ISLAMABAD: Globalisation in the form of westerndomination and Third World dependency has increased media imperialism in the developing world, says Dr Farooq Sulehria.

He called for developing alternative community information initiatives and practices to counter hegemony and influence of the western corporate media.

He was giving a lecture on “Media imperialism in the age of globalisation - the case of Pakistan” at a seminar jointly organised by the Research Institute of Development and Evaluation (RIDE) and the Riphah University, Rawalpindi, on Monday.

Dr Sulehria traced the history and different phases of the discourse on media imperialism and globalisation.

The media imperialism debate started in the late 1960s when western media influenced Third World countries media heavily. The media imperialism debate led to the debate on dependency ie television system in the Third World leads to dependency of periphery country on the imperial countries. The dependency scholars, notably Herbert Schiller, called it cultural imperialism.

The dependency discourse led to start off New World Information and Communication Order (NWICO) movement from the platform of Unesco in the 1970s.

Contextualising the debate, Dr Sulehria spoke about the nexus between imperialism, globalisation and dependency and how they impacted the post-colonial societies, including South Asia, particularly Pakistan and India.

Dr Sulehria, who teaches as an assistant professor at the Beaconhouse National University Lahore’s Department of Liberal Arts, said the commercialisation of broadcasting was driven by the rise of US entertainment, communication and information (ECI) industries after the World War II and the cold war.

He cited the thesis of Herbert Schiller who was the first scholar to bring in the debate of dependency of media and said the rise of corporate media must be seen alongside the US foreign policy and its impact on people’s consciousness, leading to cultural imperialism.

The expansion of neoliberal corporate media production has resulted in the domination and destruction of the local media environment and production of developing countries, creating a sub-imperial culture, he said.

Dr Sulehria’s research “Media imperialism in India and Pakistan”, published by the Routledge in 2018 is an important contribution to media studies, particularly in the context of South Asia.

Talking about Pakistan’s situation, he said the dependency on western technology and expertise had increased domination and imperial hegemony. He gave startling figures about the cost of launching a TV channel.

In terms of dependency, Pakistan’s television system has cost over two billion dollars. Launching a national level television channel may cost Rs3 billion at present.

Media education also reinforces imperialism as most of the books on media have been written by western authors. He said globalisation had also increased media corruption.

He suggested new methods and formats of media and reviving of NWICO and south-south cooperation and availability of sports, cinema, theatre and other leisure and cultural activities at the community level to provide an alternative to TV as the only entertaining medium which in turn help end dependency and media imperialism.

He was critical of the oppressive role of social media and said media reflected balance of forces in a given society.

Dr Sulehria paid tribute to Nasir Zaidi, who chaired the event, for his sacrifices for the freedom of the press and freedom of expression.

“Zaidi sb is a symbol of resistance and courage who was among the four journalists who were flogged during the military dictatorship of Ziaul Haq,” he said.

Nasir Zaidi appreciated the lecture of Dr Farooq and said it would give an insight to the students. He urged the students to engage in debate to develop critical thinking and tolerance to debate issues, openness and collective discourse.

He said Pakistani media is in worst condition today as owners of media outlets exploit their workers.

Earlier, Director of Research Institute on Development and Evaluation retired Col Saboor Sulehria said neoliberal development discourse and globalisation had impacted everything, including media.

Director Riphah Institute of Public Policy Dr Rashid Aftab, senior broadcast journalist Asmatullah Niazi and faculty members as well as students participated in the debate during the question-answer session.

Published in Dawn, April 30th, 2019