Public cultural diplomacy

Martha Bayles, in an op-ed drawn from her essay which accompanied mine in the Wilson Quarterly:

Today we witness the outcome: an unwarranted dismissal of elite-oriented cultural diplomacy, combined with an unquestioned faith in the export of popular culture. These converge in the decision to devote the bulk of post-9/11 funding to Radio Sawa and the other commercial-style broadcast entities, such as al-Hurra (a U.S.-based satellite TV network aimed at Arab listeners) and Radio Farda (which is broadcast in Farsi to Iran). Because the establishment of these new channels has been accompanied by the termination of the VOA's Arabic service, critics have focused largely on their news components. But what benefit is there in Radio Sawa's heavy rotation of songs by sex kitten Britney Spears and foul-mouthed rapper Eminem?

To the charge that the Bush administration is peddling smut and profanity to Arab teens, Radio Sawa's music director, Usama Farag, has stated that all the offensive lyrics are carefully edited out. Yet there is something quaint about the U.S. government's censoring song lyrics in a world where most people have ready access to every product of the American entertainment industry, including the dregs.

American popular culture is no longer a beacon of freedom to huddled masses in closed societies. Instead, it's a glut on the market and, absent any countervailing cultural diplomacy, our de facto ambassador to the world. The solution to this problem is far from clear. Censorship is not the answer, because even if it were technologically possible to censor our cultural exports, it would not be politic. The United States must affirm the crucial importance of free speech in a world that has serious doubts about it, and the best way to do this is to show that freedom is self-correcting -- that Americans have not only liberty but also a civilization worthy of liberty.

She also does a nice job of putting the evolution of USIA in the context of the 1980s culture wars.  I'm not as down on pop culture as she is, but I agree with her view that there is a glut rather than a shortage of American pop culture in the Arab world.  Yes, there's a huge market for pop culture - otherwise, what would be the point of the Nancy-Haifa culture wars? - but there's little reason for the US government to be a player in those particular wars. It's not like Arab kids are yearning for a taste of Frank Zappa here... they're too busy channel surfing among all the different music video stations.   

lic cul

Comments

[praktike]

This is an excellent point--there are already plenty of radio stations in Cairo, for instance, that play American music. For free.

[John Penta]

The unasked question, though...Did anybody ever listen to VOA Arabic, though?

I mean, that's the thing I've *always* noticed.

Nobody ever answers, or has ever answered, what is probably the most basic question when defending either the lowbrow Radio Sawa or the higher-brow(?) RFE, RL, RFA, or VOA....

How do we know people have ever actually listened to them? How do we know they ever DO currently listen to them?

[Stacey]

Kind of randomly, I'm reading Paul Theroux's account of his 1986 travels through Deng Xioping's China (e.g. after the Cultural Revolution). He repeatedly stressed encounters with folks who "learned English by listening to VOA" or during the Cultural Revolution leared what was "really going on" by listening to it. Theroux is by no means an American apologist, so I'd have to assume these conversations happened.

But the point stands - if we have to swap anecdotes from people's travel writing in order to get any idea of its relevance, the government is not doing a good job of explaining the relevance of these media organs. And since good news travels fast, I would have to assume, like you, that there's limited utility.

Personally, I don't even know the call number for Sawa. I tune in to Nile FM when I want my Britney fix (rare, indeed), and listed to their cheesy British DJ and his hapless Egyptian sidekick. Nothing like a little post-colonial fun there...