This paper examines cultural imperialism in Russia through its media systems. It discusses how Russia developed its media after the fall of the Soviet Union, transitioning from strict state control and censorship to integrating more global media. While this allowed for more open information, it also increased Western cultural influences, particularly from America, especially on Russian youth through music, television and the internet. The paper analyzes both the positive and negative effects this may have on Russia's culture and businesses in the global economy.

1. Running head: CULTURAL IMPERIALISM AND RUSSIA 1
Cultural Imperialism and Russia
Christopher Melione
Monmouth University

2. CULTURAL IMPERIALISM AND RUSSIA 2
Cultural Imperialism and Russia
Russia has always been one of the most powerful, unpredictable, and ruthless countries in
the world. From participation in both world wars, to the fall of the Soviet Union, and to what we
know as Russia today, the government has been ever changing over the past century. While this
country has never had a reputation for being the most stable and trustworthy power, it is
definitely a power to be reckoned with. During the past 15 years, Russia has been considered
one of the top 4 rising emerging markets, among other growing powerhouses like India, China
and Brazil that have been given credit for driving global (EconomyWatch, 2010). With all of
this growth and power, it is important to study Russia and see how its culture is changing and
developing in the 21st century. It is interesting to look at what the country has done and what
there is to look forward to in its future.
The purpose of this paper is to delve into the history and current practices of media
systems in Russia, and how they are a factor in the effects of cultural imperialism within the
nation. Today, Russia has a fairly intensive media system. The country has six national
television stations. One of the stations is owned directly by the national government, while the
remaining five stations are state owned. Although the state owned stations are not directly
owned by the government, the government still has the ultimate control over all content, and
could force the stations to only show what they want to be shown. Even though there are
limitations in place today, the country has come a long way with loosening the reins on
censorship in the media. Throughout this discussion, we will be analyzing Russia’s media by
looking at how their music, television, cinema, and literature. By looking at how their media has
changed over time, specifically after the fall of the Soviet Union, it is quite apparent that media
plays a strong factor in how cultural imperialism can affect a nation.

3. CULTURAL IMPERIALISM AND RUSSIA 3
In order to evaluate the effects of cultural imperialism in Russia, one must understand
what cultural imperialism is itself. Cultural imperialism, as defined by Boyd-Barret, means the
type of imperialism “whereby the ownership, structure, distribution or content of the media in
any one country are singly or together subject to substantial external pressures from the media
interests of any other country or countries without proportionate reciprocation of influence by the
country so affected” (Boyd-Barret 1977:116). The term basically boils down to a nation’s
culture being affected and changed by another nation’s dominant presence in the media that their
citizens are absorbing.
The concept of cultural imperialism became more prevalent when the United States’s
influence started getting attention. As noted by Terhi Rantanen, “Cultural imperialism theories
were mainly associated with the USA. This is not surprising since many of the early proponents
of cultural imperialism were in Latin America where US influence was probably more visible
than anywhere else.” (Rantanen, 2005, p. 76) Nowadays, we see cultural imperialism as a
heavily relatable topic in many developed countries, since it is often in these countries that we
see the most mixing of cultures and cultural hybridization. Cultural Hybridization is the mixing
of cultures due to globalization. It is created out of global and local cultures to form a new
culture in itself. (Ritzer, 2010, p. 255) One of the heaviest influences these countries have is the
influence of the American culture.
The American culture and influence has spread across the world, and has reached such a
wide scope of geography. It is more likely than not that somehow, somewhere there are going to
be influences of American culture evident. “The mass media is no longer understood as a
reflection of society, but increasingly as relatively autonomous of it.” (Pilkington, 2002, p. 22)
Mass media is now a global medium. People all over the world are obtaining the same stories

4. CULTURAL IMPERIALISM AND RUSSIA 4
through their outlet of choice, whether it be through social media outlets, television, or even
through word of mouth from friends. It does not matter if you live in a developing country or
developed country; it all depends who the media is trying to target.
Cultural imperialism helps to convey that cultures are imposing themselves upon others,
whether it is being done consciously or unconsciously. The way Russia reacts to these cultures
imposing on their own is through the media system. Russia has many government owned
television stations. These stations try to limit what the citizens are able to watch. It is a small
form of censorship in the country because they can show what they want to citizens to see.
Russia can limit how much outside media actually affects the general public. On the other
stations that the government does not own, Russia does not have a say on what media can be
shown to its citizens. This is where cultures start to blend and bleed together while people take
what is being shown into their own lifestyle. It does not matter if it is America, Britain or even
China - any country can have an effect on how media plays a role in the country.
Popular trends seem to spread quickly through any mass media source which helps
researchers understand how cultural imperialism works on a large scale. It can be something as
simple as a new song released by Taylor Swift, and deducing how many citizens in Russia
downloaded it. This study would show an example of how many of those citizens could catch a
new trending song that is happening in America. Without this theory you could not understand
how in depth cultures could have effects on others, even if it is something as simple as a trending
song.
Knowing how cultures impose themselves upon others it something very important in
media and advertising. If researchers can figure out what trends are becoming popular in other
countries they can start to push those towards the citizens for more of a profit. Giving these

5. CULTURAL IMPERIALISM AND RUSSIA 5
trends the maximum exposure could generate a huge revenue for the advertisers but also helping
the country’s economy.
Cultural imperialism is a heavily relatable topic in many developed countries, Russia’s
youth is heavily involved with America’s mass media. Many speak the English language and
involve themselves with American entertainment such as, music, movies, and television. Many
of the Russian youth depend on these sources for their entertainment. By each new generation,
the Russians are becoming increasingly culturally diverse and partaking more and more in the
American culture. It has gotten to the point where they do not realize how much of an influence
America has on them, as many of their Americanized ways now come naturally without any
recognition.
Music in America itself is composed of various culturally different aspects. With
America being a melting pot of different races and ethnic backgrounds, it is only natural the
music would be diverse as well. Certain music from different cultures start to blend together and
make new music genres. Music is a great example of Cultural Hybridization, and with the
United States’ population being as diverse as it is, it should come with no surprise of how many
different genres were formed through American culture.
“Until the fall of communism and the disintegration of the former Soviet Union there was
probably no media system in the world as strictly controlled as the communist system.” (Fourie,
2008, p. 197) The citizens in the Soviet Union had no freedom when it came to
media. Everything they had access to was censored and controlled by the government.
Ironically enough, the communist ideals of the Soviet Union claimed that the Western’s media
was unfree since it was “controlled by capitalist economic interests” (Fourie, 2008, p. 197) The
Soviet Union’s communist belief was that in order to provide the media that the people should be

6. CULTURAL IMPERIALISM AND RUSSIA 6
reading, it would have to come from and be controlled by the middle class. While this sounds
like a seemingly fair practice, the strict ways of the Soviet Union hindered the country’s
population from getting global news. (Fourie, 2008, p. 197)
Russia was formed from the ashes of Soviet Union but it would be no easy work
rebuilding everything that was broken. The media system that was in place for Soviet Union had
no place in Russia’s future. If the country wanted to show that they were no longer communists,
things had to change. Russia went through a few transition phases in creating the new media
system.
One of the first phases of reforming the media system would be to get rid of censorship in
the country. The censorship was used to keep the people oppressed to what they were able to
see, primarily to keep them from seeing anything politically related, or from seeing general
problems in the world. Another reform that would have to be made was to remove propaganda
media, which was used fairly often throughout the reign of the communist Soviet Union. This
was a popular way for the government to show citizens only the information that they wanted to
disclose, and to hopefully persuade the population to believe what they thought they needed to
believe.
Getting rid of censorship would not be easy for the new country. After decades of
pumping propaganda and limited news to the country, it would look odd to start showing
completely different content in television and newspapers. The country’s media started
integrating global media slowly, by covering certain news topics that normally had not been
covered under the previous regime. The individual stories may not have seemed like anything
important, but it was a massive step in the right direction for this new country.

7. CULTURAL IMPERIALISM AND RUSSIA 7
The second step was the media trying to form an audience. Trying to mold and create a
certain audience for content they produced would be important, and they needed to start grabbing
the attention of the people to join in to their program or read their article. This step showed
Russia’s progress with the media, where vendors could begin targeting specific audiences instead
of just trying to get information out there to the uninformed public.
In the third step, the media tried to be selective to form more artistic style of media. They
needed to start trying different methods to show the citizens that there is change. Nearing the
21st century, Russia had finally reached a position in between the second and third steps of the
implementation (Pilkington, 2002, p. 25), which was very quick progress considering the Soviet
Russia fell in 1991, and the country had been shielded from global media for the better part of a
century.
During the development for new media in the country there became a clear line of the
traditional media system in place and the new one that was being developed. The youth in
Russia began to grasp what was being shown to them, and they were enjoying the new approach
of getting media without all the censorships. During the development, Russian media outlets
also included foreign television. This step was a major breakthrough into the American
culture. By being able to view foreign programs, the youth in Russian began to retain what
American culture is like.
Also with the internet beginning to break out and become huge. The young kids in
Russia could not help but hold onto all the new trends and media from the United States. The
access to American media became so easy obtain in the late 90’s that the youth started to divide
from the older generation. They were becoming more Americanized just by all the media they

8. CULTURAL IMPERIALISM AND RUSSIA 8
could access while the older generation stayed with the old media systems in Russia. They kept
to the non-culturalized programs and newspapers.
In conclusion, cultural imperialism for Russia can be looked at through two different
views. On the one hand, you can view Russia’s relatively new introduction to global media as a
positive development. For a country that had gone through so many years of oppression from
unbiased news and media, this venture into seeing and reading what other developed countries
has access to allows the country to be on the same playing field. It is hard for a population to
advance as fast as other strong and growing countries when it is not given the same advantage of
resources to access. By letting the general Russian population to view and study the political and
entertainment related media offerings, the citizens of Russia are better equipped to learn and
grow which leads them to stronger national economy.
The other view, one that looks at the negative aspects of cultural imperialism, leads us to
analyze what some effects of this mass media can be. In a study done by D. C. Thomas and E.
C. Ravlin, it was found that “teaching members of different cultures to behave like each other is
an ineffective approach to improving intercultural interactions in business settings. (Lowell &
Bharat, 2012) Communication is extremely important in contributing to a company’s
success. In a time when global competitiveness is at its highest, Russian enterprises will have to
be mindful of how they will create their competitive edge. On this front, if studies are showing
that imitation of other culture is not an effective way of improving intercultural interactions, then
Russia should be wary of the effect that America’s strong influence and cultural imperialism are
having on their country.
With the fall of the Soviet Union, Russia broke out as a country into a new age of less
oppression. Media became a main stream to show what was going on in the world and not what

9. CULTURAL IMPERIALISM AND RUSSIA 9
the communist country wanted to show you. Thankfully, after the cold war the Soviet Union
started to fall and Russia began to rise into what we see today.
Overall the Russian media has grown and made itself something to be proud of. No
country should be worried about what effects other cultures may have on their own. In this day
and age the only way to evolve and further yourself is with the help of others. It is probably not
a coincidence that Russia’s rapid growth and noteworthy contributions to revenues through
globalization coincided with the country’s introduction to true global media. We can use this as
evidence that global communication is an asset, and is not likely to disappear. Without other
cultures pushing you and introducing you to new ideas, there would be no progress. To remove
any global collaboration in order to avoid cultural imperialism would bring Russia back to its
days of Communist rule. It is important for countries to be aware of cultural imperialism and its
causes and effects, but it is also important to realize that it is a byproduct of something greater –
using global communication and collaboration in the name of progress.

10. CULTURAL IMPERIALISM AND RUSSIA 10
References
Asch, S. (2014, February 17). American Music Influence in Foreign Countries. Retrieved from
www.gsspa.org/thelamp/slide-show/american-music-influence-in-foreign-countries/
Boyd-Barrett, O. (1977). Media imperialism: Towards an international framework for the
analysis of media systems. Edward Arnold.
Central Intelligence Agency. (n.d.). The World Factbook. Retrieved from
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/rs.html
EconomyWatch. (2010, June 29). The BRIC Countries: Brazil, Russia, India, China | Economy
Watch. Retrieved from http://www.economywatch.com/international-
organizations/bric.html
Fourie, P. J. (2008). Media Studies. (Media Studies.) Cape Town: Juta Academic.
Lowell, C. M., & Bharat, T. (2012). The Impact of Globalization on Cross-Cultural
Communication. INTECH Open Access Publisher.
McPhail, T. L. (2011). Global Communication: Theories, Stakeholders, and Trends. New York,
NY: John Wiley & Sons.
Pilkington, H. A. (2002). Looking West?: Cultural Globalization and Russian Youth Cultures.
PA: Penn State Press.
Rantanen, T. (2005). The media and globalization. London: SAGE.
Ritzer, G. (2010). Globalization: A basic text. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.