Globalization and its impact on media in China: A comparative semiotic content analysis of visual representation in Chinese and U.S. magazine advertisements, 1979--1998

The dependency theory stipulates that the world is composed of the dominant, more advanced "core" countries, and the weaker ex-colonial Third World "periphery." In this system, the core monopolizes media production and there is a one-sided flow of information. The core's dominance of media is maintained through the transfer of media professionalism.; This dissertation explored the effect of globalization and transfer of media professionalism on media in China through a comparative analysis of visual representation in magazine advertisements from China and the United States in the past two decades. A combined semiotics and systematic content analysis was carried out to describe the status quo of advertising format in each country, compare and contrast the differences in cultural values and appeals imbedded in the two countries' advertisements, and examine the social ideological contexts in which the advertisements were made. The cross-time and cross-country analysis was intended to reveal the impact of the core's economic and cultural expansion on changes in media format, cultural values and political ideology in the periphery.; Results showed that Chinese advertising was converging towards the US in format, giving evidence of the transfer of media professionalism. Changes were also occurring in some of the cultural and ideological dimensions; however, the overall cultural values and political ideology latent in Chinese advertising visuals remained quite constant over the past two decades. The manifest changes were caused by internal rather than external factors---the split between ad format and ideological content was perhaps the result of the Communist government's simultaneous push for looser economic policies and tighter political control. The results indicated that globalization might not have an all-sweeping effect on media change in Third World countries, especially in totalitarian regimes---the periphery's resistance against influence from the core can succeed in certain circumstances. Nevertheless, future research from other nations and cultures is needed to make a more generalizable conclusion.; An interactive model of advertising, culture and society as well as a bimodal intercultural communication model was proposed.