Sunday 27 August 2017

Media Imperialism


Media Imperialism is a theory stating that smaller countries are losing their identity due to the dominance of media from larger nations. It can be equated to small community shops closing down due to large superstores moving in, taking over and having a monopoly. As the larger media corporations begin to take over, smaller media companies are either being forced out or swallowed up. When the majority of media available in one country is that produced by a different, more dominant nation, it is suggested that the culture of that larger nation, along with its interests, displace that of the home country. Many critics argue that there is too much media coverage of the events in a limited number of large nations as opposed to the rest of the world. This coverage may be affected by the dominance of media companies in these larger countries, which have the ability to control the content and amount of coverage on a particular issue. Critics suggest that this dominance has led to important events getting little attention, and biased information and inaccuracy within news stories.


In this entry, I am going to discuss about media imperialism in movies and television. The first example is, the classic film 'Forest Gump' directed by Robert Zemeckis. This film was released in July 1994. This film also won an Oscar for the Best Picture. If you seen this movie, it is about the life of retarded Gump that we can get in touch with many aspects of American social life. In detail, this film was adapted from a novel by Winston Groom and was published in 1986. In the original book. this story is about fantastic fiction filling with iconic senses. However, the film has been delivered with beautiful storyline. The original fantastic and iconic meaning have been removed as well as the rebellious fighting spirit. The character Forrest Gump has been shaped as an 'civilian hero' who was noble morality and his way of earning life pursuing happiness is on the effort to glorify America. The character in the film can be seen as the representative of American which can be testified from the scene that Gump is endowed of congress badge.




Another example is the Hollywood war film 'Saving Private Ryan' directed by Steven Spielberg. This film was released in July 1998, 4 years after Forrest Gump was released. In this film shows a propaganda of American individualism. The story is about the group rescue of individual life. This theme similar to the Jewish traditional principle in the film 'Schindler's List' directed by the same director that is Steven Spielberg and was released in December 1993, who saves one life to ther world entire. basically, Hollywood films always put the mission of saving all the world on the shoulder of an individual.


In the film 'Air Force One' directed by Wolfgang Peterson and was released in July 1997, the image of American President Tim Marshall is a perfect example for protecting our country and reputation. He insists on not compromising over the terrorists. Marshall struggled with those terrorists by himself and then he realized the promise of zero tolerance and save the world. Within this film, American President is eager to expand the liberal democracy, the Christian faith and American concept of family to global people. Regardless, in realistic life, this kind of omnipotent heroism is merely a myth.

Generally speaking, new technology allows more people from around the world to make their voices heard, there are critics who argue that media imperialism is not the threat it once might have been. Access to social media tools has allowed the group of people who might be censored in the past to make their stories more widely known. Even older technologies can be very effective to allow voices in the media landscape.



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