Abstracts of Papers
Florian Stenschke:
USS Media: Enter/tainment - Enter/America?
The character of power has changed fundamentally since wars about
territory can easily lead into a huge disaster. In times of territorial
borders sometimes resembling walls around a fortress, new territory
(thus markets and minds) can efficiently be conquerored by means of
media and through the display of high definition products incorporated
into depictions and representations of successful lifestyles that seem
to function as a promise for a better life on behalf of the
economically disadvantaged.
Designed more as a platform to raise questions rather than to present
hard-boiled data, my paper is an inquiry into whether and how far
American pop cultural products, icons, or movements (think of blue
jeans, Rock 'n Roll, Hollywood, fast food) were - incidentally or
intensionally - used as soft weapons that both helped the USA to win
the Cold War economically and ideologically and that still contribute
to the spread of Western ideas and ideals throughout the Eastern
cultural sphere. Which role did US Media play in this context? What are
the limits of such dynamics? Are there similarities in the ways
American pop culture radiation was and is received and appreciated in
the former Communist Block and contemporary Islamic societies? What are
the underlying structures? What about secularization and religion,
democracy and censorship?
Joseph Nye wrote in his book "Das Paradox der amerikanischen Macht"
(Hamburg 2003): "In the age of information, politics will be about
which narrative will turn out the strongest." In this spirit, I will
outline the cornerstones of analyzing American media narratives with
regard to their historic and potential force to have an impact on
global politics.
A version of this paper has been published in:
Picturing America. Trauma, Reality, Politics and Identity in American Visual Culture.
Antje Dallmann, Reinhard Isensee, Philipp Kneis (Editors). Frankfurt: Peter Lang, 2007.
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