Essay On Cultural Imperialism

Western countries have been suspected of using their position and power to cultivate cultures around the world through the use of media. These cultures are inspired by western cultures and are a powerful way to gain and maintain dominance especially in third world countries. This essay is aimed at arguing a case against global cultural imperialism. Key areas taken into cognizance in this work are, firstly the definition of key terms used in this essay. Secondly, this essay focusses on the demerits of global cultural imperialism though media use namely, erosion of the youth’s indigenous cultures, the use of media to portray western cultures as superior relative to other cultures, contamination of indigenous cultures through the unruly content found in western media productions, western cultures and living standards as shown though the media promotes brain drain in less developed countries, western produced products promoted on global media present unfair competition to local products and how global cultural imperialism is being used to spread western propaganda hence misleading the youth. Lastly this essay concludes with a conclusion.

Global cultural imperialism is defined by Dunch (2002) is the economic and cultural hegemony of developed countries, which dictates the path of socio-economic progress, delineates cultural values, standards for civilization and cultural set up across the globe. Media basically refers to all the collective prime means of mass communication namely the internet, print, television and radio as according to Jenkins (2006). Due to technological advancement mass media has been able to extend its reach worldwide. According to Dyson (2011) media globalisation can be attributed to continuous developments in co...

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...ld countries can be victims of propaganda against their government leaders which in extreme cases can lead to over throwing of governments.

In conclusion this essay was successful in arguing a case against global cultural imperialism by highlighting on some of the major disadvantages of global cultural imperialism. The role of global mass media was also noted in fueling global cultural imperialism. Notwithstanding the existence cultural imperialism a need still arises to address it. As shown above France tries to counter the problem by increasing the exposure of local content to its young citizens. However, to a greater extent responsibility lies with each and every youth on what to receive from and what to abstain from global media in a bid to preserve one’s identity and culture. Socratic’s three rules come in handy, respect others, know yourself and be sincere.