Media Ownership and Cultural Imperialism

Media Ownership and Cultural ImperialismEvaluate the claims do by authors arguing that media ownership and concentration lead to ethnical imperialism with specific preserveence to a media text(s) of your choice. Do you rack up?Media concentration and its impact on the effective citizen pagan participation has al bureaus been an important matter in both our past and new(a) society. Many authors argue that media ownership and concentration leads to cultural imperialism. To evaluate these claims we outgrowth need to define, with advertence to several media texts, what the common equip ment casualty of cultural imperialism, and media ownership and concentration generally refer to.Using multiple sources, to a greater extent than refering to cardinal specific media text, pull up s hook ons help us to build a omniscient and accusing k straightledge some the subject. Throughout the years, these terms taking into account todays increasing wide range of media and ways of communic ating have evolved significantly in both their entertain and connotation, stellar(a) towards a critical point for our contemporary society and the ones to come. After explaining the meaning of cultural imperialism, we go out then take a look at what media ownership and concentration stands for in our late humans and how it leads to cultural imperialism.Cultural imperialismMany authors sociologists, anthropologists, and philosophers tend to explain, in the most accurate way, these two symbolic terms without any strong conviction in the end. For John Tomlinson this chemical formula does not have a particularly long news report. In the 1960s cultural Imperialism became a part of the general intellectual currency a generic conceptIt (cultural imperialism) brings together two words which are themselves extremely complex and problematic, in an assay to provide a covering concept for a very broad range of issues (Tomlinson, 2002 3).To make it easier we shall break up these t wo terms and attentively study the definition of finale and the definition of imperialism independently, ultimately arriving at a better understanding of the importance in defining this expression. In Oxford Dictionary the word cultural is delineate asan improvement or refinement of mind, manners, etc., by education and training condition of world in that respectfrom trained and refined particular form or type of intellectual development or civilisation (Shorter Oxford Dictionary, 2007 261).Despite that the word close is still one of the three most complicated words in the English voice communication, by the nineteenth century the British anthropologist E.B. Tylor (1874 185) provided probably the most popular definition of cultureCulture is that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, law, custom and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society.Imperialism is, itself, delimit as the policy, practice, or advocacy of extending the powe r and dominion of a nation especially by direct territorial acquisitions or by gaining indirect prevail over the political or economic life of other areas broadly the appendage or imposition of power, authority, or influence. Historically, imperialism is defined through the economic system (and its reference to colonial rules) and the political system, in which appears the Marxist analysis of stages, the modern capitalism and the fight between the American and Soviet Union (Williams, 1958).Commonly associated with the policy of direct extension of sovereignty and dominion over non-contiguous and often distant overseas territories, it besides denotes indirect political or economic control of powerful states over weaker peoples. Regarded also as a doctrine based on the use of deliberate force, imperialism has been subject to moral censure by its critics, and thus the term is a great deal utilize in inter case propaganda as a pejorative for expansionist and aggressive overseas po licy (Wesseling, 2004 7226-7232).If we now jointly consider these two definitions, we then nearly approach the following definition by Martin barker and Julian Petley (2001 22)It seems to mean that the process of imperialist control is aided and abetted by importing supportive forms of culture. allow us now examine a clear and direct example of cultural imperialism by Robert Cecil (1971 6). In his folio rough cultural imperialism, he essentially focuses on the impact of the colonisations across the world. For him this is the beginning of fine and simple cultural imperialism. If we have a look for instance at rough meetings of The United Nations Educational, scientific and Cultural Organization, know as Unesco, when the French-speaking Africans and English-speaking Africans stand up to make a wrangle to the assembly, you can overtly distinguish characteristics of French and British culture.Respectively, French-speaking Africans speak in rather an silver-tongued, transparent wa y while the English-speaking Africans tend to be more blunt, empirical and, occasionally, even humorous. Which methods are employ to convert a nation under cultural domination? The in the lead method is language.As an example, if you shackle somebody, throughout an educational system or as a means of economic concern, to speak your language, to some extent you are imposing your pattern of thought on them. A French sociologist, Pierre Bourdieu, in an interview (Paris, 1996) communicated the followingOnly knowledge of language enables the influence of the culture expressed by that language to be fully effective and to reach the soul of another people.We can also learn this cultural dialog box in advertising campaigns, such as McDonalds, Pepsi, Durex or Ford. Fords advertising, like the others cited above, adapts itself to cultural differences between the umpteen countries in which the brand is available. The American ads are generally bringing back the classic American way of lif e, using old gangster movie patch-work as background references. Asian ads for Ford feature a fantastic, cartoon-ish style.While the UK ads are usually matching with the English humour style short, direct, colorful and relevant. If we then tote up up all those different approaches of the expression we can see that cultural imperialism is, finally,spreading and exalting habits and values a practice in which diferent economic powers play a big part. It is with this link to economic power that the media ownership and concentration now interferes.Media ownership and concentrationTo explain the meaning of media ownership and concentration, we need to think about the natural tendency of capitalistic economic systems linking to oligopoly or monopoly.Media concentration is defined as an increase in the presence of one (monopoly) or a few media companies (oligopoly) in any market as terminus of acquisitions and mergers or the disappearance of competitors (Meier Trappel, 2004 Chap. 4).Inde ed, Indeed, the world is basically ruled and have by mainstream media conglomerates. In the late 90s, there were nine corporations (mainly from the U.S.) that dominated the media world called the Big Ones.According to an article from The Nation, the Big Ones never totally changed.The acquit ten media companies around early 2002 were AOL, Time Warner, Disney, General Electric (quote in the article as a media company), Sony, News Corporation, Liberty Media, Vivendi, AT T, Viacom, Vivendi and Bertelsmann(Robert W. McChesney, The Nation Magazine 1999)However, as Mark Crispin Miller points out (2007) companies may come and go. I chose to use the reference of mainstream media conglomerates ruling the world because these corporations, even if they seem to refer to media corporations, they share members of the board of directors (also known as the process of inter enlisting directorates) within a large panel of big companies, including each important economic devise such as Oil Companie s, Pharmaceutical and wellness car companies, Banks and technology companies.All of these companies are followed by some other Second tiers companies that each befool billions dollars of business. For example, ABC/Disney, among other corporations, owns FedEx, Boeing, City National Bank, Starwood Hotels Resorts CBS/Viacom owns Dell, American Express, Akamai Technologies, Lafarge Corp, Amazon.com, etc. We are living to serve advertisers purposes. Cest notre raison dtre claims the CBS C.E.O.. This capitalist economical process ruled by the constant need of power is very frequently seen as a problem for contemporary media and society.Media ownership of concentration and cultural imperialismSo, how is this media ownership and concentration leading to cultural imperialism? The situation of an healthy and fair democracy is when choice is given to all. In other words, is when media impacts on the market by offering a wide range of ideas, breeding and types of culture.It is well-known th at radion, newspapers, tv and, mor recently, net form a part of everyday life that democracy finds and uses as a way of expression in general media circles. What if, however, this circle is altered by economic ownership, challenger and profit? There may be some media etablishment preaching the diversity, but it would only be on a external look. The misgiving is that so many agencies are often held by one giant onlyDefenders of narrowing control of the media point, accurately enough, to the large numbers of media outlets available to the population almost 1,700 daily papers, more than 8,000 weeklies, 10,000 radio and television stations,11,000 magazines, 2,500 book publishers and more Unfortunately, the large numbers deepen the problem of excessively concentrated control. If the number of outlets is growth and the number of owners declining, then each owner controls even more formidable communications power (http//www.globalissues.org, 2007 Bagdikian, 2000 222).In terms of pers ona of the information reported, the media concentration makes it totally subjective (through the eyes of a few men pulling strings). While concurrential competition can be a good aspect for news reporting and media in general to push for a better quality, the concentrated control of media companies (oligolpoly) and its very special competition has reduced media under cheap popular information through crude sensationalism rather than quality, slender reporting etc. This type of competition clearly affects the journalisms ability to spread quality news and alters the time out of theorical and professional journalism. But those decisions are firstly made because society and people change. Readers and viewers care 5more about scandals, celebrities affairs and local news (check the emergence and success of tabloids and magazines like Hello, OK, Star, and the Sun, which are also basically owned by the same man Rupert Murdoch). Therefore, according to Fair.org websiteNewspaper editors and television news executives have reduced the set and time devoted to foreign news coverage by 80% to 60% during the past 15 to 20 years (http//www.fair.org, 2009).In terms of political aspect, there is hardly any obvious or revealed strategy adopted by governments. Of course they need to stick the law and human rights on the slide by of the list, but if we have a closer look over media ownership and their relation to the politics, we can find mutual gainful links (such as censorship, subtle truth distortion etc.). Although for now, let us take the example of Berlusconi. In this case, Berlusconi, with the help of the media and their stinginess, efficiently controlled the governments and populations mind.With his own media (and with the journalists he co-opted with money) he controlled the parliament, the usual opinion 1and the state bureaucracy in order to change the realistic substance of his judiciary charges, which could lock him and his subordinates to jail. By controlling the media, controlling peoples minds, spreading opinions and influencing decisions has never been so simpleConcerning diversity and homogeneity of media content, it is known that media organizations try to cover all audiences and public.They cant afford to provide worldwide information and decline it to more than thousands culture. Thus they use omnibus media. Transporting everything for everybody. It, then, reduces the diversity of opinions and commentary for common purposes. To widely sum up one idea for all, which then involves a sort of imperialism since no other choice is given. Furthermore, the fact that inter home(a) and national news is passed on by only a few preponderant global news agencies, and that the national and local news is delivered by only one agency makes the journalistic sources of news coverage very limited in scope. However, there is no empirical or scientific evidence that editorial quality has declined under monopoly conditions according to Werner A. Meier and Joseph Trappel (2004 chapter 4).Most of the media companies listed above are American, thus talking about cultural imperialism consequently implies to especially focus on the American media supremacy. You can travel to the most reclusive village and you will be able to satisfy your craving for a Big Mac, entertain yourself by watching a Hollywood blockbuster in your comfy Nike shoes.This proliferation of American products across the globe is more than mere accident. As a by product of globalization, it is part of a larger trend in the conscious spreading of American attitudes and values that is often referred to as cultural imperialismGaleota, 2007 1).Also, if we take cinema production as an election example a few years ago, the youth of the world had a choice between Chinas history review by way of Walt Disneys Mulan, and the Old Testament recreated by Stephen Spielbergs The Prince of Egypt still approach from American media productions. Foreign history and legends painted with the American background colors At the same time, foreign productions crossing the U.S. borders are also submitted to an Americanization on the scenario and screen production.Tenk no shiro Rapyuta (Castle in the sky) is the 1986s animated film by Hayao Miyazaki. The Japenese version includes traditional and minimalist soundtracks by Joe Hisaishi. The european exported version includes the same sountrack and original dialogues with subtitles while the American edition changes the music, dialogues and deletes scenes.After this incident, Ghibli Studios (Hayao Miyazaki production) refuses to export their films within the U.S. borders. But if America triumphs on screen in the vanguard, it mustiness also triumph through the universal message of Hollywood a message of individual voluntarism, easy transferable (and easily ingestible) to all peoples of the planet.ConclusionHere we tend to explain the origins and, through many sources of modern cultural imperialism, the composition of media ownership and concentration. After reading many articles, views, and claims about these different subjects, it was clear and obvious to realize their common interaction. The increasing globalization of media activities across the industry of media during the past ten years has made media ownership and concentration a fundamental socio-political, cultural and economical phenomenon.This media concentration clearly leads to a cultural imperialism interacting all over the world. Moreover, media concentration reduces the sources and information given to the reader/spectator. But on the other hand, we also have to consider another aspect of the problem the basic psychological behaviour of our society. Historically a leader has always been at the forefront of society. Whether religious, monarchical, political or cultural the presence of leadership brought tribute and direction to the people (Montesquieu, 1748).Whether right or wrong, the views of the leader were adopted by the peop le often leading to cultural unrest and misguidance. The safety needs of the people, as Maslow claimed manifests itself in the choice and preference for leadership. In many ways the role of the leader has been adopted by the media giants who express their views to a widespread audience of followers. From the famous Thomas Hobbes (1660) claim Man is a wolf for other men (or commonly translated as bounder eat Dog), we became a society of loup et moutons (wolf and sheep).The population is now known for following ideas and opinions like sheep, and ingurgitates the information without questioning it (check the French INPI Campaign, 2001). Like a Sheppard herding sheep, the media giants (the Sheppard) can control and manipulate views of the people (the sheep) without the true facts being presented. So, whose fault is it if we talk about cultural imperialism? The media giants spreading the exact ideas and opinions without the foresight for a true and objective opinion or the people who b lindly believe the opinions forced upon them?2633 wordsWorks CitedBarker, Martin, and Julian Petley. bereavement effects the media/violence debate. Vol. 2. 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