Discussing Foreign Media and Cultural/Linguistic Imperialism

It was suggested in the "British Tropes" thread that such a topic be created.

Personally it actually kinds of bugs me as a USer that we barely get any imports here in the US that aren't Japanese or British, and that our media is so pervasive elsewhere. Partly because it creates a sort of boring samey-ness, and partly because it means we get held to more stringent standards whenever we're being notably weird or offensive by other cultures' standards but not by our own.

I agree with Jeysie. I have to say that as a purveyor of general European media, the average American loses out as regards the current standard of "exchange" in media.

And vice-versa, being saturated by American shows in Europe means we wind up with a negative view of Americans being promoted by such rubbish as Jersey Shore, when the country is so damn large that we're missing out on genuine gems. Watch Stephen Fry In America if you're interested in seeing what I mean.

and I agree.

You must have heard of "The only way is essex" it's atrocious ITV shit that seems quite like Jersey shore, I hope we don't export it it gives a terrible image.

In regards to the cultural imperialism in the title, with the huge exporting of American media the language/culture bleeds through into other cultures, and to those cultures it may be regarded as imperialism: Infringing on their tradition and culture. Obviously(hopefully :p) not intentional.

I think there should be more exporting and importing from various countries as it could provide an insight into other cultures that wouldn't go amiss.

You know, that's a good point. Our media tends to focus around the same general settings (isn't there a trope "All of the US is California" or something?) so my overseas friends have a hard time wrapping their heads around the fact that there honestly is at least 50 different cultures in the US, because they're exposed to so little of it. (And, really, there's actually a lot more than that, since you get things like North CA vs. SoCal, Western MA vs. Eastern MA, NYC vs. Upstate NY, etc.)

edited 23rd Apr '11 3:01:47 PM by Jeysie

Then there are smaller cultures within those cultures. Let's use So Cal as an example...The culture of the Thai community in the Inland Empire would be very different from the culture of Jews in West Hollywood which would be very different from the culture of the gays in the same city. These are all worlds different from the surfer culture in Costa Mesa. There are also differences in the Thai community of the I.E. and the Thai community of L.A. and Hollywood I am sure.

As for the topic...the lack of imported media from other countries is bothersome. There's a lack of demand though (or at least a perceived lack) so...

edited 23rd Apr '11 3:20:23 PM by Aondeug

&

Tempting to point out that in the discussion of foreign media and Cultural Imperialism, it has only taken 3 posts to get to the point where you are discussing the differences in cultures found only in America. /banter

Seriously, we usually get mainstream hollywood style America, unless it's a documentary into gun crime or the aforementioned Jersey shore.

Well, to be fair, I have no frame of reference to discuss differences in culture in other countries, because we also only get a tiny slice of your countries' cultures. :>

There's also the fact that the pervasiveness of our culture makes a lot of non-USers act like they know everything about the US and then comment on it... and then us USers are getting headaches from how off it is. But on the flipside, people from outside the US always talk about how ignorant we US folks are when we don't know every detail about your cultures.

It's really just the general double standard that drives me bonkers. Yes, we USers ARE generally ignorant about the rest of the world, no argument there. But the rest of the world is also generally just as ignorant about us, even with the pervasiveness of our media. :>

edited 23rd Apr '11 3:50:31 PM by Jeysie

The corporate big wigs probably think most american's don't give two shits about anything foreign, like say Dr Who

I don't give a shit about Doctor Who in particular, but foreign junk in general...

@Jeysie

I think it's more the perception of the media, the world gets so much US media we become familiarised, it may grate that whilst we do there doesn't seem to any reciprocating action with the familiarisation of (whatever the particular country) in America. Maybe.

Edit:

I think another facet of the debate between media (UK vs US, at least) is that it seems any media going to he US has to 'translated' for the audience (removing words, changing settings etc) whereas there does not seem to be any effort to do the reverse.

edited 23rd Apr '11 4:06:20 PM by IanExMachina

Ironically, most US people I know who watch British media, at least, actually hate that sort of localizing. (Can't speak for anime fans, since I don't watch anime.)

I'm actually very glad that US media doesn't get localised for the UK broadcast, but I dislike how we also have to make do with US-localised versions of Japanese media, which can be confusing or irritating. Nowadays the localisation alterations tend to be relatively slight, though, so it's not really an issue.

edited 23rd Apr '11 5:57:05 PM by BobbyG

Here's my theory. Conservatives act as if foreigners are just Americans who talk funny. That's why Republicans suck at foreign policy. They wouldn't enjoy, say, a Bulgarian sitcom, no matter how funny it was.

So the networks won't take a chance on imports because at least half the audience won't watch them.

I don't follow your reasoning at all. Can you explain please?

(I also think you're making some extraordinary generalisations there.)

I definitely don't see how political views relate to views of foreigners.

As an American, I don't know what does and doesn't get exported from America, but I'm gradually discovering that what gets imported here is not just a small fraction of foreign works, but a deliberately chosen small fraction. For instance, Japanese stuff only seems so weird because there's a preexisting market here for weird stuff from Japan. Something like Baby Steps, though in many ways quite similar to American sports stories, wouldn't sell because the sort of Americans who tend to like sports stories would never read an import. (To a certain degree, you can even see this on this website, though that might be a matter of tropability rather than bias*

In general we hate localizations as dubbing companies like 4-Kids shit on the media and fuck it up, esp when it's stuff that wouldnt do well 'localized - e.g. you can americanize Gundam or Madoka Shoujo, but not so well Great Teacher Onizuka - not w/o redoing a new series. Also see the Dragonball movie and what Akira might end up as. America shits up foreign media often.

edited 24th Apr '11 9:54:02 PM by fourtwenty

How is what does become imported to the US become translated(thinking primarily of series/movies) is it generally dubbed or subbed? Because that might also affect how it is received.

There's always been a received opinion in British publishing that people here won't buy translations of books. The recent wave of Scandinavian crime fiction, like the Millenium trilogy, seems to be a notable aversion, and in TV people also seem prepared to watch sub-titled European detective shows.

On some levels, I'm all in favour of US cultural imperialism. They're able to chuck money at things, so even their crap films/TV are glossy, high-octane, expensive crap. Crap British films/TV are cheap, rubbishy-looking crap, which is even worse.

Ironically foreign policy ids one thing pre-Bush republicans did very right. Nixon, Reagan, Bush Sr did a much better job then LBJ.

But why would Americans like a Bulgraian sitcom anyways? I think the thing about the States is that ther eis no shortage of TV or movies anyways, so they don't really need to import stuff. Besides, Hollywood and TV studios bring foreign ideas to the States every year and some become successful, so they do import stuff, but remake it.

edited 25th Apr '11 8:49:48 AM by Erock

I definitely wish we'd get more foreign TV here, too. I love Canadian cartoons like Total Drama Island, and BBC shows on Science Channel like Wonders of the Universe are great. And it seems like after years, Doctor Who is finally coming to America (and from the trailers it doesn't look localized), but I don't have BBC America. -_-

Edit: I think it's less about having a lot of shows to choose from, and more about having a lot of shows from a lot of different perspectives to choose from. And there's something to be said about experiencing the original show with its distinctive culture rather than the Americanized version of it. I think after all this "translating" that's done for British shows, Americans come away with the impression that Britain is just a smaller, colder America. And that might be the source of a lot of irritation and offense.

edited 25th Apr '11 8:51:24 PM by OnTheOtherHandle

The US needs more Bollywood, that's for sure.

Really? Maybe it's just because I grew up with it, but I have to say, as a percentage of its output, Bollywood has way fewer good films than Hollywood. Of course, if you approach everything wanting hilariously campy, then it might work out.

Well, yeah. That's what I love about Bollywood.

Cultural Imperialism = One culture dominates another (H. Schiller) Linguistic Imperialism = Transfer of a dominant language to other people (R. Phillipson) Language Imperialism= Translation of another people's language (T. Pattberg)