Summary of “Globalization of Culture through the Media”

In the article of “Globalization of Culture through the Media”, Kraidy (2002) discusses the idea of the diametrical perspectives between cultural imperialism and globalization of culture. He states that at one end, cultural imperialism is the enlargement of the prevalent theories of media influence such as the “magic bullet” theory that describe individuals being strongly impacted by the media messages in favour of industrialized countries. On the other end, globalization is conveyed as a process of exchanging information freely among individuals who can create infinite meanings from the actual cultural product. With the use of existing theories and research results, Kraidy concludes that the middle ground between cultural imperialism and globalization recognizes the critical role that global media plays in the process of hybridization, in terms of intensity and speed.