What is Anti-Americanism

Given their global impact, America's policies have been fueling socio-political and media discourse in countries across the globe. One hardly finds a country where news events involving the U.S. do not attract media attention or represent food for political thought. Media coverage of such events is always a propitious forum to (mis)represent the U.S. In this chapter, a critical review of literature is used to show how foreign media's representations of the U.S. have mainly varied according to three things: periods in history, U.S. presidents, and the U.S.'s ideological and socio-cultural affinities with foreign countries. The chapter equally examines American audiences' perceptions of foreign media's representations of the U.S. It argues that defining such popular perceptions is really difficult due to conflicting theories and the dearth of empirical research on the topic. The available research works however suggests that such perceptions somehow justify myths purporting that American citizens mostly tend not to be open minded towards sources that negatively portray Americans and the U.S.