What the World Thinks of America

Ethan Switch - Friday, 20 June 2003 - 06:21:32 - print it raw

Arrogant, yet as a beacon for inspiration.

On Thursday, June 19, the BBC hooked up the satellite and jacked into ten other countries—Brazil, Indonesia, South Korea, Canada, Israel, France, Russia, Britain, Jordan and Australia—to make sense out of a few figures from the poll results of the respective nations which took part in the program. Not entirely a true representation of the world view as the technical aspects of broadcasting from Africa limited the scope. This was stated from the onset.

Running for a plump ninety minutes, What the World Thinks of America, was ruled by the voices of men with time on air for only a few token minutes given to the females in the hardly representative attendance.

The results of the world wide polls were converted into edible images of bars, columns and the odd floating numerical symbol. Pistol whipped into favour, the results from Israel pretty much lined up with what the Americans thought of themselves with the rest of the world given to swinging impressions and opinions.

Satellites were said to have been used to communicate with the other countries from the BBC hosting room and yet the delay most evident in televised interviews was absent. The almost too snappy correspondence between the links belied what otherwise would have been a truly unique broadcasting event. Adjacent sound studios perhaps? Pre-recorded even? Who knows? It all felt a little too well oiled.