 | Americanization: Encyclopedia - Americanization
Americanization
Americanization (or Americanisation) is the term used for the influence the United States of America has on the culture of other countries, substituting their culture with American culture. When encountered unwillingly or perforce, it has a negative connotation; when sought voluntarily, it has a positive connotation.
Americanization can also refer to the process of immigrants to the United States becoming American. This process often involves learning American English and adjusting to American culture, customs, and dress. See also assimilation.
In Sweden, there is a humourous expression stating that it is the most Americanized country in the world, and the USA is number two.
Arthur Koestler described this process as "coca-colonisation" in his book The Lotus and the Robot, referring to Coca Cola, a symbol of American culture.
Americanization - Media
In American media, the term is used negatively to describe the censoring and editing of a foreign show or movie that is brought over to U.S. stations that are done to make the show or movie better understood by American audiences, usually to such an extent that very little - if any - evidence of the media's true origin remains.
In Hollywood, many foreign film productions (most of them from Europe and Far East) were remade into U.S.-produced versions for American viewers, readapting the story according to the American culture. Most of the Americanized versions were filmed in American places, and with English speaking actors. Examples include Godzilla, The Assassin (AKA Nikita) and The Ring.
Americanization - Anime
Companies that deal with Japanese Anime may Americanize the cartoons in order to appeal to a larger audience beyond the established fanbases made via importation of DVD's, obtaining bootlegs, or downloading fansubs from the internet. American Cartoon companies like 4Kids Entertainment, Nelvana, FUNimation, and TOKYOPOP, are the more notorious examples of companies that undertake edits. In these cases, Americanization due to translation of Japanese Anime may be minor or may result in a complete change to the piece. Examples of minor Americanization include simple name changes (Riceballs turned into Cookies and Doughnuts, or the name of the character Itsuki changed to Iggy). Extreme edits include dismantling entire episodes for content and time constraints; for example One Piece has undergone changes in the theme song and entire re-writes of story arcs.
In many cases, Anime is Americanized because the content, which would be considered acceptable for Japanese children to view (example: The Haremu no Jutsu (Harem Jutsu) in Naruto) would not be allowed for Children in the USA under FCC rules.
American culture, Anti-Americanism, Cultural imperialism
See also
Americanization - Expansion of American culture
- American culture
- Anti-Americanism
- Cultural imperialism
Americanization - Assimilation of immigrants
- Immigration to the United States of America
- Melting pot
- Salad bowl (cultural idea)
Categories: Articles to be split | Cultural assimilation | American culture | Neologisms | Types of words | Word coinage | Transliteration | Censorship
Other related archives4Kids Entertainment, American English, American culture, Anime, Anti-Americanism, Arthur Koestler, Articles to be split, Censorship, Coca Cola, Cultural assimilation, Cultural imperialism, FCC, FUNimation, Godzilla, Hollywood, Immigration to the United States of America, Melting pot, Naruto, Nelvana, Neologisms, Nikita, One Piece, Salad bowl (cultural idea), Sweden, TOKYOPOP, The Assassin, The Ring, Transliteration, Types of words, United States of America, Word coinage, assimilation, censoring, countries, culture, editing, fansubs
 Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Americanization", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki |
