MEDIA & EUROPE

In an effort to answer the needs of Warsaw's foreigners as well as help Poles learning foreign languages, some Polish television and radio stations have launched news programs in English.Although not many stations decided to provide the service, existing programs are fairly professional and well executed. Most foreigners tune in to the BBC's World Service on the radio or watch BBC or CNN by satellite or cable television. Still, music played on Radio PiN seems appealing enough that few switch to another radio station, even if they understand little Polish. TVN24, the 24h television news channel, launched Erica Oley's 6:30 p.m. and 11:30 p.m. TVN24 News. This is a new concept in Polish media.

EXPLORING AMERICAN POPULAR CULTURE

From the beginning, the United States has used its rich cultural resources to promote its national interests overseas. But today, with America's reputation around the world in decline, most Americans seem unmindful of the negative impression that we have been making with our popular culture. Since the end of the Cold War, funding for public diplomacy has been cut, while Hollywood has aggressively expanded its exports. The result is that we are super-sizing to others the very cultural diet that is giving us indigestion at home.

THOUGHTS ON LIFE IN THE BOONIES

I live in the Boonies; the honest-to-God, oh my goodness, “why on earth do you live THERE?” Boonies. In American culture, the Boonies are a pretty recent phenomenon. Up until World War II, everyone was in either the city or the country. The city was where the action was, the excitement, and style. The country was where the farm boys were. While we ridiculed our farm boys, we also venerated them. That long tradition of American rural pride from the Green Mountain Boys of Vermont to the occasionally ominous Good Ole Boys of the South to the Tom Joads of Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath. Those fictionalized farm boys with stars in their eyes, and names like Clark Kent, or Jim Kirk, or even Mr. Smith, on a trip to Washington, are not boys of the Boonies.