America, As Seen on TV: How Television Shapes Immigrant Expectations around the Globe

"This engaging book providesa nuanced probing of the vast and complex literature on the `soft power' oftelevision here and abroad to examine how TV shapes the views of foreign bornand U.S. millennials about representations of class, race, ethnicity, and genderin America. Through grounded analysis,the findings reveal not only the influence of viewers' social and culturalbackgrounds on their reception of American television programs, they alsotransform our understanding of the cultural embeddedness of the globaltelevision industry."-Denise Bielby,Author of Global TV: Exporting Television and Culture in the World Market "This insightful book delves into the influence that watching US TV shows has on the viewers' preconceptions and perceptions about race, class, and gender, and to what extent they are aware of this influence...[A] timely and important contribution in understanding the global dominance of US TV."-Choice "It may be useful for undergraduate courses in research methodology, particularly for the open and honest introduction that explains Rodriguez's reason for conducting the study in the first place. Rodriguez's expertise as a sociologist comes through here and she is systematic in approach and easy and enjoyable to read in analysis."-Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly "Clara Rodriguez has produced an incisive and provocativestudy. Through intensive interviews anda thoughtful examination of scholarly literature on the media, she has provideda revealing examination of American television's influence on globalperceptions of the life and values of the United States.This is a landmark study of television's rolein shaping popular views of our nation, particularly its racial, ethnic, class,and gender diversity."-Carlos E. Cortes,Author of The Children Are Watching: How the Media Teach about Diversity

The surprising effects of American TV on global viewers  

As a dominant cultural export, American television is often the first exposure to American ideals and the English language for many people throughout the world. Yet, American television is flawed, and, it represents race, class, and gender in ways that many find unfair and unrealistic. What happens, then, when people who grew up on American television decide to come to the United States? What do they expect to find, and what do they actually find? 

In America, As Seen on TV, Clara E. Rodríguez surveys international college students and foreign nationals working or living in the US to examine the impact of American television on their views of the US and on their expectations of life in the United States. She finds that many were surprised to learn that America is racially and economically diverse, and that it is not the easy-breezy, happy endings culture portrayed in the media, but a work culture. The author also surveys US-millennials about their consumption of US TV and finds that both groups share the sense that American TV does not accurately reflect racial/ethnic relations in the US as they have experienced them. However, the groups differ on how much they think US TV has influenced their views on sex, smoking and drinking. 

America, As Seen on TV explores the surprising effects of TV on global viewers and the realities they and US millennials actually experience in the US.