Cultural imperialism or vernacular modernity? Hindi newspapers in a globalizing India

Abstract

The theory of cultural/media imperialism has received great scholarly attention, especially after the Frankfurt School’s characterization of mass media as a tool of ‘mass deception’, which works for commercialized interests (Horkheimer and Adorno, 1972). It argues that there is a domination of American-based cultural flow carried through media, particularly in developing countries, which has not only resulted in cultural homogenization, but also the in spread of consumerist ideology (Herman and McChesney, 1997; Mattelart, 1983; Ritzer, 1996; Schiller, 1976). Interest in the theory of media imperialism has been renewed recently with the disintegration of the USSR in 1991, concomitant with the acceleration of the process of globalization and fears of domination of American and Western ideologies and viewpoints promoted through the worldwide expansion of global media. Despite criticisms, the theory of media imperialism still holds sway in much academic discourse. While criticizing the cultural homogenization thesis, Appadurai argues that ‘the United States is no longer puppeteer of a world system of images, but is only one node of a complex transnational construction of imaginary landscapes’ (1996: 31). Thussu (2007), although he recognizes the contra-flow of information from erstwhile peripheries, argues that it is the North, with the United States at its core, that still dominates the global media flow in terms of volume and economic value. At macro level, the theory of media imperialism might be true in terms of dominance of media business by the US-based media firms. However, what such a view ignores is the autonomy of local media producers, who, despite giving an impression of reproducing the global content locally, in fact incorporate several elements which have been indigenously produced in global form.