Media Monopoly And Cultural Pervasion: A Study Of The U.S. Propagation Hegemony After The Cold War

After the Cold War, the "Sole Superpower"of the U.S. has distinguished the International strategic framework. The U.S., while keeping abreast of the latest characteristics of the times, goes all out to develop the abundant resources of "Soft Power", and promotes cultural pervasion and expands "soft hegemony"by exploring her advantages of media monopoly and worldwide transnational media coverage system. Needless to say, America's overwhelming propaganda has formed a major impetus to her "Soft Hegemony"and the U.S has raised it to a strategic height to establish propagation hegemony. Chapter 1 Propagation Hegemony: the Strategic Expansion of U.S. Hegemony After the Cold War, the international contention for political power has witnessed a shift from "Hard Hegemony"to "Soft Hegemony". The U.S. hegemony lies not only in her overwhelming superiority in economic strength and military muscles, but also in her global influence and pervasion in terms of culture, values and lifestyles, or to put it more exact, in her rapid inflation and expansion of the U.S. "Soft Power". What has highlighted the strategic value of "Soft Hegemony"includes: firstly, the U.S. hegemony in economics and politics has been challenged; secondly, western cultures expand their influences in the whole world; thirdly, "Soft Hegemony"presents itself in the disguise of "sense and reason". Culture makes the "core"of "Soft Power". America's cultural pervasion program is characterized by her strategic shift from "Hard Hegemony"to "Soft Hegemony". In the 21st Century, civilization is acknowledged as precious resources and assets of human society. He who "controls"the civilization will take the lead in the social development in the future. America's grasp of information technology is the prerequisite to her cultural pervasion, and the information revolution has ushered in the new age of propagation and communication. But meanwhile, it is also the culprit of cultural pervasion and "Soft Hegemony". Media globalization has added to her control of global media, and most trans-national media corporations are held in her hands. The end of the 21st century has seen the establishment in America of broadcasting, TV, Internet and worldwide newspapers and periodicals, and this is an age featured by the interaction and co-development of the old and the new media forms. The U.S. relies on this framework and loses no time in promoting her cultural pervasion. The twofold impacts of media globalization lie in: the positive effect of accelerating information transmission, and the negative effect of aggravating media monopoly, all of which have to a great extent consolidated America's propagation monopoly and promoted the global spread of America's "Soft Hegemony". Chapter 2 Media Monopoly: the "Hardware"Intensity of the U.S Propagation Information is rated as a kind of strategic resources. He who controls information vehicles such as satellites, TV, Internet, etc. is capable of exerting influence on the whole world. Media globalization, together with its pluralismand integration, is also a way of expansion, power and monopoly. After the Cold War, imbalance features the following aspects such as the quantity of media agencies, their strength, utilization of resources, etc. Because of her access to advanced telecom facilities such as satellites, Internet, etc. and her control of most influential propagation agencies, the U.S. has set up a strong transmission system, compared with which most developing countries are in no position to contest with her. In fact, they have been deprived the right to spread information at an equal footing with the U.S., still less to say "equality and freedom"propagation. As a result, America's unidirectional transmission has dominated the spread of news, information and mass culture. Media globalization has aggravated the concentration and monopoly of mass media, enabling America's trans-national media corporations to expand worldwide so as to keep the global media market under her sole control and advance the global spread of American culture. Chapter 3 Cultural Pervasion: the "Software"Potential of the U.S. Propagation America's cultural pervasion distinguishes itself in the mass propagation. Despite that propagation techniques and resources on their own parts are of no political color, the propagation content is permeated with American values and ideology. So it is safe to conclude that after standing practice and searching, the U.S. is now proficient at manipulating mass media and achieving her set goal of cultural pervasion in practice. America's cultural pervasion has, from the perspectives of ideology, human rights, democracy, values, lifestyle, etc, fully revealed her all-round hegemonic strategy. With regard to the content of cultural pervasion and the "agenda-setting", the U.S. more often than not employs the technique of "dual standard"and creates means of "common view". To conform cultural pervasion to reality and add to its stringency, the U.S adopts the technique ofthe so-called "soft package"with "hard core". The former refers to utilizing various cultural forms to create "wonders", such as "9.11", Iraqi War, MacDonald, Michael Jordan, etc; while the latter American ideology, values and lifestyle. The impetus of cultural pervasion lies in America's cultural traditions, social system and the temptation of media profit. The ultimate goal is to serve America's political and economic interests. Chapter 4 Strategic Revelation: Function Analysisof the U.S. Propagation Hegemony Mass Media has in fact constituted a major component of the state apparatus, and it is also an important instrument for governments to spread domestic and international policies, present the state image, and implement national strategies. After the Cold War, developing countries have become the "hotly contested spots"of media tycoons throughout the world. Western powers like the U.S. have successively invested enormous manpower, material and financial resources into the upgrading and innovation of information technology, employing modern media means to consolidate her leading position in the international propagation. The U.S has committed herself to the construction of propagation facilities in order to promote cultural pervasion to an even greater extent. To explore her motive, strategic choice weighs more heavily than economic interests. The U.S. media globalization is in nature a process of integrating America's media strength into her strategic power, a process of her global expansion of propagation hegemony, as well as a process of international inflation of her "Soft Hegemony". Days coming after the Cold War have witnessed a serious imbalance of media resources distribution. Relying on her technological advantages such as satellites, TV, Internet, etc, the U.S. has actually dominated the developing countries in terms of information and cultural propagation, which is now characterized by the unidirectional flowfrom the U.S. to the developing countries. As is borne out by the fact, the U.S. media monopoly and cultural pervasion have exerted a tremendous impact on and a great detriment to the right to communicate, to the disadvantage of the developing countries. Chapter 5 Strategic Countermeasures: Prevision of ChineseMedia Development In the wake of media globalization, the U.S. media is now aiming at the 1 billion Chinese who have access to radio broadcasting, TV, Internet, and the massive printed medium. China is now confronted with a strategic "hard nut", that is, how to surmount her disadvantages in international propagation and how to cope with America's overwhelming information output and cultural pervasion. In an age of media globalization, mere "blocking"America's trans-national propagation is nothing but a "makeshift". Rather, we should, while enhancing our overall media strength, work to promote overseas information and culture propagation. There are two battlefields for mass media propagation. One is domestic propagation, and the other is international public opinion. On one hand, large amounts of information are pouring into China from western countries represented by the U.S.; on the other hand, information about China is seldom known in developed countries. It means that Chinese media should go out to meet the world, letting the world know more about China. It will never do that we just passively receive the propagation challenge from western developed countries such as the U.S. China's entry into the WTO has made it imperative for us to make corresponding adjustments and dispositions from the 2 heights of strategy and tactics. While implementing the "go outside"and open competition strategies, we must compete with developed countries in terms of culture, ideology, information resources, public opinion, as well as the media recipients, creating a favorable international atmosphere of public opinion for China. America's cultural...