We study the effects of different forms of information feedback associatedwith mass media on an agent-agent based model of the dynamics of culturaldissemination. In addition to some processes previously considered, we alsoexamine a model of local mass media influence in cultural dynamics. Twomechanisms of information feedback are investigated: (i) direct mass mediainfluence, where local or global mass media act as an additional element in thenetwork of interactions of each agent, and (ii) indirect mass media influence,where global media acts as a filter of the influence of the existing network ofinteractions of each agent. Our results generalize previous findings showingthat cultural diversity builds-up by increasing the strength of the mass mediainfluence. We find that this occurs independently of the mechanisms of action(direct or indirect) of the mass media message. However, through an analysis ofthe full range of parameters measuring cultural diversity, we establish thatthe enhancement of cultural diversity produced by interaction with mass mediaonly occurs for strong enough mass media messages. In comparison with previousstudies a main different result is that weak mass media messages, incombination with agent-agent interaction, are efficient in producing culturalhomogeneity. Moreover, the homogenizing effect of weak mass media messages aremore efficient for direct local mass media messages than for global mass mediamessages or indirect global mass media influences.
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