Resisting American Hegemony: A Comparative Analysis of the Reception of Domestic and US Fiction

Abstract

Recent qualitative audience research on the reception of US fiction abroad has been presented as a valuable new perspective in studying the world-wide appeal and impact of American programming. However the concentration on the decoding of US fiction alone (usually Dallas) has stimulated an essential and decontextualized position on these issues. The results from a comparative reception analysis (comparing the reception of an American fiction programme and a similar domestic one by respondents in a small European country) show that several current concepts and arguments on the functioning, the appeal, the characteristics and the (possible) impact of US fiction should be revised. More generally, cross-textual comparative reception analysis can be useful in exploring nuances in audience activity and in the polysemic character of different texts. Methodologically, a multi-method approach is used to show that diverse techniques can be incorporated into a more elaborated scheme for analysis of the reception process, which consists of several substantial `moments'.

The television and violence debate in New Zealand: Some problems of context

“…Reception researchers have concluded that audiences' own cultural experiences tend to provide them with the capacity to resist cultural imperialism through television (for examples see Schroder, 1988;Katz and Liebes, 1990). Some scepticism toward the way in which these studies romanticise the notion of the active viewer is necessary, together with acknowledgment of the fact that little is known about the long term nature of this resistance (Biltereyst, 1991). But this does indicate the need for comparative analyses of how home produced and imported dramas are received and interpretatively 'processed' by viewers.…”

Cultural Globalization and the Global Spread of English: From ‘Separate Fields, Similar Paradigms’ to a Transdisciplinary Approach

“…More recent flow studies have demonstrated that, despite the prevalence of American products in the media supply, audiences often show Cultural Globalization and the Global Spread of English 329 a preference for local programs (e.g. Biltereyst, 1991Biltereyst, , 1992Chadha and Kavoori, 2000;McMillin, 2001;Straubhaar, 1991). Secondly, even if a foreign media product is actually consumed, this does not mean that audiences also adopt the culture in which it was created (Ferguson, 1992).…”

“…In the 1990s, especially, several studies demonstrated how audiences interpret and/or adapt foreign or global cultures in ways which suit their own local and/or national cultures (e.g. Bennett, 1999;Biltereyst, 1991;Gillespie, 1995).…”

The cultural imperalism thesis and qualitative audience research – more than revisionism and cultural populism?

“…Some case studies dealt with the reception of US fiction programmes by several types of ethnically different groups of respondents (for example Herzog 1986;Liebes & Katz 1990), while other studies analysed the various ways in which specific respondents received US and domestic programmes (for example Biltereyst 1991;Hjort 1986).…”

“…Since the mid-1980s, these 'new' audience studies have quickly grown into a quite 'popular' approach treating a wide range of topics such as the social functioning and understanding of specific media genres (for example Jensen 1986 on news; Livingstone 1990 on soaps), their ways of mediating specific social issues (for example Corner et al 1990 on the nuclear debate), the determining influence of contextual factors on understanding media reception (for example Biltereyst 1991 on language and cultural proximity; Liebes & Katz 1990 on ethnicity), and of demographic typologies (for example Morley 1980 on social class and gender).…”