My feeling is that the bigger issue with things like movies and books is not money (trade) but mind share. The US tends to have more influence elsewhere on how people think than other countries have here.
I'm American and I find it disturbing the degree to which our films, TV shows and other major media are done mostly in California or New York. Those are much more urbanized places than most of the US.
It took me a long time to comprehend why I felt like there was something "wrong" with my life. I consume a lot less popular media (books, magazines, movies, etc) than I used to and my life makes a lot more sense to me than it used to.
I found it personally problematic to be more or less brainwashed with ideas about what life was supposed to be like that in no way matched my actual life. It took me a long time to conclude that this is not some defect in me. This is a situation where our popular imagery doesn't really match reality for the majority of Americans.
That disconnect is bound to be even larger and more problematic for other countries/cultures. I think it is legitimate to be concerned about things like that under the best of circumstances and downright suspicious when the evidence suggests it's not even being done in good faith, so it's not likely some sort of innocent problem. At that point you have to start being genuinely concerned that you are being intentionally manipulated with malice aforethought.
I'm American and I find it disturbing the degree to which our films, TV shows and other major media are done mostly in California or New York. Those are much more urbanized places than most of the US.
It took me a long time to comprehend why I felt like there was something "wrong" with my life. I consume a lot less popular media (books, magazines, movies, etc) than I used to and my life makes a lot more sense to me than it used to.
I found it personally problematic to be more or less brainwashed with ideas about what life was supposed to be like that in no way matched my actual life. It took me a long time to conclude that this is not some defect in me. This is a situation where our popular imagery doesn't really match reality for the majority of Americans.
That disconnect is bound to be even larger and more problematic for other countries/cultures. I think it is legitimate to be concerned about things like that under the best of circumstances and downright suspicious when the evidence suggests it's not even being done in good faith, so it's not likely some sort of innocent problem. At that point you have to start being genuinely concerned that you are being intentionally manipulated with malice aforethought.