This type of Cultural Imperialism could be seen in US brand name products, like McDonalds, and media, like Hollywood and Disney. He argued that media is instrumental in this penetrative process, and referred to the idea of the USA exerting cultural influence over the rest of the world, particularly over developing countries (Schiller, 1976). In 1976, Schiller defined Cultural Imperialism as “the sum of the processes by which a society is brought into the modern world system and how its dominating stratum is attracted, pressured, forced, and sometimes bribed into shaping social institutions to correspond to the values and structures of the dominating centre of the system” (1976, pp. The OED states that the term was first used in 1921 in relation to Russian Cultural Imperialism, but Tomlinson argues that it first emerged in the 1960s and has been more commonly used since the 1970s (2001). In postcolonial discourse, Cultural Imperialism is seen as the cultural legacy of colonialism and is often attributed to Western hegemony (Saïd, 1994). It is one-sided, where a dominating culture is imposed by force. imposing a culture of a ‘superior’ country over less potent societies. Ultimately, it is the cultural aspect of Imperialism, i.e. Similarly to culture, Cultural Imperialism has multiple definitions. This essay aims to contextualise and critically examine Cultural Imperialism theory and look at the different impacts it has had on global communication, both historically and currently.
The need for global communication has increased due to the expanse of globalisation, which will be discussed in this essay. Cultural Imperialism is also closely related to global communication, which can be defined as the communication practice occurring across national borders, social, political, and cultural divides (Thussu, 2010). It is the unequal human and territorial relationship based on ideas of superiority and dominance. Imperialism stems from the word “empire”, and is the extending of a country’s power and influence through colonisation, use of military force, or other means (OED, 2014). Essentially, culture is something that is shared, learned or acquired, and constantly evolving and non-static. Culture is difficult to define, but if one looks to the dictionary definition it is defined as “the distinctive ideas, customs, social behaviour, or way of life of a particular nation, society, people or period” (OED, 2008). However, to wholly understand what Cultural Imperialism is, one must first define “culture” and “imperialism” separately. It is possible to define Cultural Imperialism as “the extension of influence or dominance of one nation’s culture over others, (…) through the exportation of cultural commodities” (OED, 2008).
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