Interesting effects of growing American media influence
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2017/ ... e-whateverThe Americans are coming for British English – but we’re like, whatever
Thanks to the likes of Netflix, the Disney channel and Nickelodeon, it is American media that is changing the UK’s culture, not Europe
A teenage granddaughter arrived for a summer stay. How was she? “I’m good,” she said. “What about you guys?” She didn’t go on to wish me an awesome day, but the message was still unmistakable. A child of the Disney channel and Nickelodeon, a social media devotee, she now belongs to the coming generation who, quite naturally and unthinkingly, speak American English.
Does that matter? Matthew Engel, one of journalism’s great exponents of English English, clearly thinks so. “As we approach 2020, the American words the British invited into their homes are in danger of taking over”, he writes in his new book, That’s the Way It Crumbles. “It has become possible to imagine a time – 2120 would seem a plausible and arithmetically neat guesstimate – when American English absorbs the British version completely. The child will have eaten its mother, but only because the mother insisted.”
Tot up a few basic elements. Sky, awaiting 100% Fox ownership, when Karen Bradley stops biting her ministerial nails. Channel 5, owned by Viacom of America. Virgin Media, owned by Liberty of America. UKTV, 50% owned by Scripps of America. Plus all manner of US-owned independent production companies and smaller channels clustering lower down on your Sky and Virgin search menus.
The indefatigable Tunstall calculated, only a couple of years ago, that as much as half of British TV viewing is American-controlled. But two years is a long time in this tumultuous media world, and TV is by no means the only show in town. Back in 2015, Facebook and Google were still thought of powerful potential friends, not enemies. Hug them close and a beleaguered print industry might find succour. Keep on good terms and the power of TV itself could continue unscathed.
But that content, inevitably, is overwhelmingly American. The 40 new films Netflix has just announced will be predominantly American. Netflix’s close competitor, Amazon, pursues the same course. More and more digital giants – including Apple, inevitably enough – are joining the content contest. Some of the films and series, to be sure, are geared to particular areas (say Europe for mafia dramas). Yet the most obvious way to maximise revenue must and will always be global: one film fits all.