Assess the strengths and weaknesses of the argument that Britain has become increasingly 'Americanised' since the Second World War

Authors Avatar

British Media with Cultural Studies Essay

Assess the strengths and weaknesses of the argument that Britain has become increasingly ‘Americanised’ since the Second World War

        In the following essay I will attempt to justify both the strengths and the weaknesses of the argument over the Americanisation of Britain. Firstly I will attempt to define the term itself, and then introduce the critics who agree on its existence but are for and against the Americanisation process, followed by the theorists who argue against its influence before concluding the matter.

The term Americanisation is very hard to define as a single movement or transformation, it is generally used to describe the changes that took place during the first quarter of the 20th century, when the First World War resulted in great emigration from east and south Europe to America and the people were taught to assimilate American speech, ideals, traditions and ways of life.

Join now!

Dominic Strinati, a leading critic in the theories of popular culture, puts forward two different theories of the Americanisation of Britain; these are the Elitist and Populist.

To begin with I will outline the elitist theory; although both theories suggest that the process of Americanisation has undoubtedly taken place, the elitist view condemns it. The elitist argues that the problem is the decline of British high cultures and the communities in which they were sustained, a decline claimed to be directly linked to the capitalistic influence of cultural and communication industries from America.

The populist argument takes a completely different ...

This is a preview of the whole essay