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Your fanatical, non-sensical New York bashing is getting old. Actually, it's been old since you were Milquetoast. Hopefully, everyone else has more sense than me and just ignores you.
Actually, the vast majority of the media is centered in New York (major papers, advertising, magazines, publishing in general, network news, also lots of television and film). If there's one thing New York is the capital of, it's media (well, finance too). I'm not entering this thorny debate by saying this makes it more influential; just pointing that out.
There is media in NYC, true, but the thing is, despite their big names, the Wall Street Journal and NBC don't influence people. By nature, the news is not method of influencing the population. Once someone has an opinion on something, they're typically not going to change their mind no matter what the news tells them. The newspapers and stations provide the information, but they have no control over what people think.
(And I'm not making this up - this exact principle was stated in one of my college text books.)
Now, Hollywood is the type of media that does influence people. A celebrity wears a new type of outfit - boom, a week later, you see that same fashion selling in every store. A hot actor does something in a movie - next thing you know, it's the cool thing to do in real life.
People (whether they realize it or not) imitate Hollywood. They don't, however, change their lives or ways of thinking to conform to what the news tells them. So, in my opinion, LA wins the media debate. At least in terms of media that has an influence.
People here are giving Hollywood too much credit. I'm betting that less than 20% of the people in this country (and the world, for that matter) give a damn about Hollywood. Personally, I can't even think of one influence I have picked up from Hollywood....and I live next door to Los Angeles.
The media which is based in New York is a much larger influence than Hollywood. The media has this tendency to control minds. The media influences who we vote for, what we do, where we travel, what we eat, etc. The media is a very powerful force, even more so than Hollywood.
But when you look at the big picture, LA and NYC both influence the country. When it comes to media and fashion, NYC is the big influence and when it comes to Hollywood, it's Los Angeles.
In what terms? In entertainment? In popular culture?
Because in terms of sprawl and auto-oriented culture, then Los Angeles would win out in this debate. To be fair, LA's earliest sprawl was due to the streetcar system that extended throughout the basin, but they took the concept of the Freeway and rode with it.
Now that the LA basin is pretty much built out, they are starting to densify, but they have a long way before they're at NYC's level.
However, in terms of pop culture influence, that's just way too subjective, because both cities have had an influence on the rest of the nation. Advertisers and Publishing and Fashion have their roots in NYC. Movies and food moreso from Los Angeles. Although NYC'ers are pretty trendy when it comes to food, I think most food trends tend to have their roots in LA: Don't forget that several fast-food chains got their start in Southern California-McDonalds, Taco Bell, etc...I bet Cali was one of the first places in the US where eating sushi was "cool", etc.
Also, let's not forget Seattle and it's influence on the nation: Companies such as Nordstrom, Starbucks, Amazon.com, Boeing, and Microsoft go their start in that city. These companies were revolutionary in how Americans shop, drink coffee, travel, and surf the internet.
I think alot of you guys are forgetting that the sitcoms and shows Hollywood puts out there are based on NYC life. All of the dense apartment living, big city plots, trends. LA has a huge influence on the country, but I think NYC has a bigger influence.
Even though NYC is the largest city in the U.S with the largest economy,it honestly seems like L.A has a greater influence over the Country.
Whenever I travel to other parts of the U.S,something will always remind me of L.A,so I guess that's why there's an old saying"As California Goes,So Goes The Nation",because this state sets so many Trends and Ideas that spreads across the Country.
Why do people here think people live their lives based on movies? Besides pimply faced teenage girls and bored soccer moms, who really lives vicariously though Hollywood?? Not as many as you want to believe. Movies are fun to watch, but influence?
New York wins when it comes to influence, especially international influence since most people abroad don't even put LA in the same category as NY, London, Paris, etc.
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