Cultural Imperialism Author: John Tomlinson Presentator: Veronika Jedrzejczyková "Watching Dallas": The imperialist text and audience research § Ien Ang -- "Watching Dallas" § Tension: Massive international popularity vs. Dallas as a symbol of American cultural imperialism in 1980´s § Ideology of mass culture "Watching Dallas": The imperialist text and audience research § The problem of audience § Critics - cultural imperialism as an ideological property of the text itself has an obvious ideological effect on viewer. § Ang -- Dallas is popular because people somehow enjoy watching it. Ideological effect don´t arise from exposure to the text. Audience actively engage with the text. "Watching Dallas": The imperialist text and audience research § Katz and Liebes -- large-scale, cross-cultural study. Ethnic groups from Israel and Americans -- compare readings of one episode of Dallas § Audience is active § Process of meaning construction -- negotiation with the text in a particular cultural context § Cultural values resistant to manipulation Multinational capitalism and cultural homogenisation § Cees Hamelink: "Cultural autonomy in global communications" § Cultural synchronization -- unprecedented in historical terms, connected to global capitalism § Cultures have alwalys influenced each other, but this process is new (destructive power) § Synchronization = threat to cultural autonomy § Culture system = adaptive system -> enables the society to exist in its environment. Autonomus development of cultural systems -> necessary for survival of societies. Multinational capitalism and cultural homogenisation § Tomilson agrees that there is a synchronization as an unprecenedted feature of global modernity § But says that homogenization is not the bad thing in itself § Doesn´t agree with the notion of autonomy applied to a culture in holistic sense and also with connection between autonomy and outcome of cultural practices. § Diversity is not a good thing in itself, it depends on the position. Thank you for your attention J