World TV
Global formats, local content
Bella Thomas
America today is threatened by a hatred inflamed by its seduction of television audiences across the world or so it is often said. 'They hate us because they see endless pictures of our rich, sleazy, easy lives in the soap operas shown around the world' this was a stockintrade of commentators, such as Thomas Friedman, trying to understand the roots of September 11th. In the poorest parts of the world, such images are said to have a particularly malign influence.
The ubiquity of images of American life, with its violence...