Media Imperialism

Imperialism comes from the root word “emperor” which means a sovereign ruler of great power or rank, especially one who is ruling an empire. From such definition, “media imperialism” means that media is the sovereign ruler that has great power. This means that media has the absolute power, total control, dominion, etc.

Media has the control or power because the people behind the media and controlling it are actually powerful people. This is also the issue of media control and ownership. For example, in the Philippines, most of the TV networks and newspapers and even radio stations are owned by rich businessmen and they are actually the ones who have the power and control. Only a few are owned or run by the government or by the church. This is the reason why many programs aired or broadcasted by these privately owned broadcast and print media seldom if not never speak of the problems of the society like poverty, social justice, rights of workers, etc. Instead, they broadcast about luxury, the world of prestige, entertainment, etc. Poverty and its consequent problems are often ignored by the media, which is controlled by the rich and the elite. Thus, the media seems not to be bothered by these issues and problems.

I can say that there are two things that contribute to the power of media: rich people who are controlling and people who adhere to everything what media tells them because of colonial mentality. To confront these problems, I think that print and broadcast media owned or run by the government or the church should exert more effort to balance what is presented by the rich people and their powerful media. This means that they have to make more effort to make the people aware of the poverty, social injustices, rights of workers, etc.; they have to make effort to reach out to simple and ordinary people through the use of the media itself. And also, through the use of media, they have to promote patronizing our own and not just simply relying on others for everything. This is a challenge that can be done to confront colonial mentality that destroys the identity of a country or a culture. ®