American Media In Russia

Jay Perkins, one of my dearest mentors and one of my journalism professors during my college days, asked me to write about my observations of American media in Russia for the journalism school’s alumni newsletter. I’m re-publishing here just because (see below).

You can check out Jay’s awesome journalism Web site here.

American Media In Russia

I never thought of American media as one of our nation’s major exports until earlier this year, when I spent three months working in orphanages in the Russian city of Yaroslavl. As I tried to immerse myself in this fascinating, foreign culture, I was stunned to find that no matter where I went in this relatively obscure city, I couldn’t escape the profound influence of American media. The latest releases by Justin Timberlake and The Pussycat Dolls boom from the city’s restaurants and Internet cafes. Brad Pitt and Sandra Bullock star in movies at the local cinema. Supermarket shelves are lined with videocassettes featuring Hollywood’s best and worst (DVDs haven’t become Russian staples yet.).

Here are two moments I’ll never forget:

▪ At a center where my group volunteered to work with neglected teens, two 13-year-old boys wrote and performed a play in our honor. Although the play was in Russian, we understood exactly what was happening, because it was so laced with American culture and media influence (Steven Spielberg was actually a character in it!). We were utterly enchanted, until one of the boys – playing an elderly grandmother – delivered a line that included a four-letter English expletive that curled the hair of every English-speaking audience member. Except for our translator (who turned white), the Russians had no idea that the dialogue included a major English curse word. Because they hear it in our movies so frequently, they figured the word is part of our common vernacular.

▪ At one orphanage, I joined a group of girls ages 6-16 who were working on a jigsaw puzzle while watching television in their common room. My back was to the television, and I ignored it (after all, I couldn’t understand the Russian dialogue), but the girls were enjoying the program. Then, behind me, I hear: “Missus Solis! Missus Solis!” I whipped my head around, and sure enough, these kids are watching Desperate Housewives – hardly after-school fare in American homes. It was a surreal moment: “Am I really watching Desperate Housewives at 5 in the afternoon with a group of Russian orphans?”

My Russian friend Nadia lamented to me that the hottest program among kids at her 8-year-old daughter’s school is a Russian copycat of Married With Children. Another friend, Nina, who works with at-risk kids in Yaroslavl, believes American-style television is responsible for a corresponding increase in violence that she’s observed among kids since glasnost, when American media became more mainstream in Russian culture. Both were surprised when I observed that their concerns about American media are shared by many Americans.

My encounters with the media-generated image that Russians have of Americans were sometimes startling. The orphans were irreversibly convinced that our sophisticated, English-speaking, translators were Americans (all were Yaroslavl locals). A handful of cab drivers and restaurants wouldn’t serve us because we were Americans; a few other cab drivers tried to charge us $50 a mile because “all Americans are rich.”

When we export our pop culture, we also export a pop image of ourselves. Language is easy to translate, but nuance, innuendo, satire and sarcasm aren’t. Look at American media, and you’ll start to understand how the world sees Americans.

On a completely unrelated note, I came across this interesting article about the first day on the job for a Yaroslavl policeman. I thought it was really enlightening.