Critique of the Cultural Imperialism Theory

Abstract This paper stands to critique the Cultural Imperialism Theory. The paper further looks at both the negative and the positive effects of Cultural Imperialism. The cultural imperialism theory sets to shape the concept of cultural imperialism itself. It concludes that, though the western world is eroding the culture of developing countries and Nigeria as a study, Nigeria as a Nation should put on some safety belt in safeguarding our heritage. Keywords: culture, imperialism, media imperialism, cultural imperialism Introduction A man’s pride lies in his confidence and his personality is greatly nurtured by his ulture.
Culture is the characteristic of a particular group of people, defined by things such as language, religion, social habits, music and arts that are passed from one generation to the other; it can also be the tradition of the people (Zimmermann, 2012). According to the New Oxford Dictionary, culture is the cumulative deposit of knowledge, experience, beliefs, values, attitudes, meanings, religion, notions of time, roles, spatial relations, concept of the universe, and material objects and possessions acquire by a group of people in the course of generations through individual land group striving.
Imperialism as defined by the Dictionary of Human Geography, is the creation and maintenance of an unequal economic, cultural and territorial relationship, usually between states and often in the form of an empire, based on domination and subordination. According to Downing, Mohammad’, and Sreberny- Mohammadi (1995), Imperialism is the conquest and control of one country by a more powerful one. According to Boyd-Barrett (1977 p. 1 7)