Aim: How has the diffusion of popular culture
impacted folk and local cultural patterns?
Do Now: How has technology affected
distance decay? Think of a specific example.
HOW IS POPULAR CULTURE
DIFFUSED
Time-space compression
 Described by geographer David Harvey
 Explains how quickly innovations diffuse
 Depends on how interlinked places are
through transportation and communication
technologies
 Distance from the hearth no longer really
matters
 I.e., distance decay
 Especially affects popular culture
Hearths of Pop Culture
 May develop organically
 College towns as hearths of “indie” music
 May be created on purpose
 Who is responsible for “manufacturing” pop
culture?
 Corporations
 “Opinion leaders”
 Video: Generation Like
DIFFUSION OF TECHNOLOGY
Which of these
three forms of
technology do
you use most
frequently?
How frequent
is your use –
hourly, daily,
weekly?
The main obstacle to accessing popular
culture is lack of access to electronic
media
 TV is the most important electronic media format to
popular culture
 Two reasons:
1. Watching TV is most popular leisure activity in the
world
2. TV is most important mechanism for rapidly
diffusing popular culture around the world
Television and Culture
 Saudi TV program
 Russian TV program
 Haitian TV program
 Do you think these TV programs represent
cultural convergence or cultural divergence?
Provide evidence from each clip to support
your answers.
Internet users as % of
population, 2012
“Internet Census of 2012”
Internet and Wireless
Communication
 Diffusing in a pattern similar to television
 But FASTER
 It took radio broadcasters 38 years to reach an audience of 50
million
 It took television producers 13 years
 It took the Internet 4 years
 Access to technology is not globally balanced
 More developed = more access
 UN Millenium Development Goals targeted this disparity
of access
 Target 8.F: In cooperation with the private sector, make available
the benefits of new technologies, especially information and
communications
Access to Popular Culture
 Television in Bhutan
 Wiring the Amazon
 What do local cultures have to gain by access
to popular culture through electronic media
like TV and internet?
 What do local culture lose when they gain
access to popular culture in this way?
 Give specific examples!