COLONIALISM – Electronic colonialism theory explains how mass media are leading to a new concept of empire. It will not be one based on military power or land acquisition, but one based on controlling the mind. It is a psychological or mental empire.
POST COLONIALISM – Postcolonialism, the historical period or state of affairs representing the aftermath of Western colonialism; the term can also be used to describe the concurrent project to reclaim and rethink the history and agency of people subordinated under various forms of imperialism.
DIASPORA – A diaspora is a scattered population whose origin lies in a separate geographic locale. Historically, the word diaspora was used to refer to the involuntary mass dispersion of a population from its indigenous territories, in particular the dispersion of Jews.
BAME – BAME is a term long used in the UK to refer to black, Asian and minority ethnic people. Its origin derives from “political blackness”, an idea that various ethnic groups united behind to fight against discrimination in the 1970s.
DOUBLE CONSCIOUSNESS (GILROY) – Modernity and Double Consciousness is a 1993 history book about a distinct black Atlantic culture that incorporated elements from African, American, British, and Caribbean cultures. It was written by Paul Gilroy and was published by Harvard University Press and Verso Books.
CULTURAL ABSOLUTISM / RACIAL ESSENTIALISM – Cultural Absolutism is the idea that there are certain principles and sets of values that are objectively right or wrong in every context. According to cultural absolutism, the universal is considered free from cultural, historical, and social conditions. The literature commonly defines racial essentialism as a belief in a genetic or biological essence that defines all members of a racial category (e.g., Race Conceptions Scale; Williams and Eberhardt, 2008; cf.
CULTURAL SYNCRETISM – Cultural syncretism is when distinct aspects of different cultures blend to make something new and unique. Since culture is a wide category, this blending can come in the form of religious practices, architecture, philosophy, recreation, and even food.
ORIENTALISM (SAID) – Orientalism is a 1978 book by Edward W. Said, in which the author developed the idea of “Orientalism” to define the West’s historically patronizing representations of “The East”—the societies and peoples who inhabit the places of Asia, North Africa, and the Middle East.
APPROPRIATION – Cultural appropriation, at times also phrased cultural misappropriation, is the adoption of an element or elements of one culture by members of another culture. This can be controversial when members of a dominant culture appropriate from disadvantaged minority cultures.
CULTURAL HEGEMONY – In Marxist philosophy, cultural hegemony is the domination of a culturally diverse society by the ruling class who manipulate the culture of that society — the beliefs and explanations, perceptions, values, and mores — so that the imposed, ruling-class worldview becomes the accepted cultural norm; the universally valid dominant ideology, which justifies the social, political, and economic status quo as natural and inevitable, perpetual and beneficial for every social class, rather than as artificial social constructs that benefit only the ruling class.
THE PUBLIC SPHERE (HABERMAS) – Habermas defines the public sphere as a “society engaged in critical public debate”. Conditions of the public sphere are according to Habermas: The formation of public opinion. All citizens have access.
THE ROLE OF PUBLIC SERVICE BROADCASTING IN TERMS OF FAIR REPRESENTATION OF MINORITY GROUPS / INTERESTS – The Media Act requires public broadcasters to provide a varied range of programs in the fields of information, culture, education and entertainment. They are also responsible for providing a reliable news service. Their programs should not be aimed just at a large audience.
