Reader Response Final Draft

In the article “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 communication theories of media influence controlled by the government that often assume a movement toward homogenous culture and a disregard for the importance of understanding the local culture. 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 play in the process of hybridization, in terms of intensity and speed.

I agree with Kraidy when he suggests cultural globalization as hybridization that pays attention to the local audience preferences instead of cultural imperialism that promotes homogenous culture. Kraidy assumes that the audience-recipient of media messages have the power to interpret and assign meanings to the imported media message based on their own cultural beliefs and attitudes. Thus, the media eventually have to indigenize to meet the audience’s needs and wants.

This is evident in countries such as India, a country that inculcates strong national culture, and where the government has made the media to act in accordance to the Indians' needs and wants. For instance, the main foreign satellite channels such as Star TV are forced to adopt Hindi-language programming as Hindi is the most widely spoken language in India. The Indian market was estimated to account for 55 per cent of STAR TV’s revenues in Asia at the time (Jacob, 2002 cited by Chang, 2007). Another example is the globalization of the film Spiderman 3, which illustrates how mass media successfully have adapted to the Indian’s local culture. The reason Spiderman 3 became the biggest-ever Hollywood hit in India is due to the indigenization that dubbed the Hollywood film into four main Indian languages (Press, 2007). This shows that mass media hybridized but not completely homogenized the culture.

In conclusion, globalization through media should not be deemed as a process of complete homogenization. Depending on the circumstances, the driving forces behind globalization homogenization can be weak. Hence, I believe that cultural identity is not something that can be easily changed and destroyed by the globalized media. The way imported media works is by adding and mixing the cultural elements without eliminating the uniqueness and dominating the local culture.

 

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References

Chang, Y.-l. (2007). The role of the nation-state: Evolution of STAR TV in China and India. Globa Media Journal, 2.

Kraidy, M. M. (2002). Globalization of Culture Through the Media. Retrieved from http://repository.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1333&context=asc_papers

Press, A. (28 May, 2007). 'Spider-Man 3' biggest-ever Hollywood hit in India, sinks 'Titanic'. Retrieved from Pravda.ru: http://english.pravda.ru/news/society