US cultural colonization of Iraq A Case Study of American Facebook Pages

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Tehran

2 Associate Professor, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Tehran

Abstract
Colonialism to advance its political and economic goals not only acts through coercive domination, but also adopts intellectual and cultural methods to turn its domination into hegemonic domination; That is, by producing meaning, it shows the relations of power as natural and rational, and in this way, it stabilizes the mentioned relations. The main issue in this article is how the United States culturally colonizes Iraq, and answering the question of what concepts the American media uses to deepen this issue and turn its dominance in Iraq into a hegemonic one. In this article, using the method of semiotic research and qualitative content analysis, the main sections of the four American Facebook pages (US Embassy in Baghdad, US Agency for International Development, Radio Sawa Media Campaign and Young Iraqi Young Leaders Exchange Program) created for the Iraqi audience were studied. It was further shown that the United States reproduced its colonialism in these pages by representing concepts such as: strengthening the public sphere, building democracy, strengthening the role of women, paying attention to minorities, and similar issues for the Iraqi audience and exercises cultural domination in the Iraqi society.

Keywords


ارفع صوتک (2016). من نحن، (بازیابی شده در 17 بهمن 98): https://www.irfaasawtak.com/about-us
آشوری، داریوش (1387). دانشنامه سیاسی، تهران: انتشارات مروارید.
رهنما، مجید (1350). مسائل کشورهای آسیایی و افریقایی، تهران: انتشارات دانشگاه تهران.
ریتزر، جورج (1393). نظریۀ جامعه شناسی (مترجم هوشنگ نایبی)، تهران: نشر نی.
سایمن، دورینگ (1378). مطالعات فرهنگی، ترجمه حمیرا مشیرزاده، تهران: موسسه فرهنگى آینده پویان.
فرخی، میثم (1394). «کاوشی نظری پیرامون پدیده جهانی شدن و امپریالیسم فرهنگی رسانه­ای»، مطالعات رسانه­ای، 29، ص 9-23.
قنبری سلحشور، محمدرضا و آقارضایی، نادیا (1397). «جنگ نرم علیه کشورهای مخالف هژمونی آمریکا»، پژوهش­های راهبردی انقلاب اسلامی، 3، صص55-94.
نریمانی، عارف و پرغو، محمد علی (1396). «استعمار و هژمونی آن: نگاهی به نظام بازنمایی غرب»، غرب شناسی بنیادی، دوره هشتم، شماره 1، صص 105-126.
Aljabiri, Janan. (2015). “The new political settlement in Iraq: An examination of the role of Shi’a NGOs”, thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor, University of Bath.
Internet World Stats. (2021). “Internet Usage in the Middle East” (Retrieved May 17, 2021): https://www.internetworldstats.com/stats5.htm
Globalize DC. (2020). “Iraqi Young Leaders Exchange Program (IYLEP) “, (Retrieved March 7, 2020): https://www.globalizedc.org/iraqi-young-leaders-exchange-program-iylep/
World Learning. (2019). “In Iraq, a Reunion Brings Young Changemakers Back Together to Learn from and Inspire One Another” (Retrieved March 7, 2020): https://www.worldlearning.org/story/in-iraq-a-reunion-brings-young-changemakers-back-together-to-learn-from-and-inspire-one-another/
Yang, Lorelei. (2019). “Explaining Arrow Symbolism in Different Cultures” (Retrieved April 10, 2021): https://nygal.com/arrow-symbolism-in-different-cultures/
The World Bank. (2019). “Population, total Iraq “, (Retrieved January 15, 2020): https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.POP.TOTL?locations=IQ
NBC News. (April 14, 2006), “New U.S. Embassy in Iraq cloaked in mystery”, (Retrieved September 5, 2020): http://www.nbcnews.com/id/12319798/
USAID. (2020). “Who we are”, (Retrieved January 10, 2020): https://www.usaid.gov/iraq
Census. (Aug 1, 2020),” Trade in Goods with Iraq”, (Retrieved September 2, 2020):  https://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/balance/c5050.html
Clement, J. (Aug 21, 2020) “Global social networks ranked by number of users 2020”, (Retrieved September 5, 2020): https://www.statista.com/statistics/272014
Scimagojr. (2019),” Country Rankings”, (Retrieved August 30, 2020):  https://www.scimagojr.com/countryrank.php