Topic 7 Global Culture

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Topic 7 Global Culture

• A Culture
• B Elements of Global Culture
• C Global Media

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Conditions of Usage

• For personal and classroom use only
• Excludes any other forms of communication such as
  conference presentations, published reports and
  papers.
• No modification and redistribution permitted
• Cannot be published, in whole or in part, in any
  form (printed or electronic) and on any media
  without consent.
• Citation
• Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue, Dept. of Global Studies
  Geography, Hofstra University.

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A Culture

• What is Culture?
• Elements of Culture
• Surface and Deep Culture

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What is Culture?

• Basic definition
• Learned behavior not biologically inherited.
• Shared symbols (reality constructs).
• Patterns of basic assumptions.
• Invented, discovered, or developed by a given
  group
• Nation (nationalism, national culture).
• Group (fraternities).
• Business (corporate culture).
• Shapes human behavior to produce intangible
  (nonmaterial) and tangible (material) components
  of culture.

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What is Culture?

• Nonmaterial culture
• Intangible ideas created by members of a society.
• Language, music and literature.
• Material culture
• Tangible things created by members of a society.
• Architecture.
• Consumption goods.
• Artwork and crafts.
• Cultural products
• The component of culture that can be consumed.
• Require infrastructures.
• Art, music Theater, radio and television.
• Literature Publishing.
• Consumption goods Shopping areas (stores and
  malls).

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Culture as a Filter
Culture
Representation (Individual and Group)
Real World
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Elements of Culture
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Elements of Culture

• Cultural Traits
• Objects
• Tools. Goods.
• Techniques
• Usage of tools.
• Beliefs
• Religious.
• Ethics.
• Preferences
• Food.
• Fashion.
• Lore
• Stories, songs.

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Elements of Culture

• Formal Region
• Marked by a certain degree of homogeneity in one
  or more phenomena.
• Area where one or more traits are dominant
• Functional Region
• Marked by the dynamics of its internal structure.
• Structuring elements
• Jurisdiction law.
• Trade agreement Monetary system.
• Transport system.

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Worlds Major Cultural Regions
Slavic-Orthodox
Western
Confucian
Islamic
Hindu
Islamic
Latin American
African
Western
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A Perspective about Cultural Regions of the
United States
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Types of Diffusion
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Elements of Culture

• Barriers to diffusion
• Different culture.
• Different language.
• Different religion.
• Lack of infrastructure
• Telecommunications.
• Cultural receptiveness
• Same culture.
• Same language.
• Same religion.
• Education and affluence.

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Elements of Culture

• Culture shock
• Disorientation due to the inability to make sense
  out of ones surroundings.
• Common for foreign travel.
• Acculturation
• A culture group undergoes a major modification by
  adopting many of the characteristics of another
  culture group.
• May involve changes in the original cultural
  patterns of either or both of two groups
  involved.
• Ethnocentrism
• Using ones culture as the standard of reference.
• Cultural relativism
• Understanding cultures comparatively.

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Surface and Deep Culture

• Surface culture
• Traits that are apparent and readily visible to
  an external observer.
• Deep culture
• Traits that support the surface culture.
• Cannot be known without an experience of the
  culture.
• One may be aware of surface culture traits but
  not fully aware of deep culture traits.

Surface Culture
Deep Culture
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Surface and Deep Culture
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B Elements of Global Culture

• Is there a Global Culture?
• Food and Diet

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Is There a Global Culture?

• Scale and scope of interactions
• Flow of goods
• Diffusion of the material culture.
• Flow of information
• Diffusion of the nonmaterial culture.
• Flow of people
• Diffusion of cultures to new locations.
• Limitations
• Interactions are uneven
• Unequal cultural relations.
• Cultural dependency (dominant culture).
• Several material goods are expensive or
  unaffordable
• Imposes a selectiveness.

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Is There a Global Culture? Possible Outcomes
Medium (MNC, Media, Norms)
Rejection / Backlash
Cultural Homogenization
Cultural Hybridization
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Is There a Global Culture?

• Consumerism
• Culture of capitalism
• Mass production for mass consumption.
• Created a substantial amount of wealth and
  well-being.
• Consumers / producers (retailers) relations.
• Final judge in the usefulness of a product.
• Pursuit of material goods
• Beyond subsistence.
• Role and status through products being consumed.
• Luxuries transformed into necessities by
  marketing.
• Critique
• Commodification of life and distortion of values.
• Favors irrational and unproductive uses of
  capital (credit).
• Heavy consumption is a form of misallocation away
  from savings.
• A pathology of corporate capitalism?

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Fulfillment Curve
Other means
Luxury
Comfort
Fulfillment
Extravagance
Survival
Consumption
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Food and Diet

• The human diet
• Strong part of group identity.
• Diet is organized along models
• Commonly part of a local, regional or national
  identity.
• Minimum caloric requirement
• 2,700 calories for men and 2,000 calories for
  women.
• Changes
• Innovation New ingredients and preparation
  (locally).
• Diffusion Spread of ingredients and preparation
  techniques.
• Hybridization Combination of ingredients and
  preparation techniques.
• Acculturation (2) Global products.

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Food and Diet

• Food and cultural ecology
• About 15 plants and 8 animal species supply 90
  of food.
• Staple foods
• Commonality of some food components in different
  parts of the world.
• Rice, sorghum, maize, wheat.
• Chicken, pork and beef.
• Related to an average daily calorie intake.
• Linked to agricultural practices
• Also with agribusiness and food processing
  industries.
• Development level and the distribution of
  agricultural production
• Developed economies industrial techniques are
  increasingly present in the diet.
• Third World countries the diet remains often
  very simple and did not change for several
  hundred of years.

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Food and Diet

• Changes in the diet
• Nutritional shift
• From a diet dominated by grains and vegetables to
  a diet dominated by fats and sugars.
• Natural human desire for fat and sugar (energy
  dense foods low satiation).
• Between 1980 and 2000 calorie intake in the US
  has risen nearly 10 for men and 7 for women.
• Increased corporate involvement in food supply
• Caffeine is added (75 of sodas) to provide
  addiction.
• Massive usage of flavoring.
• Homogenization of global diets
• Outcome of trade.
• Fast food industry.

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Food and Diet

• Nutrition Transition
• Urban and sedentary
• People are more often away from home.
• 1970 75 of all food expenses spent to prepare
  meals at home.
• 2000 50 of all food expenses for restaurants.
• Element of time.
• More woman in the labor force
• Away from the traditional role of food
  preparation.
• Both members of a couple are often working.
• Less preparation time available
• 90 of the money spent on food is spent on
  processed foods.

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Body Mass Index of Selected Countries ( of
population over 25 with a BMI of 30)
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Food and Diet

• Supersizing
• Larger containers and quantities
• Larger package size can increase consumption up
  to 55.
• 1950s The standard Coca-Cola container was 6.5
  ounces.
• 1990s The standard Coca-Cola container was 20
  ounces.
• Little cost for the supplier
• Brand name, packaging and marketing are dominant
  in pricing.
• Larger quantities directly means higher profits.
• Skew the perception of normal nutritional intake.

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Food and Diet

• Wine
• Production based on environmental factors.
• Temperate climate (colder white wine. Warmer
  red wine).
• Hillsides allow drainage and sunlight.
• Coarse, well-drained soil
• Appellation
• Place-of-origin label.
• Champagne, Bordeaux, Burgundy, etc.

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C Global Media

• Global Music
• Global Media Systems

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Global Music

• Classical music
• The first form of global music.
• Language of music standardized.
• No lyrics can be decoded by anyone.
• Linked with European expansion through
  colonialism.
• Rock music
• Late 1950s and early 1960s.
• Began in the Anglo-Saxon world (UK and US).
• Favored the emergence of global music industry.
• Domesticated by authentic local musical forms
• Numerous sub-genres (heavy metal, punk,
  alternative, grunge).
• Numerous languages.
• From shallow to political messages.

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The Global Music Industry
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US Music Sales, 1975-2007
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Global Music

• Digital Music
• Advantages
• Higher quality (compression, increased storage
  capacity).
• The signal does not degrade.
• Not linked with a specific media (portability).
• Customization (songs instead of albums play
  lists) individuality.
• Lower costs (affordability).
• Global diffusion (internet).
• Support niche markets.
• Break oligopolistic control from record companies
  and media cabals.
• Drawback
• Piracy loss of revenue for the media and
  artists.
• Less superstars?

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Global Media Systems

• Newspapers
• Emerged with the printing press and movable types
  (17th century).
• Many specializations (general and financial).
• Online versions.
• The International Herald Tribune, The Financial
  Times of London, The Economist, The Wall Street
  Journal, The New York Times.
• Wire services (Newswire)
• Provide news to the media.
• Reuters, Bloomberg, Associated Press, Agence
  France Presse.
• Magazines
• Periodicals focusing on specific topics.
• Readers Digest, Time, Newsweek, Cosmopolitan,
  Popular Mechanics.

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Global Media Systems

• Global broadcasting
• Began with short wave and wireless services
  (radio).
• Moved into televised (cable) broadcasts.
• Promote national prestige, culture and interests.
• Sell advertising for global products.
• Sell access to pay broadcasts.
• Radio BBC World Service, Voice of America, Radio
  China International, Deutsche Welle (German
  Wave), Radio France International.
• Growing rapidly global news, sports, and music
  channels (CNNi, CNBC, BBC World, MTV, ESPNi).

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Global Media Systems

• Sitcoms
• Prevalent throughout the world.
• High production costs.
• Audiences are fragmented.
• Because of language and culture they are very
  difficult to export
• Exports often involve an adaptation (e.g. The
  Office).
• Music videos
• Started in the 1960s (live performance
  recording).
• Exploded in the 1980s as a new media (e.g. MTV)
• Drop in radio market share favored a
  visualization of music.
• Essential part of music industry virtually all
  recordings released with a video.

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Global Media Systems

• MTV
• First aired in 1981 by Warner-American Express.
• Sold to the American multimedia giant Viacom in
  1985.
• 139 countries locally produced programs.
• Major advertising vehicle for films videos to
  teenage audience
• Prepare future adult consumers by conditioning
  their consumption habits.
• Considerable advertising income.
• The American Idol phenomenon
• Active participation of the public
• Music for the masses and the masses for the
  music.
• Can be a contestant.
• Voting for the finalists.
• Video precedes recording.
• Customization to different markets.

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Global Media Systems

• The Internet and the media
• Conventional media
• Single source and distribution channel.
• Control of information (editorial, filtering,
  censorship).
• Internet
• Multiple sources and distribution channels.
• Customizable.
• About one-third of the adult population uses the
  new media.
• Challenge for the conventional media
• Adapt to the opportunties.
• Complementarity with limited substitution.

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Distribution Channels Conventional Media and
Internet
Conventional
Medium (TV, Newspaper, etc.)
Content
Firm
Customers
Internet
Firm
Firm
Content
Medium (Internet)
Content
Content
Firm
Customers
Content
Customers
Customers
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Adoption of High Speed Internet in the United
States, 2000-2007
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News Media Usage per Age Group, United States 2006