De Anza College History Media Imperialism Questions

Instructions:  Answer the questions. 

1. Explain the concept of “media imperialism,” and then discuss how eitherJose Carlos Lozano’s study of media reception in the U.S./Mexican border region or Joy Hayes’chapter about radio in Mexico, “Nation as Market,” relate to the debates about media imperialism as a framework for understanding the role of media in Latin America.

2.  Arlene Dávila begins her chapter, “Don’t Panic, I’m Hispanic,” by observing that “Hispanic” marketing is now a multibillion dollar industry.  Drawing on the lectures and on Dávila’s chapter, discuss the challenges Hispanic marketers and media faced in building this market. What does Dávila means when she talks about an “ethnic division of cultural labor” in Spanish-language media industries in the U.S.?  Who are the main people who produce US Latino media?

3.  Using the lectures and Hallin’s, “La Nota Roja,” explain how the media in Mexico were connected to the system of political power during the period when the PRI was dominant, and how they have changed in recent years.  

4.  Joy Hayes’ chapter is titled “Nation as Market.”  What does she mean to point to in using that phrase?  And how does her discussion of Mexican radio illustrate the relationship between the state and the broadcast industry in Latin America in this period?

5.  Discuss how the media in Mexico were connected to the system of political power during the period when the PRI was dominant, and how they have changed or not changed in recent years.

6.  Latin American media systems have long been dominated primarily by commercial media.  But commercialism has intensified in recent years, with the shift to “neoliberalism,” which has meant that media are in some ways more market-driven.  There has long been a debate in media studies about whether commercialism makes media more or less democratic.  What does Hallin’s discussion of tabloid television in “La Nota Roja” tell us about media commercialism and the role of media in democracy?

7.  Phillip Kitzberger describes the rise of media reform movements in Latin America in “Against the Current.”  According to Kitzberger, what were the concerns that led to the rise of these movements?