When international media convey the same message to the global audience, people argue that the expansion of international media has negative impacts on cultural diversity. What is your opinion?
So ubiquitous have media been, in the last twenty years or so, that it has remained no part of humankind’s life untouched. Thus, No issue has drawn as much attention as the correlation between further expansion of media and the fear of cultural homogeneity. It is argued that uniform messages imparted by various media catalyze negative impacts on cultural diversity. This assertion will be corroborated by looking at alterations in nation’s cultural values regarding beauty and local cuisine.
It is highly contentious that a unique message from media has the potential to thwart people’s standards of beauty. Some Iranian people, for instance, surprisingly deemed obesity as an appreciated trend for young girls in decades ago. However, with the utilization of media becoming omnipresent, this attitude has altered to slender young girls- a standard which is embraced in Western countries. This example makes it clear that there is an undeniable correlation between permeation of media in people’s lives and merging their aesthetically sensitive views which ultimately poses a threat on cultural diversity.
Likewise, domination of media is a precursor to demise of integral parts of indigenous culture including local cuisine which mirrors people’s unique culture and lifestyle. People in Middle East, for example, have turned a blind eye to their traditional foods which were well attuned to their life style, and instead have shown an inclination toward widely advertised Western foods, such as pizza and hamburger. This alteration in taste embodies the negative impacts of media on native cuisine. Given theses factors, the cultural diversity is doomed to undermine if further expansion of media continues.
In light of what were argued above regarding recent changes in society’s perception of beauty and local taste, one might champion this idea that proliferation of media opens up a certain avenue toward disappearance of diverse unique cultures. It is hoped that government shoulder the responsibility of restraining this ongoing trend.