Nowadays, local cultures are increasingly exposed to international medias such as films, programmes TV and so on. This has a great impact on these cultures as they become known throughout the world and it potentially modernises them. In this essay, I will discuss the advantages and disadvantages of these impacts and whether I think one outweighs the other.
First of all, international exposure contributes to making an unknown culture more popular. This can push people who were previously clueless about these local traditions to inquire more about them and ptoentially contribute to them by applying them. Moreover, TV programmes about specific local habits can encourage tourism to certain areas in order to discover more about these interesting habits and enjoy the same territories the locals live in. For instance, I once saw a documentary about a tribe living in the South of Morocco, more precisely in the Sahara desert and it motivated me to explore that region which turned out to have stunning views and landscapes, especially in the city Dakhla.
However, the multiple documentaries and films supposed to represent and show local cultures have many drawbacks. First, they could and think of these traditions wrongly, presenting many innaccuracies to the viewers and spreading misinformation on a subject that could be very important for the locals. They could also bring bad exposure to the local population; if some living habits do not please the public or contradict with the public opinion, it may create an unnecessarily bad image of the culture and maybe even contribute to change it, which would create a loss of cultural heritage. This has happened many times, especially for local tribes accross South America and Asia.
In conclusion, exposure of local culture to international media could be beneficial by securing a better economy for the locals by attracting tourism and by encouraging spectators to learn about the traditions. This exposure also has dangers as it could put dirt on the image of these minorities and cause cultural loss. In my opinion, the advantages outweigh the disadvantages because this exposure could bring more money to these local cultures and can help them spread the culture internationally, even though the presentators should be careful about how they present their programme.