Introduction
The implementation of information technologies into modern life and the constant emergence of new media resources has become quite a common phenomenon. However, the impact of multimedia space on people’s lives may have become more dominant than in the past century. One of the examples, which is a confirmation of it, is an American holding Viacom MTV. This corporation quite successfully succeeds not only in spreading cultural imperialism but also in promoting the electronic colonialism theory.
The Concepts of Cultural Imperialism and Electronic Colonialism
Cultural imperialism has received such a sounding name, not without purpose. According to Mirrlees (2013), this phenomenon means the expansion of the interests of a particular country and the introduction of its cultural ideas, which today, as a rule, are expressed in the form of films and clips. An American holding Viacom MTV is one of the largest corporations, which deals not only with the production of television shows. It also works with several major film studios and participates directly in the development and release of new movies.
The cinema in the US is probably one of the most popular and widespread in the whole world. It means that it is not hard for the creators and members of the corporation to convey to society a particular idea through its product. The holding creates new trends almost independently, so we can say that its promoting of cultural imperialism is quite active and not unfounded.
The so-called colonial policy represents the domination of one country over others. If it is about the Viacom MTV holding, its influence on the world view looks rather obvious because the interests of the corporation stretch far beyond the borders of America. The opportunity to dictate trends and convey certain topics to people is achieved through an expanded electronic database. Almost every family today has access to the Internet and television, where the broadcasts of an American corporation are frequent.
As Meehan (2016) notes, the target audience of the MTV channel is teenagers and young people aged from 12 to 34 years, which is the most active part of the population. The ability to influence people of this age group makes the holding possibilities practically limitless, which probably, allows saying about the successful realization of the electronic colonialism theory.
Cultural imperialism is nothing more than one of the ways of influencing the consciousness of people through the introduction of certain cultural values. If we consider this way of affecting people’s minds, then Viacom MTV will be a rather suitable tool for it because “cultural imperialism is part and product of the US empire” (Mirrlees, 2013, p. 26). Therefore, the world-renowned corporation has the reputation of a large multimedia magnate, which, to some extent, is the biggest source of influence on the consciousness and cultural trends of people.
Thus, Viacom MTV can be used as one of the means of introducing information, and the corporation itself actively copes with both the spread of cultural imperialism and the realization of the electronic colonialism theory. As it becomes clear, the holding’s program performs not only entertainment functions but also the globalization of the ideas that the company introduces with the help of its multimedia product. Any form of information submitted looks like the means of influencing masses and is quite a successful method of propagating specific topics around the world.
References
Meehan, E. R. (2016). National amusements. B. J. Birkinbine, R. Gomez, & J. Wasko (Eds.). New York, NY: Routledge.
Mirrlees, T. (2013). Global entertainment media: Between cultural imperialism and cultural globalization. New York, NY: Routledge.