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Reevaluating asymmetrical interdependence: Case studies of
international cultural information flows through trade in television
programming
Abstract
The main purpose of this paper is to review and reevaluate the concept of asymmetrical
interdependence in global media trade, taking into account the work of Galtung, Straubhaar and
others, as well recent global developments, and especially the vast increase in global media
trade since the end of the Cold War. The purpose is to gain a fuller understanding of the
emerging global system of information flow and trade in broadcast materials. Within this
context, this paper examines in detail a number of bilateral and multilateral media trading
relationships within the context of this system. This examination provides evidence to support
Straubhaar’s asymmetrical interdependence thesis.
Introduction
When the highly acclaimed Economist magazine a few years ago devoted one of its “School Briefs”
sections to a discussion of globalization and the international trade in television programming, it focused
on the role of economics and culture in the developing trends of global trade, as well as the continuing
American dominance of the market. Nevertheless, it concluded that, when it comes to television,
“Almost everywhere, the programmes audiences like to watch the most are their own country’s” (1997, p.
72). Furthermore, it suggests that “the globalisation of media may underwrite a globalisation not merely
of Mickey Mouse, but of the many cultures valued by people who are separated by distance from their
geographic or ethnic origins” (p. 72). These remarks, taken together, speak to a development in the
globalization of media products that goes far beyond outmoded beliefs in U.S. economic and cultural
imperialism: the desire of people around the world to watch television programming that originates from
a cultural or geographic background close to their own. This process, incorporating “cultural proximity”
into concepts of media trade, was first identified by scholars such as Joseph Straubhaar (1991). It is a
useful concept for characterizing in cultural terms the nature of international information flows through
Convention