Rebekah brought up an interesting aspect of cultural literacy the other day when she spoke of the role of game shows in building cultural awareness, which I think is definitely true. I'm certain that many Americans learn a great deal about their own culture from watching the show.
On the other hand, this reminded me of something I saw when I was younger that always stuck with me and puzzled me. I was watching Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? when a contestant was asked this for his first question: "What character is famous for singing about his rubber ducky?" Now the game show always asked the easiest questions first, but this particular contestant, who was Asian and perhaps had not grown up in the United States, did not know that the answer was Ernie from Sesame Street. I was flabbergasted because I hadn't really considered the limitations and scope of culture and my cultural literacy skills were underdeveloped.
This experience begs a particular question: do game shows (and other entertainment) help to build culture or do you already have to be inculcated in the culture in order to understand the shows? For any of you that have seen Slumdog Millionare, for example, a specific cultural knowledge is required to be successful at the game. Most likely, of course, the answer is both, but this brings up the extremely complicated process of cultural formation and assimilation.
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