Resurrecting Cultural Imperialism

The concept of cultural imperialism has been thoroughly discredited. Developments over the last decade have, however, produced a lively debate about imperialism in other disciplines. This paper reviews the theory of cultural imperialism and its critics. It argues that while the old concept was rightly discredited, a more robust theory is both viable and increasingly necessary to account for likely major developments in international communication. The paper attempts to outline a new theory of cultural imperialism that explains contemporary developments while avoiding the pitfalls that led to the collapse of the earlier version.