International Journal of Media and Information Literacy, 2020, 5(1)
90
Copyright © 2020 by Academic Publishing House Researcher s.r.o.
Published in the Slovak Republic
International Journal of Media and Information Literacy
Has been issued since 2016.
E-ISSN: 2500-106X
2020, 5(1): 90-102
DOI: 10.13187/ijmil.2020.1.90
www.ejournal46.com
Cultural Imperialism through Hollywood Cinematic
Media on Pakistani Youth
Tamsila Naeem
a
, Mohsin Hassan Khan
b , *
, Faiqa Abdul Khaliq
a
a
Department of Linguistics and Communications, Institute of Liberal Arts,University
of Management and Technology, Lahore, Pakistan
b
Department of Media and Communication Studies, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur,
Malaysia
Abstract
Cinematic media is a very powerful tool, used by developed countries in the modern world,
with a deliberate purpose to transmit their cultural legacy by projecting a variety of attractive
features to influence the minds of youth. This study aims to scrutinize the impact of Hollywood
cinematic media on Pakistani youth. The theoretical framework applied in this study is based on
the Theory of Cultural Imperialism, propounded by Her Herbert Schiller in 1973. The theory
postulates that the Western media has a strong effect on the Third World countries by imposing on
them Western cultural standards and hence are destroying their own cultures. The study is
quantitative based on a mixed survey, which consists of close-ended questions along with the
opinions of the respondents. SPSS is used to compute the obtained data. The findings demonstrate
that the Hollywood movies leave a significant impact on Pakistani youth, since they are
prominently engrossed to the lifestyle of American culture. The study suggests that it is
responsibility of Pakistani people and media authorities to pay serious heed to control such movies,
which prove to be serious threat to their own cultural values.
Keywords: cinematic media, cultural imperialism, Pakistani youth.
1. Introduction
Cinematic media is one of the most popular visual rhetoric used in the modern world to
persuade people for different purposes. The Hollywood movies, people, especially our youth
watches on silver screens, implant their effects on their unsophisticated minds. The knowledge of
the inherent inclination of these people to adopt American aesthetics enables the Americans to use
cinematic rhetoric, making their movies more appealing in order to play with the psyche of the
target audience. The purported glimpses of civilization represented on the silver screen add salt to
injury to the feelings of the deprived world of the people of the developing countries such as
Pakistan. It is observed that our Youth gets refuge in the world of movies from tormenting realities
in their life.
2. Discussion
This study aims to scrutinize the impact of Hollywood cinematic media on Pakistani Youth
under the Theory of Cultural Imperialism, propounded by Herbert Schiller in 1973. The Theory
*
Corresponding author
E-mail addresses: mohsin18516@gmail.com (M.H Khan)