Watching TV is always an excellent way to understand a culture. Even in a country like North Korea whatever is shown on TV there illustrates what is going on in the larger society. Like all those weird parades and costume events, or when you see the North Korean roads on video how there are almost no cars on them. I wonder why they built them in the first place?
In the States on TV there is a lot of decorating, harm to women and crime. Why does America allow Jerry Bruckheimer to continue to produce such mysognistic TV programs? Every week on CSI there it is - a woman gets violently sexually assaulted and then the story begins - beaming this content into the homes of millions and millions of teenage girls. I think there is a connection to Jerry Bruckheimer's TV shows and how much rape and violence women in experience in America. If I was in university I would make that my thesis paper. How can there not be a connection? There must be an effect of hours and hours of his programs on the culture.
Living outside the West I now understand why other cultures are so angry at America or American foreign policy I should say. But their TV programs and films are sortive the same thing - full of violence, domination and war. I'm not angry at America. I feel compassion for Americans that their country is so controlled by the military industrial complex and maybe if the people travelled more or lived abroad they would see their culture from the outside in. We all would. Africans who live outside Africa are much more critical of their countries, much more educated about options that Africans should have the right to experience.
So I have been watching the South African soapies as a research project into the culture. The storylines mimic the newspapers - gender violence, unequal land distribution, unemployment and race inequality. SABC is the state broadcaster with 3 channels that air content pretty much nation-wide. It's kinda like the CBC in Canada, or PBS in America - TV for the people less hindered by corporate advertising influence than private networks. Sadly, I just read that SABC will be buying 75% less local content than last year because they can't afford to pay the local producers to make the shows. So likely South Africans are going to be watching those awful Spanish-language soapies full of plastic surgery, infidelity and greed. They get 'dumped' on African culture through cheap program sales subsidized by the international sales market. It's no different that the dumping that occurs in Africa through wheat, cotton and used goods. How can a South African TV producer compete with a foreign company who charges $100 USD for a program to air here? Painfully, the foreign programs create no jobs, offer little domestic role modeling for the society and are often full of weirdly inappropriate storylines.
Just like in the country - there is a lot of conflict in the South African soapies. The characters play out the real world issues facing people here encapsulating their lives. Most of the shows seem to be made in Joburg but I am meeting with a company here who will hopefully produce my youth entrepreneur TV show. Head offices are in Joburg and corporate marketing money is the fuel that runs the engine of TV.
Photos; South African Broadcasting Corporation programming adverts
In the States on TV there is a lot of decorating, harm to women and crime. Why does America allow Jerry Bruckheimer to continue to produce such mysognistic TV programs? Every week on CSI there it is - a woman gets violently sexually assaulted and then the story begins - beaming this content into the homes of millions and millions of teenage girls. I think there is a connection to Jerry Bruckheimer's TV shows and how much rape and violence women in experience in America. If I was in university I would make that my thesis paper. How can there not be a connection? There must be an effect of hours and hours of his programs on the culture.
Living outside the West I now understand why other cultures are so angry at America or American foreign policy I should say. But their TV programs and films are sortive the same thing - full of violence, domination and war. I'm not angry at America. I feel compassion for Americans that their country is so controlled by the military industrial complex and maybe if the people travelled more or lived abroad they would see their culture from the outside in. We all would. Africans who live outside Africa are much more critical of their countries, much more educated about options that Africans should have the right to experience.
So I have been watching the South African soapies as a research project into the culture. The storylines mimic the newspapers - gender violence, unequal land distribution, unemployment and race inequality. SABC is the state broadcaster with 3 channels that air content pretty much nation-wide. It's kinda like the CBC in Canada, or PBS in America - TV for the people less hindered by corporate advertising influence than private networks. Sadly, I just read that SABC will be buying 75% less local content than last year because they can't afford to pay the local producers to make the shows. So likely South Africans are going to be watching those awful Spanish-language soapies full of plastic surgery, infidelity and greed. They get 'dumped' on African culture through cheap program sales subsidized by the international sales market. It's no different that the dumping that occurs in Africa through wheat, cotton and used goods. How can a South African TV producer compete with a foreign company who charges $100 USD for a program to air here? Painfully, the foreign programs create no jobs, offer little domestic role modeling for the society and are often full of weirdly inappropriate storylines.
Just like in the country - there is a lot of conflict in the South African soapies. The characters play out the real world issues facing people here encapsulating their lives. Most of the shows seem to be made in Joburg but I am meeting with a company here who will hopefully produce my youth entrepreneur TV show. Head offices are in Joburg and corporate marketing money is the fuel that runs the engine of TV.
Photos; South African Broadcasting Corporation programming adverts
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