American Mass Media
American mass media is telecasted into homes throughout the world. However, it is justifiably argued that the spread of western values and western pop culture is media imperialism. As a result, the national cultures are influenced by western values and soon the national culture and values are no longer traditional, but have clearly evolved into a society heavily influenced by western civilization. However, others oppose this perspective of American mass media in foreign countries. In countries like India, parents worried about the influence of an American based pop culture, more specifically music television, on their children. An India born professor conducted research on this topic, analyzed the data, and wrote Becoming a Global Audience: Longing and Belonging in Indian Music Television, an analysis of the impact of music television on the people of India.
Three years of research by a University of San Francisco academic, Vamsee Juluri, was conducted to assess the influence of an American based pop culture music television, mainly MTV and Channel V, on the traditional culture of the people of India. Juluri interviewed nine groups of Indian teenagers to adults in their early thirty’s who watched music television. In the early 1990’s, MTV and Channel V realized that when they entered Indian living rooms, the rebellious, anti-parent youth which succeeded in the West will not work in India. However, there are differences between the American household and Indian household that contribute to the initial failure of MTV and Channel V in the foreign country of India. According to the Juluri’s article, two thirds of American teenagers own their own TV sets, while in India there is usually one TV set per household. This means that it would be difficult for Indian teenagers to isolate
themselves from the rest of the family, unlike American teenagers. The music channels faced a dilemma. As a resolution to the problem MTV and Channel V faced in Indian...
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