During my semester abroad in Australia, my goal was to experience and immerse myself in every aspect of Aussie culture, especially pop culture. So kept Tame Impala on repeat and watched the Bachelor every Tuesday and Wednesday night. The latter was kind of ironic, I went across the world to faithfully watch an Australian adaptation of an American tv show. The Australian Bachelor is very similar in essence to Big Brother Australia described in Jane Roscoe’s article in The Globalization Reader.
Brought to Australia by Warner Bros. International Television Production, the Bachelor Australia is a commodification of American culture. It has an international format translated into a local phenomenon; an embodiment of globalization itself. The global product, the reality tv show, was given a local context and it became a success. We get an archetypal Aussie male and archetypal Aussie women, representative of Australian national identity, similar to the types described by Roscoe: “people who represented the types of people you would meet in the community.”
So, while I got a chance to learn more Aussie lingo, I don’t think I experienced much indicative of authentic Australian culture. And maybe that is why the show is a success and currently in it’s fourth season, because it is catered to early to mid twenties Australian men and women who would like to experience American pop culture in the comfort of their own home and in their own nationalistic sense.
Pictured: Snezana and Sam, the 2015 recipient of the coveted final rose and Australian Bachelor
