Globalization of Popular Culture

CHAPTER 5
Globalization of Popular Culture
LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
The student must be able to:
Briefly explain the effects of globalization to pop culture and vice

versa.
Analyze the cultural impacts of globalization.
5.1 GLOBALIZATION
The phenomenon of globalization is defined as the "acceleration and

intensification of economic interaction among the people, companies, and
governments of different nations" (Globalizarion101.org). Most studies of
globalization tend to focus on changes occurring in the economic and political
spheres. The details of those issues, such as tariff rates and international
agreements, have fallen within the traditional province of government bureaucrats
and political leaders. However, the dramatic changes brought by globalization
have forced policymakers to respond to public pressures in many new areas.
Observers of globalization are increasingly recognizing that globalization is having
a significant impact on matters such as local cultures, matters which are less
tangible and hard to quantify, but often fraught with intense emotion and
controversy. Generally speaking, issues surrounding culture and globalization
have received less attention than the debates, which have arisen over globalization
and the environment or labor standards. In part this is because cultural issues are
more subtle and sensitive, and often more confusing.
Globalization, propelled by advance in communication and transportation

technology, the integration of global markets, and privatization and deregulation of
media outlets in much of the world, has intensified the role of media and popular
culture in shaping or communication and understanding of cultures different from
our own. While TV programs, celebrities, and music videos are often perceived
simply innocent and fun entertainment, these and other forms of popular culture
are powerful transmitters of cultural norms, values, and expectations. While the
United States continues to dominate production and dissemination of popular
culture globally, numerous media circuits today originate from India, Latin America,
Nigeria and China; thus, central dynamic of intercultural communications is how
global media and distribution of popular culture alternately promote strong desires
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for inclusion in global culture and also mobilize intense resistance to cultural
imperialism.
Media and popular culture serve as primary channels through which we

learn about groups who are different from ourselves and make sense of who we
are. Just as limited and negative representations produced through media and pop
culture promote and reinforce stereotypes impacting perceptions of others and
ourselves, diasporic and migrant communities reconnect and remember home
through popular culture as they resist full assimilation and otherness.
Through diverse processes, our globalized world is tremendously

interconnected and interdependent (Tomlinson, 2007), characterized by
increasingly liquid and multidirectional flows of people, objects, places, and
information (Ritzer, 2010). This results in interesting cultural configurations such
reside (Bodomo, 2010), and China Town in Lagos, Nigeria. About 74 million (nearly
half) of the migrants from developing countries reside in other developing countries
(Ratha & Shaw, 2010) which contradicts the popular belief that everyone is
migrating to the West. The tendency to place Americanization and Westernization
at the epicenter of every discussion of globalization reinforces the cultural
States is no longer the puppeteer of a world system of images but is only one node
in a complex transn
1996). The study of popular culture and intercultural communication on the global
scale must attend to the multiplicity of cultural linkages that exist in a networked
society.
Globalization contradicts the very idea that culture is bound to specific

regions (Goodman, 2007). It also challenges the idea of culture as a unified set of
norms. How can one possibly identify the values and customs of more than 7 billion
people? However, an analysis of global culture does not require the identification
of homogeneity, shared values, or social integration; rather, it requires the
identification of a set of practices that constitute a cultural field within which
struggle, and contestation occur. Alternatively, if we view culture as shifting
tensions between the shared and the unshared (Collier, Hegde, Lee, Nakayama,
& Yep, 2002), we uncover dynamics such as the interplay between integration and
fragmentation that characterize global relations. Likewise, the fragmented space
of pop culture nation (i.e., global popular culture) can be understood as perpetually
unfolding tensions and struggles that occur when multiple cultural systems and
artifacts flow into and away from one another. Popular culture is a resource in
identity construction and consequently enables and constrains intercultural
communication. It also disrupts cultural identities leading to resistance and forges
hybrid transnational cultural identities.
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5.2 INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION
Popular culture functions as a resource in shared meaning making.

However, popular culture can constrain intercultural communication and
understanding as much as it enables them. When we take popular culture to be
confirmed by popular culture. Invariably, this finds its way into our evaluations of
others and communicative choices. Encounters with others through the mass-
mediated space of popular culture are helpful but not a substitute for genuine
conversations, relationship building, and self- reflexivity about our positionality.
5.3 HYBRID TRANSNATIONAL IDENTITIES: CONVERGE OR DIVERGE
Cultural identity transcends continental, national, and regional boundaries.

In the context of globalization, it is a colorful tapestry of transnational experiences
and interactions. However, in the past decade, there has been a resurgence of
national pride and identification. The hybridization of popular culture holds many
possibilities for achieving shared meaning on the global scale and provides a
sense of comfort that all is not lost. In this sense, hybridization can be interpreted
not as a sullying of cultural purity but as a form of resistance against complete
domination (Hegde, 2002). Popular culture always reflects the interests of its
producer and, as such, should not be romanticized but scrutinized.
Considering intercultural communication in the global context sensitizes us

to the complex systems of meaning that impact our communication daily. In the
fragmented space of global popular culture, our identities are shaped and
reshaped as we communicate across difference and make decisions to resist and
comply, diverge, and converge. Culture industries are making an attempt to
acknowledge a wider range of human experience, and diversity is the buzzword of
the century. It is rather like keeping a minority friend around to prove t
racist. Is the move toward diversity and multiculturalism producing more openness
and compassion, or are we hiding behind it? Have we conflated the consumption
of certain types of popular culture with progressiveness? Do we automatically think
of Lady Gaga fans as more open-
person change if he or she watched only ABS-CBN or GMA? Popular culture is
now an undeniable part of our everyday meaning making and being savvy about
the conclusions we draw from it is a crucial part of intercultural competence in the
global context.
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READING ACTIVITY!!!
Read the following article:
K-FASHION AND TECHNOLOGY-DRIVEN GLOBALIZATION IN THE
PHILIPPINE SETTING by Carlo Jejomar Pascual Palad Sanchez (page 66)
KEYWORDS
Companies Converge Cultural Imperialism Diverge
Entertainment Globalization Global Culture Hybridization
ICT Interaction Interconnected Intercultural
Communication
Interdependent Integrated Internet K fashion
K pop Media Nation Technology
This video lecture discusses the cultural dimensions of

globalization from a sociological perspective.
Globalization and culture
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ydX2FY0dvY
Why does Globalization of Popular Culture cause

problems
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cuFWWgK15Fw
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REFERENCES:
Culture and Globalization, 2017. LEVIN Institute. Pages 2-8. Retrieved from
<http://www.globalization101.org>
Globalization and Popular Culture, 2015. Sage Publications. Pages 219-224.
Retrieved from < https://us.sagepub.com/sites/default/files/upm-
assets/66098_book_item_66098.pdf>
Sanchez, Carlo Jejomar. (2016). K-FASHION AND TECHNOLOGY-DRIVEN
GLOBALIZATION IN THE PHILIPPINE SETTING. Ateneo De Manila
University. Retrieved from <
https://journals.ateneo.edu/ojs/index.php/aiks/article/download/2733/2606
ATTENTION!!!
Before you go to the next page, PLEASE ANSWER the
POST ACTIVITY on page 104
PRE ACTIVITY on page 106
GOOD LUCK!!!
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CHAPTER 5

Globalization of Popular Culture

Briefly explain the effects of globalization to pop culture and vice

The phenomenon of globalization is defined as the "acceleration and

Globalization, propelled by advance in communication and transportation

Media and popular culture serve as primary channels through which we

Through diverse processes, our globalized world is tremendously

Globalization contradicts the very idea that culture is bound to specific

Popular culture functions as a resource in shared meaning making.

5.3 HYBRID TRANSNATIONAL IDENTITIES: CONVERGE OR DIVERGE

Cultural identity transcends continental, national, and regional boundaries.

Considering intercultural communication in the global context sensitizes us

This video lecture discusses the cultural dimensions of

Why does Globalization of Popular Culture cause

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