Americanization (foreign Culture and Media)

Americanization (foreign Culture And Media)

In American media, the term Americanization is used to describe the censoring and editing of a foreign TV show or movie that is bought by a U.S. station. This editing is done with the aim of making the work more appealing to American audiences, and to respond to perceived American sensitivities. The changes can be so drastic that little — if any — evidence of the TV show or movie's true origin remains.

For television documentaries, it is an established practice in English-speaking countries to hire someone of the audience's accent as a narrator. Sometimes the script is done verbatim, e.g., the PBS Nova documentary series continued to use the BBC's original word "maize," whereas an American audience would expect to hear "corn."