WEEK 8

Media Imperialism

Can you think of some examples of media imperialism? (local, your own country, overseas?)

Media imperialism is where medias from larger nations are focused on more than than the smaller nations and is affecting them negatively. The identity of the smaller nation is then lessened of lost due to the huge amount of media coverage on the larger nation.

Examples of media imperialism is the news coverage and this applies to both local and overseas. In Malaysia, when the BERSIH rally in late 2007 happened, according to an article by Ah Gan, "..the event organizers intended to have a peaceful, non-violent rally, advising participants in the days and weeks beforehand how to keep the rally peaceful. However, the rally was marred by the government sanctioned police violence. After the incident, foreign media such as Al-Jazeera covered the event with detailed videos and ground and satellite images. BBC and CNN featured the news in their online papers as well. On the other hand, ironically, local papers such as The Star only managed to feature a traffic jam on page 8 of its Sunday edition. Most of the local papers did not feature this as an important event despite the magnitude of the rally whereas protests in other countries were covered almost daily in full detail." Meanwhile overseas, where big countries such as USA uses their media to create and increase Islamophobia which is fear towards Islam/muslim people. A quote from Sam Harris, and American author, tweets “Islamophobia. A word created by fascists, & used by cowards, to manipulate morons.” Fortunately, not everyone in USA is brainwashed with the false statements that are being shown in the media. Although, unfortunately, many are convinced with what the media has to say about it which is sad. With high power, the US media does their best to manipulate and influence the audience/society in believing everything they show about Islam or a certain topic negatively and somehow managed to gain their trust and induce them with great fear.

Just to add in, the media is a powerful tool/weapon.

References
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_imperialism
- http://pekchekmlc0014.blogspot.my/2010/04/chapter-3-media-imperialism.html
- http://iletisim.ieu.edu.tr/flows/?p=749
- https://dangngoctrinh.wordpress.com/2014/07/05/media-imperialism-revisited/
- https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/10/is-islamophobia-real-maher-harris-aslan/381411/