Reader Response Final

In the article of "Globalisation of Culture through the Media", Kraidy (2002) has evaluated the highly debated issue of cultural imperialism and its alternatives. He mentions the debate about whether the West is unfairly imposing its culture on developing countries through the media. The flow of news and entertainment was biased in favor of developed countries due to the unequal technology level between the developed and the developing countries which intensifies the debate. The author also states that globalisation is seen to be a better alternative than cultural imperialism as it depicts the ever-changing complex environment, which includes the idea that different global stakeholders may weaken an individual nation’s cultural unity.

Kraidy(2002) discusses the different views of how free flow of information is more advantageous to the Western countries. This is mainly due to the difference in the levels of technology and experiences that the developed countries have as compared to the developing countries. For example, in the film-making industries, there have been clearly more attention given to movies produced by big companies such as Disney, Pixar and Fox. Also, Hollywood stars are more well-known globally as compared to national stars in China or Singapore. This is because these companies had a head-start in terms of technology in animation and Hollywood had a relatively longer history as compared to Bollywood. With the promotion of free flow of information, this would only be advantageous to the global companies who are already monopolizing the global markets. This makes it difficult for smaller firms to break into the market and difficult to compete with the global firms with more funding and lower cost. This would thus help to extend the developed countries’ influences further to other developing countries. However, I beg to differ.

With the increased flow of information, Asian culture would also be able to extend its influence and be encouraged in the West instead. Successful Asian film classics such as Akira and Godzilla have been adapted and remade in the Western film-making scene. This may in turn help promote and strengthen Asian culture on a long-term basis. With the distinctive and rich culture of Asian countries, this brings about more interest that global firms have towards the Asian countries. This may even cause Western countries to invest in such cultures promoting Asian values such as Disney movie Mulan. Therefore, it is one-sided to think that the free flow of information would only help expand the West’s influence on developing countries. 

Reference:

Kraidy, M. M. (2002). Globalization Through the Media. Retrieved from

http://repository.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1333&context=asc_papers