How American Reggae Redefined Jamaican and Caribbean Reggae: A Theoretical Study of the Relationship Between Mass Communication and Cultural Domination

“The study of relationships that involve mass communication has assumed that should we have some difference in ‘power’ between societies (especially the powerful “Western” societies and others), ‘culture’ essentially flows from the more powerful to the less powerful, and causes change in the less powerful. But from analyses of ancient, recent and contemporary history, the author argues for what he calls the re-importation or re-exportation framework for the study and discussion of cultural relations in general, cultural influence in particular, and cultural domination specifically, as well as the relationships between mass communication and these issues.”
-R.L. Nwafo Nwanko, Ph.D.,
Former Graduate Professor,
School of Communications,
Howard University, Washington, DC

“This is quite a fascinating perspective on the international flow of cultural influence… [the author] makes the compelling case that the flow of influence is not at all linear. He provides historical and analytical evidence to the effect that the “peripheral” countries are often the origins of cultural forms that are modified by the “Center” nations and then re-imported by the “peripheral” nations... a compelling theoretical framework.”
-Professor Minabere Ibelema,
Department of Communication Studies,
University of Alabama at Birmingham

“This book plants the seeds of a revolution in our thinking about certain relationships with which we must wrestle in the age of globalization – for example, the relationships between the less powerful and the more powerful peoples. It invites us to stress the value of the less powerful as originators of elements that may well be shaping the world, and therefore as full citizens of the age of the global – rather than observers of or appendages to it.”
-Professor L. Lashley,
Department of English,
Miami/Dade College, FL