1. Culture: Key Issues 3 and 4 Notes

2. Key Issue 3
Why is Access to Folk and Popular Culture Unequal?

3. Why is Access to Folk and Popular Culture Unequal?
Popular culture diffuses rapidly around the world in the 21st century due to electronic media.
Electronic media also increases access to folk culture.
Distribution of popular culture is not uniform, limited by income.
Also limited by lack of electricity.

4. Diffusion of TV
Watching TV is especially important for popular culture for 2 reasons:
Most popular leisure activity in the world. The average human watched 3 hours of TV per day in 2014.
Most important mechanisms by which popular culture has diffused
US to Europe to other developed countries to developing countries

5. Diffusion of the Internet
The distribution and diffusion follows that of TV but at a more rapid pace.
1995: most countries don’t have internet
: US internet use went from 9%-44%, but was even greater world wide
: 87% of US. That’s only 10% of the world’s population of internet users.

6. Social Media! Facebook: 2009: US has 34% of worldwide users.
2014: only 10% of worldwide users.
No Facebook in China and Russia

7. Twitter! 2014: 1/3 of all Twitter messages came from the U.S.
India is in 2nd place.
1/3 originates in India, Japan, Germany, UK, Brazil and Canada.

8. Freedom of the Net
Banned Technology: Governments can affectively prevent unwanted electronic technology by regulating the technology.
Government prohibits the sale of certain models of phones, tablets, and computers.
They can restrict apps and technologies
Blocked content: Some websites are censored or prevented all together from being seen on devices.
The US, Japan and UK have dominated TV in the developing countries. Supplying them with programs.
Some see it as a new economic and cultural imperialism.
To avoid offending tradition folk culture many cable providers block offending networks or censor.

9. Freedom of the Net
Violated User Rights: governments are turning to harassing their citizens through physical attacks and imprisonment because of their internet activity.
The worst-offending countries are Iran, Syria, and China.

10. Key Issue 4
Why Do Folk and Popular Culture Face Sustainability Challenges?

11. Sustainability Challenges for Folk Culture
Assimilation: a process of giving up cultural traditions, such as food and clothing preferences, and adoption of the social customs of the dominant culture of the place.
Acculturation: a process of adjustment to the dominant culture, while retaining features of a folk culture.
Syncretism: the creation of a new cultural feature through combining elements of two groups.
Examples:
The Amish
Dowries in India

12. Sustainability Challenges for Popular Culture
Pop culture can adversely impact the environmental quality in two ways:
Pollution of the landscape
Depletion of scarce natural resources