GLOBAL MEDIA AND CULTURAL DOMINATION

HANGEIOR DEGARR

Department of Mass Communication

Benue State University Makurdi

Abstract

The global media is dominated by media giants of Western countries that control the production, distribution of media content over the years. With commercialisation of media content, there was an increase in the spread of thoughts, believe and the artefacts of culture across borders. The main vehicle of delivering such spread has remained the media. Globalisation of the mass media thus replaces crude imperialism which was based on administrative, military, trade and exploitation. Globalisation through the media thus, exact control through subtle means by way of cultural ideology and imbalance in information flow.

Keyword: Global Media, Globalisation, Information flow, Culture, Domination

Introduction

The dimensions of cultural dominance by western countries through their global media giant have in the recent past taken a more subtle approach in terms of content, meanings, representation and interpretation of salient issues concerning less advanced society. This assertion is upheld by Nordstram and Martin (1992) who aver that wherever a conflict impinges on matters of ‘national security’, the news media looks for leading “expert” to predict the move the various actors will take. Social scientists (often of western countries) are in effect asked to devise a strategy to serve the interest of their own country as though they were directing foreign policy. Nordstram and Martin (1992, p.4) explain that “the process legitimates a way of thinking about violence and conflict that emanates from a position of power. Often, it is a way of thinking that is enmeshed in structure and institutional framework, and thereby misses the dynamics associated with the actual experience of violence”.

            The seemingly tilting of coverage of violence by Western media in Africa that gives normative narrative is expressed in news emphasis as exemplify in October 2017. The BBC (October 5, 2017) reports that “three US soldiers have been killed and two others wounded in an ambush in Niger near the border with Mali, the US Africa Command has said. Another soldier from a "partner nation" had also died in the attack”. Weeks later, details emerged on the BBC (October 23, 2017) that five soldiers from Niger and three from the US Army Special Forces were reported killed, while two other Americans were wounded. The entire coverage of that attack in Niger by the BBC was evidently pro America by emphasising the Western lost of life even when it was evident that Nigerien soldiers were the biggest casualty.

            The presence of foreign media in less advanced society and their hold on these countries according to Ademola and Okunola (2013) has given room for minds to be completely cluttered by concepts processed externally, thus, leaving the local people to see the world through western values. The implication is that even the local media representatives are found to be carrying the local audience along that which is contained in foreign media. Acholonu (2011, p.7) also argue

that in in several ways and through several programmes, the media have continued to introduce distorted perception of values, presenting everything foreign as wise, admirable and civilized and everything local as primitive. Technology is not developed indigenously. Imports from developed nations have created malignant taste for foreign goods. The youths and even some adults construct fashion to mean bastardization of our culture, imitating dressing pattern in their daily lives. Africans no longer control the factors that dominate their cultural identity. The media now determines what people value as their culture. The distorted media products beamed to Africa have succeeded in undermining our accepted moral values. African culture is under the battering influence of western imperialism.

Social interactions that give room for dominance is aided by such media as  as satellite television, the Internet, computers, mobile phones etc. Kaul (2011) explains that they are thought to be among the primary forces behind current restructuration of social and cultural geography. Electronic media facilitate an increased interconnectedness across vast distances and a temporal flexibility in social interaction.  It is this technology that is limited among the less development country. This condition gives room for dependence and its resultant unidirectional of flow culture. 

Conceptual clarification

Global media

Media giants across the world are increasingly become sophisticated with technology that aid transmission and distribution of media artefacts and content. According to Lyons (2009) the primary vehicle of the phenomenon of global media is the multinational corporation. Media globalisation has aided in both the production and distribution of information. Rai and Cottle (2007) aver that global media are harnessing satellite technology’s ability to broadcast across borders, regions and even continents, 24-hour news channels have transcended former barriers of geography and territory that encumber terrestrial television news. Apart from television news, commercial entertainment from media conglomeration, concentration, and commercialisation of Western nations according to McChesney (1997) function as the analytical point of departure – restricting the interest to the shape and structure of transnational media institutions.

            International media has for a long time been dominated by media giants mainly from the Western nations of the world. However, the global commercial outlook of many media giants according to McChesney (1997) until around 198Os, were primarily and generally national in scope. Although there have been imports of books, films, music and TV shows for decades, the basic broadcasting systems and newspaper industries were domestically owned and regulated. Top on the list of countries exporting media content is the United States of America. Khattak, Nasir and Ahmad (2012) observe that the US entertainment industry dominates the global market for the production of television programming as well as films.

The notion of a global media to Olausson  (2011) cannot regard the big players as global media per say. They are in fact better described as Western or American media, and only contribute to maintaining Western dominance. This Western dominance cut across all aspect of the media production, distribution and consumption chain, with the wealthy nations of the western on top of the chain and the rest of the world at bottom end of it.

Western media content dominance has been termed cultural imperialism by many scholars. For example, Kraidy (2002) argue that cultural imperialism focused efforts mostly on nation-states as primary actors in international relations. The rich, industrialized, and Western nation-states with intentions and actions export their cultural products and impose their socio-cultural values on poorer and weaker nations in the developing world. Kraidy (2002) further explains that this argument was supported by a number of studies demonstrating that the flow of news and entertainment was biased in favour of industrialised countries. This bias was clear both in terms of quantity, because most media flows were exported by Western countries and imported by developing nations, and in terms of quality, because developing nations received scant and prejudicial coverage in Western media.

The idea of trans-border communication is traceable to the early contact between nations. Madikiza and Bornman (2013) aver that global communication was heighten during the two World Wars. During this period global connectedness was enhanced by the development of ICTs such as the telegraph and telephone; the laying of submarine cables between Europe and the USA; the expansion of railroads and the development of modern navigation with the help of newly developed radio technology. Global communication was furthermore promoted by the commercialisation of the radio in the USA and the development and growth of the film industry. This period also saw the growth of the major international news agencies in Europe and the United States as well as the establishment, integration and transnationalisation of global institutions such as the International Telecommunication Union, the Universal Postal Union and the League of Nations.

The impetus for the growth and expansion of global media of communication accelerated during the World War II and the ensuing cold war (Madikiza and Bornman, 2013). This acceleration was firstly driven by the continued development and expansion of media such as radio and television and, most importantly, the rapid development, improvement and widespread proliferation of ICTs such as satellites, the computer and Integrated Services Digital Networks (ISDN). The global expansion of entertainment media as an import-export industry and the concomitant issues of copyright, intellectual property rights and privacy contributed to the spread of Westernisation. The rise and increasing internationalisation and integration of multinational institutions associated with the production and distribution of information as well as the creation of international communications organisations such as the International Telecommunications Satellite Consortium (INTELSAT) and International Maritime Satellite Organization (INMARSAT) furthermore contributed towards the growth in international information flows.

Cultural Domination

The domination of certain cultures by a few of the most powerful in the world has remained a debate over the years. This dominance is sometimes regarded as cultural imperialism. Sarikakis (2005) argue that the thesis of cultural imperialism has sought to emphasise how power relations of economic and political dimensions infiltrate the cultural sphere. The profound interest of early cultural imperialism was in the effects of the imposition of core cultures over peripheral and semi-peripheral societies in their struggle to speak for and govern themselves. Apart from power play, Ademola and Okunola (2013), asserts that the accelerated pace of technology in the 20th and 21st centuries though is quicker than before, and the changed speed of technology therefore lead to a different way for cultures to adopt. Hence, this leads to some cultures being at risk of being overwhelmed or unable to resist foreign cultural and influence.

Cultural domination according Movious (2010) find easy express in the mass media as the core source of most global informational flow remain the mass media. Traditionally this entails a flow of information in a single direction, a dispersion from one to many. Throughout the developed world the globalisation of media is often argued to be tantamount to the globalisation of culture. Indeed, cultural globalisation is familiar to almost everyone; prominent icons of popular culture, like Coca-Cola and McDonalds, are common examples that can be found almost everywhere in the world.

An understanding of cultural domination as Sarikakis (2005) avers, that Media and cultural imperialism is used in this context as a more comprehensive term that addresses the role of the media in the symbolic construction and reproduction of cultural hegemony. Media/cultural imperialism is often used in conjunction with globalisation: colonial control through the crude means of military, administrative, and economic dominance has subsided significantly after the successful struggles for independence of the former world colonies. These methods of control, however, have been replaced by more subtle methods that nevertheless maintain and reproduce processes of domination. This time, it is through the use of media and cultural products to enshrine control. Global communication systems thus serve two purposes: to provide ideological justification of capitalism and to act as transnational marketing devices for industries. Of course, it is also the case that global media constitute business themselves (Sarikakis,2005).

Although the United States may play a dominant role within the phenomenon of cultural domination, it is important to keep in mind that this is not an entirely one-way street. Many other countries also contribute to global culture, including American culture itself. Just as American popular culture influences foreign countries, other national cultures are influential within the United States and also increase their presence worldwide. Hollywood is a good example of an industry that integrates elements from more than one culture. Most people would think of Hollywood as something entirely American. In sub continental dominance for example, Ehirim (2018) points that Nigeria continue to dominate the African continent with its pop culture in form of music and film penetrating some remote parts of the continent and making it way to international space. The success of some  Nigerian artists in penetrating international borders appears to be victory for a people often marginalised across international borders for always being takers and never givers because the crossover of culture has always aided the crossover of people. And nothing aids the crossover of culture more than the crossover of art. For black cultures, the crossover has occurred mostly via music. The musical styles, slangs, and dressings of genres such as jazz, reggae, dancehall and hip-hop have expanded the influence of black cultures over different periods. Ehirim (2018) cited musician Wizkid and Davido as leading a talented contingent of fast-rising Nigerian musicians, which looks to provide impetus to Nigerian pop on the global stage. While Hollywood dominates world cinema, American movies are subject to foreign influence. According to The Economist, "one reason for Hollywood's success is that from the earliest days it was open to foreign talent and foreign money." Many American movies are remakes of foreign films. For example, the 2007 Academy Award Winner for Best Picture, “The Departed”, is a remake of the Chinese film, “Infernal Affairs.”

There has also been a recent explosion of American remakes of European films. A perfect example is “The Tourist” (originally the French film, “Anthony Zimmer”) which raked in $287 million at the box office. In 2011 the Millennium Trilogy, a Swedish series, was adapted to film in "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" which opened to critical acclaim and grossed over $230 million at the box office.

Also, many film-making companies, producers, and actors in Hollywood are not inherently American. The Columbia Tristar and Twentieth Century Fox companies are owned by Japan's Sony and Australia's News Corporation, respectively, two foreign media conglomerates. James Cameron, producer of the movie Titanic, is Canadian. Moreover, many of Hollywood's most famous actors are not Americans. Arnold Schwarzenegger is from Austria, and Nicole Kidman grew up in Australia. From this perspective, it can be argued Hollywood is a multicultural institution, (Suny Levin Institute, 2013).

Global Media and Cultural Domination

Mass media has remained a crucial carrier and preservation of culture through the transmission of values (socialisation). The mass media help transmit social values through a process of socialisation. Through socialisation the mass media help individuals in society adopt the behaviour and values of the society they belong. By the media portraying our society, and we by watching, listening and reading, we learn how people are supposed to act and what values are important.

            This function of cultural transmission according to Nelson (2010) is overwhelming controlled by majority of today’s global media which is commercially operated in the Western World. For example, in the US, it has tremendous impact on other countries, all of the biggest TV stations (NBC, CBS, ABC, FOX, CNN) are owned by private companies whose sole purpose of existence is to maximize shareholder’s profit. Importantly, the expansion of these communication industries across the globe poses challenges to Africa’s’ indigenous culture. Nelson (2010) asserts that the communication industry is part of the culture industry, and mass communication is a very strong vehicle for cultural dissemination. Nevertheless, with the nature of international communication system, there have been massive flows of Western, largely American, media culture into non-western societies. As a result, native cultures have been distorted and displaced leading to the increase in the adaptation of foreign values, life style and behavioural pattern.

            Argument for a universal culture as observer by Hjarvard (2011) suggest that a global media ensures development through which the constraints of geography on social and cultural structures are reduced, an increased social and cultural interconnectivity across time and space is created, and a heightened consciousness is developed about this secession of social and cultural interaction from geographical constraints.

The media have an important impact on cultural globalisation in two mutually interdependent ways: Firstly, the media provide an extensive transnational transmission of cultural products and, secondly, they contribute to the formation of communicative networks and social structures. The rapidly growing supply of media products from an international media culture presents a challenge to existing local and national cultures. The sheer volume of the supply, as well as the vast technological infrastructure and financial capital that pushes this supply forward, have a considerable impact on local patterns of cultural consumption and possibilities for sustaining an independent cultural production. Global media cultures create a continuous cultural exchange, in which crucial aspects such as identity, nationality, religion, behavioural norms and way of life are continuously questioned and challenged. These cultural encounters often involve the meeting of cultures with a different socio-economic base, typically a transnational and commercial cultural industry on one side and a national, publicly regulated cultural industry on the other side (Hjarvard, 2011).

The unidirectional spread of information and popular culture from to Western to less developed parts of the world saw the rise in a global debate about the New World Information and Communication Order. Matos (2012) aver that international news agencies like Reuters, AP, UPI and AFP are seen as having contributed in spreading a global agenda and in creating particular perceptions of the South as being a place of “corruption, coup and disaster” for Western audiences. The United Nations Educational, Social and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) was during the 1970’s and 1980’s a key body in the debate on international communications. The news agencies came specifically under attack by Third World critics during the New World Information and Communication Order (NWICO). The Western dominance of news broadcasting was perceived as reproducing the prejudices of colonialism.

Economic structure of global media

Technology of communication has always been an accelerator for expanding media scope globally. In recent times, Internet based media are increasing becoming the biggest media giants of the world. According Zenith (2017), Google and Facebook together accounted for 20% of global advertising expenditure across all media in 2016, up from 11% in 2012, These two companies captured 64% of all the growth in global advertising expenditure between 2012 and 2016. The Top Thirty Global Media Owners report is Zenith’s unique ranking of the world’s largest media companies, and has been published since 2007. For the 2017 edition, it updated the methodology and focused purely on media owners’ revenues from advertising, excluding revenues from all other activities, which gives the true measure of their status in the global market in terms of ad revenue.

Google (under its holding company Alphabet) is by some distance the largest media owner in the world, attracting US$79.4bn in ad revenue in 2016, three times more than the second-­‐largest – Facebook – which attracted US$26.9bn. The largest traditional media owner is Comcast, which takes third place in our ranking, with US$12.9bn in ad revenue.

Internet advertising has overtaken television to become the world’s largest advertising medium. As well as Alphabet and Facebook, there are five more pure-­‐internet media owners in the top 30: Baidu, Microsoft, Yahoo, Verizon and Twitter. Between them, the seven digital platforms generated US$132.8bn in internet  ad revenue in 2016 – that’s 73% of all internet advertising expenditure, and 24% of global advertising expenditure across all media. Verizon became a media owner in 2015 when it bought AOL, and if all goes to plan will become a much larger one when it acquires Yahoo later this year. Verizon takes 21st place in our current ranking; adding Yahoo to AOL would boost it to sixth.

The fastest-­‐growing media owner on the list is Twitter, which increased its advertising revenues by 734% between 2012 and 2016. Tencent is second, having grown by 697% over this period, and Facebook is third, with 528% growth. Two other media owners have more than doubled in size between 2012 and 2016: Baidu, which grew 190%, and Sinclair Broadcasting Group, which grew 171%.

Most of the media owners in Zenith’s (2017) ranking (20 out of 30) are based in the US. The US dominates for several reasons: the US has the biggest ad market, US companies have invested the most in extending their reach abroad, and Silicon Valley innovation has powered the growth of internet advertising. China and Germany each have three media owners in the ranking (Baidu, Tencent and CCTV for China, and Bertelsmann, ProSiebenSat.1 and Axel Springer for Germany). Then there are four countries with one media owners each: France (JCDecaux), Brazil (Grupo Globo), Italy (Mediaset) and the UK (ITV).

Before the massive adoption of the internet as a dominant means of communication, Jan (2009) provided an overview of the share dominance by the major players. Although American media play a prominent role in the global scene, media industries from a number of other countries had also establish their presence across the world. A handful of firms dominated the globalize part of the media system. The six largest were AOL, Time Warner (U.S.), Disney (U.S.), Vivendi-Universal (French), Bertelsmann (43German), Viacom (U.S.), and Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation (Australian). The other four main global firms were AT&T (U.S.), Microsoft (U.S.), and two media groups that are part of much large industrial corporations: General Electric/NBC (U.S.) and Sony/Columbia/ TriStar (Japanese). Of the top 10 global media firms, then, six are American (counting News Corporations as Australian), mostly produce, distribute, and regulate almost all media outlets. These types of companies were growing and globalizing quickly. Time Warner and Disney generated around 15 percent of their income outside of the United States in 1900, a figure that rose to 30-35 percent by 2002.

Behind the top global firms is a second tier of three of four dozen media firms that do between $1 billion and $8 billion yearly media-related business. These firms tend to have national or cultural linguistic stronghold or to specialize in specific global niches, as the BBC specializes in news. About half are American (Gannet, Advanced, and Comcast). Most of the rest come from Europe (Hachette, Havas, EMI, Reuters, BBC) or Canada, and a handful are based in East Asia (NHK, TVB, Fuji, Asahi, Chinese, Central TV) and Latin America (TV Globo, Televisa,  Clarin/Argentina).

Some media industries such as the Hollywood films and TV studios represented by the Motion Picture Association of America have long been global in their operation and scope. They control a number of companies in other that distributed and exhibited (in theatres) the films that they produced in the United Sates. More recently, the owner of Hollywood itself has become globalize, as we have seen. The resulting operation has been scrutinized by critics to see whether the kinds of films produced by Sony will now reflect Japanese rather than American sensibilities. No real change has been found. Universal studios were sold to, Vivendi of France, which also had trouble absorbing it, leading to a major internal conflict in 2002 within Vivendi over how far to globalize.

Record companies are similarly structures except that they have a more diverse set of origins and an even more international ownership. Major recording companies are based in Great Britain (Thorn), the Netherlands (Philips), Germany (Bertelsmann-BMG), and Japan (Sony). These companies have consolidated across borders. Philips now own Polygram (formerly of the United Kingdom), and Vivendi-Universal now owns RCA (formerly of the United States), and Vivendi-Universal now owns MCA (formerly of Matsushita-Japan, originally U.U.), and AOL Time Warner owns EMI (formerly of Great Britain). Most of these companies also have large foreign branches that often produce and distribute records within other markets as well as distribute American and European music. As record companies have also been acquired by multinational companies, these firms have become more global and less national in characters. Still, there are some important distinctions in the ways that various media are organized around the world (Jan, 2009).

Conclusion

Attempts by less developed countries to balance the flow of information and culture through the media of mass communication over the years have not yielded the much anticipated result. This is largely to poor adoption of technology, skills and policies. Rapid gathering and spreading of information and other media content require good political and economic environment for optimal result. Some of such policies are grossly inadequate in most developing nations. Thus it is becoming increasingly difficult for nations to balance the gap of what amount of culture that is received from the West.

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