Electronic Colonialism or Digital Colonialism, sometimes abbreviated eColonialism, was conceived by Herbert Shiller and originally documented in his 1976 text Communication and Cultural Domination. In this work, Shiller expounded upon the advent of a new technological era, one that positioned dominant countries atop poorer global regions and, given the necessary “importation of communication equipment and foreign-produced software”, subjugated Third World, impoverished nations to the will of the regnant world powers, such as the United States, Japan, and Germany. The theory delineates the economical, political, and psychological impact of the mass-media messaging influx, which, with regards to the psychological lens, is willingly yet unconsciously absorbed by hundreds of millions of people, through 'harmless' forms of entertainment. Viewers watching The Office, e.g., vicariously assimilate elements of Western culture and, often unknowingly, accept the imposition of American ideology. Alternative lifestyles, cultures, languages, vernaculars, trends, fads, political stances, ethnicalities—entire paradigms—impress themselves upon the mind of the viewer. Similar to the expansion and establishment of territorial colonies and protectorates by, e.g., Great Britain in its 16th-centurytransnational expansionary campaign, the Information Revolution ushered in a new era of socialization and, like the notion of traditional colonialism, urged multimedia conglomerates to regard audience demographics as obtainable colonies. Spurred into existence by the “demise of communism”, market globalization, and rapid innovation within the communication technology sector, Electronic Colonialist theory posits a contemporary form of neo-imperial reign; one based not on expansive military acquisition and procurement but, rather, on capturing the mind share and consumer habits of the target demographic: a psychological empire. As the world becomes ever-more dependent upon 21st-century communication streams, and lives become inextricably entangled with cyberspace and the Internet of Things, the multimedia hegemonic control will scale in stride and continue to proliferate in the decades to come.
History
With the conclusion of World War II in 1945, incited by the rise of the global advertisement industry, the multimedia and communications sector began its trans-border expansion as the advent of television became a cornerstone of advertising and consumerist trends. Prior to 1945, “there was no international communication theory”. And it was only after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in the early 1980s, that Electronic Colonialism began to manifest in its contemporary form. During this era, catalyzed by the demise of communism, the free flow of information and the unrestrained trade of goods became the dominant philosophies of international relations, and the United States was “positioned the...chief protagonist of both.” Moreover, United States PresidentRonald Reagan implemented his political agenda of “privatization, liberalization, and deregulation”, during what was coined the Privatization Revolution—a recasting of the American view on market forces, free enterprise and laissez-faire capitalism, and economic entrepreneurship—and it was through this that the virulence of the multimedia inroads was magnified tenfold. The increased cross-border media flow during and after the Regan era spurred a flurry of merger and acquisition activity: a movement toward corporate consolidation that would later define the media industry’s predominant growth tactic well into the 21st century. As the concept of Electronic Colonialism promulgated into the 1990s and early 2000s, its growing audience and their consequent concern provided a “major conceptual behind the movement for a New World Information and Communication Order”, as well as multinational organizations, such as The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.
