Media Imperialism Begins at Home?

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=15067649 While at home this weekend, I happened to catch a story on NPR on the CW show "Aliens in America." Among other things, I was struck by the ways in which the representational fears of Muslim students in the classroom at Georgetown watching (analyzing) the show were reported. That is, in larger media context that focuses upon Muslim terrorism (e.g. 24), anxieties of representation were allayed by the portrayals of the Pakistani student in the sitcom. As I listened to the story, I thought about the discussion of "Media Imperialism" in Thursday's class and the power of multinational media corporations to represent the Other, even if the Other is Us. For example, the radio report uses a quote from one of the foreign students at Georgetown who points out that they learned about "American Culture" (whatever that may be) from television. I wonder, in what ways can we speak of Media Imperialism at home? Certainly the concerns about misrepresentation don't just apply to foreigners in the U.S., but to representations in and of the U.S. As I read a student blog this morning, this very issue came up: representation of the ranchers in This American Life as primitives of sorts, who view the genetic science as a kind of magic. I certainly hadn't thought of that, but its a compelling idea. As I've suggested before, I think that most people are very cognizant that media representations are largely out of their control: there is a tendency to reify "the media." And, who can blame them? I certainly wonder how the tourists in Cannibal Tours responded to their representation in film.

But I must add that the producers of the show discussed on NPR are more interested in keeping the show alive on the network, the rest (i.e. ideological arguments about representation and talk in classrooms) "is just gravy." Indeed the radio reportage points out the low ratings of the first show and ends with"So any broader cultural impact of Aliens in America will depend first upon whether viewers and advertisers actually tune in." Another complication of the Culture Industry argument, perhaps.