Hollywood’s Influence
In this topic ‘Hollywood’ is used loosely to stand for the cultural products of the USA, so popular in the rest of the world; principally films, television programmes, music and global broadcasters such as CNN, Disney and MTV. The success of Hollywood is undoubted; in 1998 the 39 most successful movies were all American, and in Europe the domestic film industries struggle to hold even 30% of their national market share. The issue of America’s cultural influence is perhaps felt most profoundly in France, where President Jacques Chirac said in 1999 that France refused “to consider cultural products like ordinary goods, subject solely to the law of the market.” This attitude is reflected in large subsidies (over $500 million) to French creative industries and in laws which limit the amount of foreign material on television and in cinemas. Such cultural protectionism has become a major issue in WTO negotiations, it has also driven a number of states (e.g. Qatar, Russia, China, France) to sponsor international broadcasting operations to give a non-American media perspective.
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