British and American media in German culture

The English language is, undoubtedly, the most important world language of present time. Not only has it the most speakers throughout the world, it is chiefly appointed by other world languages in the range of culture, science and economy.

Nowadays in Germany, particularly American and British content are of high significance to the public. Music, literature, movies and news service from the U.S. and the U.K. are pretty much a part of the German daily life and maybe get even more attention besides the domestic market. German bookshelves are enriched with authors like J.K. Rowling, Terry Pratchett, Erin Hunter and George R.R. Martin as well as the music collections beginning with Frank Sinatra and ending with The Clash.  German television offers a wide spectrum of stations from all over the world and BBC, CNN, TLC, Cartoon Network and many other channels became a matter of course in every household. German broadcasters, like pro7, RTL or kabel1, also show series, music, advertisement, fashion and news about American and British politics as well as famous Hollywood celebrities in their daily programs. 

My only complaint would be about the manner of selecting the American content on German TV programs, as TV is the common medium for news and entertainment for a broad audience of all ages. Unfortunately, they mainly show mainstream and superficial content. Further, shallowness in cultural topics, subjective and inflaming media coverage and aggressiveness in children’s programs predominate, although the rich American culture has so much more to offer than Hollywood headlines, sitcoms or Jimmy Fallon.
But thankfully, in this era, which is profoundly characterized by the nearly unlimited opportunities offered by the internet, we don’t depend on TV. Moreover, society enjoys the freedom of picking the information and media and to dive into the cultural richness of America and Britain as deeply as they want. That freedom entails a responsibility for every individual to distinguish between what is meaningful content, including cultural heritage, and what is mass production entertainment.