ABSTRACT
In the twenty-first century, the American mass media may impinge more and more on the lives not only of Americans, but also of other English-speaking and English-learning inhabitants of the globe. The focus of this chapter, Martha Stewart, is an example of an American multimedia lifestyle entrepreneur. She is a complex figure who has become a powerful corporate executive through representing the traditional women’s role of homemaker and commodifying her vision of gracious living (Didion 2000). Martha Stewart has expanded her American mass-media presence over the past decade as a new symbol of ‘good taste’ drawn from an idealized traditional upper-middle-class (white, heterosexual) lifestyle. Recently, she has moved into the international arena, in Canada, Brazil and Japan (International Alliances), and is contemplating South Korea,Australia and Germany (Herskovitz 2001). In Canada the programme is broadcast in English, as presumably it would be in other countries where English is an official language. In Brazil and Japan, the program is dubbed; whether Martha’s communicative style is maintained in the dubbed language is a question to be explored, pursuant to Cameron’s analysis (this volume) of American discourse norms being disseminated internationally in the name of ‘better’ communication.
