A
survey in high schools in 12 countries helps reveal
Why They Hate Us...
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Margaret H. DeFleur and Melvin L. DeFleur
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We’ve
seen the future, and it’s not pretty. We saw it clearly through
the media-soaked eyes of more than 1,200 teen-agers in 12 countries
from all parts of the world whom we surveyed for a project entitled
The Next Generation’s Image of Americans.
 With
rare exception, they hold uniformly negative perceptions not only
of our government but of all Americans. We saw a mindset that
is one of the parts of the requisite foundation for next-gen terrorism.
It would take, among other things, some triggering incident and
the presence of messianic militant groups to ignite, but it’s
a collective perception with the scary potential of becoming a
bloody reality when some of these global teens come of age.
Indeed, our recently completed research project suggests that
the constant threats of terrorism and increased security measures
that are so much a part of our lives today will likely continue
during the decades ahead. This conclusion is based on the decidedly
negative attitudes of these middle-class high school students
from Saudi
Arabia, Bahrain,
Lebanon,
South
Korea, Mexico,
China,
Spain,
Taiwan,
the Pakistan,
Nigeria,
Italy
and Argentina.
Only in one country, Argentina,
were their views basically favorable.
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Click
the map to see the results by country. (Requires Flash.)
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- View
of Americans: Violent, Selfish, Dominating and Immoral
While there were variations
from country to country, these youngsters think they know a
lot about us. They are convinced, for example, that we are violent,
materialistic and want to dominate other people. On the whole they
believe that we do not respect people unlike us, are not generous,
are not concerned about the poor, that we lack strong family values
and are not peaceful. They also believe many of us engage in criminal
activities and many American women are sexually immoral. So what
is there to admire or respect about such people?
As we watch more street demonstrations on TV, with angry mobs raising
their fists at us, and see our flag being burned, keep in mind that
these actions are based on shared convictions that Americans are
people who deserve to be harmed. When such negative attitudes are
common in a country, more of the young become available as recruits
for those who see us as an enemy that must be punished. Any action
that can inflict harm on the people who are despised is part of
the curriculum. That is particularly true in countries where there
are messianic religious groups whose leaders and members are convinced
that we are the infidel, an enemy bent on harming not only their
sacred religion but also their country and its culture.
The Global Impact of American Media – Cultural Imperialism?
Where do such views come from? For one thing, many people in the
world know that the U.S. is the most powerful nation on earth —
with military might and an economy that greatly exceeds any other.
This can be a foundation for envy, dislike, resentment and even
hate. Such sentiments easily lead to assumptions that our position
of strength has been gained by exploiting them and their traditional
ways of life. As American ideas, values, goods and entertainment
products enter their country, they often are seen by their leaders
as corrupting their youth (and threatening their own power). Americans
become defined as cultural imperialists bent on dominating less
developed people by displacing traditional ways of life with foreign
values, practices, ideas and goods.
If these conditions are present, feelings can be quickly inflamed
when a negative incident involving Americans occurs. An example
is the recent case in Afghanistan where Air Force pilots on a mission
mistakenly returned fire and killed civilians on the ground who
were shooting into the air to celebrate a wedding. Such incidents
will happen again whenever American military personnel, or even
civilians, are present in troubled parts of the world.
Teen-agers get their flawed beliefs about Americans from many sources,
and most lack access to accurate information. Few among them have
traveled to the United States and their schools and religious leaders
spend little time correcting distorted impressions of what we are
actually like (nor do their parents, whom we know already dislike
us). Not surprisingly, a major source from which their beliefs and
attitudes are formed is what they learn about Americans from mass
communications.
Easy Media Access, Even When Forbidden
What teen-agers seek is American popular culture in all its familiar
forms—movies, TV programs and music. These are easily available
and enjoyed greatly all over the world. Even if forbidden by their
governments, such entertainment products are readily obtained on
the street, often in pirated versions. Virtually all families except
the desperately poor have, or have access to, a television, radio,
CD player, VCR and even a DVD. And like teen-agers everywhere, they
do not avidly follow the news. If they did, they would see a lot
of “infotainment” stories about crime, sex and corruption
(staples of journalists since mass newspapers began).
Over a long period of time, those who produce and distribute popular
entertainment worldwide have sought maximum profits (an approved
idea in a capitalistic society). To attain that goal, what they
produce must appeal to the largest possible audience—which
means the young people in any society. It is their tastes and interests
that dominate entertainment products, not those of the older and
more conservative.
Higher Profits, Greater
Sleaze and Violence
What these media products increasingly portray is what the older
generation does not want—graphic sexual depictions, violent
action and dirty words. Those are precisely the features of Americans
and their way of life that are depicted in much of mass-communication
content distributed to the countries that were studied. And it is
from these sources that the teen-agers have derived their beliefs
and attitudes about all of us.
History proves that future generations will be just as focused on
pop entertainment, and that the flow of such entertainment products
will not cease. Indeed, to increase profits even further and remain
competitive producers and distributors will spew increasingly flawed
depictions of Americans, which, in turn, will provide a source for
even more distorted beliefs. Moreover, the inevitable U.S. military
presence around the globe will create opportunities for more negative
incidents, and religious extremists bent on harming us infidels
will no doubt continue to recruit young people to do their bidding.
Welcome to the future.
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Professors
Margaret H. and Melvin L. DeFleur teach at Boston University’s
College of Communications. See their full report at http://www.bu.edu/news/releases/2002/defleur/report.pdf
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©
2002 New York University. All Rights Reserved. The Global Beat
Syndicate, a service of New York University's Center for War,
Peace, and the News Media, provides editors with commentary
and perspective articles on critical global issues from contributors
around the world. For more information, check out http://www.nyu.edu/globalbeat/syndicate/.
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