Far away, so close. telenovelas viewing in Latin America: Assessing Cultural Distance among Latin American Audiences and Argentinean Telenovelas

• Main Authors: Marcos Lionel Gonzalez Gava, 龔馬克
• Other Authors: Wang, Georgette
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/95999250285783657232

碩士 === 國立政治大學 === 國際傳播英語碩士學程(IMICS) === 97 === The purpose of this study is to deepen the understanding of cultural implications in the trade of telenovelas within Latin America. After performing a literature review on the trade of TV products, it was founded that Chile has been buying the format of Argentinean telenovelas in order to reproduce them for the Chilean audience. From the perspective of cultural proximity (Straubhaar, 1991), it could be expected to see Chile broadcasting the original version of the Argentinean telenovelas, as these countries share a similar cultural background, language, et cetera. However, that is not the case. Additionally, it was found that the Argentinean accent is not welcomed in countries north to Ecuador (Waisbord, 2004) because of cultural reasons. In order to grasp the role of accents and other cultural factors in these situations, 4 focus groups were organized with participants of 12 Latin American countries, who were inquired about the accents and cultural contents of the Argentinean telenovela “LaLola”, which’s format was bought by Chile. However, its original canned version reached markets beyond Ecuador. Besides Spanish accents, other variables were introduced to the study to assess if they influence audiences’ perception of foreign telenovelas. These variables are political, historical and territorial quarrels between countries, national images about the country of origin of the telenovela, and discrimination by nationality. The results showed that the perception of accents is connected to national images, which are constructed both on historical political quarrels and ethnic chauvinism based on nationality. Indeed, historical and political problems, as well as discrimination on the basis of nationality are, in the case of Bolivia and Chile, sources of negative images that affect how viewers interpret the Argentinean intonation. Moreover, it was found that a country with a good reputation, as well as a positive image and perception within the region, seem to improve the reception of that country’s accent and its chances of selling its telenovelas abroad. The findings also indicated that local culture is of great importance for audiences. In this scenario, the concept of geo-linguistic region as the primary factor in predicting viewing preferences appears to be over-simplistic.