Adela María Lastra Llergo
ID 139726
CO 337 Individual essay
Cultural imperialism or we should better call it “Americanization”?
First, I want to start this essay with a bit of history of the development of the term “Cultural imperialism.”
Rauschenberger (2003) talks about theories trying to describe the cultural imperialism, these theories appeared in the 1960’s and acquired importance in the 1970’s.
The term “cultural imperialism” came out in the post World war II with different names, like “neo-colonialism”, “soft-imperialism” and also “economic- imperialism”. And over the years has also accumulated other names such as “media imperialism”, “structural imperialism”, etc.
Now I want to expose some definitions that I found interesting and are important to establish my position toward the concept.
In words of Sarmela (1975)
“Cultural imperialism is the economic, technological and cultural hegemony of the industrialized nations, which determines the direction of both economic and social progress, defines cultural values, and standardized the civilization and cultural environment throughout the world.” (p.13)
What I understand and I found interesting in Sarmela’s definition is that the cultural imperialism takes us to the economic and social progress, and it seems that the only way to reach this progress is, if all the countries share the same of everything, the same culture, values, etc.
From this article I also found interesting that the author mentions that the world is becoming a “cultural common market area”, this means that the same kind of technical product development, the same kind of fashion, knowledge, music and literature is manufactured, bought and sold.
This “cultural common market area” is related to what I mentioned before about all the countries sharing the same of everything, in this case, sharing the same fashion, music, literature, things related to culture.
On the other hand, I would like to mention another perspective of the cultural imperialism, a perspective from some authors that talk about the ‘intrusion of American consumer culture’.
Rauschenberger (2003) is the one who mentions the intrusion of American consumer culture. What he says is that, usually speaking, the term of “cultural imperialism”, is relate to the worldwide spread and control of American consumer culture and products.
An example of this intrusion of American consumer culture that Rauschenberger (2003) mentions is the localization of a Starbucks in Saudi Arabia’s sacred city of Mecca, selling its distinguish coffee to the Muslim pilgrims who arrive from all the world.
What I found worrying about this spread and control of American consumer culture and products is that in many nations their local traditions and values are decreasing and what America seems to be doing is creating a form of global cultural regulation.
Another author that talks about this point is Julia Galeota (2004) who says that
“This proliferation of American products across the globe is more than mere accident. As a by product of globalization, it is part of a larger trend in the conscious dissemination of American attitudes and values that is often referred to as cultural imperialism.” (p. 22)
As examples, she mentions the fact that it does not matter where we are, we could eat a Big mac or see the newest episode of “MTV’s The real world, in short, our American tastes can be pleased everywhere. And actually when I read this I practically realized that this is totally true, I mean we can be anywhere and we could see our favourite show even if we are in a different time zone.
Galeota (2004) also mentions the decreasing of traditions and values. She said that the culture imperialism also implies the disappearance of many cultures around the world and all this thanks to the overwhelming impact of corporate and cultural America.
Until now, I have exposed some definitions of cultural imperialism and I have talked about what it does to our culture, but now I want to talk a little bit of what is the purpose of the culture imperialism.
What is the motivation of the cultural imperialism? Galeota (2004) mentions that
“The motivations behind American cultural imperialism parallel the justifications for U.S. imperialism throughout history: the desire for access to foreign markets and the belief in the superiority of American culture.” (p. 22)
As we all know, and in the words of Galeota (2004) “the United States is the country with the world’s largest and most powerful economy.” (p. 22) But as a profitable business everybody wants to take advantage of it, because the business is not complete if you only control the American market.
Therefore, what the author is telling us here is that American corporations want to control the other percentage of the world’s consumers also.
Now that I explained some of the most interesting definitions of “culture imperialism”, I would like to make clear my position toward this concept.
After reading all this information I only have on word in my mind and its “power”, is the only think that seems to be important and the only thing that seems to matter. It’s like one day someone woke up and said “if we want to be the most powerful country in the world, we must establish one way of act, think, we must establish one culture.”
And now I ask to myself, what is the point of the freedom of speech if at the end all we have to think and act in one way? I do not see the point of all this “freedom” and therefore I must say that I am against of the cultural imperialism.
Besides talk about my position toward this situation, I also want to mention other aspects of the Cultural imperialism, like for example nowadays, what is the role of the Cultural imperialism? What are the advantages and disadvantages, and the weakness or criticism that has received.
What is the role of the cultural imperialism in nowadays? Well, González, Dávalos y Gutiérrez (2012) in their article talk about how the American programs are influencing the life of the Mexicans. This authors are basing their article in “Moder family”, that is an American program transmitted by Fox. And with this article they tried to figures out what are the viewers getting from these American programs.
The results they got show to us, that this program is no manipulating the identity or the Mexican culture. Actually, and this is an advantage of the Cultural imperialism, is seen as an opportunity to learn and adapt to the family reality that it is presented by this show.
Rauschenberger (2003) is another author that also talks about the actual situation of the Cultural imperialism. He mentions that if we want to understand the growth of the cultural trade increasing worldwide, we should first understand the concerns surrounding Cultural imperialism.
In his article, this author mention that according to the UNESCO
“There has been a significant increase in cultural imports from $47.8 billion in 1980 to $213.7 billion in 1997, a jump from $12 per capita in 1980 to $44.7 per capita.” (2003, p. 5)
What this means is that the entire world is seeing notable expansion in the request and trade of cultural goods, specially games and music. And of course, during this period of growth, the U.S.A. has become the extensive export, this according to the UNESCO.
In conclusion, Rauschenberger (2003) tell us that the global trade of cultural commodities is being dominated by U.S.A. and its developing fast. But he also mentions that the people is feeling the pinch, raising his voice to show the concern that their way of life and their traditional culture is being threatened.
Right now is the moment to start to talk about other perspective of the Cultural imperialism, because not everything is pink, as well as we can find benefits or advantages, in the world of Cultural imperialism we can find disadvantages.
About this, Rauschenberger (2003) states that increasing popularity of the U.S.A films, music and books in countries across the globe has made that many politicians, academics and other people pay more attention to potential effects of the globalization of America culture. And at this point is where we find the advantages and disadvantages, for example, this could be a disadvantage for the indigenous cultures, because all these products are, in certain way, a threat for them. But it also can be an advantage for the U.S.A government because in this way, they are allowed to influence in countries domestic and international policies.
Galeota (2004) ask us the next question “It is easy enough to convince Americans of the superiority of their culture, but how does one convince the rest of the world of the superiority of American culture?” (p. 22) and she also gave us the answer: Marketing.
The reason why I consider this important is because the way I am analyzing this advantages and disadvantages is the following: This world of Cultural imperialism has more advantages, in this case for the U.S.A that for the rest of the world, this means that the rest of the world has to deal with the disadvantages, but at the same time not everything is bad and there are some advantages for the rest of the world.
Returning to the point of the marketing, I see it as an advantage to the U.S.A. because the marketing it is used to capture our attention and in this way send us a message.
What Galeota (2004) says about it is that whether they are trying to sell us an item, a brand or an entire culture, the marketers have always been able to relate American products and modernity and in that way play with the minds of consumers. An example of this could be Nike shoes, because they are selling us the image of “cool”. And this makes consumers ask for these products.
Front my point of view, the most important disadvantage for the “rest of the world” is that we let ourselves be seduce by all this products and all this incredible life style and this is the strategy that it is use to make us forget about our identity and therefore our culture.
But I also think that this Cultural imperialism has some advantage for us, like for example the existence of McDonalds or Starbucks. I can imagine that when we go to a new country like China for example that is characterized by their extravagant food, there is when I say “Thanks good that McDonalds is everywhere”.
Another example could be the one mentioned by Rauschenberger (2003), he talks about the existence of the park of Magic Kingdom in Europe and Asia, in France and Japan respectively, because in this way the people from this continents does not have to fly to America to visit the parks.
Finally, as a last point of this essay, I should add some critics that the Cultural imperialism has received.
According to Galeota (2004)
“Critics of the theory of American cultural imperialism argue that foreign consumers don’t passively absorb the images America bombards upon them. In fact, foreign consumers do play an active role in the reciprocal relationship between buyer and seller.” (p. 23)
And as an example, she says that according to Naomi Klein’s No Logo, the American cultural imperialism has inspired a “slow food movement” in Italy that consist in a demonstration involving the burning of chickens outside of the first Kentucky Fried Chicken outlet in India.
And though there have been many others outstanding and low profile acts of resistance, the intense, unrelenting attack of American cultural influence continues ceaselessly.
In conclusion, I just want to say that talked about Cultural imperialism has been intense because is a big deal is not just another theme, Cultural imperialism involves so many aspects and you have to keep it main.
After doing this essay I am more aware about how this works and how I can avoid that our culture keeps disappearing and I think that is not bad to live in a super developed world, but we should keep in mind that we must defend who we are and fight for it, because no one else is going to do it.
Bibliography
Galeota, J. (2004). Cultural imperialism: An American tradition. The humanist, Vol. 64, 22-24.
González, M.E., Davalos, C., Gutiérrez, M. (2012). Modern family y los mensajes culturales: percepciones de jóvenes receptores mexicanos de la serie televisiva estadounidense. Revista comunicación, Vol 1, 517-530.
Sarmela, M. (1975). What is cultural imperialism? In Sandbacka, C. Cultural imperialism and cultural identity. Finlandia: Helsinki.
Rauschenberger, E. (2003). It’s only a movie- right? Deconstructing cultural imperialism. (Unpublished thesis dissertation), New York University, U.S.A.