Critiques of Cultural Imperialism

Cultural Imperialism: the act of imposing the culture of one nation on to another. This usually refers to the cultural of an economically and militarily powerful nation on a weaker one.

Results:

• The successful global imposition of American culture
• Effectively destroys indigenous cultures
• Imposes an American way of life on local populations.

Assumptions of the cultural imperialism or "Americanization" model:

1. It assumes that economic success is the same as cultural imposition - simple proliferation of foreign products does not necessarily change a local culture (faulty cause-and-effect model).

2. It operates with a limited concept of the 'foreign'.

3. Assumes that America in the only global power which wields influence.

4. Global flows move in a two-way direction, not just from the US to other countries.

5. Globalization is not taken in whole; it is subject to the forces of fragmentation and hybridity, resistance and incorporation.

Hybridity: The mixing together of different cultural elements to create new meaning and identities.

Factual Challenges to Cultural Imperialism Thesis (Marris & Thornham, pg. 174-177)

1. High levels of USA program imports into Latin America in the 1960s was a transitional stage in the development of television in these regions (same is true of Spain until early 1990s).

2. Trends toward greater regional exchanges of programming.

3. Internal sociological factors within countries supposedly subjected to US imperialism.

4. Most important influence was the commercial television model, not any particular ideological focus.

5. US programs are rarely the most popular programs when viewers have a diversity of choices, particularly of locally produced content.

International TV Ratings
Music, TV & Box Office Charts Worldwide

6. Lack of evidence supporting claim that US content influences the ideology or culture of periphery countries - overemphasis on political economy.