| Friedman and
Carroll have opposing views on the Americanization
of world culture. Friedman, in his paper titled
“Revolution in US” supports this notion
while Carroll’s essay “American television
in Europe” shows that she is not entirely
convinced that this is the case. Let us examine
their viewpoints in more detail.
SUMMARY OF FRIEDMAN’S ESSAY:
Since the Cold War and the fall of the Berlin
wall, America has emerged as the undoubted world
leader. American policies, beliefs, even American
TV shows are being exported to the rest of the
world. Several countries and cultures, Friedman
suggests, feel threatened by this ‘invasion’
of their cultural and social status by what they
term as ‘Americanization’. Since the
Communist system has fallen, America has been,
in a way, spreading its culture and values through
public media to other nations of the world. Symbols
of American culture and life such as Mc Donald’s,
Pizza Hut, Disneyland…even TV shows such
as Friends and Sesame Street can be found in every
corner of the world.
Friedman proposes that America is spreading
its influence across the globe, and several countries
feel that it is a conspiracy of America to turn
them into an appendage of the US by inflicting
their society and values and ways of life upon
them. He states that with the end of the Cold
War, the coming century belongs to America. Globalization
is leaping forward and is globalizing American
culture, icons and lifestyle – showing and
giving the world the best and the worst of America.
However not everyone wants to have American
values pushed on them. World economies differ
in their distribution of gains and methods of
marketing, and their way has worked for decades.
However the world is being pressured, whether
they like it or not, whether America herself wants
it or not, to follow and emulate the American
system of capitalism and economic policies. Just
as Britain monopolized the world in the 19th Century
and showed the rest of the globe the way, today
America is in the driver’s seat, reinforced
by developments in technology and infrastructure
that make it financially improbable for nations
to adopt a different economy than the American
model. And many nations do resist and resent this
fait accompli presented to them, albeit on a silver
platter.
Today, from economies to TV programming to the
latest developments in any sphere – it’s
all marked with that hated logo – UNCLE
SAM WAS HERE. Friedman calls this the ‘second
era of globalization’, which has the distinctly
American face of Mickey Mouse, Mc Donald’s
and Microsoft. A world revolution is taking place,
and it’s all churned out in the American
factories, then presented to the world. To many
foreign nations, there is no distinction between
Americanization and globalization, says Friedman.
This can be expressed in a nutshell by the words
of Ronald Steel quoted in Friedman’s article:
“It was never the Soviet Union but the United
States itself that is the true revolutionary power.
We believe that our institutions must confine
all others to the ash heap of history.
We lead
an economic system that has effectively buried
every other form of production and distribution
— leaving great wealth and sometimes great
ruin in its wake. The cultural messages we transmit
through Hollywood and McDonald's go out across
the world to capture and also undermine other
societies. Unlike more traditional conquerors,
we are not content merely to subdue others: We
insist that they be like us. And of course for
their own good. We are the world's most relentless
proselytizers. The world must be democratic. It
must be capitalistic. It must be tied into the
subversive messages of the World Wide Web. No
wonder many feel threatened by what we represent."
[FRIEDMAN, 2003]
SUMMARY OF CARROLL’ ESSSAY:
Marnie Carroll is an American living in Switzerland.
She has had an opportunity to observe the reaction
of the European people to American culture and
its so called icons, and she is not convinced
that the world is indeed being ‘Americanized’.
She offers several reasons and examples to support
her theory. While conceding that America is a
powerful country and a world leader, and that
it does exert some degree of influence on the
world via its financial, economic and political
presence, culturally America has not made a very
deep inroad into European lifestyle. European
culture and traditions are deep rooted and have
been around fro a long time, even before America
ever came to be an independent nation. She feels
that although American TV channels are available
in Europe and several American TV serials and
soap operas can also be viewed in Europe, they
seem to acquire a different flavor once they cross
the Atlantic. She offers the following reasons
to support her claim that American culture undergoes
a transformation in the host European countries:
(a) American culture is too young and too new
to have much of na impact in Europe. Nothing that
America has invented is so original or so path
breaking as to provide a novelty to the Europeans.
(b) Even while American channels like CNN are
available, in Europe, they acquire the local European
flavor when aired, to play to their audience.
Thus there is no real influence of American culture
on the Europeans, as what they are seeing cannot
be construed as wholly American. These channels
are transmitted in the local languages, not in
English.
(c) According to Carroll, language is the biggest
barrier for the rapid spread of American culture.
Most people in Europe do not speak or understand
English, and since movies and other programs involve
a depth of knowledge of a language to comprehend
it completely, most Europeans are unable to fully
understand programs when they are transmitted
in English. Therefore there are several language
channels in Europe, and even the American channels,
when translated to the local European language,
offer content and programming vastly different
from its original. In some cases, subtitles are
given in the local language and often the content
of these subtitles is not exactly what was in
the original.
(d) Another large barrier to the spread of American
culture in Europe, according to Carroll, is the
fact that European channels do not broadcast programs
at specific times and on a regular basis as they
do in America. Therefore, while in America, it
is possible for a person to become attached to
a particular program or lifestyle; in Europe,
when the frequency of programming is so sporadic,
it becomes virtually impossible for a person to
get hooked onto a particular program.
(e) Carroll also contends that the invasion of
culture is not just a one-way process. It is not
merely America colonizing European culture; the
same holds good the other way round as well. There
are certain European influences that have also
seeped into American culture.
(f) Carroll therefore concludes her assessment
by stating that it is true that waves of American
culture are descending into Europe, but in the
process of descent, they are modified, transformed
and adapted to fit into the European mold. And
hence the ensuing product is not really pan-American;
rather it is a blended European-American motley
in which the European home element tends to predominate.
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