Westernised Culture

Films, music, news and any source of media usually isn't popular unless it is available in the universal language, english! We all have our guilty pleasures and the one that tops my list, is watching television series online. I wait anxiously every week until Tuesday comes so that I can watch my three favorite television series, gossip girl, one tree hill and 90210. The episodes usually air on mondays in America but they become available online on Tuesdays. American television series are considered to be the popular culture between teenagers all over the world and I recently discovered a lot of the popular shows are dubbed in foreign languages.

One Tree hill has been going strong since 2003, even after two crucial actors left the show, the fans remained loyal to the show and ratings were not as damaged as expected. In the older episode there was always voice overs where the characters would say a famous quote from books and it would somehow relate to the events happening in the episode. That was my favorite part of every episode as it encouraged me to start reading more books and start looking for the source of the quote being said.

90210, the new version of it, features the same drama that was in the old episodes of 90210 beverly hills. The show was not entirely recreated, it was simply altered to fit into the new world we live in. The cliche stories of high school and the most ridiculous stories imaginable is what truly defines television series such as this one.

Younger teenagers, no matter what country they are in, have gullible minds and they live and breathe on the drama they watch on television. Their actions and the way they speak become prone to change because of what they watch and idolize.

Reality television shows are even more popular between the younger and the older age groups, particularly the shows on MTV. People somehow feel like they relate to the characters of the show(more like they imagine they do)

Jersey Shore, the most recent obsession, is a reality television show that aired on MTV quite recently. Now I hear people go around quoting random saying from the show. Things like "T-shirt time" and "GTL" (gym, tanning, laundry) are known in different countries. Each person in the show has their own trademark, such as snookie and her poof (hairstyle) or "the situation" and his arrogance.

Thanks to mass media, we are exposed to the different norms and behaviors that occur in the west. What some people fail to realize is that the actions and language, viewed and used in the show might not be accepted culturally in the country they live in.