1. What is the New World Information and Communication Order (NWICO)?
- What group of countries supported it?
- What group of countries opposed it?
2. Do you agree with the position of the U.S.? Why or why not?
3. McChesney speaks about the global media market as a cartel. What does he mean by this and do you agree?
A sample for last week:
Schiller’s main takeaway point is that media imperialism influences and shapes culture in the nations to which it spreads. As American broadcasting infiltrates other nations' borders, its content creates a guide for cultural evolution. Therefore, American media systems create a form of cultural dependency through the content dispersed to foreign audiences. Also, Schiller elaborates on this idea by describing how American media perpetuates cultural homogenization, such as mentioned in the reading through the example of Dr. Lloyd A. Free’s experience of television dumping in Nigeria. Free noticed that American television shows were being run on Nigerian television during peak programming hours. This example describes how shows from the United States are being re-run in other countries for lower costs in order to produce extra, basically free, revenue. Overall, it can be understood how dumping is a key way that cultural homogenization occurs since dumping is costless, revenue-boosting, and its content has the ability to shape cultures.
Although the phenomenon described by Schiller has no clear-cut policy or military force that allows American media to create influence (as the definition of imperialism implies), I think media imperialism can be seen as a form of imperialism that operates in an invisible manner. The way I think about it, is that media imperialism is invisible to the consumer, so although they are being affected, television is such a mindless and in most cases; relaxing activity, that it allows for the effects of imperialism to occur, with little resistance or actualization from the consumer.
