The Prevalence of American Media around the World



The Prevalence of American Media around the world


Since coming to England I have heard from multiple people that U.S. T.V. shows and movies are dominant forms of media here. This is how people know that I am an American when they hear my voice as I mentioned in my blog post From LA to the U.K.

The most interesting stories I've heard are from third culture kids. These are people who grew up in different countries and/or cultures around the world (The Third Culture). I've met four so far that have American accents despite the fact that they have never lived in or even been to the U.S.! The reason? They picked up their accents from watching American media (T.V., movies, music, etc.).

Not only is this a sign of American media's dominance around the world (even in other Western countries), but it signals something else. I recently learned the term cultural imperialism in class: it describes this situation. The ubiquity of American media in countries all over the globe, namely the Global South, is cultural imperialism because its viewers are subjected to another culture without their consent or choice.

I have described the effects of Western colonialism, imperialism and cultural imperialism throughout history and today on this blog (see: Colorism, Diaspora Blues, Plus Size). The danger of cultural imperialism is the ability of U.S. media to impose its flavor of white supremacy on people in other parts of the world. There is much debate and protest currently happening in America about discrimination against people of color in the film and other media industries  (see #OscarsSoWhite). U.S. media almost exclusively features white people often at the expense of people of color (as when white actors are hired to play characters that are people of color).

So what does this added dimension mean for people, especially in the Global South, being bombarded with U.S. media daily? It means that they are at risk of internalizing white supremacist and Western supremacist imagery and ideology. It means that they are fed images of white people day-to-day while they reconcile with the remnants of colonialism and imperialism in their homelands. It means that they may fall prey to the booming, global, skin-lightening industry that makes big money selling skin-lighteners to people of color in Global South countries. It means that they might start believing that their own skin color and ways of life are inferior to whites in the West. It means that they might come to believe that they too need white or lighter skin to be successful in getting a job, relationship/marriage, etc.

Unilever is a multinational company that sells many of the skin-lightening products on the market today and it owns Dove - a company that sells skin and haircare products around the world, including in the U.S. Dove advertisements employ white supremacist imagery and the view that lighter skin is more beautiful and cleaner, even in the U.S. (see here). The current cultural imperialism enjoyed by the U.S. and the West might seem benign to some but I find it extremely problematic.



Hyphenated Ethiopian third culture kid. Twitter: @moonchereka

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