Page 182 - Culture Society and the Media

7
Cultural dependency and the mass media

J.O.BOYD-BARRETT

The focus of this chapter is on the role of the mass media in the poorer countries
of the world, how the functions of the media relate to one or more definitions of
‘national development’, and especially on whether and how the media serve as
channels for inter-cultural ‘invasion’ of the poorer countries by the more affluent
and powerful nations. In other words, the central theme is the role of the mass
media in relations of cultural dependency between nations. The title might
suggest to some that this theme belongs in the study of ‘inter-cultural
communication’. But others might argue that the heart of the problem lies in the
imbalance of power between nations. Either way, this chapter can do little more
than signpost some issues that are central to the question of the contribution of
the media to dependency. At the same time it should be kept in mind that
cultural dependency can also reflect, and may reinforce, imbalances of
socioeconomic power among the affluent nations, or among cultures within
nations. Nor must it be assumed that the mass media are necessarily the most
significant contributors to cultural dependency, let alone to other forms of
dependency.

FROM IMPERIALISM TO DEPENDENCY
Space is insufficient here to examine the concept of ‘dependency’ in any detail.
To some readers the term ‘imperialism’ may be more familiar. But ‘imperialism’
is strongly associated with the act of territorial annexation for the purpose of
formal political control. ‘Dependency’ theory asserts that national sovereignty is
not a sufficient safeguard against the possibility of de facto control of a nation’s
economy by alien interests. In most Marxist theory, imperialism is regarded as an
inevitable outcome of capitalism. There is no essential reason in dependency
theory why the economic and political interests of the communist superpowers
should not sometimes also distort or stunt the autonomous development of
poorer nations. Imperialism, in Marxist theory, can be superseded only by
international socialism. In contemporary dependency theory there is a greater
element of doubt as to whether the circle of dependency processes, whereby
the structural imperatives of developed economies enslave the weaker, is or is not
absolutely vicious, and as to whether significant change is possible within the