Delocalization This section takes an idea from the general literature on globalization-the

idea of globalization as delocalization-and redefines a new, specific role for it in the production of television. As John Gray ( 1998) has put it,

Behind all these "meanings" of globalization is a single underlying idea which can be called "de-localization": the uprooting of activities and relationships from local origins and cultures. It means the displacement of activities that until recently were local, into networks of relationships whose reach is distant or worldwide. Domestic prices of consumer goods, financial assets such as stock

and bonds, even labour are less and less governed by local and national condi tions; they all fluctuate along with global market prices. Globalization means lifting social activities out of local knowledge and placing them in networks in

which they are conditioned by, and condition, world-wide events. (p. 57) As producers in a number of countries not only produce for their own mar

kets but anticipate exporting their production, they must change local models to make them more exportable. This is taking place in the United States, where

some television producers reportedly anticipate the characteristics required for

1 70 Chapter 7 export even as they produce originally for the U.S. market. It has been taking

place in Japan for years. lwabuchi (2002) described how Japanese producers deliberately minimized the "Japanese-ness" of many early cultural industry exports, such as anime cartoons and video games. He called this the process of making such Japanese exports culturally odorless so that they did not so clearly smell of Japanese culture and history.

In Brazil and Mexico, producers think about whether certain subgenres of telenovelas will export as well as others, recalling the spread of local vari eties of telenovela noted in Chapter 6. This seems to require a new theoriza tion, which I am tentatively calling delocalization. Delocalization consists of minimizing certain kinds of cultural specificities in a cultural product for export to lower the possibility of a cultural discount by the foreign audience. Such a cultural discount could be called forth by references to things that

people are unfamiliar with, jokes that require cultural context to understand, visual environments that the audience might find confusing or unattractive, pacing that is unfamiliar or jarring, or dramatic themes that are too unfa miliar (Hoskins & Mirus, 1988).

For example, Japan produces and exports two rather distinct broad cate gories of cultural products, according to Iwabuchi (2002). One category is highly specific, almost idiosyncratic films and other products, which serve both internally and externally to establish Japan's cultural distinctiveness, the depth and uniqueness of its historical heritage. Iwabuchi noted that these

"unique" exports often encountered a notable cultural discount in other countries (Hoskins & Mirus, 1 98 8b). As a result, for years, Japanese com panies focused on a second category, what Iwabuchi (2002) called culturally "odorless" commodities (pp. 24-30). For some observers, Japan was seen as manufacturing and exporting consumer entertainment hardware such as Sony products, but not software or programming (Nye, 1 990). One could argue that these products were clearly delocalized. There was nothing specif ically Japanese about them in any cultural sense, other than a general repu tation for quality of design and manufacture.

In the 1 990s, Japan exported another category of cultural products such as manga (comics), animated films/television, and computer games, which became "recognized as very 'Japanese' in a positive and affirmative sense in Western countries as well as non-Western countries" (Iwabuchi, 2002, p. 30). However, some Japanese critics still argued,

The characters of Japanese animation and computer games for the most part do not look "Japanese." Such non-Japanese-ness is called mokokuseki, literally meaning "something or someone lacking any nationality," but also implying the erasure of racial or ethnic characteristics or a context, which does not imprint a

TV Exporters 171

This also seems like delocalization. However, delocalization is relative to cultural relevance or proximity. lwabuchi noted that Japan exports some cultural products, such as popular music, TV dramas, and fashion maga zines, which are much more characteristically Japanese, only to other parts of Asia. Those exports are easier because of an increasing sense of cultural proximity between Japan and Taiwan or China, making delocalization of

Japanese products less necessary. Delocalization can go too far, resulting in programming that is too bland and not appealing to anyone. Some efforts to reach a pan-European audi ence were so watered down that some referred to them as Euro-pudding

(Readhead, 2006). Once countries' cultural exports achieve a certain level of recognition and acceptance-for example, U.S. cartoons, U.S. action films,

Japanese anime, Latin American telenovelas, or Asian martial arts dramas their distinctive cultural characteristics are considered desirable. In fact, gen res and countries become a combined brand in international television trade (Harrington & Bielby, 2005). Other countries might come to have aspects of what Gitlin (200 1 ) called U.S. popular culture's familiarity as an appreciated second popular culture, not displacing home cultures but adding another layer of cultural identification and appreciation, as discussed in Chapter 9.

Delocalization This section takes an idea from the general literature on globalization-the