American Avatar: The United States in the Global Imagination
Since September 11, 2001, the extensive literature on the United States's image abroad, by popular pundits and academics alike, leaves the reader with a false impression that foreigners' views of America are normally negative and impervious to change. In fact they are complex, emotional, frequently internally contradictory, and often change quickly.

Barry A. Sanders corrects this misimpression with a rigorous and insightful textual analysis of the roots of people's views of the United States and what can be done to alter them. According to Sanders, the attitudes a person expresses about the United States consist of two separate components: the person's memory bank of images (informed by American geography, people, philosophy, history, and foreign policy) and a predisposition or bias that influences which images are called forth from memory.Opinion surveys, such as the Pew Global Attitude Survey, only record the spoken result of this twostep process in their tabulation of "favorable" or "unfavorable" comments. They necessarily fail to see the underlying complexity.

Examining the biases or predispositions that guide people in selecting among the myriad stored images to express an opinion on a given day, Sanders analyzes both anti-American and pro-American biases but focuses on the former, explaining which criticisms should be heeded when crafting foreign policy and communicating national objectives to friends and foes alike.
1102004543
American Avatar: The United States in the Global Imagination
Since September 11, 2001, the extensive literature on the United States's image abroad, by popular pundits and academics alike, leaves the reader with a false impression that foreigners' views of America are normally negative and impervious to change. In fact they are complex, emotional, frequently internally contradictory, and often change quickly.

Barry A. Sanders corrects this misimpression with a rigorous and insightful textual analysis of the roots of people's views of the United States and what can be done to alter them. According to Sanders, the attitudes a person expresses about the United States consist of two separate components: the person's memory bank of images (informed by American geography, people, philosophy, history, and foreign policy) and a predisposition or bias that influences which images are called forth from memory.Opinion surveys, such as the Pew Global Attitude Survey, only record the spoken result of this twostep process in their tabulation of "favorable" or "unfavorable" comments. They necessarily fail to see the underlying complexity.

Examining the biases or predispositions that guide people in selecting among the myriad stored images to express an opinion on a given day, Sanders analyzes both anti-American and pro-American biases but focuses on the former, explaining which criticisms should be heeded when crafting foreign policy and communicating national objectives to friends and foes alike.
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American Avatar: The United States in the Global Imagination

American Avatar: The United States in the Global Imagination

by Barry A. Sanders
American Avatar: The United States in the Global Imagination

American Avatar: The United States in the Global Imagination

by Barry A. Sanders

eBook

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Overview

Since September 11, 2001, the extensive literature on the United States's image abroad, by popular pundits and academics alike, leaves the reader with a false impression that foreigners' views of America are normally negative and impervious to change. In fact they are complex, emotional, frequently internally contradictory, and often change quickly.

Barry A. Sanders corrects this misimpression with a rigorous and insightful textual analysis of the roots of people's views of the United States and what can be done to alter them. According to Sanders, the attitudes a person expresses about the United States consist of two separate components: the person's memory bank of images (informed by American geography, people, philosophy, history, and foreign policy) and a predisposition or bias that influences which images are called forth from memory.Opinion surveys, such as the Pew Global Attitude Survey, only record the spoken result of this twostep process in their tabulation of "favorable" or "unfavorable" comments. They necessarily fail to see the underlying complexity.

Examining the biases or predispositions that guide people in selecting among the myriad stored images to express an opinion on a given day, Sanders analyzes both anti-American and pro-American biases but focuses on the former, explaining which criticisms should be heeded when crafting foreign policy and communicating national objectives to friends and foes alike.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781597977746
Publisher: Potomac Books Inc.
Publication date: 10/31/2011
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
File size: 3 MB

About the Author

Barry A. Sanders is an adjunct professor of communications studies at UCLA. He is a member of the New York–based Council on Foreign Relations and the West Coast–based Committee on Foreign Relations and Pacific Council on International Policy. He lives in Beverly Hills, California.
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