A prominent feature of cultural globalization has been the rising influence of U.S. culture—and American popular culture in particular—worldwide since the mid-20th century. Relatively little is known, however, about the thoroughness, reception, and national variation of this alleged “Americanization” of culture. This study explores the rise of and reactions to U.S. culture in Europe with a longitudinal research design that combines quantitative and qualitative content analysis. Through an analysis of European newspaper culture sections from 1960 to 2010 (the unit of analysis being an article; N = 7322) and a close reading of articles concerning U.S. cultural products (N = 1009), we examine the extent to which the proportion of U.S. cultural products has increased, how characterizations of U.S. culture have changed, and whether the art forms discussed and the newspapers embedded in divergent European national contexts differ in these respects. The results contribute to, and in part problematize, previous knowledge on the role and meanings of the growing influence of U.S. culture in post-1960s Europe. Instead of overestimating its significance, Americanization is best understood as one aspect in the legitimization processes of popular culture and the popularization of (traditional) legitimate culture.

中文翻译：

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在合法化和大众化之间：美国文化产品在欧洲优质报纸文化版块中的兴起和接受，1960-2010

文化全球化的一个显着特征是自 20 世纪中叶以来美国文化——尤其是美国流行文化——在世界范围内的影响力不断上升。然而，对于这种所谓的文化“美国化”的彻底性、接受度和民族差异，人们知之甚少。本研究通过结合定量和定性内容分析的纵向研究设计，探讨了欧洲对美国文化的兴起和反应。通过对 1960 年至 2010 年欧洲报纸文化版块的分析（分析单位为文章；N = 7322）和对美国文化产品文章的仔细阅读（N = 1009），我们考察了美国文化产品增加了，美国文化的特征发生了怎样的变化，以及所讨论的艺术形式和嵌入不同欧洲国家背景的报纸在这些方面是否有所不同。这些结果有助于并在一定程度上解决了先前关于美国文化在 1960 年代后欧洲日益增长的影响力的作用和意义的知识。与其高估其重要性，不如将美国化理解为流行文化合法化过程和（传统）合法文化大众化的一个方面。