Culture

Hollywood And The Rise Of Cultural Protectionism Media Essay

As suggested by Elsaesser, 2005 Hollywood has been used to refer to various artistic goods from the United States of America that are very popular and well known globally. These products include TV programs, films, music as well as a number of world-wide broadcasters for instance CNN, MTV and Disney. The achievement of Hollywood is unquestionable; in 1998 the 39 films deemed to top the list of popularity and successes were of America origin. On the same note Hollywood in Europe has made the home movie industries struggle to hold even 30% of their nationwide market share. The issue of America’s cultural influence is conceivably felt most profoundly in France, where President Jacques Chirac said in 1999 that France refused “to consider cultural products like ordinary goods, subject solely to the law of the market.” (Scott, 2000) Additionally, other countries as far as Middle East and Asia and Africa are also feeling the American cultural influence as a result of Hollywood.

This attitude is reflected in large subsidies to French creative industries and in laws which limit the amount of foreign material on television and in cinemas. Such cultural protectionism with no doubt has been deemed to be a burning issue in the World Trade Organization negotiations and is attributed to such activities as government sponsoring international broadcasting internationally in order to counter the American media perspective.

The major examples of American films that influence culture in political philosophy, economic philosophy, social structure, education, religion and language include Air Force One, Cruel Intention, The Associate, Passion of Christ and Rush Hour in that order (Bruner, 2008).

On this background, the essay is a critical examination of aspects of culture as being invisible, and using Hofstede’s and Trompenaars definition the aspects of culture being promoted by Hollywood films are discussed. Similarly the...