Reflection on cultural imperialism (Essay Sample)

Reflection on cultural imperialism Author Affiliation Course Instructor Upon reflection it is true that the advent of the internet and the continued prevalence of technological changes across the world has revolutionized global media and communication. Thanks to this prevalence, the flow of information and digital content around the world has been fast tracked influencing cultural and social exchanges between countries. However, this influence has often been one-sided to the advantage of dominant cultures while being at the expense of less known cultures. This realization holds to be true especially when reflecting on this week’s reading by Lobato (2019) and its relation to the concept of cultural imperialism learned in week 3. Ideally cultural imperialism refers to the exercise of domination in cultural relationships where the values and practices of powerful foreign cultures are imposed on cultures that are predominantly native. While this allusion may seem historical, it is surprising to discover that it is in effect very common in the present day and age. In reflecting on the assigned reading, Lobato (2019) paints a vivid picture of US commercialization of the media system and its imposition on native cultures around the world through Netflix. The internationalization of Netflix especially in regards to the biased percentage of US content compared to local content directly perpetuates cultural imperialism. I think that the assertions made by Lobato hold to be true and I believe that Netflix intentionally prioritizes the dominance of US content while neglecting local content in many countries. For example while Netflix’s catalogues is made of 67% of Hollywood movies in Europe there are is limited to no content for European countries such as Bulgaria, Croatia, Finland, Greece and many...