I had recently moved to the rural Nepali village, Sankhu, and was exploring the streets. I meandered down dirt paths filled with squawking chickens, herds of goats, mangy stray dogs, and groups of children running after each other barefoot. Women adorned with massive golden nose rings and red tikka dots on their foreheads squatted on the streets selling small piles of monsoon vegetables including Nepali varieties of onions, potatoes, lentils, and tomatoes. Set in the Himalayan foothills, in my mind this village could not be more removed from everything pertaining to Western culture. I continued my exploration and peeked into a small hut out of which was coming blaring sounds. To my surprise about a dozen Nepali men were huddled around a small TV watching a WWF wrestling match! This was one of the last places on earth that I expected to see Hulk Hogan clad in a spandex one piece smashing a chair on another wrestler’s head. The American influence embodied by the American media had permeated this culture much deeper than expected.
Reading about the American dominance of the world media reminded me of story. I fully agree with Rodman’s statement that “American domination of world media products has been so strong and so long-lasting” that some have called it “the American Empire.” We are living in a globalized world which has much to do with technology and mass media which is dominated by the United States. America exports so much in the way of mass media messages which reach foreign locales all over the world such as Nepal. I think the reason the rest of the world is so receptive to US media endeavors does have much to do with a large production budget and because our media is produced for such a wide variety of interests (i.e.;World Wrestling Federation, American Idol, rap music, Britney Spears, Spiderman). The world is rapidly globalizing which means that we are merging into a collective society rather than many small societies. I believe the American media has taken a large part in this cultural globalization that we seeing more and more of. Almost anywhere in the world American media influences can be observed. Globalization can be a good thing because it can break barriers and allow people access to knowledge and resources not previously available. But, its negative affect is cultural imperialism. Many country’s traditions and cultures are quickly being replaced by American culture. In today’s world we can now replace the term “globalization” with “Americanization.”
A Nepali boy displays his "Spiderman" t-shirt.
4 comments:
I strongly agree that globalizatation has been rapidly growing as a result of Western influences and American cultures dominating the entertainment industry. I find it frightening how significant this influence is on other countries. I have been traveling to Singapore every year since I was one, and I have spent the last twenty years watching this country progressively adopt western cultures and values. It is distressing seeing the unique cultures around the world being conformed and molded into one generic society.
I feel that with the rapid expansion of technology and power that the US has, this problem will only get worse, and the world is going to be further dominated by American entertainment and culture.
My question is that with such a far reaching influence have we for some reason just become the divine voice for the world?, has our big business's honestly spread our tastes all over the world?... or are other cultures possibly getting LAZY and just laying down in front of the perverbial steam roller of American culture???
Just seems to me that there seems to be a different feeling about american tastes and that is "whether you like it or not, you cant ignore it." With other cultural identities it just seems like they're very NON invasive and could care less whether we preserve it.
Dont call us cultural imperialists if you're not gonna make any efforts otherwise.
I agree with Reis to a degree, but there are actually a lot more international products used than one might realize (ex: instant messaging was created by an Israeli). Who says America's the only country participating in this globalization business? It sounds as if we're the only people creating tons and tons of crap, which definitely is not the case. Anybody ever heard of anime? Obviously third world countries won't be producing vast quantities of useless stuff the way America does, and poor countries in eastern Europe come to mind with the word "globalization," but we're not alone in this by any means.
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