Media Imperialism Research Articles

Ten Postulates of a Media Imperialism Framework: For Critical Research on China’s Media Power and Influence in the Global South

This article considers the growing media power and influence of China in the global South through the lens of a critical media imperialism framework derived from the geopolitical economy of communications research tradition. While extensive research exists on US media imperialism and the challenge to it posed by China’s global media rise, the idea of China as a media imperialist in its own right has received limited attention. This article addresses this gap in the field by summarizing ten key postulates of a media imperialism framework for critical research on China’s media power and influence in the global South. This article study does not seek to prove China’s status as a new media imperialist power or provide a detailed case study of China’s media imperialism in a specific country. Instead, it synthesizes the ten postulates of a media imperialism framework, examines China’s corporate and state media organizations in relation to these, and draws from relevant scholarship, evidence, and anecdotes. The article argues that each postulate can serve as a foundation for future case studies of different facets of China’s media power and influence in countries across the global South. These postulates can be refined, disproven, or expanded through further research. By considering China’s media power and influence through the lens of the media imperialism framework, this article aims to stimulate further meta-theory, empirical research, and scholarly debates on this pivotal topic, which while contentious, is significant to the future of the global South, and the wider world system.

The Influence of Satellite TV Stations on Cultural Practices in Eastern Nigeria

Culture comprises the whole complex of distinctive spiritual, intellectual and emotional features that characterize society, our thought about life, and our ideas. Culture has the capacity to bring about the change of attitudes needed to ensure peace and sustainable development which is known as the only possible way forward for life on planet earth; it shapes the way we see the world. Considering the prominence of Satellite television as a virtual medium, this study sought to know the influence of media imperialism and the claim that it has affected and undermined South-Eastern sociocultural norms and values. More so, this study examined the influence of satellite television stations in the south-eastern states of Nigeria, the region that is fully immersed with her culture. It specifically examined how satellite television has affected the knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, customs and any other capabilities and habits acquired by Nigerians as a member of the society. The research methodology utilizes descriptive statistics with a self-designed questionnaire used to elicit information from a sample of 180 respondents. The findings of the study revealed that the relationship between satellite television stations and sociocultural practices is high and statistically significant.

Beyond media imperialism: The challenges of theorizing global TV flows

This article reviews the intellectual journey that led me to study the development of television in Brazil. It discusses how I came to study how media were developing in countries of the global South as part of a Ph.D. in International Relations. It led me to get particularly interested in Brazil, particularly when I discovered that the US State Department was willing to train me in Portuguese and send me there for three years. It discusses the great intellectual support I received for my research on Brazilian television, TV Globo and cultural dependency, from Prof. José Marques de Melo and others at ECA/USP, in which others like Carlos Eduardo Lins da Silva and Ana Maria Fadul were beginning to look at some of the same issues. It goes on to discuss how interesting and helpful the INTERCOM and ALAIC network of researchers was in learning about the great upswell in Brazilian and Latin American research that was taking place.

Whose media freedom is being defended? Norm contestation in international media freedom campaigns

AbstractThis article analyses how international advocacy campaigns approach and define media freedom, and what influences this process. It does this through a two-year case study of the Media Freedom Coalition—an intergovernmental partnership of over 50 countries—that included 55 interviews with key stakeholders, observations, and document analysis. This revelatory case sheds light on how norms of media freedom are constructed and contested on the international stage, and their implications for journalists, media freedom and geo-politics. We show that the Coalition adopted a state-centric, accountability-focused, and negative understanding of media freedom. This discourse legitimized a narrow, reactive, and “resource-light” approach to supporting media freedom, focused on “other” countries. We argue that critical norm research provides a helpful prism for understanding this Coalition’s operations, and the global politics of media freedom more generally. These findings have important implications for understandings of “norm entrepreneurship,” “media imperialism,” and “media freedom” itself.

New features of media imperialism: The South African online media and the coverage of the Ukrainian war

The coverage of the war in Ukraine has unravelled inherent biases within the South African online commercial media. These biases are largely driven by its location within the global capitalist power structures, thus confirming continuities of media imperialism. By relying on Western sources, this media invariably exports Western norms, standards, hegemonic narrative and worldview. This paper employs content analysis to examine the coverage of the war by five South African online publications (News24, IOL, TimesLive, Citizen.co.za and BusinessTech) between January and February 2022. The coverage was largely negative because of concerns about the impact on global markets. The West’s dominant views are discernible due to the chosen sources, with over 80 per cent coming from its newswires. Similarly, the opinions of Western political and business leaders and their business and economic analysts are prevalent. While it is expected for stories to be framed from a conflict perspective, it is the economic consequences frame that also drives the coverage, with Russia blamed, as reflected in the predominant theme “Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine”. While there have been fundamental developments since the concept of media imperialism emerged, this coverage points to some continuities. It is precisely for this reason that the South African media should develop partnership beyond the West, more so, in the context of the growing importance of BRICS.

Canada

In this country profile, Mark V. Campbell provides historical, cultural, socio-political and linguistic insights into the formation and existence of hip hop culture in Canada. Focusing on multiple elements within the culture and by exploring the climate of media imperialism that impacts the country’s cultural forms, the contribution provides wide ranging and multiple contexts in which hip hop culture is situated within this large but sparsely populated country.

Enraptured by this Glorious Media Landscape: Anne with an E and cross-platform coproduction

This article examines the CBC/Netflix coproduction Anne with an E (2017–19), a leading example of cross-platform coproduction whose legacy is disrupted by the drama’s unexpected cancellation. Theories of cultural and media imperialism are discussed to contextualise this circumstance, along with an overview of the Canadian media policy context. The relationship between the CBC’s public service model and Netflix’s subscription service is considered, followed by an analysis of the increased cultural representation of the drama, which incorporates Black, queer and Indigenous identities. The article concludes by suggesting what Anne with an E’s cancellation may mean for the future of cross-platform coproductions.

Representações do Movimento dos Povos Indígenas na etnomídia roraimense

Abstract This research reflects on the ethnomedia practices carried out by the portal of the Indigenous Council of Roraima (CIR), in order to understand how the organization constructs meanings about the Indigenous Peoples Movement. To do so, we characterized the Indigenous Movement and Ethnocommunication; we discussed the relationships between media imperialism and representation through Mattelart (1978); and we used the precepts of Discourse Analysis by Souza (2014) to examine the narratives of the corpus of study, consisting of 89 publications by the CIR in 2018. The results unveil an ethnocommunicative practice that operates on the architecture of discursive representations that have as a principle the circumstance that the natives are original inhabitants of the areas delimited as Indigenous Lands, determining the transmission of this right to their descendants for their continuity as peoples with pre-Columbian ethnic relationships.

What is Netflix imperialism? Interrogating the monopoly aspirations of the ‘World's largest television network’

ABSTRACT Building on the controversial charge of Netflix imperialism made in 2019 by Canadian Broadcasting Corporation president Catherine Tait, this piece attempts to develop a theoretical and technical framework for understanding whether the American content provider/streaming service is engaging in ‘media imperialism’ by rapidly and expansively importing its service into other nations--often to the chagrin of governments and other media companies. Reading a variety of textual sources ranging from trade publications to industry press outlets to popular autobiographies, we will argue that the company is engaged in a hybrid form of media imperialism and platform imperialism through a variety of industrial practices: vertical integration built around a proprietary platform, transnational scaling up of production at a rapid pace, and engaging in corporate practices that systematically disregard accountability and legal regulation. The article ends with examining how national governments and inter-imperialist rivalries might complicate Netflix's ambitions.

Review essay: Global and comparative perspectives on media and development

This essay reviews the works ‘Television and the Afghan Culture Wars’ (University of Illinois Press) by Wazhmah Osman and ‘Media Imperialism in India and Pakistan’ (Routledge) by Farooq Sulehria as recent contributions to the fields of global and comparative media studies. It considers the overlapping themes in these works through ruberics of media imperialism and development in terms of growth of television industry in India, Pakistan and Afghanistan in the broad context of globalization and transnational media flows.

PROBING THE FEASIBILITY OF THE INDIGENISATION OF NIGERIAN MEDIA IN AN ERA OF CULTURAL GLOBALISATION: A STUDY OF NIGERIAN RADIO AND TV PRODUCERS

The myth of media imperialism (presumably engendered by the globalisation current) has motivated most less developed countries to adopt customised media policies geared towards cultural protectionism. In line with this protectionist movement, Nigeria has adopted a local content policy which, over the years, has militated for a national media output which is dominantly shaped according to its local cultural specificities. This policy which strongly urges endogenous broadcasters to thrive to attain a 100 percent local content has variously been assessed by media practitioners and ideologues. Using secondary sources and critical observations, this paper argues that, although laudable, the idea of resorting to local content regulation for cultural protection in the Nigerian media sphere has been poorly conceived. Government has so far failed to provide all the accompanying measures to secure the success of this policy. As conceived by Nigeria, the policy does not provide a comprehensive and clear cut definition of local program and Nigerianess. Also, the policy’s insistence on a 70-100 percent is utopian. It really overlooks the fact that Nigerian audiences have progressively become Westernised and logic will want media producers to pragmatically go for western or westernised media programs, so as to stay afloat.

Do International News Agencies Set the Agenda of Pakistani English Newspapers? A Critical Analysis of Three English Dailies of Pakistan

The aim of this study is to measure the reliance of the Pakistani English press on international news agencies. Quantitative content analysis was done to see the level of reliance. A ten-year period has been selected for analysis starting from 9/11. International pages of three English newspapers were selected. The results indicated that there is very small contribution of the newspapers in the case of international news content, they mostly rely on foreign content and publish the same. Pakistani newspapers hardly try to appoint their correspondents and resultantly they have to copy the same content available by international news agencies e.g., AP, AFP & Reuter. The study considered the theory of media imperialism and the results endorse the age-old central verses peripheral relationship with developed countries and the developing nations which still persist

Negotiating Representation of Islamic Values on Korean TV Dramas Among Indonesian Muslim Youth

This article describes one of the effects of globalization on young Muslims in Indonesia. They interact with a variety of cultural products from all corners of the world. Focusing on Indonesia, this article argues that the emergence of globalization has provided opportunities for young Muslims to negotiate Islamic value representations of Korean TV dramas. Using ethnography method, this article selects young Indonesian Muslims who like Korean television drama as informants. The emergence of transnational cultural products was believed to play an important role in the process of 'cultural imperialism' among young people. The information and views presented are not considered to be a ‘healthy’ menu for Muslim youth. In fact, in cultural studies, media imperialism or cultural imperialism is famously contested. By interviewing and observing 42 informants, this article finds that Muslim youth do not receive all the messages from the media passively. During their consumption on Korean television dramas, young Muslims are negotiating their representations. They are capable of selecting values from the television dramas. These Muslim consumers in this context do not just accept all the messages and representations of Korean television dramas. Indonesian Muslim youth have an innate cultural identity and conscious knowledge, which they have obtained from their learning environments such as education and culture. Muslim youth interpret "stories" in drama by relating them to their Islamic values. Keywords: Negotiation, representations, Islamic values, youth, Korean TV dramas.

The New York Times’ Australian expansion and its internal contradictions

The New York Times needs to expand to global audiences if it is to grow its digital subscription base. However, to do so it must balance difficult questions of colonial intentions with demands for inclusivity. By juxtaposing the case of the Times’ Australian expansion with its approach to global journalism as a whole, the power dynamics of American journalism imported from abroad to grow markets is explored. But the context is different from what most scholars critique as media imperialism: there is no capital surplus, the Times is not a global media firm, and in the case of Australia, traditional concerns of ‘first-world/third-world’ power flows are not present, although different modes of domination nonetheless prevail.

Distributing CanCon: CBC strategies for international distribution

This article tackles the evolution of Canadian Broadcasting Corporation international distribution strategies at the intersection of the contemporary television landscape, by providing a context and definition for Canadian content (CanCon) rules, so as to consider more recent debates on the positioning of foreign streaming services in Canada in relation to existing broadcasting companies. The aim is to problematize media policies, by outlining the present state of the debate and updating the conversation to include global streaming TV players. Key questions are explored, such as whether CanCon rules are outdated forms of cultural protectionism or still represent viable answers to the risks of media imperialism.

Media Imperialism: A Postmodern Analysis

This paper aims to build an understanding of postmodern phenomena, that what exactly it means and how it relates to media in general and media imperialism in particular. The claim of modernists that we, the masses are so immersed in the mediatized lifestyle that we have blurred the lines between reality and media is discussed thoroughly that how the distinction has almost disappeared. This study explores how human beings have lost the sense of reality and have started to believe that media reality is the actual reality. It is also worth explaining how it has historical roots, from modern to postmodern era, in which the idea of representation got remixed with intertextual references. This piece of writing also establishes the work of distinguished postmodernists like Lyotard, Derirda, Foucault, Barthes, Edward Said, Boyd Barret and Bandrillad. The article elucidates the vital role played by media to reshape our personal and social lives, and most importantly, our conceptions of reality. It investigates the question that is it really truth that our lives have been dominated and influenced by the consumption of images, where notions of objectivity and empiricism have been disappeared since long while forgetting the true essence of real world? And whether there exists a wish to return to reality or not?

Over-the-Top Video Services in India: Media Imperialism after Globalization

Over-the-Top Video Services in India: Media Imperialism after Globalization

Another Look at Cultural and Media Imperialism: A Critical Analysis of the Concepts

Another Look at Cultural and Media Imperialism: A Critical Analysis of the Concepts

Media Imperialism and Cultural Dissatisfaction: A Case Study of Undergraduate Students in Islamabad

The objective of the research was to dig out the effects of exposure to western television channels among the undergraduate students in Islamabad on their cultural dissatisfaction. The extent of dissatisfaction about Pakistani culture and positive assumptions in favor of western culture was noted. A convenient sampled survey with equal representation of male and female gender was applied. It was found that exposure to western television channels makes an alien world in the minds of audience (t=3.02). A considerable variance in assumption inclined to foreign culture was assessed (β=0.32). Moreover, income and time spent remained the important factors to make the western alien culture a reality.

Media Imperialism and Cultural Dissatisfaction: A Case Study of Undergraduate Students in Islamabad

Media Imperialism and Cultural Dissatisfaction: A Case Study of Undergraduate Students in Islamabad