Interesting reality-TV trend in Indonesia
Wednesday, July 1, 2009 at 12:34AM INTERNATIONAL: "Indonesia's TV Makeovers Now More Extreme Than Its Politics," by Norimitsu Onishi, New York Times, 23 May 2009.
Strange spiking of American-style reality TV shows in Indonesia. True, the form begins in Britain, but then it is given a weird American spin (like usual) that makes it seem--on a global basis--to be more our creation than Britain's (ah, to be a popularizer/bastardizer!).
The basic diagnosis: radical Islam scared the public and thus peaked recently, so now Indonesian pop culture pendulums are swinging back into a pro-American stance. It's sort of, "Wow! Is that what re-traditionalization is going to be all about? Man, let's rethink the whole modernization thing again and see what can be done--better--there."
There are 79 such shows now in Indonesia, a lot of which explore social tensions (e.g., put the rich person in a poor area--and not so much for laughs).
The truly fascinating bit: most Indonesians don't view these as American shows but as programs that explore universal values.
Ooh! That's exactly how we get ya!
Americanization isn't the future of globalization, but merely today's prism soon to be supplemented with several others.
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