CNN and Final Thoughts

I have chosen to combine my blog on the CNN International television station with some final thoughts on my month in Austria because I believe there are important overlapping themes. CNN International, an American based cable television news station, presents itself much like the CNN I know from America, but with subtle yet important differences. Obviously the content is more globally based rather than just United States news (there is still a lot of emphasis but on American news), but the attitudes of the anchors and reporters on both American and international news is what I find most interesting. A very large portion of the anchors and reporters appear to be of British origin judging by the accents, which generates some interesting biases in the reporting and delivery of the news. For instance, David Beckham, one of the most beloved English footballers in history is currently playing for the American soccer team, the Los Angeles Galaxy. When I was watching an analysis of one of his games where the Galaxy ultimately lost I noticed that not only were all of the highlights on Beckham’s play during the game, but the analyst was extremely critical of the Galaxy’s play while making it seem that Beckham could do no wrong. This seemed to be an extremely harsh bias in favor of Beckham and accompanying harsh criticism of the U.S. team. While U.S. soccer is not on the same level of competition as the English league I feel that there was an unfair bias in both over criticizing the U.S. team and a lack of criticism on Beckham’s play.

While this analysis of soccer commentary may seem completely unrelated to my final thoughts on my time in Austria I believe there is a valuable crossover on the topic of biases. As an American coming to Europe for the first time I was unavoidably influenced by the many biases and stereotypes about Austria and Europe as a whole coming from the media, friends opinions, and history classes. Initially it was difficult to move beyond constantly comparing different aspects of Viennese culture and society to the corresponding elements of American culture and society that I am familiar with. This is much like what the analyst did with David Beckham and the L.A. Galaxy, he compared a team in the U.S. league to the level of competition he knew in England which is simply not a fair comparison because the two leagues have a completely different history and composition. I realized that I couldn’t try and like certain aspects of Vienna because of how well they related to what I know and like about American culture because there are really no two places in the world that are exactly alike. While I really like the United States just as that analyst undoubtedly liked David Beckham I had to branch out and appreciate Vienna and Austria as a whole for what it was, not for what it wasn’t. Once I embraced Vienna and its culture for the ways in which it was different from American culture rather than how it compared to America I realized just what a culturally rich and interesting place it was all on its own. Central and Eastern Europe unequivocally proved not to be the backwards places that negative stereotypes try to brand them, but simply a place that is a product of its history and influences, just like the United States. In the end I feel like I got exactly what I wanted out of the program in Vienna. I was able to expand my horizons in a way that I never could have if I hadn’t come to Europe; it definitely did not happen in the manner I was expecting, but I’m genuinely happy about that.