Globalisation & Popular Culture

• In a nutshell


  Globalisation has led to the increasing interconnectedness of societies across the globe, who now have access to the same media products. This has created a global village, in which time and space barriers have collapsed in human communication, making it instantaneous. Globalisation is largely linked to the increase of popular culture, which is referred to as passive and unchallenging entertainment, designed for the masses. However, it has been argued that globalisation has led to the imperialisation of Western culture on non-Western cultures.
• Globalisation


  Globalisation refers to the increasing interconnectedness of societies across the globe which are exposed to the same cultural and media products. McLuhan argues that the world is rapidly becoming a global village in which rapid technological change has caused space and time barriers inhuman communication to collapse.  People around the world can communicate instantaneously on a global scale.
• HIGH CULTURE


  High culture should be treated with respect and reverence because it is of lasting and artistic value and part of a heritage that is worth preserving. High culture products are often found in art galleries, museums and theatres. This type of culture is mainly aimed at the upper class audiences.
• Popular culture 


  linked to passive and unchallenging entertainment, designed to be sold to a large number of people. These products are dumbed down in the way that they demand little critical thought and rarely provide any challenge to existing dominant cultural ideas.
• Globalisation - Sklair


  Sklair argues that the media blur differences between entertainment, information and promotion of products, and sell across the world ideas, values and products associated with what is presented as an idealised Western lifestyle.
• Globalisation - Ritzer


  Ritzer argues that companies and brands now operate on a global scale, promoting a global culture along with the consumerist lifestyle associated with them, thereby weakening local cultures. Companies such as Apple, Google, McDonald’s etc. use the transnational media to promote their products on a global stage, and their logos are now global brands.
• CULTURAL & MEDIA IMPERIALISM - Fenton


  Fenton argues that most media conglomerates are based in the US and dominate media communications. This is referred to as a process of ‘cocacolonzation’ which involves cultural and media imperialism. The media-led global culture-ideology of consumerism has led to Western media products and cultural values being forced on non-western cultures.
• PLURALIST VIEW OF THE MEDIA


  Pluralists argue there is no such thing as mass or popular culture. The introduction of the new media (digital TV, the internet etc.) has led to an increase in consumer choice.

  Tomlinson argues that globalisation does not involve a direct cultural imposition from the Western world, but instead there is a hybridisation of cultures whereby individuals can ‘pick and mix’ and draw upon their own local culture as well as Western/global culture.
• POSTMODERNIST VIEW OF THE MEDIA


  They regard the diversity of the globalised media as offering the world's population more choices in terms of their consumption patterns and lifestyles, opening up a greater global awareness and access to a diversity of cultures. 
• POSTMODERNIST VIEW OF THE MEDIA - Baudrillard


  Baudrillard argues that we live in a media-saturated society, in which media images dominate and distort the way we see the world. This distorted view of the world is referred to as hyperreality.
• POSTMODERNIST VIEW OF THE MEDIA - Strinati 


  Strinati emphasises the importance and power of the media in shaping consumer choices. Popular culture form our sense of reality and increasingly dominate the way we define ourselves.