The popularity of American television programs and feature films in the international marketplace is widely recognized but scarcely understood. Existing studies have not sufficiently explained the global power of the American media nor its actual effects. In this volume, Scott Robert Olson tackles the issue head on, establishing his thesis that the United States' competitive advantage in the creation and global distribution of popular taste is due to a unique mix of cultural conditions that are conducive to the creation of "transparent" texts--narratives whose inherent polysemy encourage...

Discusses the choice between culture and anarchy, and the role the international media play in the coaxing us to one or the other. Olson's argument details the primary thesis, examines the magnitude of the United States' media success, and gives examples of how that strategy has been deployed.