Watching Modern Family: The Role of Popular Culture in Spreading American Culture: The Dutch Perception of American Culture and the Americanization of Dutch Culture

This thesis’ objective is to gain an understanding of how American popular culture impacts the Dutch youth’s perception of and resonance with American culture, taking the sitcom Modern Family as its case study. In this thesis, ‘perception’ refers to the way that American culture is viewed, and ‘resonance’ indicates the experienced affinity with American culture. This thesis statement is confirmed through the employment of a survey targeted at Dutch youth aged 16-25, in which the Dutch attitudes towards American culture are measured according to the reaction of the Dutch youth to the characterization of American culture as described by Wright and Rogers. They constitute five American values; ‘Freedom’, ‘Prosperity’, ‘Efficiency’, ‘Democracy’ and ‘Fairness’; and some features: ‘Individualism’, and ‘Cultural Pluralism and Tolerance’, which are present in Modern Family. The key finding of the quantitative research is that higher exposure to American popular culture through TV leads to a...Show moreThis thesis’ objective is to gain an understanding of how American popular culture impacts the Dutch youth’s perception of and resonance with American culture, taking the sitcom Modern Family as its case study. In this thesis, ‘perception’ refers to the way that American culture is viewed, and ‘resonance’ indicates the experienced affinity with American culture. This thesis statement is confirmed through the employment of a survey targeted at Dutch youth aged 16-25, in which the Dutch attitudes towards American culture are measured according to the reaction of the Dutch youth to the characterization of American culture as described by Wright and Rogers. They constitute five American values; ‘Freedom’, ‘Prosperity’, ‘Efficiency’, ‘Democracy’ and ‘Fairness’; and some features: ‘Individualism’, and ‘Cultural Pluralism and Tolerance’, which are present in Modern Family. The key finding of the quantitative research is that higher exposure to American popular culture through TV leads to a higher level of normalization of American values. The analysis of exposure levels to American popular culture and its relation to Dutch attitudes towards American culture is performed by comparing the watch histories of respondents: 81% have watched Modern Family whereas 19% have not. Expanding on the concept of ‘Perception’, this thesis demonstrates that the more one is exposed to American popular culture (like the viewers of Modern Family), the more one has normalized the American values, which impacts the Dutch perception of American culture. ‘Resonance’ builds upon this and finds that this normalization of American values among viewers of Modern Family has reached such high extents that they have become incorporated into Dutch culture. American popular culture has boosted the omnipresence and normalization of American values, which has, in turn, impacted the way Dutch youth resonate with American culture.Show less

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Watching Modern Family: The Role of Popular Culture in Spreading American Culture: The Dutch Perception of American Culture and the Americanization of Dutch Culture