Core nations, peripheral nationsA B C D E F G H IJKL M N O P R S T U VXYZWMoreover, the flow of cultural artefacts is
arguably more complex than is suggested by the
cultural or media imperialism thesis. A number
of theorists point to the essential heterogeneity
of culture(s) and argue consequently that it is
unlikely that cultural convergence would occur.
See cyberspace; digitization; mobiliza-
tion; new media. See also topic guide under
media: processes & production.
▶Michael Kackman et al, Flow TV: Television in the
Age of Media Convergence (Routledge, 2011).
Conversational styles In a study of conversa-
tion among friends at dinner, entitled Conver-
sational Style: Analyzing Talk Among Friends
(Ablex, 1984), Deborah Tannen identifies
diff erent conversational styles which she terms
‘High Considerateness’ and ‘High Involvement’.
Each style has different priorities. The ‘High
Considerateness’ style places a premium on
being considerate of others in conversation, of
not interrupting, of listening to what someone is
saying. Th e ‘High Involvement’ style on the other
hand is characterized by enthusiastic involve-
ment in a conversation, and this may be at the
expense of giving suffi cient space to others.
One style is not necessarily better than the
other, but often refl ects cultural diff erences; for
example, in her study, the Briton was the most
considerate of all. However, this categorization
can help explain problems in interpersonal
communication. To the highly considerate
speaker the highly involved speaker may seem an
exhibitionist, whilst the highly involved speaker
may perceive the highly considerate speaker as
aloof or distant.
Co-orientation approach See mccombs and
shaw’s agenda-setting model of media
effects, 1976.
Copycat eff ect See contagion effect.
Copyrighting culture See culture: copy-
righting culture.
Core nations, peripheral nations Cees
Hamelink makes this differentiation with
regard to the distribution of information in and
between nations in ‘Information imbalance:
core and periphery’ in Questioning Th e Media:
A Critical Introduction (Sage, 1990), edited by
John Downing, Ali Mohammadi and Annabelle
Sreberny-Mohammadi. Hamelink argues
that the transnational picture of information
distribution is one of imbalances between core- usually industrial – nations such as the US,
Canada, Western Europe, Japan and Australia
and the economic periphery, predominantly
rural countries such as Africa, parts of Asia and
Latin America.
conventions which have become so familiar
that they appear ‘the natural way to do things’.
television news holds to the convention of
having on-screen newsreaders; documentaries
generally hold to the convention of having a
voice-over narration. Innovators – for example
in the arts –break with convention. Th e shock
of the new often stirs among the conventional
a sense of aff ronted values. Th e chances of the
new becoming conventionalized will depend on
various factors, such as opinion leaders, preva-
lent tastes and fashions, even newsworthiness.
See leadership; redundancy.
Convergence Th e coming-together of commu-
nication devices and processes; a major feature
of the development of media technology in
the 1990s onwards. In Of Media and People
(Sage, 1992), Everette E. Dennis writes of forms
converging ‘into a single electronically based,
computer-driven mode that has been described
as the nearly universal integration of systems
that retrieve, process, and store text, data,
sound, and image’; in short, multi-media. Dennis
points out that convergence is far more than ‘the
stuff of hardware and software: it is the driving
force that has spurred major change in the media
industries and almost everywhere else’.
Convergence has operated at the technical and
operational level and at the level of ownership
and control. Just as individual items of hard and
software have been centralized into one multi-
media outfit, so media production has been
centralized into fewer corporate hands, most of
these transnational.
A further question is whether technical and
operational convergence will lead to transcul-
tural convergence and extend the reach of what
some would see as the already well-established
strategy of cultural and media imperialism. For
those who support this thesis, globalization
fosters homogeneity and works in the interests
of Western – chiefly American – cultural
dominance, whilst undermining the indigenous
cultures of the less-powerful receivers of such
artefacts.
However, such a view is seen by others as
underestimating the degree to which those who
receive such artefacts adapt them in the process
of absorbing them into the host culture. The
resultant blend may limit the degree of conver-
gence. It should also be noted that artefacts
destined for a wide market are often tailored
to take account of differentiation within the
market, and in this process characteristics of the
diff ering host cultures may be considered in the
construction of the artefact.