production. Sony has been at the forefront of this, producing films with local companies in China, France, India, and Mexico, to name but a few. India’s acclaimed domestic film industry—“Bollywood”—is also developing close ties to the global media giants (www.monthlyreview.org).
Pricing and Training
To consider the extent to which the global media, or in effect the western worlds media, has been accused of dominating foreign media vehicles, then the topics of pricing and training must be looked upon as important.
The United States is the obvious target when looking at the area of what is known in the global media market as differential pricing, this being a commercial strategy involving programme pricing to encourage larger sales of their content to be sold worldwide. As Branston and Stafford (1999) point out, a lot of the profits of an American television series can be made from the revenue that can be obtained through international purchase. The series will, even if successful, probably only recoup the initial outlay that was spent on production costs after it has been distributed in the Northern American continent. So the series will then be offered to every broadcaster in the world at varying prices. This price variation is based upon the perceived audience size that it may reach, but in less affluent countries such as Africa the cost results in the series being virtually given away for nothing. This is not to be seen as a charitable action from the media company that sells the series but as an indication that they will take any amount of money, as effectively they are continually making a profit as they recouped the production costs even before international distribution took place. Due to the extremely cheap price that the series costs, station managers cannot afford not to purchase it. This though has a detrimental effect on local production, as producers cannot make programmes of the same quality and at the unbelievably cheap price, as that of the American series (Branston & Stafford: 1999: 256-257).
Training is another key element. Local producers of media output in areas of Africa rely upon the expensive training being done in Northern America and Europe (most notably France and Britain as the language connection is still present in many parts of Africa from the era of colonial rule) as the manufacturers often subsidise the training, but only on their terms. This confliction often results in applied pressure being, as the local television station managers look to appease their financial supporters. Also, where the news is concerned, both print based and television; there is the danger that because of the overseas training there could be apparent adoption of the western medias news values, especially sensationalism.
News agencies
Along with the influence that news agencies may have over trainees in terms of journalistic style, Michael Gurevitch believes that criticism must be aimed at the international operations of theses major western news agencies due to their ability to set the global news agenda (Guevitch: 1991). Global journalism is dominated by Western news services, which regard existing capitalism, the United States, its allies, and their motives in the most charitable manner imaginable.
News agencies, according to Boyd-Barrett and Rantanen, are of a constant concern to media scholars when debating the topic area of media imperialism. They believe that because of the western worlds domination of the news agencies, there is a strong concern in news agencies content. They believe that due to the news agencies adoption of western news values (e.g. priority to elite nations, negativity and a desire for events rather than processes), pressure has been applied onto the mainstream news from around the world to emulate their western counterparts and so have adopted the western news values and have concentrated more on the type of news that will be attractive and interesting to an international audience (Briggs & Cobley: 1998: 52).
Audience Perception
Media vehicles, and primarily the television, offer the audience one major element that they cannot gain anywhere else – escapism. John B. Thompson (1997) argues that this so called domination of the developing countries media systems offers its audience a chance to see the world in a different context, perhaps giving them increased knowledge to the extent that they then have the resources to question their own lives and the daily ritual that they undertake. As Thompson points out, it is the escapism that western television offers the Far East that is the most notable. Lull is another critic who through an interview with an accountant from Shanghai summed up Thompson’s argument perfectly when he commented that ‘…in our daily lives we just go to work and come home, so we want to see something that is different from our own life. Television gives us a model of the rest of the world.” (Lull: 1991: 171)
Tomlinson notes that the worldwide appeal of images that are projected through a range of programmes, for instance Dallas and Neighbours (American and Australian soap operas respectively), as being vitally important. Tomlinson has observed the universal nature of these programmes and believes that they must tap into certain ‘universal feelings’ and ‘common chords’ that are not restricted by national boundaries and are in the make-up of every audience recipient.
Music
Music has always been the least capital-intensive of the electronic media and therefore the most open to experimentation and new ideas. U.S. recording artists generated 60 percent of their sales outside the U.S. in 1993; by 1998 that figure was down to 40 percent. Rather than fold their tents, however, the four media multinationals that dominate the world’s recorded-music market are busy establishing local subsidiaries in places like Brazil, where “people are totally committed to local music,” in the words of a writer for a trade publication. Sony, again, has led the way in establishing distribution deals with independent music companies from around the world.
Culture
A major flaw in the argument that the western world in effect dominates and heavily influences the poorer nations media, and in turn ruins cultures and nationalistic beliefs, is the often debated upon notion that things weren’t that rosy in the first place before the multi-national corporations dabbled in overseas markets. The media imperialism theory gives indications that these poorer nations were better off without intervention from other nations and were enjoying an epoch of local, authentic traditions and cultural heritage, unpolluted by ideals forced from external sources (Branston & Stafford: 1999: 252).
Some academics claim that the western media forces its culture and the beliefs with which it entails, none more so than the United States, onto other and less vulnerable nations as if this is a major new development in world power. It is in fact nothing new, but simply an old method except with a different vehicle of expression. In previous years the British Empire dominated most of the world, and so over these years of colonial rule there was a mixing of cultures and forming of new traditions and beliefs through the imposition of external values, so in theory that is simply what is happening in the influence of the Western media on the cultures of those deemed as being a developing countries (Branston & Stafford: 1999: 253).
Colin Davis an executive producer at MCA TV, an American network channel, argues that the distribution of popular American programmes such as the 70’s classic Kojak, a cop classic starring Telly Savalas, was never going to endanger foreign cultures. He believed that if a programme, with its most famous line being ‘Who loves ya baby?’, could endanger your culture then you’ve got problems with your culture to begin with.
Conclusion
Through these points I hopefully have given a small indication of what the arguments for and against the media imperialism debate are all about. Generally the criticism is levelled at the most dominant world force, America. It is true that during the whole of the 90’s the Americans have sought to eliminate the international trade barriers that exist worldwide in order to capitalise on the possible financial rewards available. There may in the future be massive benefits from the weaker nations use of western orientated material, but that is far from clear.
It is extremely debateable whether access to western media content is detrimental, as essentially everyone has a choice in the way that they act and the attitudes and beliefs that they chose to adopt. So in effect there will only be a negative effect on the culture of third world, developing or weaker nation if the people who are part of that culture let it slip away (Hutchinson: 1999: 200).
Bibliography
- Gill Branston & Roy Stafford (1999)
“The Media Students Book (2nd Edition)”
(Liebes and Katz - 1993)
(John B. Thompson - 1997)
(James Lull - 1991: 171)
- Daya Kishan Thussu (2000)
“International Communication: Continuity and Change”
(Karl Marx)
“Media Policy: An Introduction”
- Adam Briggs & Paul Cobley (1998)
“The Media: An Introduction”
(Chapter 5: News Agencies - Oliver Boyd-Barrett & Terhi Rantanen)
-
Robert W. McChesney (2000)
www.monthlyreview.org/301rwm.htm
(The Global Media and Imperialism)
“Studying the Media: 1st Edition”
(Oliver Boyd-Barrett - 1977:117)
(Michael Gurevitch: 1991)
