Hollywood Planet: Global Media and the Competitive Advantage of Narrative Transparency

By Scott Robert Olson

Book Overview

An examination of US media's success around the world, advancing a theory behind the popularity of American culture and the strategy for obtaining this advantage. For scholars and students in mass media & society, and international/intercultural studies.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0805832300
• ISBN13: 9780805832303
• Release Date: May 1999
• Publisher: Routledge
• Length: 232 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.3" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

"Transparency" is Redefined By Scott Robert Olson

America produces more than its fair share of internationally popular television programs and feature films, a phenomenon that has not been understood until now. Scott Robert Olson explains the power of American media and its effect clearly in this volume by redefining the term transparent: "Transparency is the capability of certain texts to seem familiar regardless of their origin, to seem a part of one's own culture, even though they have been crafted elsewhere." One prime example cited is the presentation scene in Disney's "The Lion King." Mufasa smears his infant son's forehead with dirt and melon juice then lifts him high for the cheering animals to view. The polysemy of this ritual leaves plenty of room for many cultures to mentally adapt it to their own infant initiations: baptism, bris, shahada, circumcision. "The presentation of Simba is none of these rituals and all of them," Olson writes. Written in an academic style that is heftier than the title might indicate, Olson's well thought out and documented thesis is an original one to which Hollywood producers will pay close attention if they want a formula for being internationally successful. Olson's new application of the term "transparent" will be run up the flagpole and saluted by communication experts trying to explain why American television and films command global audiences.