Cultural colonialism and media colonialism with special reference to television culture in Sri Lanka

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Cultural colonialism and media colonialism with special reference to television culture in Sri Lanka

G.M. Maneesha Dukgannarala

Mass Communication Dept.,

RUDN University, Moscow

Sri Lanka is a country that ruled under the Europe more than three centuries. As a result of it they tried to get the political and economic power of the country after gave the so-call freedom. The mass media doing a great job for it as a servant of the Europe, who live in Sri Lanka, and with the start of the 21st century the 1st world countries who have economic and political power in the world started to catch colonies without military force, but using soft power specially the media. Television is the key weapon that powerful county use against the third world countries such like Sri Lanka. This research was mainly focus to study the effects of the cultural and media colonialism in Sri Lanka by using qualitative approach to collect the data. Literature review and observation was the method of data gathering. As results the researchers found that other than the European countries who tried to get the political and economic power of the third world countries the Asian countries like India, Korea, and China started distribute their supremacy via the television. Dubbed Indian mega Tele-dramas and Korean Tele-dramas, cartoons are directly embraced the Sri Lankan people without knowing there hidden economic and political supremacy and attack to the cultural identity.

Keywords: Diffusion, neocolonialism, soft power, cold war

Шри-Ланка-страна, которая более трех столетий была колонией Португалии и Британии. После получения независимости эти бывшие метрополии попытались сохранить свое влияние на политическую и экономическую жизнь в стране, это в том числе относится и к США и другим Европейским странам. Они используют «мягкую силу» - средства массовой информации, находящихся в в Шри Ланке. Телевидение является ключевым оружием, которое они используют для продвижения своего влияния на страны третьего мира, таких как Шри-Ланка. Основное внимание в этом исследовании уделяется изучению последствий культурного и медийного колониализма в Шри-Ланке. Метод исследования: сбор данных-обзор литературы и наблюдение. В результате исследования выяснилось, что помимо европейских стран, которые пытались использовать политические и экономические возможности для влияния на страны третьего мира, азиатские страны, такие как Индия, Корея и Китай, включились в этот процесс пропаганды, используя СМИ в частности и телевидение. Индийские мега теле-драмы и корейские теле-драмы, фильмы, мультфильмы в большом количестве составляют содержание в том числе и шриланкийских телеканалов. Все это может рассматриваться как скрытое политическое и экономическое влияние на жителей страны и может привезти к потере культурной самобытности.

Ключевые слова: диффузия, неоколониализм, мягкая сила, холодная война

Introduction

Sri Lanka is a one country which influenced by the cultural colonialism through British colonization. Portuguese, Dutch and British were ruled Sri Lanka over 300 years and their culture also diffuse to the Sri Lankan traditional culture by force as well as naturally. After got the freedom from the British rule, Sri Lanka continuously accepts the colonial culture and that culture was spread using the mass media. Not even the British culture, but every economically powerful nations always try to capture their market by culturally colonize the third world countries like Sri Lanka.

Media in the 21st century is defined by three important developments of 20th century; the demise of communism, the increasing integration of world markets and very rapid advances in communications technology [1, p.134].

America started capturing the world market, monopolizing the economic resources of the world more rapidly than ever before and went on dominating over media. As a result, global media emerged as a dominant industry, perhaps even more powerful than governments in perception management and construction of realities in subtle ways. Rapid political and technological developments of the past decade had produced certain changes that our old maps could not register. The schema's of centers and peripheries have given way to market globalization and a new world order.

According to Herman and McChesney, “From the beginning the global news services have been oriented to the needs of the wealthy nations which provide their revenues. Thus news agencies were, in effect, the global media until well into the 20th century and even after the dawn of broadcasting, their importance for global journalism was unsurpassed” [2, p.12].

Colonization, for the most part, was motivated by economics as European powers sought to expand their markets and acquire raw materials from locations outside their borders to support their domestic economy. In the period after World War II a number of European powers determined that the benefits of maintaining colonies were not worth the cost. As a result of this cost-benefit analysis colonial systems were dismantled in a process referred to as `Decolonization'.

Today, instead of using tanks and military personnel to control a country, we use capitalism and cultural forces to give us control and favorable access to countries precious resources.

We call this practice Neocolonialism. However, this `new' Neocolonialism is motivated solely by economics. Corporations and nations seek to achieve favorable economic policies overseas by linking loans to particular actions on the part of a developing country. This is accomplished through the implementation of the dependency principle.

Through the dependency principle, in order to receive financial aid, developing nations must accept a list of terms and conditions that generally advance the ideals and economic norms of the lending organization. From the developing nations perspective they have little choice but to accept these “strings-attached” economic aid (the people eat or starve). These aid- come-loan agreements provide a clear example of how the dependency principle works and ultimately, demonstrates a clear example of Neocolonialism in action.

One of the driving forces behind todays new Neocolonialism is the interconnection between nations. With this `new' interconnectivity a nation's or an organization's threats and opportunities, whether they are economic or cultural or a combination thereof, increasingly stem from `who' you are connected to thus further deepening the dependency linkages.

The evidence will show that there is no difference between early European colonialism, which used direct military or political control to take over a nation to advance their economic expansion and todays Neocolonialism that uses multinational corporations, capitalism, a form of economic colonialism and cultural forces to accomplish the same outcome. However, to make this more palatable to the global citizen, we package and teach the concept of economic-colonialism, which has the stated purpose of fostering economic cooperation, growth and high employment, and promoting stability in exchange rates, and call it Globalization. Unfortunately, the negative side to globalization is that it wipes out entire economic systems and in doing so wipes out the accompanying culture.

cultural colonialism television

Problem

Are Sri Lanka get the political, economic, cultural and media freedom from the colonization?

Objectives

Study the effects of television to cultural colonialism and the media colonialism with Sri Lankan perspective.

Methodology

The entire research is based on qualitative method, and the descriptive and comparative discussion done about the topic. The data was gathered from observation and the literature review. As primary data recourse the entire society was used, secondary data was collected through encyclopedias, related books and as tertiary data the internet websites were used to the present study.

Results and Discussion

Diffusion is the main mechanism that used to the cultural colonization and media is the source. Diffusion is a social process through which elements of culture spread from one society or social group to another (cultural diffusion), which means it is, in essence, a process of social change. It is also the process through which innovations are introduced into an organization or social group (diffusion of innovations). Things that are spread through diffusion include ideas, values, concepts, knowledge, practices, behaviors, materials, and symbols.

To be globalizing the world the cultural diffusion is become a key factor. Some sociologists have paid particular attention to how the diffusion of innovations within a social system or social organization occurs, as opposed to cultural diffusion across different groups. In 1962, sociologist Evert Rogers wrote a book titled Diffusion of Innovations, which laid the theoretical groundwork for the study of this process.

According to Rogers, there are four key variables that influence the process of how an innovative idea, concept, practice, or technology is diffused through a social system.

1. The innovation itself

2. Through which channels it is communicated

3. For how long the group in question is exposed to the innovation

4. The characteristics of the social group

These will work together to determine the speed and scale of diffusion, as well as whether or not the innovation is successfully adopted.

There are many different theories of cultural diffusion that have been offered by anthropologists and sociologists, but the elements common to them, that can be considered general principles of cultural diffusion, are as follows.

1. The society or social group that borrows elements from another will alter or adapt those elements to fit within their own culture.

2. Typically, it is only elements of a foreign culture that fit into the already existing belief system of the host culture that will be borrowed.

3. Those cultural elements that do not fit within the host culture's existing belief system will be rejected by members of the social group.

4. Cultural elements will only be accepted within the host culture if they are useful within it.

5. Social groups that borrow cultural elements are more likely to borrow again in the future [3,p.2]

Through the media that act as the source of the cultural diffusion or cultural globalization another name to the cultural colonization Television doing a particular job. The first Television network of Sri Lanka was launched on 13 April 1979. The ITN channel, owned by the Independent Television Network Limited (ITN) became the first terrestrial television channel of Sri Lanka. On June 5, 1979 ITN was converted to a government owned business and was later brought under the Sri Lanka Rupavahini Act of 1982 along with the newly created Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation (SLRC).

Significant changes occurred in 1992 as the government permitted the establishment of private television networks. Subsequently, the Maharaja Television Network (MTV) was launched in collaboration with Singapore Telecommunications Limited.

Since then many new television networks have come into existence within Sri Lanka. There are also a number of Satellite networks and pay per view television networks in Sri Lanka such as Dialog TV which boasts over 500,000 subscribers in the country.

After the growth of Sri Lankan economy, many satellite TV channels were introduced. However, there are over a dozen privately owned radio stations and more than 30 privately operated television stations.

However growth of the television cause to the media colonization as well as cultural colonization. Media systems are able to play a role in social change through the enablement of communication elements and systems within societies. The ability of media systems to play such a role is linked directly to the formation of a public sphere in which they play the role of mediators. Factors that limit the ability of media systems to achieve this mediation role in an unfettered manner; including political interference, ideological preventions, social institutions of culture and structure within media systems, also act as social retardants that contribute to the maintenances of a status quo.

a) From modernization and development theories to cultural imperialism

Key theories in international communications grew out of international relation studies. The “modernization” or development” theory in the area of communication research emerged in the Cold War context and were largely preoccupied with the ways in which the media could help transform traditional societies to include them into the capitalism orbit.

Among the key theorists in this tradition was Wilbur Schramm with his sponsored UNESCO work, Mass Media and national development - the role of information in the developing countries. The idea was that international communication media could be used as a tool to transfer the political-economic model of the West to the growing independent societies of the South. Schramm's views were that the mass media could be used by elites to raise the ambitions of the populations in developing countries, who would cease to be narrow-minded and conformist and would be active in their own self-development.

As latest example in the Sri Lanka was Korean and Indian cultural transmission through the television can take. By using state Television channels Korean mega Tele-dramas were Telecasted and Sri Lankan people were attracted them mostly. In recently India started Mega Tele-dramas and telecasted in private Television channels in Sri Lanka and they try to give the Indian influence with the deep meaning. Through that they try to continue their power by creating the colony without using military power, but that soft power or it become a cold war.

b) Cultural globalization theories: from homogenization to hybridity

The cultural imperialism theories of the 1960's and 1970's have thus given way to the “cultural globalization” perspectives which have predominated media scholarship in the 90's, indicating for some a shift away from a more neo-Marxist rigid one-way model of cultural domination towards a more sophisticated analysis and appreciation of “multidirectional flows” across countries, acknowledging the emergence of regional markets, the resistance of media audiences to American culture and the diversity in the forms of engagement with media texts. Various theorists have updated the cultural imperialism theories nonetheless in the context of the persistence of inequalities of power and wealth between countries, the unevenness of flows and increasing media concentration and commercialization, arguing for its relevance still in the context of the expanding power of transnational media corporations situated in the rich West.

The extent to which the mass media have assisted in reinforcing American cultural supremacy throughout the world due to the dominance of Hollywood films and the export of US television series continues to be the subject of debate. In the context of the decline of the cultural imperialism thesis, most critics have moved away from understanding global culture as synonymous with homogenization, or cultural synchronization or “McDonaldization”, recognizing diversity and the impact of reverse flows on Western cultures.

Here homogenization is understood as the degree of convergence of media systems towards formats that originated in the US.

Conclusion

The increasing capacity of media colonization for institutional agency indicates growth and changes in modernity and social governance. However from this cultural colonialism and media colonialism the Sri Lankan identity became destroyed little by little. The traditional knowledge on education, agriculture, irrigation, medicine, traditional industries was destroyed with the new introduced thing.

English cartoons with fights and wars effect to the child's mentality and their personality. Indian dubbed mega Tele-dramas (Praveena, mahagedara, swapna, ashoka, ramayanaya, maha bharath) such like legendary Tele-dramas directly tried to expanded their political supremacy and the stories attack to the Sri Lankan cultural values, Korean dubbed Tele Dramas started to embraces and become craziness among the population without age limits. Tamil/ Hindi Films tried to express their right to the Sri Lankan culture from the content of the stories some times. Killing the Rawana Statue and worship the Rama is the most popular scene in the Hindi and Tamil films. The King Rawana was the Great Sri Lankan ruler and by showing that scene they tried to spread their supremacy in Sri Lanka. Likewise via the Television the powerful countries tried to continue their economic and political power in the third world country like Sri Lanka through the cultural and media colonialism.

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