America's Cultural Challenge Abroad

America tends to dominate markets for popular culture, especially in the areas of television and film. Recent trends have tended to reinforce incentives to import American audiovisual and film products abroad. Anxiety about the impact of these American imports has led many countries to pursue policies aimed at protecting their national cultures. While technological change has made such measures difficult, nevertheless some techniques work better than others. This paper examines the problem of Americanization by asking the following questions: First, is Americanization a problem? Second, what has been done about it? And finally, are there "smart practices" likely to emerge in the new environment of market-driven culture? This paper argues that Americanization has significant economic and political consequences. It has economic consequences because cultural diversity is a public good that provides economic benefits and encourages innovation. This paper argues as well that Americanization affects the way in which people think about politics. Adapted from the source document.