Role of foreign media in global imperialism

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) stopped its Farsi Radio Service on March 26, after 82 years of continuous broadcast. The corporation announced the closure of BBC Farsi and Arabic radio in September last year as part of strategic changes to focus on publishing content on digital platforms.

As said, the global broadcaster has planned to cut costs by closing its Persian and Arabic radio stations, which would render at least 382 employees jobless. According to the BBC World Service, it aims to save £28.5m million by closing Persian and Arabic radio stations as part of a more considerable effort to save £500 million yearly.

The British Broadcasting Corporation launched its first Persian radio service as part of its Empire Service on December 29, 1940, with support from the Foreign Office during World War II. The service had been airing the latest political, social, economic, and sports news relevant to Afghanistan, Iran, and Tajikistan and gained much popularity and enjoyed credibility among the locals due to its fact base news content and the absence of any competitor in the early decades of its worldwide operation. Interestingly, the magnificent joint initiative of Macroni corporation and the Daily Mail for public education, and entertainment turned into a propaganda mouthpiece after nationalization by the UK government in 2026.

Historically, radio and print media had been a tool for state propaganda, subversion, and a source for opinion-making within the country and abroad. Radio had been an effective means of communication and propaganda because of its long-range and wireless transmission during World War I & II and during the cold war up to the early nineties. The colonial powers including the UK, the US, Russia, German, Japan, and France established their outposts abroad and launched radio programs in foreign languages to influence public opinion, spread their narratives, and achieve their strategic objectives in other regions. Mostly, such initiatives had been run by foreign ministries and spy agencies of major nations to accomplish their global pursuits, while CNN, Voice of America, BBC, Voice of Russia, German DW, NHK World Japan, and World Radio Paris (WRP) were most popular broadcasting services across the globe. After the end of the cold war and the invention of the computer and the internet, radio services became less effective and lost their utility/ worth for governments as well as for audiences in the contemporary world. Currently, western policymakers and propagandists started the use the latest means of communication, cost-effective propaganda tools, and result-oriented hybrid war techniques to disseminate their message and mold public opinion in their support. In fact, the hegemonism, global rivalry, and unrestricted propaganda campaigns of great powers had turned the world into an unlivable place as the elements of choas will plummet, and real peace and charm will prevail in the universe.

Over the decades, the worldwide British empire gradually contracted after world war II, and multiple former colonies in the Middle East, Asia, Africa, and Oceania got freedom from British rule which not only reduced the British influence in the world but also had an adverse effect on the British economy. The United Kingdom, once the sole power in the world, is now facing serious economic challenges amid the ongoing economic recession, the devastating impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, and Brexit. The former biggest colonial power is now contracting its global footprint to reduce its public expenses to evert imminent economic collapse. During this era of globalization, the closure of colonial foreign mouthpieces would not affect the life and leisure of the audiences but it would surely contribute toward the consolidation of the British economy in the days ahead.