American Media Influence on Global Culture
Pop culture is a term coined by sociologists to define American media influence today. Society is bombarded with themes that define pop culture: progress, material gain, individual freedom and wealth. Media, in particular television commercials, movies, newspapers and radio stations, encourages Americans how to think, what to buy and where to live. According to a study done by graduate students at Harvard, as technology expands and media corporations seek audiences in foreign countries, fear of global cultural homogenization by American pop culture increases.[1] However, many barriers prevent American influence from producing cultural changes. Although American media companies develop overseas, their influence is not as powerful or acceptable as it is in the United States.
Media Expansion
It’s no surprise seeing CNN, MTV or the faces of Hollywood movie stars on European television. American media has increased in exports so much that the goal of every major media giant is to set up new markets outside the United States. Books, magazines, movies, T.V. programs and computer software have surpassed agricultural and traditional factory products as the United States largest category of exports.[2] Exporting entertainment products in 1996 totaled $60.2 billion and has been drastically increasing every year. In Turkey and Greece, recent state-owned monopolies have been replaced by private-owned industries under pressure from the United States government, the IMF and the World Bank, making access to foreign media more common and easy. Since then, particularly in broadcasting, American corporations have intensified their reach to foreign countries.[3]
Media Giants...
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[14] Peterson, Laura. CNN Meets the Turkish High Council. American Journalism Review. July 2000, Page 1.
[15] Peterson, Laura. CNN Meets the Turkish High Council. Page 4.
[16] Inside VOA. <http://www.voa.gov/index.cfm sectionTitle=VOA%20Charter>
[17] Vernon, Wes. Voice of America Uses Eminem and Britney to Represent U.S. NewsMax, 10 October 2002, Page 1. <http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2002/10/9/162228.shtml>
[18] Vernon, Wes. Page 2.
[19] Tardieu, Jerry. Fear of US Pop Culture Dominance Drives Anti-Globalization Sentiment. 7 February 2000. <http://www.ksg.harvard.edu/citizen/07feb00/tard0207.html
[20] Carroll, Marnie. American Television in Europe: Problematizing the Notion of Pop Culture Hegemony. Bad Subjects, Issue #57, October 2001/
[21] Carroll, Marnie.
Television has always been an industry whose profit has always been gained through ads. But in chapter 2 of Jason Mittell’s book, Television and American Culture, Mittell argues that the rise of the profit-driven advertising television model can be traced back through American television history, and that the rise of the profit-driven advertising model of television actually helped to mold American culture both from a historical standpoint and from a social standpoint.
The media has been a part of the daily life of the American people for the longest time, because of this fact, the media influences the decisions and views of how people should live. One big part of the media that tends to start to develop a sense of how the day-to-day American should live is Disney. Since kids are the main source of Disney’s billion dollar industry children have become an important dimension of the social theory (Giroux 1999: 65). “Within this context, television emerges as a consumer-oriented medium that reflects advertisers’ desire to reach a young, upscale, and primarily White audience” (Goodale1999; Henderson and Baldasty 2003: 100). As a result other races and ethnic groups other than white Americans are often put aside when it comes to the social media view of how Americans should live.
Moorhouse, John C., and Brent Wanner. "Does Gun Control Reduce Crime or Does Crime Increase Gun Control?" CATO Journal 26.1 (2006): 103-24. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 15 June 2015.
An artistic achievement that can demonstrate that the United States is in its Golden Age is its very influential fast growing entertainment business, a business very important to the U.S. economic activity. The U.S. entertainment has been popular around the world globalizing U.S. pop culture and the U.S. entrainment business economy. This globalization is a result of new innovations, that the U.S. itself developed, that allows film, music, and television, to spread worldwide. Because the U.S. is generally first to have such innovations the entertainment is commonly considered better quality thus appealing to the masses of people. Other factors that lead to the huge success of its entertainment business include their methods of distribution, which is through large and powerful foreign companies, and their large English-speaking market potential. High market ability and general international appeal of the U.S. entertainment business has put the U.S. in a “Golden ...
First, Doctor Manette, seen as a decrepit, unstable, worn-down man, immediately comes off as a man deserving of a second chance. His release from the Bastille marks the beginning of his being “recalled to life,” and his vast physical and mental recovery over the next five years concretes his new, happier second life. Manette’s regained sense of self can be largely credited to his daughter Lucie, whose maternal care for him helped speed up improvement. She acted as a strong anchor for
One character who experiences resurrection is Dr. Manette. His birth is connected to an inversion of the parent-child relationship. The doctor has been imprisoned in the Bastille for 18 years. It can be seen that the Bastille has acted like a womb for Dr. Manette and reduced him into a baby-like, infantile state. Being locked away for such a long time had driven Dr. Manette to begin to lose his sanity. In order to remain sane the doctor must entertain himself by making shoes. He first experiences resurrection after he is reunited with his daughter, Lucie. “She held him closer round the neck and rocked him on her breast like a child” (64). Here it is made apparent that Lucie will take on the role of a maternal figure and help restore her father to a normal life style. The role of the parent-child relationship is reversed in this situation. Instead of Dr. Manette taking care of Lucie, Lucie takes care of her father. Also, Mr. Lorry tells Dr. Mannette that he is recall...
TUNSTALL , Jeremy. “The Media Are American: Anglo-American Media in the World.” London: Constable, 1977.
Lucie Manette is a compassionate and benevolent character that aids in the resurrection of Sydney Carton and Dr. Manette. At the beginning of the book Lucie is only 17, but maturity beyond her age is reflected in her character. She is the ideal Victorian lady, perfect in every way. Lucie is gorgeous, with long, beautiful golden hair. She is very positive and unselfish, always willing to help others. Her wonderfully kind and sympathetic nature causes the men to fall in love with her. She doesn't look down upon anyone and sees the best in who some may see the worst. These qualities in Lucy are what make possible the resurrections of Sydney Carton and Dr. Manette's lives.
Any act of conscious communication always true, in varying degrees, two fundamental objectives. One is to inform, instruct and describe, and the other is to entertain or occupy. The products of the mass communication industry made that mandate the particularity that are targeted to a wide receiver, whose acceptance is intended to conquer. The intent of the act is expressed with the term broadcast (spread through mass media), which once meant to sow broadcast the farmland. The cinema, especially the US, is the great communication industry of the twentieth century. Although in recent decades seems to have given primacy to television, the information, education and entertainment on Western culture influence is undeniable.
Pop culture in the 1950s and 1960s began to spread and infest the nation from front to back through radio shows, books and magazines, television programs, and even motion pictures. Whether it is culture in terms of political affairs, clothing or the latest musical sensations, the United States has always played the dominant role when it came to who knows what is best, first. Some cases of Americanizati...
Popular Culture has changed drastically over the decades with the biggest question being whether or not popular culture is a positive or negative expression of our ideas and reflections. American Pop Culture has an extremely important role that influences the United States and around the world. There are countless topics that make up pop culture and it is nearly impossible to name all of them. Some of the topics are Television, Music, Religion, Politics, Arts, Economy, Education, Family roles and structures. Three of the cultures that I believe has changed the most and seems to cause the most controversy are television, music and religion.
Dr. Manette is resurrected, or recalled to life, multiple times in A Tale of Two Cities. Lucie Manette, Dr. Manette’s daughter, always helps in saving him. Dr. Manette’s story begins with him being imprisoned in the Bastille. He gets out after eighteen years and stays at Monsieur Defarge, an old servant’s house. This is where Lucie meets him for the first time. She instantly tries to help save him. She insists on taking him out of Paris with her to keep him safe. He goes with her to a court hearing for Charles Darnay, where she speaks in court and he is acquitted. Charles and Lucie fall in love and plan to get married. On their wedding day Charles has a private conversation with Dr. Manette. During this conversation he tells Dr. Manette his real name, Charles Evrémonde. The next day, Mr. Lorry discovers that Dr. Manette has a relapse and is making shoes, as he did in prison. This relapse lasts nine days and nine nights. Afterwards, Mr. Lorry tells Dr. Manette that he has to get rid of his shoe making tools. Dr. Manette is hesitant until Mr. Lorry brings up Lucie saying, “‘I would recommend him to sacrifice it. Come! Give me your authority, like a dear good man. For his daughter’s sake, my dear Manette’… ‘In her name, then, let it be done.’”(232). This shows that Lucie is the only thing he cares about. In this way Lucie saved him as well. These are two w...
The beginnings of any type of dress code come from social structures around the world. Dress codes were very important in distinguishing the different classes of citizens in society. In the past, dress codes have changed and eventually became commonplace in our educational system. Private schools have set rules in place on what students need to wear and some girls’ schools expect their student body to wear uniforms and even went as far as inspecting socks and fingernails each morning before they started their day (Elizabeth Crook, 2004). The Long Beach Unified School District is recognized as the first public school system to implement a dress code in the United States. Many schools followed in their footsteps and the controversy over dress codes and people being ready to conform to these rules had begun.
Popular culture embodies the beliefs, ideas, perspectives, attitudes, and images of various cultures. Popular culture is heavily influenced by mass media, key celebrity figures, movies and related entertainment, as well as sports and news. However, in the past decade, the Internet and social media has come to be a significant influence on pop culture.
Pop culture is a reflection of social change, not a cause of social change” (John Podhoretz). It encompasses the advertisements we see on T.V, the clothes we wear, the music we listen to, and it’s the reason Leonardo DiCaprio has not won an Oscar yet. It defines and dictates the desires and fears of the mainstream members of society and it is so ingrained into our lives that it has become as natural as breathing. Moreover, adults never even bat an eyelash at all the pop culture and advertising that surrounds them since it has become just another part of everyday life. Pop culture is still somewhat seen as entertainment enjoyed by the lower class members of society but pop culture standards change over time.