The United States of America’s influence on society
and culture goes undoubtedly beyond its borders. For example, CNN is the
most watched news network in the world, a McDonald’s restaurant is found in
nearly every city, songs by Lady Gaga play on radios on a regular basis and
Apple products are sold at a very high rate. In light of the
following arguments, we understand that the cultural imperialism of the United
States manifests itself in various areas, ranging from the culture spread
through the English language, the influence of American social, economical and
political institutions themselves to media. Cultural imperialism has been
described as “the use of political and economic power to exalt and spread the
values and habits of a foreign culture at the expense of a native culture”
(Tomlinson 1991). Today, America’s impact on the rest of the world is still
central. Therefore, the United States today is best described as a cultural
imperialist.
One of the main
reasons why the US can be regarded as a cultural imperialist is because it has
managed to establish its national language as the lingua franca. In other
terms, the English language is used as an important vehicle of spreading
culture. We even speak of linguistic imperialism when it comes to promoting one’s own political,
economic and cultural interests. This is done for instance through a said
missionary or altruistic motivation.
As Phillipson indicates, linguistic imperialism is the notion that “the
dominance asserted and maintained by the establishment and continuous
reconstruction of structural and cultural inequalities between English and
other languages” (47). As a consequence, the importance of the English language
as a national language has affected local identities overseas. During its expansion, America even imposed English
as the national language after Philippines and Hawaii's annexation in
1898. In this regard, establishing English as a national language abroad is a
product of cultural imperialism. The result is that other cultures and
minorities suffer from this. As an official language, locals have to learn this
language in order to guarantee a good economic situation or to survive. In the
case of Hawaii, the encouragement of massive migration and teaching English in
schools has led to the loss of the use of Hawaiian in everyday life and the
number of native speakers has sunk drastically.
More generally, we
can also speak of linguistic imperialism when it comes to the US’ hegemony on the
rest of the world. Today, English is still
considered to be the lingua franca in a broader sense. It is the international
business language, it is taught as a second language in primary schools in many
foreign countries such as Switzerland and finally, most masters program offer
their courses solely in English. Language is indeed a crucial factor for
spreading culture. It acts on the way we think and communicate. In this regard,
we can see how US can be described as a cultural imperialist because it passed
on its own national language to the rest of the world.
On a second note,
the US can be best seen as a cultural imperialist because it has strongly
influenced other nations in founding their own social, economic and political
institutions. If we take the example of the Philippines, the development of the
educational system and government were patterned on the US model. Aside from
having English established as a medium of instruction, schools were classified
into private or public, government schools. The Filipinos were also pushed to
accepting the American administration. In addition, The Philippine Commonwealth
was inaugurated in 1935 under a democratic constitution modeled on the
United States bicameral system. In doing so, we can assess how other countries
seem to succumb to the US’ might and adopt their national values and systems.
Therefore, this vast country can be considered as a cultural imperialist. As John Tomlinson said, “cultural imperialism is essentially about the exalting
and spreading of values and habits – a practice in which ecocomic power plays
an instumental role” (3).
Finally, another domain in which America has had an
immense impact on spreading culture beyond its borders is through
their media empire. Tomlinson argues that “the great majority of published
discussions of cultural imperialism place the media – television, film, radio,
print journalism, advertising – at the centre of things” (20). As mentioned in
the introduction, the US
influences among others our preference in music, the television series
we follow, the films we like to watch at the cinema and Facebook, the most
visited social network was founded by an American. The US’ media portray a lot
of the American way of life and traditions – and it transcends to other
nations. We understand that people around the globe have a yen for American
products and services. What is striking is that the cultural imperialism of the
USA deeply shapes other countries without them being truly aware of it. As a
result, this superpower can be deemed to be a cultural imperialist because “the
United States dominates this global traffic in information and ideas. American
music, American television, and American software are so dominant, and sought
after, and so visible that they are now available literally everywhere on
Earth. They influence the tastes, lives, an aspirations of virtually every
nation” (val Elteren 173).
To conclude, in the light of these arguments, we can
grasp how the US dominates the rest of the world today because its language,
values and ideals, music, electronic products, political, economical and social
institutions are indisputably still presiding beyond its borders. In truth,
this is the reason why the United States of America is best described as a
cultural imperialist today. Of course, cultural imperialism has had positive
outcomes such as facilitating communication between nations through the English
language. However, what is lost in return may be that the cultural imperialism
of the US is at the expense of local cultures.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Tomlinson, John. Cultural Imperialism: A Critical
Introduction. John Hopkins University
Press, 1991.
Van Elteren, Mel. “U.S. Cultural Imperialism Today:
Only a Chimera?” Sais Review. Vol XXIII
no. 2, pp. 169-188. Project MUSE: 2003.
Phillipson, Robert. Linguistic Imperialism. Oxford University Press, 1992.
