Americentrism, also known as American-centrism or US-centrism, is a tendency to assume the

culture of the United States The culture of the United States of America is primarily of Western, and European origin, yet its influences includes the cultures of Asian American, African American, Latin American, and Native American peoples and their cultures. The Un ...

is more important than those of other countries or to judge foreign cultures based on American cultural standards. It refers to the practice of

viewing the world A worldview or world-view or ''Weltanschauung'' is the fundamental cognitive orientation of an individual or society encompassing the whole of the individual's or society's knowledge, culture, and Perspective (cognitive), point of view. A worldv ...

from an overly US-focused perspective, with an implied belief, either consciously or subconsciously, in the

preeminence Greatness is a concept of a state of superior (hierarchy), superiority affecting a person or wikt:entity, object in a particular place or area. Greatness can also be attributed to individuals who possess a natural ability to be better than all ...

of American culture. The term is not to be confused with American exceptionalism, which is the assertion that the United States is qualitatively different from other nations and is often accompanied by the notion that the United States has superiority over every other nation.''American Exceptionalism: A Double-Edged Sword.''
Seymour Martin Lipset. New York, N.Y.: W.W. Norton & Co., Inc. 1996. p. 18.

In the media

American television networks In the United States, for most of the history of broadcasting, there were only three or four major commercial national terrestrial networks. From 1946 to 1956, these were ABC, CBS, NBC and DuMont (though the Paramount Television Network had so ...

have been perceived to contain an Americentric bias in the selection of their material. Another instance of Americentrism is in the high focus companies have on US markets in relation to others. Often, products produced and developed outside the US are still marketed as typically American. According to the European Commission, internet governance (in particular that related to the NSA) is too Americentric. It criticized the major role of American company

ICANN The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN ) is an American multistakeholder group and nonprofit organization responsible for coordinating the maintenance and procedures of several databases related to the namespaces ...

in its administration. The English Wikipedia has been criticized for having an Americentric systemic bias with regards to its occasional preference towards US English sources, language, and spelling.

Notes

Geocultural perspectives Ethnocentrism Political neologisms Autological words {{cultural-anthropology-stub

In the media

See also

Notes