The Jeremiad Over Journalism

y the so-called American counterculture, 59 made up of a ―disaffected‖ young students who ―chose
long hair and beards as a way of distancing themselves from traditional norms of middle-class
respectability.‖ 60
In this respect, the authors make the ―cultural imperialism‖ fallacy of viewing the United States as a
monolithic nation in regards to the military, the economy and the diverse cultural currents.
Christensen et al. convincingly demonstrate the United States‘ leading role in transnational
economic organizations like the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and International Bank for
Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), but put too much emphasis on capitalism as the primary
driving force of Americanization at the expense of agency within the ―receiving‖ nation. 61
Conclusion
The above review have revealed some of the key aspects forces in Americanization deemed
important by researchers writing from a cultural imperialist perspective. Schiller‘s study emphasizes
the importance of the American government‘s conscious involvement in shaping international
communications networks after World War II. Ritzer and Stillman‘s study acknowledges that
Americanization is the most fruitful way to understand contemporary society out of the
transnational tendencies they evaluated. Additionally, Christensen et al. argue the significance of
capitalism as the main driving force behind Americanization and point to the Danish
counterculture‘s importance in understanding opposition to Americanization, and in the process
inadvertently highlight the fact that the Danish counter-culture resisted structural Americanization
but appropriated parts of symbolic Americanization.
59
Ibid. Page 290-292. These observations have also been made by Søren Schou, "Det Er Dansk - Eller Er Det? [It Is
Danish - or Is It?]," Mediekultur, no. 5 (1987). Page 14 and Petersen and Sørensen, "Ameri-Danes and Pro-American
Anti-Americans." Page 138. Also Klaus Bruhn Jensen, ed. Dansk Mediehistorie 1880-1920 Og 1920-1960 [Danish
Media History 1880-1920 and 1920-1960], 4 vols., vol. 2, Dansk Mediehistorie (København: Forlaget
Samfundslitteratur,2001). Page 322.
60
William F. Chafe, "The Unfinished Journey: America since World War II," (New York: Oxford University Press,
1991). Page 326.
61
Christensen, ed. Amerikanisering Af Det Danske Kulturliv I Perioden 1945-58. [Americanization of the Danish
Cultural Life in the Period 1945-58]. Page 14, 22 and 42-44. ―The daily dose of ‗Americanization‘ is difficult to avoid
since it occurs at the work place and in the spare time (…) these cultural expressions are contingent upon some basic
economic structures – that the ideology is produced by an imperialistic superpower, and that both directly and
indirectly it is connected to profit motives to export different products which contain this ideology.‖ Page 88.
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