Chapter 4: Folk & Popular Culture Figure 4.14 Beijing, China. RenRen, the Facebook of China, is a popular social network among college students. It now has over 165 million registered users. Wang Xing, who launched and sold Renren, has since launched Chinese versions of Twitter and Groupon. © Alamy Limited. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.

Key Issue Question # 3 Why is Access to Folk and Popular Culture Unequal? L.O. 4.3.1 – TV diffused from U.S. to Europe and then developing countries – the internet followed the same pattern but at a more rapid pace. L.O. 4.3.2 – The U.S. has dominated the use of social media but will continue to diffuse to the rest of the world L.O. 4.3.3. – Access to the electronic media is not universal. 19 of 65 countries are considered to have free access. Restrictions come from banned technology, censorship, and restrictions on usage and access. © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.

Access to Popular Culture Popular culture diffuses rapidly around the world primarily through electronic media. However, the distribution popular culture around the world in not uniform. The principal obstacle to pop culture is lack of access to the electronic media. Primarily by lack of income Also lack of electricity in developing countries © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.

Distribution and Diffusion of TV TV is the worlds most important electronic media format by far. Watching TV is the most popular leisure activity in the world (Average human 3 hours the average American 5 hours). TV is most import mechanism for rapidly diffusion popular culture around the world (Sports).

Distribution and Diffusion of TV 2005 – latest figure is United States and Canada have far more TV sets per capita than any other country. (U.S. has slightly less than 1 TV per person) Several European countries now have higher rates of ownership.

Diffusion of Internet Internet service follows pattern established by television but at a more rapid pace. 1995- U.S. had 63% of worlds users while most countries had no service. Between 2000-2014 Internet usage continues to increase rapidly in U.S. to 87%.

Diffusion of Internet But world share decreases as China now accounts for 22% of worlds Internet users. The diffusion of TV from the U.S. to the rest of the world to a half-century whereas the diffusion of the internet took only a decade.

Diffusion of Facebook The origin of social media has followed the pattern of electronic media. People based in the United States have dominated the use of social media such as Facebook and Twitter. Will it continue is yet to be seen…

Diffusion of Facebook Facebook, founded in 2004 by Harvard University students has diffused rapidly. Notably absent from the list of leading Facebook users is China and Russia. There were numerous other competing social networks that have been supplanted by Facebook.

Qzone - China China is a holdout, preferring Qzone. This has occurred because the government of China has limited the ability of the Chinese people to use Facebook. Restricting the freedom to use the Internet is a major issue in some countries.

Diffusion of Twitter The United States was the source of 1/3 of all Twitter messages in 2014. Another 1/3 from Japan, Germany, U.K., Brazil, Canada and one of the world’s poorest countries, India – which is #2 in “Tweets”. Future trend? Electronic communications can diffuse rapidly to developing countries too.

Challenges in Accessing Electronic Media Most Americans take for granted access to information and communications through the Internet and cell phones. This free access is not found in many other countries.

Accessing Electronic Media Using parameters of banned technology, blocked content and violated user rights, only 19 of 65 countries surveyed were classified as “free”. 31 out of 65 were “partly free” And 15 of 65 were “not free”

Banned Technology Governments can prevent unwanted electronic technology by regulating the platforms that are supported in the country. Some governments prohibit the sale of certain models of phones, tablets and computers. Some travelers between free countries, such as from U.S. to Western European countries may find their electronic devices fail to open because of incompatible cellular infrastructure. China is especially aggressive at restricting foreign applications

Blocked Content Some websites are censored or prevented altogether from being seen on devices in a particular country. Japan, U.K. and United States have dominated TV in developing countries, including supplying much of the programming. Leaders of many developing countries view American control of much of the world’s TV programming as a method of economic and cultural imperialism – Causing people to lose their traditional ways of life in favor of cheap entertainment and disposable goods. Imperialism - A policy of extending a country's power and influence through diplomacy or military force

Blocked Content American beliefs and social forms, such as upward social mobility, relative freedom for women, glorification of youth and stylized violence may conflict with and drive out traditional folk culture. To avoid offending traditional folk culture many cable and satellite companies will block offending networks such as MTV.

Blocked Content Concern with American produced media content has spilled over into the Internet – Three types of Internet content that are routinely censored 1. Political content – human rights, freedom of expression 2. Social content – sexuality, gambling, drugs and alcohol 3. Security content related to armed conflicts, border disputes, separatists movements and militant groups

Violated User Rights Governments are finding it increasingly difficult to stop the diffusion of technology – citizens are finding ways to circumvent government restrictions. According to Freedom on the Net, governments are turning to harassing their citizens through physical attacks and imprisonment.

Violated User Rights In many countries governments have enacted laws to justify the attacks. The Gambia makes it a criminal offense to use the internet to criticize public officials. Ethiopia permits government to search computers.

Violated User Rights A number of countries require transnational corporations to maintain a local server so they have access to the data stored on the server. Women and the LGBTI community have been targeted in a number of countries. Women stoned to death in Pakistan in 2013 (cell phone). Gay men lured by social media to be assaulted in Russia.

Violated User Rights Russia and Turkey are considered the two countries where Internet Freedom has suffered the most severe declines in recent years. In Russia, several laws have been enacted since 2012 to block online content critical of the government In Turkey, government censorship of Internet content has increased, including shutting down YouTube and Twitter.