Cultural Imperialism and the Spread of American Consumer Culture

Globalization refers to the idea that people are relying less on their local and national networks, and are becoming more connected on an international scale. This connection can include aspects of cultural, political, economic, and technological life.

In terms of cultural imperialism, globalization allows for American cultural ideologies to be broadcasted across the world. This is because the US has most of the globe’s media power. American companies like Disney, Newscorp, Viacom, and Time Warner project their images of the US to countries all around the world. These countries therefore adjust their ideologies and habits to accommodate the incoming American media.

An example of cultural imperialism is the spread of the American consumer class ideology. It has long been known that Americans buy more things than any other country. This notion is spreading by way of the media, particularly films. Every year the US comes out with countless movies that depict Americans buying cars (for example.) It shows families that have more than one car, and even teenagers that are given new cars for their birthdays. This is an ideology that was once unique to the US, but is spreading rapidly. Whereas 20 years ago most of China’s population didn’t have or drive a car, the continuous flow of media projecting images of the American consumer class driving them has greatly contributed to the massive increase of car sales in China. Globalization allows for these images of US consumers to be broadcasted internationally, and is responsible for the spread of American consumer culture. This has negative effects. For example, if every country in the world bought things at the same pace as the US, we would run out of natural resources sometime this century.

An article on China's car boom: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/06/0628_040628_chinacars.html

Allen Hammond's book "Which World" discusses some other scenarios and consequences of the spreal of consumer culture:
http://books.google.com/books?id=ApRC9OmkWc8C&printsec=frontcover&dq=allen+hammond+which+world&source=bl&ots=V7oAS1n6wb&sig=NGDeKEaFOdD3TlnwBzfChgam63k&hl=en&ei=kMHpTKC8LoK8lQeoxrCjDA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CCsQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q&f=false