Jovana Novaković

University of Kragujevac
Faculty of Philology and Arts
School of Philology
Department of English Language and Literature

A Brief Inquiry Into Imperialism of the 21st Century

Abstract
Imperialism is often used in context such as cultural imperialism, media imperialism, economic
imperialism, ideological imperialism. The term carries negative connotation. Cultural imperialism is a
process of imposing a culture, usually that of a politically powerful nation, over a less powerful society.
Media imperialism is at it’s peak and is important to all the states of the developing world. It is important
to study it’s various aspects in detail. This essay will analyze contemporary imperialism on contemporary
platforms. Main idea is to present imperialism in a different light, to show that imperialism is not about
conquering a territory, but conquering the mind of its victim. Term global village ended the era of
Individualism and started the era of collective thinking. Another powerful tool of imperialism is a human
relationship, this essay will talk specifically about romantic relationships of 21st century.

Key words: imperialism, media, relationships, social media

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Introduction

Original meaning of imperialism was empire. Today, the term imperialism has become
synonymous for western dominance over Africa and Asia from 18th through 20th century. The
word is often used in context such as cultural imperialism, media imperialism, economic
imperialism, ideological imperialism. The term is carries negative connotation.

Cultural imperialism is the practice of promoting and imposing a culture, usually that of
a politically powerful nation, over a less powerful society. It is oriented toward capturing mass
audiences. Today’s mass media, advertisement, publicity play a major role. Cultural imperialism
encourages people to think of themselves as a part of a hierarchy emphasizing differences in
race, gender, life style. Part of cultural imperialism is media imperialism.

Media imperialism is at it’s peak and is important to all the states of the developing
world. It is important to study it’s various aspects in detail. The dependence of the media has
taken cultural, educational, moral, religious and social aspects of the world. One prominent
British scholar J. Oliver Boyd-Barret defined media imperialism as “the process whereby the
ownership, structure, distribution, or the content of the media in any country singly or together
subject to substantial external pressures from the media interests of other country or countries,
without proportionate reciprocation of influence by the country so affected.” (Osama El-Sharif,
2001)

This essay will analyze contemporary imperialism on contemporary platforms. Main idea
is to present imperialism in a different light, to show that imperialism is not about conquering a
territory, but conquering the mind of its victim.

Medium is the Massage

Communication theorist Marshall McLuhan created a theory called “Medium is the

Massage”, his contribution to communications has been compared to the work of Freud and
Darwin because of its universal importance. Originally his work was titled “Medium is the

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Message” but there was a mistake that occurred during the printing of this particular work and
the title came out as “Medium is the Massage”. McLuhan didn’t mind the typo because it
represented the work better. Massage refers to our senses and how media “massages” our sense
of sight and hearing.

Marshall McLuhan was also known for his phrase “global village” which explains our
collective mindset, the term signalizes the end of individualism. Global village is very important
for this essay for it explains media imperialism in a simple way. McLuhan sees media as man’s
extension and if we think about it from today’s perspective it is absolutely true. This generation
considers phones as an arm extension, many scientist even said that future generations will have
their hand shaped in a form of holding a phone.

Media aside from culture is the biggest imperial force known to men. Social media has
taken world under its power, especially platforms such as Instagram and Twitter. The most
powerful social media outlet is Twitter, it provides with immediate information as well as
immediate response to various topics. Everything kind of starts on Twitter. Earlier this year, we
were all spectators of an almost Nuclear war between USA and North Korea and all because of
couple of tweets.

To go back to the concept of global village, Twitter is a big global imperial village and
anyone can be a colonist. The best example of this is Scott Pack who wanted to publish a book
called “The Atheist's Guide to Christmas”, the book contained contributions from such present-
day icons as Richard Dawkins, Charlie Brooker, Derren Brown, Ben Goldacre, Jenny Colgan,
David Baddiel, AC Grayling and Ariane Sherine on) how to have a fun during Christmas time if
you don't believe in God. Pack, who was at the time a new user of Twitter got an idea on how to
make the book more popular. Scott Pack in that moment only had about 950 followers, on the
other hand writers who contributed to this book had far more followers than Pack himself. The
idea that Pack came up with is to ask all the writers to tweet about the book before it launches
and the results were astonishing. The book went from 20 000th place on Amazon's live bestseller
list, to 14th in a single day.

Recently Twitter has become famous for starting a lot of movements such as #MeToo
movement. Because of likes and retweets about this particular subject a lot of women enrolled
into idea of feminism which is not realistic. The #MeToo movement on Twitter doesn’t settle

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well with critics, they say that Twitter doesn’t amplify the ugliness, critics believe that #MeToo
movement has become a game of ‘Telephone’ in which original meaning becomes hopelessly
distort with every successive retweet. The movement became a trend sadly, people would
retweet victim stories just to feel like a part of something bigger, most people behind those likes
and retweets probably don’t know or rather care about the actual story or the aftermath of it, they
just see celebrities who support it and in that way manipulate the masses too change their
opinions and believes about particular subject.

Twitter is the best imperialistic tool there is because it reaches corners of the world which
are impossible to reach by a regular man.

(Oh) My God

Another powerful tool of imperialism is a human relationship, this essay will talk
specifically about romantic relationships of 21st century.

Relationships are the most crucial aspect of our lives, yet in recent times a lot of people
take this too seriously and in a way lose themselves because of it. Probably the main problem is
that we know too much about one another in early stages of a relationship, this can put a major
pressure on a relationship. We all know huge dictators and colonizers such as Hitler and
Napoléon Bonaparte but have you ever wondered if there were smaller colonizers. The answer is
yes and it can be the person sleeping next to you. We’ve all been in a relationship where one
person takes a more dominant role in a relationship which is totally normal but there are people
who take that dominant role too seriously.

Imperialism in relationships can be recognized in a not so serious situations where for

example your boyfriend slowly but surely infiltrates his music taste in you, or when your
girlfriend changes your fashion style. From smaller things, imperialism in relationships can go to
bigger stuff like your partner not letting you become friends with a person they don’t particularly
like or telling you that you can’t go out in a dress and telling you when you should come back
home from the night out. Relationship colonizer takes parental role in your life and you don’t
realize that you are becoming their project and their possession. It’s the same example like in
Defoe’s “Robinson Crusoe” where the dominant partner is Crusoe and the person being

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colonized is Friday. In the book, Crusoe changes Friday’s personality by convincing him that his
food is not good, his religion is shallow and stupid. Through the book, Crusoe becomes violent
towards Friday and that can also be seen in today’s relationships, a lot of people end up injured
or even killed just because their partner wanted to test their dominance on the other half, wanted
to present himself as a godly figure. By the end of the novel Friday doesn’t see himself as he
once did, he sees people his race as savages and barbarians because he was taught they were
worthless, dirty and unintelligent.

Many people who do get out of these relationships don’t see effects that the toxic
relationship had on them. They feel like Friday, excluded from the society, feeling insecure
about themselves, maybe have Stockholm syndrome in the aftermath like most colonized
countries do. They can’t properly function without their “god”.

Conclusion

The role and importance of the media are huge, both in everyday life and in cultural,
spiritual and political life of modern man. The mass media are already playing a vital role in
abandonment of traditional culture, but also in the creation of its audio-visual descendant. This
emerging culture is increasingly becoming the foundation of the culture of our time. It leaves
behind the principal of individualism and establishes the collective experience of the world.

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LITERATURE

Primary sources

R.Božović 2014: Media Communication Crisis: Media Dialogues 20, vol. 7: Podgorica

B.Kovačević 2013: Media and Manipulation: Politena no. 5: Banja Luka

Internet sources

https://www.mediamonitors.net/media-imperialism-in-the-global-era/ (pristupljeno 09.12.2018.)

http://www.defencejournal.com/2000/june/imperialism.htm (pristupljeno 09.12.2018.)

https://www.globalpolicy.org/component/content/article/154/25597.html (pristupljeno
10.12.2018.)

https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2009/oct/31/the-power-of-twitter (pristupljeno
10.12.2018.)

https://newrepublic.com/article/146984/theres-no-thing-twitter-feminism (pristupljeno
10.12.2018.)

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 Кратки увод у империјализам двадесетпрвог века

Резиме

Империјализам се често користи у контексту културолошки империјализам, медијски

империјализам, економски империјализам, иделошки империјализам. Овај појам носи
негативну конотацију. Културолошки империјализам је процес наметања културе,
углавном од стране јаче нације на слабију. Медијски империјализам је на врхунцу и јако је
битан за све државе у свету који се развија. Врло је важно да се детаљно испитају сви
његови аспекти. Овај рад ће се бавити анализом савременог империјализмом над
савременим платформама. Главна идеја је приказати империјализам у другачијем светлу,
да се покаже да империјализам није само о територијалном освајању, бећ и о освајању
свести његових жртава. Појам “глобално село” je означило крај ере индивидуализма и
започео еру колективног размишљања. Још једно моћно оруђе империјализма је људска
веза, овај рад ће се искључиво бавити романтичним везама 21. века.

Кључне речи: империјализам, медији, везе, друштвене мреже