Chapter one essentially starts out giving a brief introduction to the world of mass media and it’s in and outs. From the very simple ideas of how ideas are communicated to the convergence of different media. As the chapter progresses Rodman goes on to talk about cultural imperialism of American society, which I will refer to later, and how giant media conglomerates are formed and why.
The part of this chapter that held my attention the most was the area in which Rodman spoke on the spreading of American culture, or as he called in “Cultural Imperialism”. The area that particularly peaked my interest was when he quoted a survey and said “…the spread of U.S ideas and customs is disliked by majorities in almost every country included in this survey.” The entire world is readily exposed to American culture whether they like it or not, and because of the depictions we create of ourselves in movies many believe us to be “materialistic, sexually immoral, and often criminal people…” However, I can honestly say that I agree with that sentiment to a certain degree. Although these aspects of American culture are dramatized in film and television, I see American culture veering towards many of the practices that should only appear in movies. I don’t exclude myself from this assessment in any way, it just seems American culture encourages promiscuity, materialistic ideals, and criminal behavior far more that that of popular culture around the world.
Another thing I found interesting was Rodman’s picture of the media conglomerates. The fact that multi-national corporations are expanding every day is impossible to ignore, and they steam-roll over smaller companies which continually increases their power. As he said at one point Clear Channel radio owns over 1200 radio station nation wide, which is a staggering figure in itself. The media today had become so monstrous that it’s impossible to control.
