ABSTRACT
This chapter examines significant cultural contrasts in the content of Brazilian and American TV programs. It talks about popularity of television programs reflects their cultural appropriateness. The chapter presents Popular media content that illustrates fundamental values and institutions. Brazilian television reflects the real-life fact that the contemporary Brazilian's social world is more exclusively familial than is the American's. America's cultural traditions constantly prepare and goad us to leave home and family for independence faraway places and life among strangers. Brazilian's also respect successful businesspeople, engineers, and architects and accord high status to successful actors and entertainers. However, professors and writers have more prestige in Brazil than in North America. Many social and cultural differences between the United States and other countries, including Brazil, flow from socioeconomic stratification, the allocation and distribution of wealth, prestige, and power. Another striking culturally derived contrast between American and Brazilian television is in the representation of dark-skinned characters.
