GS 1 – Introduction to Global Studies
Professor: Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue
Topic 7 – Global Culture and Media
A – Culture
B – Global Culture
C – Global Media
Hofstra University, Department of Global Studies & Geography
A – CULTURE
What is Culture?
Elements of Culture
Surface and Deep Culture
© Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue
What is Culture?
■ Basic definition
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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.
© Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue
What is Culture?
Explain the difference between nonmaterial and
material culture.
■ Nonmaterial culture
• Intangible ideas created by members of a society.
• Language, music and literature.
■ Material culture
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Tangible things created by members of a society.
Architecture.
Consumption goods.
Artwork and crafts.
■ Cultural products
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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).
© Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue
Culture as a Lens or Filter
Culture
Real World
Representation
(Individual and Group)
© Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue
A Slight Distortion…
© Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue
Elements of Culture
Culture Traits
The smallest distinctive items of culture.
Units of learned behavior (such as language, tools, games, music,
beliefs).
Culture Regions
A portion of the earth’s surface occupied by people sharing
recognizable and distinctive cultural traits.
Cultural Diffusion
An increase in the spatial extent of a particular culture trait (or group
of traits).
Occurs through movement of people through space (migration) or
through the adoption of a culture trait by other groups.
Cultural Ecology
Relationship between a society and its natural environment. Shaped
by weather and ecosystems.
Discuss the major elements of culture.
© Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue
Elements of Culture
■ Cultural Traits
• Objects:
• Tools.
• Goods.
• Techniques:
• Usage of tools.
• Architecture.
• Beliefs:
• Religious.
• Ethics.
• Preferences:
• Food.
• Fashion.
• Lore:
• Stories, songs.
© Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue
World’s Most Spoken Languages, 2005 (primary or secondary)
Korean
Turkish
Javanese
Wu Chinese
Thai
German
French
Japanese
Portuguese
Bengali
Russian
Spanish
Hindi
English
Mandarin Chinese
0
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
© Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue
The Global Religious Landscape
None is present everywhere; none is truly global
© Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue
A Perspective about Cultural Regions of the United States
© Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue
Elements of Culture
■ Culture shock
• Disorientation due to the inability to make sense out of one’s
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 one’s culture as the standard of reference.
■ Cultural relativism
• Understanding cultures comparatively.
© Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue
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.
© Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue
Surface and Deep Culture
Surface Culture
Deep Culture
Language
Rituals and celebrations
Clothing
Architecture
Cuisine / Food
Public gender roles (2)
Social manners (2)
Status symbols
Technology
World view
Ethics
Life goals
Social aspirations
Religious assumptions
What is the difference between surface and deep
culture?
© Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue
B –GLOBAL CULTURE
Is there a Global Culture?
Food as a Global Culture
© Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue
Is There a Global Culture?
■ Scale and scope of global 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.
© Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue
Consumerism as a Global Culture
■ Consumerism
• Culture of capitalism:
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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:
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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?
© Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue
The Three Pillars of Consumerism
Explain what are the three
pillars of consumerism.
Needs and wants
• Always existed (mostly essential needs).
• Part of social ideals; persona’s definition.
• From the essential (food) to the frivolous (luxury goods).
Marketing
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Mass consumption requires mass production.
Shopping mall (facility designed to incite consumption).
Advertising (create wants and needs).
Fashion (planned obsolescence).
Buying power
• Relative price reduction of consumption goods; “mass luxury”.
• Higher wages.
• Access to credit (buy now, pay later).
© Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue
Consumerism as a Global Culture
■ Global Consumer Culture
• The setting of global common preferences:
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Food.
Fashion.
Media (movies, music).
Electronics.
Automotive.
• Many global goods originated from the western world:
• Many key technologies (e.g. the automobile, the personal computer).
• The United States has been a powerful influence on various other cultures.
• Multinational corporations have become key agents in shaping
global culture.
© Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue
Fulfillment Curve
Other means
Fulfillment
Luxury
Consumption
© Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue
Food as a Global Culture
■ 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:
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Innovation: New ingredients and preparation (locally).
Diffusion: Spread of ingredients and preparation techniques.
Hybridization: Combination of ingredients and preparation techniques.
Acculturation (2): Global products.
© Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue
Food as a Global Culture
■ 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.
© Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue
Food as a Global Culture
■ 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:
• From agriculture, processing and retailing.
• Low protein content of fast food.
• Homogenization of global diets:
• Global cultural diffusion.
• Outcome of trade.
• Fast food industry.
Explain what are the main changes in the diet brought
global food culture and some of their consequences.
© Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue
Food as a Global Culture
■ Nutrition Transition
Share of the Population Underweight
and Overweight
• 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.
Developed countries
Economies in transition
• More woman in the labor force:
• Away from the traditional role of
food preparation.
• Both members of a couple are
often working.
DC
• Less preparation time available:
LDC
0
Overweight
5
10 15
Underweight
20
25
• 90% of the money spent on food
is spent on processed foods.
© Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue
Body Mass Index of Selected Countries (% of population over 25
with a BMI of 30+)
Japan
Egypt
Norway
Italy
Austria
France
Poland
Belgium
Turkey
Spain
Canada
Hungary
New Zealand
Australia
United Kingdom
Mexico
USA
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
© Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue
Food as a Global Culture
■ “Supersizing”
140
• Larger containers and quantities:
120
100
137
80
120
60
• Little cost for the supplier:
40
20
0
• 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.
9
12
Medium Coke
Large Coke
Syrup
• Brand name, packaging and
marketing are dominant in
pricing.
• Larger quantities directly means
higher profits.
• Skew the perception of normal
nutritional intake.
Profit
© Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue
Food as a Global Culture
■ 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.
© Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue
Vodka Belt
Beer Belt
Wine Belt
© Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue
Is There a Global Culture? Possible Outcomes
Medium
(MNC, Media, Social
norms)
Rejection /
Backlash
Cultural
Homogenization
Cultural
Hybridization
© Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue
Essay: The Emergence of a Global Culture
Do we observe the emergence of a global culture and
if so under which premises this emergence is taking
place?
© Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue
C – GLOBAL MEDIA
Global Music
Global Media Systems
© Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue
Global Media
■ Media
• All the tools used to store and distribute information.
• Historically information was stored in memory and diffused orally.
• Media was invented to assist and make the diffusion of
information more effective:
• Writing and art forms (paintings, engravings, sculptures, architecture).
• Modern technology impacted the media substantially:
• First phase: Mass printing (newspapers) and long distance
telecommunication (e.g. telegraph).
• Second phase: Analog telecommunications (radio, early telephone
systems and TV broadcasts).
• Third phase: Digital telecommunications (computer-mediated
communication).
Explain what is the media and how technology
impacted its development.
© Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue
Global Music
■ Classical music
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The first form of global music (after 1750s).
“Language of music” standardized (musical notation).
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:
• Underlines the preeminence of English.
• Domesticated by ‘authentic’ local musical forms:
• Numerous sub-genres (heavy metal, punk, alternative, grunge).
• Numerous languages.
• From shallow to political messages.
© Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue
Global Media Systems
■ Global broadcasting
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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).
© Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue
Global Media Systems
■ Sitcoms
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Prevalent throughout the world.
Focus on a specific age / socioeconomic group.
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.
• Replaced by video streaming.
© Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue
Global Music
■ Digital Music
• Advantages:
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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 (low entry costs).
Break oligopolistic control from record companies and media cabals.
• Drawback:
• More songs sold, but less albums.
• Piracy; loss of revenue for the media and artists (?).
• Less “superstars”?
© Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue
1,600
Vinyl
Cassettes
CD
Digital Downloads
1,400
1,200
1,000
800
600
400
200
2013
2011
2009
2007
2005
2003
2001
1999
1997
1995
1993
1991
1989
1987
1985
1983
1981
1979
1977
0
1975
Millions
Music Sales in the United States, 1975-2014
© Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue
1,600
Vinyl
Cassettes
CD
Digital Downloads
Paid Streaming Subscriptions
1,400
1,200
1,000
800
600
400
200
2013
2011
2009
2007
2005
2003
2001
1999
1997
1995
1993
1991
1989
1987
1985
1983
1981
1979
1977
0
1975
Millions
Music Sales in the United States, 1975-2014
© Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue
Global Media Systems
Media
Year introduced Impact
Newspapers
1630s
Emerged with the printing press and movable types (17th
century). Many specializations (general and financial).
Newswire (news
agencies)
1835
Provide news to the media (Reuters, Bloomberg, Associated
Press, Agence France Presse).
Magazines
1880
Periodicals (weekly, monthly) focusing on specific topics (events,
politics, people, fashion, technology).
Movies
1910
“Theatre for the masses”. Quick and low cost diffusion of
entertainment. Current news (pre shows).
Radio
1920
Media access to the private home. First radio shows: to sell radios
and consumer goods (“soap operas”). Rapid diffusion of news /
portable.
Television / cable
1945 / 1980
Visual access to the private home. Richer content. Specialization
of channels (cable).
Internet
1990
Global digital information exchange. Media rich environment. Led
to video streaming (1995) and video on demand (1998).
Mobile phone /
Smartphone
1983 / 2001
Portable telecommunication / Portable media access.
© Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue
Average Daily Television Viewing, 2007-11 (minutes)
India
Switzerland
Sweden
China
New Zealand
South Korea
Australia
Japan
Brazil
Germany
France
Spain
Canada
Denmark
Britain
Italy
United States
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
© Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue
Number of Corporations Controlling the Bulk of US Media
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
1980
1985
1990
1995
2000
2005
2010
2015
© Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue
© Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue
Global Media Systems
■ The Internet and the media
• Conventional media:
• Single source and distribution channel.
• Control of information (editorial, filtering, censorship).
• Internet:
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Multiple sources and distribution channels.
Customizable.
Information on the web is essentially free and can be easily replicated.
Value assessment market; judging what is available at what price
compared with other (free) sources.
• Challenge for the conventional media:
• Destruction (creative) of the conventional business model.
• Adapt to the opportunities.
• Complementarity with limited substitution.
What impacts the Internet is having on global media
systems?
© Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue
Distribution Channels: Conventional Media and Internet
Conventional
Firm
Internet
Firm
Medium (TV,
Newspaper, etc.)
Content
Customers
Firm
Content
Customers
Content
Firm
Medium
(Internet)
Content
Customers
Content
Customers
© Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue
Millions
Diffusion of Telecommunication Services, 1985-2013
7,000
Cellular Phone Subscribers
6,000
5,000
Fixed Broadband Subscriptions
Mobile Broadband Subscriptions
Internet Users
4,000
3,000
2,000
1,000
0
© Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue
Share of the Time Spent in Media, United States and China, 2012
45
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
Print
Radio
Television
United States
Internet
Mobile
China
© Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue
Mobile Technology a Vector of Technological Convergence
Infrastructure
Broadband Internet.
WiFi & High-speed cellular.
GPS networks.
Hardware
Microprocessors.
Memory and storage.
Displays (touchscreens).
GPS.
Sensors.
Software
GUI / OS.
Browsers.
Applications.
Digital stores.
Billing.
Communication tools
Messaging. VoIP. Cameras.
Digital content
Optimized music, videos, news, search engine, shopping,
weather, maps.
© Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue
Technological Convergence, 1993-2013
Explain what is technological convergence and what
does it means for the media.
© Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue