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Cultural Imper al sm and Hybr d ty | 111

of African influences. Similarly, the Latin American influence on U.S. popular
music and TV—and on U.S. culture in general—is growing.
In an age of corporate globalization, some scholars and economists have
come to criticize more overt forms of unequal global distribution of wealth and
the policies, trade agreements, and legal structures that sustain this situation.
As international military conflict continues to characterized the early twenty-
first century, the importance of shared culture and its potential contribution for
mutual understanding is gaining interest as one pathway to a more peaceful and
stable world.

hyBriDiTy anD gLoBaLizaTion
While it is still true that the U.S. dominates global media exporting, and im-
ports very little media material from other countries, in the twenty-first cen-
tury the term cultural imperialism is seldom used. It has been overtaken by the
concepts of hybridity and globalization, the understanding that through com-
munication and transportation technologies, the world has become increasingly
interconnected. The concept of media globalization recognizes that media are
central to the ongoing growth of international interaction and interdependence,
and it lacks the implication of deliberateness that is built into the notion of cul-
tural imperialism.

see also Audience Power to Resist; Bollywood and the Indian Diaspora;
Branding the Globe; Communication Rights in a Global Context; Cultural
Appropriation; Global Community Media; Piracy and Intellectual Property;
Tourism and the Selling of Cultures; World Cinema.
Further reading: Dorfman, Ariel, and Armand Mattelart. How to Read Donald Duck: Im-
perialist Ideology in the Disney Comic, trans. David Kunzle. New York: International
General, 1971; International Commission for the Study of Communication Problems.
Many Voices, One World. Paris: UNESCO, 1980; Kraidy, Marwan M. Hybridity. Philadel-
phia: Temple University Press, 2005; Nordenstreng, Kaarle, and Tapio Varis. Television
Traffic: A One-Way Street. Paris: UNESCO, 1974; Schiller, Herbert I. Mass Communica-
tions and American Empire. New York: Beacon, 1969; Tomlinson, John. Cultural Im-
perialism. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins, 1991; Wallerstein, Immanuel. The Modern World
System: Capitalist Agriculture and the Origins of the European World Economy in the
16th Century. New York: Academic Press, 1974.
Nancy Morris