Cultural Imperialism In The Globalized World

The end of the cold war marked the beginning of a ‘cultural turn’ in the globalized world. The worldwide dissemination of the values and attitudes of the West in general and the United States of America in particular has been the focus of attention for not only academicians but also for ordinary people from across the world. There have been intense debates over the impact of globalization and the consequent transformations in the realm of culture from a number of conflicting standpoints. The idea of cultural imperialism has been particularly influential in the understanding of the profound transformations that are taking place in the sphere of culture. Regardless of the difference among these contesting perspectives on the characterization

Laws and provisions concerning copyright and intellectual property rights are used to protect and ensure the value based exchangeability of such commodities and services in the marketplace. The term ‘cultural industries’ denotes that culture is part of the economic sector. The state considerably regulates the cultural industry as a sector of economy but not without political implications. Crafts, designs, printed and published materials, multimedia creations, pornographic productions, designs of various types, photographic articles, music, audiovisual and cinematographic creations and artistic performances are some of the popular forms of cultural and creative commodities. Cultural and creative industries encompass activities that are part of cultural and artistic production. It does not mean that cultural industry and creative industry are, as analytical categories, synonymous or interchangeable. Based on the predominant quantity of artistic or creative content, creative industry can effectively be differentiated from culture industry. Therefore, while advertising and architecture are part of creative industries, television programmes and cinemas are part of cultural commodities. Creative industries include distinctive fields such as advertising, architecture, art and antiques markets, crafts, design, designer fashion, film and video, interactive leisure software, music,

On the contrary, Adorno (1991) criticises the mass culture merely as a product of what he understands as ‘culture industry’. While seeing mass culture as retrogressive and making passive effects on the spectators, Adorno underestimates the positive aspects of popular culture and its potentialities for democratising the culture itself. He fails to see the democratic transformation of culture through the medium of mass culture. Therefore, postmodernists have come up with the argument that Adorno holds an elitist appraisal of pure artistic modernism against a culture of the people. Adorno’s perspective is regrettably one-sided in only seeing the alienation and ideology in the cultural contents produced by culture industry. Adorno’s (1991) critical theory considers the existence of an alienated and alienating culture industry as a product of the capitalist commodity fetishism. Capitalism contains the forces of fragmentation and reification, which take form through industrially produced cultural commodities and lessens the possibilities for integral freedom. Obviously, Adorno was staunch proponent of modernist high culture vis-à-vis the consumerist, populist mass