Black Television Travels

Front matter

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TIMOTHY HAVENS EE ee ae ee E A pa Tama | 7 = ENN

African American Media around the Globe

Contents

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Index

About the Author

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Acknowledgments

In one guise or another, I’ve been working on this book for the past fifteen years, during which time I’ve received encouragement, advice, critique, and assistance from more people and institutions than I can remember. I have received funding from the Indiana University Center for International Business Education and Research, the Institute of International Education's Fulbright Program, the Old Dominion University Research Foundation, the Office of the Vice President of Research at the University of Iowa, the University of Iowa's International Programs, the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Iowa, and the National Association of Television Program Executives.

Several television professionals have graciously shared with me their time, ideas, and access to industry materials and gatherings. Without their assistance, this book could never have come together. Bruce Johansen and Pam Smithard of NATPE served as my initial industry informants and introduced me to most of the television professionals I interviewed for the book. Gary Marenzi patiently explained to me how the business of trade works over the course of several conversations. Peggy Refford of Reed-Midem and Patrick Jucaud of NATPE-DISCOP kindly permitted me to attend their trade markets when I had no official business there. Finally, dozens of television merchants, programmers, and producers have been willing to speak frankly with me about subject matter that is oftentimes controversial. I am grateful for their candor. I would also like to acknowledge the assistance of the curators of the David Wolper Archives at the University of Southern California.

As with all intellectual undertakings of this scope, this project benefited from the input of many people: Christopher Anderson, Michael Curtin, John Lucaites, Roopail Mukherjee, and Radhika Parameswaran all provided valuable feedback on the early stages of this project, and have continued to encourage and enlighten me as it has progressed. Mark Andrejevic, Bruce Gronbeck, Kembrew McLeod, John Peters, Deborah Whaley, and Rita Zajacz at the University of Iowa, and Gary Edgerton, Dana Heller, and Avi Santo at Old Dominion University have been invaluable colleagues and collaborators on the ideas contained herein, as have Mary Beth Haralovich and Barbara Selznick at the University of Arizona, David Hesmondhalgh at the

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University of Leeds, Aniko Imre at USC, Shanti Kumar at the University of Texas, Amanda Lotz at the University of Michigan, Serra Tinic at the University of Alberta, Martin Botha at the University of Cape Town, and John Downing. In addition, numerous current and former graduate students and research assistants contributed immensely to the thinking and research in this book, in particular Deirdre Egan, Daniel Faltesek, Gina Giotta, Sangeet Kumar, Cate Lagueux, David Morris, and Daniel Munksgaard.

Finally, I want to thank my wife, Rita, my son, Robi, and my daughter, Reni, for the intellectual and emotional nourishment they provide me on a daily basis. Writing a book is like running a marathon—the end always seems so far off—and without support and sustenance, a runner will fade and collapse.

Preface

The metaphor of commercial cultural exchange that informs this book is travel. I propose thinking of exchanges of television, film, music, and other forms of popular culture through the heuristic metaphor of travel because of the connotations of change, power, effort, and uncertainty that the word bears. To travel is to make a conscious choice to leave one’s familiar, everyday surroundings and, in some manner, be changed. Through travel, no matter how touristic, one agglomerates the traces of the people and places that one encounters. Travel is reserved for the privileged of the world, or at minimum, for those of moderate privilege who have the disposable income and time to plan and execute a trip. We have other words to describe the temporary or permanent relocations of the oppressed—exile, immigration, guest worker programs, the Middle Passage.

The word “travel” shares a root with “travail” and continues to bear the traces of the struggles and uncertainties associated with that term. For me, this makes travel a more accurate way of describing the dangers, miscommunications—even surprises—that attend African American television as it journeys the world than other contemporary ways of characterizing global television: flows, circulation, exchange, trade, export.

When cultural products such as television travel abroad, they likewise exhibit the changes, privileges, efforts, and uncertainties that mark human travel. When non-U.S. broadcasters air imported African American television programs, their actions and perceptions can alter the way those programs are thought of domestically, as well as the ways African Americans are portrayed. Cultures, like people, agglomerate the traces of their travels —something that the metaphor of travel foregrounds much more directly than other metaphors. Moreover, not all forms of culture “flow” or “circulate” equally; instead, it is the cultures of the privileged or moderately privileged that travel most frequently and widely. This is even the case for Nigerian videofilms, which enjoy wide distribution across Africa, the Black Atlantic, and beyond, and which address the abjection of life lived at the periphery of modern capitalism. Still, Nollywood is among the more privileged of the underprivileged media industries in the Global South, capable of exploiting a range of domestic and foreign markets to generate revenues.

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Cultural travel, like human travel, is both exciting and dangerous. What happens, both culturally and politically, when, say, viewers abroad watch Amos n Andy, Chappelles Show, or even The Cosby Show? Chance encounters and unexpected affinities lie around every corner, as do devious hucksters, strange customs, and simple, utter confusion. Indeed, in my opinion, these excitements and dangers are precisely what make the study of cultural globalization so compelling. I hope that this volume helps spark, renew, or enlarge a similar commitment in some of its readers.