Cutural Imperialism

What is Culture?
Clifford Geertz's definition of culture often used on communication studies that says ".. denotes an historically transmitted pattern of meaning embodied in symbols, a system of inherited conceptions expresses in symbolic forms bymeans of which men communicate, perpetuate and develope their knowledge about attitudes towards life.

What then is imperialism?
It is the process whereby powerful grups try to extend their power and increase their wealth by bringing the evermore of the world under their domination.

CULTURAL IMPERIALISM
Cultural imperialism is the practice of promoting, distinguishing, separating, or artificially injecting the culture of one society into another. It is usually the case that the former belongs to a large, economically or militarily powerful nation and the latter belongs to a smaller, less important one. Cultural imperialism can take the form of an active, formal policy or a general attitude. A metaphor of colonialism is employed: the cultural products of the first world "invade" the third-world and "conquer" local culture.[1] In the stronger variants of the term, world domination (in a cultural sense) is the explicit goal of the nation-states or corporations that export the culture.[1] The term is usually used in a pejorative sense, usually in conjunction with a call to reject foreign influence.

Theory and debate
Cultural imperialism can refer to either the forced acculturation of a subject population, or to the voluntary embracing of a foreign culture by individuals who do so of their own free will. Since these are two very different referents, the validity of the term has been called into question. The term cultural imperialism is understood differently in particular discourses, e.g. as "media imperialism" or as "discourse of nationality" (Tomlinson, 1991)[4]
Cultural influence can be seen by the "receiving" culture as either a threat to or an enrichment of its cultural identity. It seems therefore useful to distinguish between cultural imperialism as an (active or passive) attitude of superiority, and the position of a culture or group that seeks to complement its own cultural production, considered partly deficient, with imported products or values.
The imported products or services can themselves represent, or be associated with, certain values (such as consumerism). According to one argument, the "receiving" culture does not necessarily perceive this link, but instead absorbs the foreign culture passively through the use of the foreign goods and services. Due to its somewhat concealed, but very potent nature, this hypothetical idea is described by some experts as "banal imperialism." Some believe that the newly globalized economy of the late 20th and early 21st century has facilitated this process through the use of new information technology. This kind of cultural imperialism is derived from what is called "soft power." The theory of electronic colonialism extends the issue to global cultural issues and the impact of major multi-media conglomerates, ranging from Time-Warner, Disney, News Corp, Sony, to Google and Microsoft with the focus on the hegemonic power of these mainly US-based communication giants.

Cultural colonialism.
Cultural colonialism refers to internal domination by one group and its culture or ideology over others. An example comes from the domination over the former Soviet Union by Russian language and culture. Dominant cultures make themselves the official culture; Schools, the media, and public interaction reflect this. Under Soviet rule ethnic minorities had very limited self–rule in republics and regions controlled by Moscow. The oneness of socialist internationalism was to unite all the republics and their peoples.
A common technique in cultural colonialism is to flood ethnic areas with members of the dominant ethnic group. Cultural colonialism can also refer to changing a societies core values to reflect the colonialist society.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_imperialism

What is persuasion?

google.com

Persuasion is a form of social influence. It is the process of guiding people and oneself toward the adoption of an idea, attitude, or action by rational and symbolic (though not always logical) means.

Methods

Persuasion methods are also sometimes referred to as persuasion tactics or persuasion strategies.

Weapons of influence

According to Robert Cialdini in his book on persuasion, he defined six "weapons of influence":^[1]

• Reciprocity - People tend to return a favor. Thus, the pervasiveness of free samples in marketing and advertising. In his conferences, he often uses the example of Ethiopia providing thousands of dollars in humanitarian aid to Mexico just after the 1985 earthquake, despite Ethiopia suffering from a crippling famine and civil war at the time. Ethiopia had been reciprocating for the diplomatic support Mexico provided when Italy invaded Ethiopia in 1937.

• Commitment and Consistency - Once people commit to what they think is right, orally or in writing, they are more likely to honor that commitment, even if the original incentive or motivation is subsequently removed. For example, in car sales, suddenly raising the price at the last moment works because the buyer has already decided to buy.

• Social Proof - People will do things that they see other people are doing. For example, in one experiment, one or more confederates would look up into the sky; bystanders would then look up into the sky to see what they were seeing. At one point this experiment aborted, as so many people were looking up that they stopped traffic. See conformity, and the Asch conformity experiments.

• Authority - People will tend to obey authority figures, even if they are asked to perform objectionable acts. Cialdini cites incidents, such as the Milgram experiments in the early 1960s and the My Lai massacre.

• Liking - People are easily persuaded by other people whom they like. Cialdini cites the marketing of Tupperware in what might now be called viral marketing. People were more likely to buy if they liked the person selling it to them. Some of the many biases favoring more attractive people are discussed, but generally more aesthetically pleasing people tend to use this influence excellently over others. See physical attractiveness stereotype.

• Scarcity - Perceived scarcity will generate demand. For example, saying offers are available for a "limited time only" encourages sales.

Relationship based persuasion

In their book "The Art of Woo" G. Richard Shell and Mario Moussa describe a four step approach to strategic persuasion^[2]. They explain that persuasion means to win others over, not to defeat them. Thus it is very improtant to be able to see the topic from different angles in order to anticipate the reaction of others to a proposal.
Step 1: Survey your situation
This step includes an analysis of the situation of the persuader, his goals and the challenges he faces in his organization.
Step 2: Confront the five barriers
There are five obstacles that pose the greatest risks to a successful influence encounter: relationships, credibility, communication mismatches, belief systems, interest and needs.
Step 3: Make your pitch
People need solid reason to justify a decision, yet at the same time many decisions are taken on the basis of intuition. This step also deals with presentation skills.
Step 4: Secure your commitments
In order to safeguard the longtime success it is vital to deal with politics at the individual and organizational level.

Propaganda

Propagandais also closely related to Persuasion. It's a concerted set of messages aimed at influencing the opinions or behavior of large numbers of people. Instead of impartially providing information, propaganda in its most basic sense presents information in order to influence its audience. The most effective propaganda is often completely truthful, but some propaganda presents facts selectively to encourage a particular synthesis, or gives loaded messages in order to produce an emotional rather than rational response to the information presented. The desired result is a change of the cognitive narrative of the subject in the target audience. The term 'propaganda' first appeared in 1622 when Pope Gregory XV established the Sacred Congregation for Propagating the Faith. Propaganda was then as now about convincing large numbers of people about the veracity of a given set of ideas. Propaganda is as old as people, politics and religion.                                     

Knowledge Society

Broadly speaking, the term Knowledge Society refers to any society where knowledge is the primary production resource instead of capital and labour. It may also refer to the use a certain society gives to information. A Knowledge society "creates, shares and uses knowledge for the prosperity and well-being of its people".

Characteristics

Knowledge societies have the characteristic that knowledge forms a major component of any human activity. Economic, social, cultural, and all other human activities become dependent on a huge volume of knowledge and information. A knowledge society is one in which knowledge becomes a major creative force.
Knowledge societies are not a new occurrence. For example, fishermen have long shared the knowledge of predicting the weather to their community and this knowledge gets added to the social capital of the community.

What is new is that

With current technologies, knowledge societies need not be constrained by geographic proximity.

Current technology offers much more possibilities for sharing, archiving and retrieving knowledge.

Knowledge has become the most important capital in the present age, and hence the success of any society lies in harnessing it.

Examples of societies that can blossom to knowledge societies
People from the same field:
Teachers teaching the same subject.
Fans of the same musical group.
Artists with similar interests

People from different fields.
Engineers talking to scientists about a scientific issue related to their engineering project.
Researchers of different fields discussing a common research problem.
Artists interested in fractals getting in touch with programmers.
Mystics talking to scientists.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_society


Broadly speaking, the term Knowledge Society refers to any society where knowledge is the primary production resource instead of capital and labour. It may also refer to the use a certain society gives to information. A Knowledge society "creates, shares and uses knowledge for the prosperity and well-being of its people".

Characteristics

Knowledge societies have the characteristic that knowledge forms a major component of any human activity. Economic, social, cultural, and all other human activities become dependent on a huge volume of knowledge and information. A knowledge society is one in which knowledge becomes a major creative force.

Knowledge societies are not a new occurrence. For example, fishermen have long shared the knowledge of predicting the weather to their community and this knowledge gets added to the social capital of the community.

What is new is that

• With current technologies, knowledge societies need not be constrained by geographic proximity
• Current technology offers much more possibilities for sharing, archiving and retrieving knowledge
• Knowledge has become the most important capital in the present age, and hence the success of any society lies in harnessing it.

SOURCE: http://www.answers.com/topic/knowledge-society



Information which is very important in human life makes us aware of what happens in our environment and more importantly this information provides us with knowledge .
This knowledge in turn enables us relate meaningfully with other people which helps us make informed decisions and take advantage of opportunities that come our way.
However, it is very obvious that this information like material wealth is not distributed equally the society we find ourselves.
The reason being that the poor in the society or let me use the word "less privileged do not get access to information and knowledge whereas the rich of the "aristocrats" easily get access to information.
This we can classify them as the "haves" and have nots".

The similarities and differences between the LIBERTARIAN THEORY and the SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY THEORY of the press.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE LIBERTARIAN THEORY AND THE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY THEORY.

The libertarian theory of the press was adopted in England and the United States after 1688 and is influential all over the world.The idea of this theory rose in opposition to the authoritarian theory especially amongst the seventeenth century philosophers like John Locke, John Milton, Saint Simone and others.They argued that people are rational beings capable of differentiating between good and evil and if given all the facts will make the right choice.The purpose for this theory was to inform, entertain, educate, as well as check on the government.This theory further on aimed at promoting private ownership.
The Social Responsibility Theory(S.R.T) on the other hand was adopted in the United states in the 20th century.In 1942, a commission was established headed by Robert Hutchin and by 1947, the commission released a major report on its findings. The commission met to discuss the credibility of the press but ended up adding the notion of social responsibility. They also emphasized on the need for an independent press that scrutinizes other social institutions and provides objective, accurate reporting news report. The purpose of this theory is to inform, entertain, sell but also to raise conflict to the plane of discussion.Ownership is also private.

THE SIMILARITIES:

Both theories promote freedom of the press and value the United States' media traditions.

Both theories operate on private ownership.

Both theories are not interested in state interference.

Both theories were first adopted by the United States legal system.

Both theories aim at entertaining and informing its audience.

Both theories value the rationality of people who know what is good and evil.

Both theories are overly optimistic about media's willingness to meet responsibility.

Both theories are consistent with United States' media traditions.


THEIR DIFFERENCES.

The libertarian theory arose in opposition to the authoritarian theory of the press while the social responsibility theory arose to polish the libertarian theory of the press.

The libertarian theory is overly optimistic about individual's ethic and rationality while the social responsibility theory is overly optimistic about individual's responsibility.

The libertarian theory demands that media should be free to print whatever their owners want while the social responsibility theory imposes a burden of responsibility on the media practitioners.

The libertarian theory really considers the power of profit motivation and competition while the social responsibility theory underestimates the power of profit motivation.

What is Information Society?

The Information Society is the title of a sociological journal, founded in 1981, which defines itself as a "critical forum for leading edge analysis of the impacts, policies, system concepts, and methodologies related to information technologies and changes in society and culture".
Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Information_Society.

The idea of an Information society
Before we can adequately appreciate different approaches to understanding informational trends and issues nowadays, we need to pay attention to the definitions which are brought into play by participants in the debates.
It is especially helpful to examine at the outset what those who refer to an information society mean when they evoke this term.
The insistence of those who subscribe to this concept, and their assertion that our time is one marked by its novelty, cries out for analysis, more urgently perhaps than than those scenarios which contend that the status quo remains.
Hence the primary aim of this chapter is to ask:what do people mean when they refer to an information society
Later I comment on the different ways in which contributors perceive 'information' itself. As we shall see - here, in the very conception of the phenomenon which underlies all discussion - there are distinctions which echo the divide between information society theorists who announce the novelty of the present and informational thinkers who recognize the force of the past weighing on today's developments.

Definitions of the information society.
What strikes one in reading the literature on the information society is that so many writers operate with undeveloped definitions of their subject. They write copiously about particular features of the information society but are curiously vague about their operational criteria.
Eager to make sense of changes in information, they rush to interpret these in terms of different forms of economic production, new forms of social interaction, innovative processes of production or whatever.

As they do so, however, they often fail to establish in what ways and why information is becoming more central today, so critical indeed that it is ushering in a new type of society.
Just what is it about information that makes so many scholars think that it is at the core of the modern age? We may distinguish five definitions of information society each of which presents criteria for identifying the new technological and economic transformation.

Source: Questia Media America, Inc. www.questia.com Book Title: Theories of the Information Society. Contributors: Frank Webster - author. Publisher: Routledge. Place of Publication: London. Publication Year: 2002. Page Number 8. Information society Information Society is a term for a society in which the creation, distribution, and manipulation of information has become the most significant economic and cultural activity. An Information Society may be contrasted with societies in which the economic underpinning is primarily Industrial or Agrarian. The machine tools of the Information Society are computers and telecommunications, rather than lathes or ploughs. Policy makers for the G7 (now G8) group of nations recognized, only a few years ago, that: Progress in information technologies and communication is changing the way we live: how we work and do business, how we educate our children, study and do research, train ourselves, and how we are entertained. The information society is not only affecting the way people interact but it is also requiring the traditional organizational structures to be more flexible, more participatory and more decentralized. (Chair's conclusions from the G-7 Ministerial Conference on the Information Society, February 1995.) The idea of a global Information Society can be viewed in relation to Marshall McLuhan's prediction that the communications media would transform the world into a "global village." Here is a succinct definition from the IBM Community Development Foundation in a 1997 report, "The Net Result - Report of the National Working Party for Social Inclusion." Information Society: A society characterized by a high level of information intensity in the everyday life of most citizens, in most organizations and workplaces; by the use of common or compatible technology for a wide range of personal, social, educational and business activities, and by the ability to transmit, receive and exchange digital data rapidly between places irrespective of distance. Source: http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition