Overview
cultural Imperialism
Quick Reference
The influences of an economically dominant culture on others, typically spread through trade, the mass media, and the internet. Often applied pejoratively to the global diffusion of American brands, popular culture, values, customs, and practices, allegedly at the expense of other cultures. Critics of this view argue that audiences around the world do not passively absorb American cultural exports, and are indeed often hostile to these, or interpret them within their own cultural frameworks, as Katz and Liebes demonstrated in the case of the television series Dallas (1978–91). Cultural interaction is not adequately explained in terms of the absorption of local cultures by a globally dominant culture: the meeting of cultures often generates new cultural forms. See also ethnocentrism; Eurocentrism; globalization; media imperialism.
Subjects: Media studies
