American pop culture impact on Arabs measured
Regional-USA, Culture, 7/16/2001

A study, conducted by Egyptian Magda Saleh, finds that despite the ubiquity of American pop culture in Arab societies, it remains fundamentally superficial.

The study notes that the notion of globalization is another face of Americanization of the world, citing some positive aspects of globalization in the media and cultural areas in Arab societies.

Globalization has made far-reaching changes in communications and the way news and information are received, the searcher says.

The wide-spread appeal of American pop culture in the Arab world is attributed to its low-brow nature and thrust, thus reaching large sectors of the population, Saleh says.

She believes the low-browness is "intentional" because Americans know that high-brow culture smacks of elitism and is, therefore, limited in its appeal to large masses of people.

One other reason for popularity of American culture in Arab societies is the tremendous financial, scientific, and creative capabilities of American pop culture to reach out to the world masses through movies, music, and television shows, the study finds.

American science, technology, and higher education have attracted hordes of foreign students from all over the world to carry out their studies in the US where they pick up American culture and disseminate it back in their home countries when they finish their studies, Saleh says.

Statistics from UNESCO show that in some Arab states as Egypt and Syria, one third of television programming is foreign-imported; in Tunisia, Algeria, and Lebanon the figure jumps to over half, Saleh says.

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