Typical American

For a class held at 9AM on a Friday morning, my Media Theory seminar is surprisingly lively. There’s usually lots of back and forth, and I’m afraid I’m usually at the center of it. The class is led by a British doctoral student and there is one other Brit in the class. The other guy in the class is from Turkey, there’s a Frenchwoman, an outspoken Sri Lankan, a South Korean, a Chinese, a Dutch, a Canadian, and three Americans (including me, of course). It’s an interesting mix, but I feel like the focus might be a bit heavy on the British (understandable) and American media systems (less forgivable).

Britain is always cited as the example of the country who subscribes to the wonderful idea of public broadcasting, and talk often turns to bemoaning its decline. On the other hand, America is always used as the example of rampant capitalism and a media controlled by market forces alone.

It creates an odd dynamic in the class where it turns to everybody against America and the American media more specifically, for it is the hegemonic force that slowly but surely is invading and infiltrating everyone else’s culture.

The first week, I argued vehemently against this interpretation of the American media. After all, who is forcing them to watch CSI and its many iterations? I can proudly say that, even though I’m American, I’ve somehow managed to avoid watching the show until now (though it’s getting harder, as it’s one of my flatmates, Alex’s, favorite programs).

But beyond that, my argument was that the United States is so insular and self-referential in its media. For American producers, it’s how a show plays to an American audience that counts. When was the last time you saw them test screening American sitcoms in Cape Town? And even if they did discover that the Korean market wasn’t a fan of, say, Everybody Loves Raymond, is that going to stop them producing the show? Highly unlikely!

The fact of the matter is that the US population doesn’t care much for the ROW (rest of world, as companies like Intel like to refer to markets outside the US and Western Europe).

Take, for example, our popular music. In many countries, pop music is in many different languages (or at least several) and comes from other countries (yes, especially the US). With the larger trend of Latin music which enjoys a strong following in the US, there are very few examples of international stars who make it big in the US singing in a language besides English. Sure, the Russian (faux?) lesbian duo, Tatu, enjoyed fleeting popularity, and Bjork has some listeners, but Celine Dion had to learn English solely to become a star in the US and even Shakira has bothered to learn English and sings at least half her songs in English.

Heck, we won’t even accept British television programs unless it’s on PBS, we have to remake them in our own image. So there is an American version of big shows like The Office, Big Brother, American Idol, Trading Spaces, and even less common shows like What Not to Wear and Queer as Folk.

In class today, we turned our attention to FoxNews. We were looking at a bit of a documentary on YouTube about how “fair and balanced” FoxNews is, and talking about the effects of new media (read, the Internet) on media power. Now, I won’t go into this debate, as it’s not what got me riled up (get it, Bill O’Reilly, riled up? I thought not), rather it was this basic assumption that the American public doesn’t know that FoxNews pushes a right-wing agenda, that this was somehow only privileged information only the alternative media were aware of.

My point was that most Americans were cognizant the fact that FoxNews is about as “fair and balanced” as a rhinoceros on a rampage. The other Americans in class backed me up. “Of course people know to take what FoxNews says with a grain of salt,” one girl said.

“Yeah, but not the ‘average’ American,’ the British girl retorted.

Well, excuse me, I interrupted, “I’m an American and I know it’s right-leaning, at what point am I no longer the ‘typical American?’”

The class responded in chorus, “when you came to the LSE.”

We all had a good laugh, but it just left me frustrated.

One thing that is driving me crazy about these courses here at the LSE is that they’re founded on Marxist social-economic theories. For Marx, money makes the world go ‘round (base), and it creates everything else around it like culture and politics (superstructure). This superstructure is then imposed on the unsuspecting masses.

But I can’t help but ask, who is this hypothetical ignoramus that is walking the earth? Why have I not met this person? Why is academia so convinced and self-congratulatory that only they are educated enough to see through the messages of mass marketing?

Isn’t one of the fundamental things taught in American schools from a very early age critical thinking? Don’t we teach it so people can evaluate the messages that they are getting and learn how to make their own decisions?

And, at what point do I stop counting as a typical American?

I just sent in my mail-in ballot, to vote in the November 2006 election. Does that make me atypical in a country with a chronically low voter turn-out? (Speaking of, DON’T FORGET TO VOTE ON TUESDAY NOVEMBER 7th if you are an eligible American!)

I don’t know anyone who will publicly admit to having voted for Bush, does that make me an atypical American?

Although English is my first language, it is not my only language. But then, the country (for now) still doesn’t have an official language, so does that actually make me atypical?

In the last four years, I’ve lived in five countries (four if you’re going to insist that Taiwan is part of China). Now I realize the fact that just having been outside of the United States (what pathetic percent of Americans have passports?), let alone having lived outside it makes me atypical in American terms.

But typical or not, I don’t think that any of these facts make me any less of an American—indeed, I don’t think such opportunities would have been as readily available for me if I weren’t American. And I have never personally argued that I’m not a typical American. One of my friend from outside the US is actually quite insistent on the fact that I am.

But am I just so far gone from America that I don’t understand what it’s actually like, or does it just not live up to its representation abroad?

I’m full of questions and seem to have no answers this evening. Any help?!