American Influences in Other Cultures

How the United States has shaped nations.

8 min readSep 30, 2022

The United States drastically impacted other countries’ cultures and societies. These countries witness how U.S. propaganda and flashy advertisement can lead to better views and sales, and, well, that’s it — they adapt their greed. Let’s see how far this greed overtook other countries.

Television Influence

Television in the United States of America affected television in other countries a lot. Well-informed reports and informal presentations made way for quick, ignorant news and flashy, over-the-top presentations.

The Netherlands started with one commercial channel in 1989 and kept a humble image for many years. Four years later, they added another channel with a similar vision, though meant for a different target audience. National television remained unaffected.

Halfway through the 90s, a new commercial channel showed up and used excessive shows and presentations to grab attention in a U.S. fashion. Other channels were fine at first but soon began to mimic their ways. The news turned from simple reporting to fast reports, fancy presentations, and interviews with “experts,” for example, passionately explaining the workings of the Rock Paper Scissors Grand Finale (which is a thing, apparently). Meanwhile, shows witnessed the new channel’s success and adapted their formulas.

And then there are the commercials—anything to draw attention, no matter how ridiculous. Commercial channels used are to show advertisements between shows. Yet they opted for a commercial break halfway through and have now adapted the stupid U.S. concept of showing ad breaks every other scene of NCIS, including a short one right before the episode’s conclusion and one before the credits roll.

Television had changed from the old ways and became a copy of the U.S. ways of keeping our attention and on our toes.