Florian Stenschke

Florian Stenschke is enrolled in the American Studies Program at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, being a fellow of the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes. He has also been studying at Duke University, NC. The fall of the Berlin Wall inspired him to not take the absence of walls and borders anywhere, but especially in Europe, for granted. Work and travel he considers part of his studies. A further interest lies in the crossroads of cognitive neuroscience with psychology and philosophy, working to reconcile the hardware enlightenment of natural sciences with the software enlightenment of the humanities, as both pursue the same questions, but use different scales. In 2004, he co-founded and now works as creative coordinator and publisher at the Berlin-based liberal arts platform TEXT IMAGE MUSIC and as composer and producer of the electro-organic music group Convoi Exceptionnel.

U.S. Global Media: Enter/tainment, Enter/America?
Introducing U.S. Entertainment as Symbol of Utopia and Transcendence

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.

held at: Picturing America. Domestic and Global Aspects of US Media Culture, May 19-21, 2005