West Imperialism in Mass Media

NOTE: It’s a long read of my academic analysis.

By the way, I’m on Vacation, do excuse me for the lack of updates.

HISTORY OF WEST IMPERIALISM ON THE THIRD WORLDS

Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia reigned to independence after years of fighting against the west colonization back in the 1900s. The British ruled Singapore and Malaysia, while Indonesia was colonized by the Dutch.

When the three South East Asian countries reached independence, it symbolized the births of new powers into the free world. In decades, Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia emerged to be several of the fastest developing nations with remarkable economic growth.

Today, Singapore stands in the frontier as one of the world’s most developed nations, while Indonesia and Malaysia are making great strides in further developing their global roles.

Independence Day that is greeted each year with grand-scale celebrations, holds the pride and freedom of the people and it is a remembrance of the hard-fought journey by our national heroes.

Even so, have we, as independent nations, been freed from the grip of the west imperials?

We may have won the wars on our soils and our shores. We may have triumphed through blood and sweat. We may have unified as a nation, and reach a status under a nationality. But, the war is in fact, still ongoing.

GLOBALIZATION

Globalization is seen as a positive phenomenon that is happening. The time when nations are brought together and humans are unified as a force in bringing harmony and democratic changes. A right for every living being, a time where economic melting pot has become one global force and whereby social standards are lifted in the name of justice and fairness.

So, is Globalization the integration of economic, political and cultural systems? Or is it the Americanization and United States dominance of the world? Is it a force of economic growth, or the exploitation of the developing world?

THE MASS MEDIA AS VEHICLES

In the light of globalization, the world is magnified under the laws of mass media.

Mass Media, as the name suggests, cater to the mass population using appropriate channels to distribute information.

Globalization happens so dynamic due to the help of Mass Media. Modern technologies such as satellites, optic fibers, and especially the age of digitalization utilize the impacts of globalization in terms of economics, political, social, and much predominantly, cultural aspect.

The Mass Media industry functions through large multinational corporations and most are based in the USA, followed by other western countries. These corporations expand their businesses overseas occupying vast percentage of media share around the world.

This raises many issues, especially to the developing countries, or better known as the Third Worlds.

POLITICAL IMPACT

United States uses Mass Media to utilize the spread of democracy to developing countries. This creates a political dilemma to developing countries like Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia who believe that a democracy like the United States is not appropriate.

Singapore’s current Mentor Minister, Lee Kuan Yew, is a prominent figure who is known for opposing the western style democracy, explaining that it is not suitable for the Singaporean culture which is pluralistic (multi-racial and multi-religious), and who firmly believes that media are important tools used for nation building, and should not override the power of the government. This is contrary to the version of the United States democracy, who believes that media should be the watchdogs of a government’s actions.

As quoted “Political reform need not go hand in hand with economic liberalisation. I do not believe that if you are libertarian, full of diverse opinions, full of competing ideas in the market place, full of sound and fury, therefore you will succeed.”

The United States government has described countries like Singapore as being xenophobic and protectionist for blocking certain foreign media into the country, but it is ironic when The FCC (Federal Communications Commission) of United States holds a policy that will not grant licenses whose parent companies are more than 25 per cent foreign owned, but if other countries hold such policy, they are draconian and authoritarian.

The US style democracy has penetrated well into the younger generation of the developing nations. Internet has been the best medium in the western influence as many of the content and famous sites are again, owned/based in the USA.

We can see this example in Malaysia.

The Malaysian government had the biggest electoral defeat in March 2008 since Malaysia reached its independence in 1963. UMNO (United Malays National Organization) admitted that it underestimated the power of the Internet and that Internet was a big reason for the loss.

Before the elections process, I was a loyal leader of an Independent news-site called www.malaysia-today.net (The author and founder of the blog has recently been jailed under the Sedition act of Malaysia). The site consists of information made against the government.

Before the site switched to its current “register before commenting” option, many Malaysians, especially the younger generation, commented on how Malaysia’s government is authoritarian, totalitarian, pseudo-democratic and other names. But it is important to note that these young Malaysians often compared the desired democracy to that of the USA.

West Imperialism in media has managed to fix the mindset of many young citizens of the developing countries, and this can create a problem as it can decrease confidence in building a unified nation and create conflicts between the government and its people, especially in implementing public policies.

Governments find this a worrying factor; therefore many communication guidelines systems are implemented to carefully monitor the amount of foreign products into the country.

A local example would be of Malaysia banning many of Indonesian political stories as Indonesia is a newly formed democratic nation which the Malaysian government thinks is a threat to the monarchy system it adopts. The term Reformasi which was made popular by Indonesia in 1998 as a political revolution, is often used by the opposition leader of Malaysia, Anwar Ibrahim, to woo about democratic change in Malaysia; which is already growing.

Indonesia also set up guidelines in which one of them states that the mass media in Indonesia should be an element that contributes greatly to the building of nationalism. This can be translated to the increase production of local shows and movies to ward off foreign products.

ECONOMIC IMPACT

It also describes global trend to become a “free market economy”, whereby investment and flow of trades across nations are made efficient and liberal, resulting in the integration of the national and international economy. Gains from globalization also raise economic growth in the developing countries, in which foreign direct investment, global export markets and advanced technology spur economic growth.

Modern communication technology has made it possible for the world to be interconnected with one another. What happens on the other side, can affect what happens here.

The global soaring fuel prices affect many of the developing nations recently, calling an urgent national development plan to ease the impacts on the lower-income population. The US economic recession has also made an impact on the Asian economies, which causes an economic slowdown.

This is a result of the global economic market that was set up in the era of globalization.

The tossing of the words free market, liberal economy, open system are appealing to modern countries, and are often used in the economic section of newspapers. These are buzz words that are meant to be ‘positive’ for a country’s outlook and it is based on the version of the United States.

But one can argue to these supposedly ‘positive’ terms. How free is the free market? And to whom is this system most beneficial to?

Globalization is a deliberate result by a powerful pool of nations (developed countries), transnational corporations and international organizations. A free market economy allows these superior engines to enter new foreign markets (developing countries) and venture into the local economy.

When this happens, the free market is not technically ‘free’ at all. When a multinational corporation steps into a third world country, it obviously is wealthy and has the power to takeover or even prevents local competitors in the developing countries to compete and grow. This can be seen as a monopolistic approach and one that is paradoxical to the concept of ‘free market’.

From this example, we can see to whom is this system is most beneficial to.

CULTURAL IMPACT

This is perhaps the biggest impact of the globalization of Mass Media.

With the existence of big western conglomerates in power over the world media (especially in the free market economy), cultural imperialism is arguably the most worrying factor a developing nation faces.

With the vast amount of west culture penetrating, will it be a detriment to the local cultures?

CNN (Cable News Network) is accessible to all cable systems in Europe, Africa and Asia, scoping about 74 million homes in more than 200 countries. BBC reaches 23 million homes. MTV (Music Television) appeals to young culture and grabs 200 million viewers.

Rupert Murdoch, an Australian media conglomerate, owns giant press, news, and broadcasting agencies around the globe.

With the monopolistic nature of the media by the west, it is only natural that the flow of information in the age of information is imbalance and there are real fears by the governments of the third world countries that these values will be detrimental to the local values.

Noting that the 21^st century is often regarded as the information era, Joseph Nye, the director of Kenny School of Government at Harvard University (also a former advisor to the Clinton administration) cites that this “information edge” has granted the twenty-first century to be the “America’s century”.

American films dominate the world box office, importing the American cultures into the local scenes. The same goes to the American Music industry which is heard in almost every radio station in every country.

The notion of ‘global citizens’ as mentioned above as an impact of globalization should be questioned, on whether are we becoming ‘global citizens’ or are we becoming ‘American citizens’ citizens instead?

In Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore, the penetration of western culture is feared to dilute the ‘Asian Values’ the country leaders have tried to protect.

Malaysia’s Mahathir Muhammad and Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew are particularly strong advocates of Asian values.

Asian values do not necessarily grasp the whole of Asia, as it is too diverse, however it does set a general outlook on how Asian values differ in degree to those of the Western values.

It encompasses some influences of Confucianism (loyalty towards family, corporation and nation, sacrificing personal freedom for the sake of society’s stability and prosperity).

This can be seen in Singapore, whereby the government strongly believes that personal freedoms should be sacrificed for a better functional and co-operative nation.

Death penalty has also been described to be ‘Asian’. With countries like China, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, and many others still upholding to the penalty. Whereas the West values it to be immoral, and Australia has once pled Indonesia to demolish its death penalty, which was strongly ignored. However, numerous activists (especially on human rights) inside these countries have grown in recent years to call upon the abolishment of death penalty.

Where I come from, Indonesia, Asian values have been diminishing but nationalistic values are strongly being driven by the government. Since independence in 1945, Indonesia can be used as one of the early examples of ‘Asian democracy’. Guided Democracy, a term coined by the first president Sukarno was a set of democratic principles accustomed to local cultures.

In the end, he failed to implement it, due to chaotic and weak political setting.

Right now, Indonesia holds up the democracy of Pancasila, which is based on the Indonesian consitution. Respective of the Indonesian culture and especially, religious beliefs. Problems still arise as many of the young Indonesians are diluted with the “Western” values of democracy, since the 1998 Reformasi, whereby western imports have flooded Indonesia

University students and the government often clash on their political beliefs, creating a slow decision-making process. The ongoing demonstrations which Indonesians ‘symbolize’ as part of real democracy (which Western democracy calls ‘freedom of speech’), often disturbs the society and form a misconception on the Indonesia’s political stability in global outlook.

Neighboring countries like Singapore and Malaysia believe that freedom of speech should be exercised without the need to demonstrate but through educated and civilized manner, which reflects ‘Asian democracy’. United States, however, disagreed.

Although there are no distinct differences in the today’s Asian values and Western values (as it has become diluted), governments find it important to protect its own local cultures.

A good example would be of Indonesia-Malaysia complex relationship.

Indonesia’s entertainment scene has made it to neighboring countries like Malaysia, Brunei, and Singapore. Appealing to the ethnic Malays, Malaysia naturally becomes Indonesia’s biggest importer of Indonesia’s music and movies.

Malay radios in Malaysia are swarmed with Indonesian songs, but only a few of the Malay songs are played. Malaysian cinemas have often shown Indonesian movies, but this almost never happens in Indonesia whereby Malay culture is not popular.

Malaysian television has also imported Indonesian television series, and particularly one “Bawang Merah, Bawang Putih” (Garlic and Onions) has even sparked political debate.

UMNO, the ruling party of Malaysia, said that the amount of Indonesian culture entering Malaysia is a worrying factor as it fears Malay tradition will slowly disappear.

Recent rift between Indonesia and Malaysia also happened when Malaysia ‘stole’ Indonesia’s cultural heritage and used it for the Malaysia’s tourism campaign.

Although this case scenario is not of “Asia vs. West”, but this shows on how insecure and how serious governments are on categorizing cultural imperialism as a real threat.

Professor Jeremy Tunstall of the City University of London described that companies like Disney, Viacom, Time Warner have diversified their media holdings, bought television networks, production houses and other media enterprises, which further making media outlets concentrated. Tunstall describes this phenomenon a “Hollyweb”

Singapore’s Channel News Asia is a part of Singapore’s strategy to build Asian values.

As the motto reads “Channel News Asia: Delivering Asian Perspective”, Singapore has started the media war with the west news programming. It has been successfully expanding around Asia, all the way to Middle East, but not a great impact yet in the West.

Channel News Asia delivers news that are often in Asia, and report both achievements and downfall of Asia in equal manners (although there are rare sights of Singapore’s political news).

In the West, news that is from the developing countries is often not reported, unless a disaster comes along or if rampant corruption happens. The achievements of the developing nations are often not reported, and seen as unimportant.

This is probably because the West Media have the anthem of “Bad news is always good news”, and developing countries are struggling to keep the balance.

Organizations like UNESCO has tried to balance the flow of information that is seen as too ‘Americanized’. In 2005, UNESCO has strongly urged United States to embrace multilateralism, and UNESCO has made a stand against cultural imperialism, especially to developing countries.

Asia has stood by the sidelines for centuries watching the rise of West to becoming superpowers.

With the rise of Asia in the 21^st century, it is only natural for Asia to be victims of the longstanding imperialism that has lasted, even today. It is also very natural for the West to be having the desire to withhold the power, especially with the rise of a supposedly new superpower, like China; One that does not practice the western democratic ideal.

Everyone in the developing countries is a victim in the media imperialism that has brought about by globalization, even when I am writing this paper with the objectivity to point out the injustice and wrongness of the biased flow of information, I am still a victim.

I think that the works of UNESCO in battling media imperialism/cultural imperialism has not made any significant progress, and has still been bowing down to the western conglomerates.

Although, I believe we are in a process of gaining influence, and the process has been very slow, but we are learning and initiatives have been taken to counter this phenomenon.

What we can do now is to carefully preserve and most importantly, be patient of the process.

Nationalism is an important factor to instill in a nation as it is what got us our independence. If we maintain that same spirit, then I believe we will once again rise to the challenge.

Though there is a sense of injustice and dissatisfaction in me by the way the west have exploited developing nations, there is still no doubt that there are positive elements as results.

As what Dato Timothy Ong Teck Mong, a leading Brunei businessman who is also the Acting Chairman of the Brunei Economic Development Board, says “we have too many commonalities to be focusing on the differences.”