MC411 – Professor Terhi Rantanen

: Nadia Rehman, Hanna Eberhard, Skye Featherstone

- Summarize this week’s readings - Pose critical questions to explore

key concepts and connections to other readings from our course

Media Imperialism: Oliver Boyd-Barrett (1977)

New imperialism: Information and media imperialism?: Christian Fuchs (2010)

Bonus: Cyberspace, globalization and empire: Oliver Boyd-Barrett (2006)

Media Imperialism:

“the process whereby the ownership, structure, distribution or content of the media in any one country are singly or together subject to substantial external pressures from the media interests of any other country or countries without proportionate reciprocation of influence by the country so affected.” (Boyd-Barrett, p117)

Boyd-Barrett’s four modes of media imperialism• Shape of the Communication Vehicle• Set of Industrial Arrangements• Body of Values• Media Content

Power, lack of reciprocity, global media• Influence and information is exported or

disseminated• Visible and invisible influences• Shapes the media and gives a political,

cultural and economic advantage to the country where the influence is flowing from

More research needs to be conducted• (This has been completed by scholars like C.

Fuchs)

Also, consider when this article was written (Cold war years - 1977)

Imperialism as highest stage of capitalism:

“capitalism in that stage of development in which the…monopolies and finance capital…export of capital…the (economic) division of the world among the international trusts…division of all the territories of the globe among the biggest capitalist powers has been completed.” (Lenin, C. Fuchs, p34)

• The concentration of capital in the information sector

• Finance capital and information capital • Capital export and information industries • The economic division of the world and

information corporations • The role of information in the political division of the world

o Global media organization“Media globalization…the structuration of media organizations according to the logic of capital accumulation…has expanded its worldwide scope.” (C. Fuchs, p46)

o New imperialism vs. media imperialism: “Media are characterized by qualities of imperialism such as…transnationalization, which allows us to speak of the imperialistic character of the media within the new imperialism, but not of the existence of media imperialism.” (C. Fuchs, p56)

History of US ICT hegemony:“For over 25 years ICTs were dominated by the USA….the principal driver of globalization.” (Boyd-Barrett, p23)

TNCs & ICTs were left out of discourse:“…political economy of microprocessor- based computer

networking…the role of ICT industries in helping underwrite US superpower hegemony over several decades.” (Boyd-Barrett, p38)

US ICT hegemony declining?“…specifically the challenge of Asian ICT activity to the prospects of a continuation of US hegemony.” (Boyd-Barrett, p21)

If media imperialism exists: does it equal cultural dependency according to Boyd-Barrett?

How can developed and developing countries counteract media imperialism?

Can Fuch’s new imperialism exist without media imperialism?

How does Fuch’s statistical analysis relate to Boyd-Barrett’s key concepts?

How does Adorno’s critique of mass-media relate to media imperialism depicted by Boyd-Barrett?

Have you encountered media imperialism? What is the future of the US media hegemony (ICT,

mass media)?