ABSTRACT
Pop culture is the most fascinating, and controversial, instrument of American soft power. The focus on pop culture trivializes analysis of a complex dynamic that includes important forms of soft power influence, such as public policy and educational programs. It cannot be demonstrated that the extension of pop culture whether the export of Hollywood movies or the global popularity of Anglo-American pop songs mobilizes action that promotes the conditions for pluralism, freedom of expression, and democracy. In 1922, the Hollywood studios established a lobby group called the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America, whose first president, Will Hays, was a longtime Republican political organizer who had managed President Warren Harding's successful election campaign. Television is an indispensable instrument of global soft power. 'I learn more from CNN than I do from the CIA', President George Bush once remarked. The US Information Agency supported television exporters with its Informational Media Guarantee, which protected television exports from currency devaluations and blockages.
