Page 188 - Culture Society and the Media

178 CULTURAL DEPENDENCY AND THE MASS MEDIA
Theory or propaganda?
There is almost certainly a good case to be made for the hypothesis that the mass
media have, to an as yet unspecified extent, contributed to the complex of
processes referred to as dependency. Yet much of the evidence and
argumentation is presented as though it were in illustration of an established and
incontrovertible fact. There is a rough division, in the catalogue of forms of
media-related cultural penetration already outlined, between those which are
susceptible to precise measurement (e.g. the number of newspapers owned by
multi-nationals; the number of hours of imported television programming in peak
viewing times) and those which are not nearly as amenable to positivistic
methodologies (e.g. cultural changes attributable to mass media). Yet the weight
of evidence for theses of media imperialism often relies heavily on the latter.
Caution with respect to available evidence is frequently absent. Instances may be
noted where there is no simple acknowledgement of the non-availability of
certain kinds of relevant data. Too much weight may sometimes be given to
western influences on one particular medium without reference to the general
character of all media output or to evidence concerning respective media impacts.
The totality of relevant exogenous media influences may sometimes be evaluated
in isolation from an evaluation of countervailing indigenous influences. It tends
to be assumed that the adoption of any given western media practice represents a
stage in the process of social change that would not have occurred solely in
response to indigenous pressures. The role of the demand for cultural imports is
underemphasized or glibly explained away as ‘created’. Analysis of actual
effects or consequences is especially rudimentary. The contours of the debate
have perhaps been too much influenced by the Latin American experience,
where specifically North American penetration of technology, advertising, low-
brow canned US media fodder, has been especially acute in conditions of
relatively low national government regulation. There is a general tendency
towards exaggerated claims for media impact. When the particular dangers
predicted in relation to one innovation fail to materialize, or do not materialize as
unambiguously as expected, attention moves on to the next incipient weapon of
imperialism. In the case of direct broadcast satellites, for example, insufficient
attention was given by the pessimists to the wide variety of means available to
governments for controlling or preventing the reception of such transmissions
(for example, by prohibiting the sale of particular kinds of receiver). It is very
curious that a phenomenon as pervasive and as elusive as that of inter-cultural
media influence should so rarely be seen to contribute at least some positive
factors to the process of social change in poorer economies. Finally, in
consideration of the macropolitical implications of cultural imperialism, there is
often a strange reluctance to speculate on the global consequences of a unilateral
decision of one power-block not to thus pursue its interests.