Sir, - Your correspondent, Brian Broin (November 6th), in his comment on this matter stated: "America is most successfully exporting a culture which is media-based, consumer-oriented and profit-driven to the detriment of other English-speaking cultures." In fact, via video, cinema and television, whatever the language spoken, American material is, and has been for the greater part of this century, making an impact on an international scale.
Tile Irish Times statiscope No. 40 (February 2nd) depicted the relative cost, in five European countries, of American and home-produced television programmes. Analysis of the facts provided shows that the hourly cost of producing drama/action material is, on average, 33 times greater than the purchase of any American equivalent.
An accompanying comment on this factor stated: "American television programmes feature strongly in European TV schedules and the principle reason is economic rather than cultural". This does not, however, lessen the cultural consequences, but makes the problem very difficult to deal with.
France, as always sensitive on questions of its language and culture, has taken steps to introduce a measure of control, as shown in material issued by the Service Culturel of the French Embassy. According to the Centre National de la Cinematographic, there is a quota imposed on films permitting the showing of 65 per cent of European Union origin and 55 per cent original French films. In addition, there is a limit to the number of films which can be shown of 192 a year, 104 of which must be shown between 8 and 10.30 p.m.
In his seminal book The Conquest of Paradise the American writer Kirkpatrick Sale, referring to the Columbus voyage in 1492, described it as "the journey that began the long process by which a single culture came to dominate as never before in all other cultures of the world, to impose its language in their mouths, its clothes on their backs, its value in their hearts, and to accumulate to itself the power that now enables it to determine nothing less than the destiny of the world."
While one can have reservations about the dramatic pessimism of the last statement, in international terms Ireland's national culture can only be saved by jealously guarding and protecting the remnants we retain. - Yours, etc.,
Social & Industrial Research, Ballsbridge Terrace, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4.