How do you define entertainment as a whole?

I think that the definition of what is entertainment, and is there a difference between entertainment and art, is a debate that has gone on for a long time. Is there a difference between entertainment and art? Some people make a division between high art, art that you enjoy intellectually, and entertainment, art that speaks to emotions and doesn’t necessarily have you doing the mental exercise that high art does. Entertainment doesn’t necessarily have to be art. Some would say going to  a sporting event is entertainment as well. Some define entertainment as being somewhat analogous to mass culture. A reality TV show might be entertainment, while an artsy foreign film, because it’s such a niche audience, may not fit that definition. Ultimately, if you are entertained by something, it’s entertainment.

There are obviously huge differences between how the first world and the third world perceive certain things. How do these two drastically different cultures value entertainment?

Every culture has their own version of art and entertainment. In today’s global society, some country’s mass media may feed into another country’s mass media. We are a much more global society [than 100 years ago] and we’re influenced by global cultures as well as each individual each individual is influenced by local culture. At the same time, there are aspects of individual cultures that appear in their own media and entertainment. It’s very difficult to define [where cultures stop and end]. We are a much more global culture that we have been. The internet has brought the world closer together. On Netflix, you can search movies from around the world, and you can even search a country and watch movies coming from that country. It is much easier today to learn about another culture, and to learn about another culture’s entertainment.

Does that have its negative aspects?

[Because America has dominated many aspects of the world], it has influenced other parts of the world, which may stifle creativity from around the world as America becomes the model.

Do you think that people are attracted to entertainment and media from other cultures because they perceive them as drastically different from what they know or because they can find something that they can relate to within the unknown?

You look at something like anime, I mean that’s huge in the US, but it didn’t start in the US. How did that happen? That’s something for scholars to study. I think that in American entertainment today, we are always looking for “what’s the next big thing?” and the next big thing sometimes means different. Not too different, so that American audiences can’t relate to it, but different enough so that it seems unique, and then it gets Americanized. It seems like it’s something that came out of America, but it’s been influenced elsewhere.