Ethnocentrism and its application to TV programs.
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Watch the "Iron Chef" (on cable TV food network) or a foreign film (with subtitles) such as "Shall We Dance" and use your reactions as part of your response to the following topic: Define ethnocentrism and how it affects individuals, societies, and multinational corporations.
Comments from OTA: Does the teacher want you to define ethnocentrism in the perspective of the TV programs?
Yes define ethnocentrism and then apply the definition to one of the two shows genre.
Basically define ethnocentrism and apply the perspective to the iron chef.
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Solution Summary
The solution discusses ethnocentrism in light of the media of television by using the example of the show "Iron Chef". Ethnocentrism is defined and discussed in depth. The text contains
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Ethnocentrism (Greek ethnos nation + -centrism) is the tendency to look at the world primarily from the perspective of one's own culture. Many claim that ethnocentrism occurs in every society; ironically, ethnocentrism may be something that all cultures have in common. Ethnocentricity is the tendency to look at the world primarily from the perspective of one's own culture. Many claim that ethnocentrism occurs in every society; ironically, ethnocentrism may be something that all cultures have in common. This term was coined by William Graham Sumner, a social evolutionist and professor of Political and Social Science at Yale University. He defined it as the viewpoint that "one's own group is the center of everything," against which all other groups are judged. Ethnocentrism often entails the belief that one's own race or ethnic group is the most important and/or that some or all aspects of its culture are superior to those of other groups. Within this ideology, individuals will judge other groups in relation to their own particular ethnic group or culture, especially with concern to language, behavior, customs, and religion. These ethnic distinctions and sub-divisions serve to define each ethnicity's unique cultural identity. In political science and public relations, not only have academics used the concept to explain nationalism, but activists and politicians have used labels like ethnocentric and ethnocentrism to criticize national and ethnic groups as being unbearably selfish - or at best, culturally biased (see cultural bias). At the same time, members of some such groups have (in a mirror fashion) exalted their own group as being uniquely, and even supremely, wonderful and valuable.
Ethnocentrism is common among people belonging to large "empires." Toynbee notes that Ancient Persia regarded itself the center of the world and viewed other ...
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