PHILIPPINE POP CULTURE AND EXPERIENCE ECONOMY

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
The student must be able to:

 Demonstrate a better understanding on the Philippine Pop Culture and

Experience Economy.
 Apply these concepts in Philippines context.
 Assess its implications in society’s situation.

Economic development normally carries with its cultural development. Economic

and scientific advancement transforms the culture of the nation. The First Wave
civilization has the agricultural feudal culture; the Second Wave civilization has the
industrial modern culture, while the Third Wave civilization has the postindustrial
postmodern culture. The Philippines right now is basically a First Wave (agricultural)
country that experiences elements of a Third Wave civilization. That is why it appears
logical for this country to shift or “pole-vault” from the First Wave to the Third Wave
civilization.

Figure 4.1 Economic Societies.

4.1 Experience as Product

Increasing competition in the market means that “goods and services are no
longer enough” and that producers must differentiate their products by transforming them
into “experiences” which engage the consumer. An experience can be considered a
product since it must be produced or staged to be made available. Experiences represent
an existing but previously unarticulated genre of economic output that have the potential
to distinguish business offerings. Elements that make up an experience including those
elements that render an experience meaningful.

Table 4.1 Elements of Experience.

4.2 Experience Sector

Experiences are even more immaterial and intangible than services since the
users must be more engaged than in services because the experience takes place in their
minds, being the customer a co-producer. The aim of services is to solve the customers’
problems, the experience industry seeks to give the customers what can be defined as a
mental journey (people may experience the same performance in different ways).

Pine and Gilmore (1999) take “the experience” beyond the provision of goods
and services to the recognition of experience as a distinct economic offering. As an
economic offering, experiences can add value to a business’s goods and services and are
distinct from both. Economic actors gain an advantage in the market by staging and
selling memorable experiences that are enjoyable and personally engaging the customer.

The customer who buys a service buys a set of intangible activities carried out
on his/her behalf. The purchase of an experience, on the other hand, buys time enjoying a
series of memorable events that engage the consumer in
a personal way.
 Examples of experience are sport, art, and culture (the theatre, film, music, TV, etc.), museums, tourism,
gastronomy, design and architecture, computer games, entertainment on mobile phones, and advertising.

4.3 EXPERIENCE ECONOMY

Experience economy is a notion that intends to conceptualize a new trend in

economic development, in which the driver is people’s search for identity and
involvement in an increasingly rich society. In this context, the experience economy does
not refer to a particular industry or a specific segment of the economy since the
experience component of a product or service is increasingly becoming the basis for
profit and because an experience component in theory can be added to all products and
services. The experience economy can be conceived as the next step in the development
of new economically dynamic sectors. Economy and society had developed “from the
ancient agrarian economy, to the industrial economy, to the latter service economy and
that the current economy is shifting to the experience economy”.

The “cultural sector” is non-reproducible and aimed at being consumed on the

spot (a concert, an art fair, an exhibition) and mass-dissemination and export (a book, a
film, a sound recording). The “creative sector” may also enter into the production process
of other economic sectors and become a “creative” input in the production of non-cultural
goods.

Bille and Lorenzen (2008) reached a tentative demarcation of the experience

economy by defining 3 areas:

1. Creative experience areas (areas that have experience as the

primary goal and where artistic creativity is essential to its production). For
example, theatre, music, visual arts, literature, film, computer games.

2. Experience areas (areas that have experience as the primary goal,

but where artistic creativity is not essential). For example, museums, libraries,
cultural heritage sites, natural and green areas, restaurants, the pornography
industry, spectator sports.

3. Creative areas (areas where artistic creativity is essential but which

do not have experience as a primary goal: they are not intended directly for the
consumer market but instead provide services to business (B2B), which are built
into or around mixed products). For example, design, architecture, advertising.

Much of the experience economy is composed of mixed products that combine

experience and functionality and of companies that attempt, through the
use of experience design, experience marketing, events, storytelling and branding, to
invest their products and services with a range of experiences, histories and values which
can differentiate them from those of their competitors. The question of how art and
culture is to be defined is an issue that has been under debate for centuries. The
discussion will not be continued here, but it is enough to state that obvious parallels may
be drawn between the discussion of the definition of art and culture, and to the discussion
of the definition of experiences and the experience economy. Where culture can be
defined as either art, cultural areas or as an aspect, experience can be defined as good
(subjective) experiences, as experience areas or as a "mega trend".

Table 4.2 Definitions of art and culture versus experiences

Culture Experiences

Quality Culture as Arts The good experience

evaluation
Quality evaluated by: Quality evaluated by:

Primarily professionals (peer The consumer

review)
Subjective
Partially objective

Sector Cultural areas Experience areas

Societal trend Aspect Megatrend

Linked to the market,
Linked to societal values and consumption,
norms and commercial exploitation

From the merger between culture and business, a new kind of economy is
growing. An economy that is based on an increasing demand for experiences and that
builds upon the added value that creativity lends to both new and traditional products and
services (Danish government report, 2003). At the same time, it expresses a general
expectation that the experience economy will grow: that the culture and experience
economy has come into focus, both at home and abroad, correlates closely with the fact
that it is a field that is increasingly expanding within the economy. (Government, 2003).
KEYWORDS

Communication Competition Creative Area Creative

Experience
Cultural Cultural Area Economic Education
Development Development
Experience Experience Area Experience Experience
Economy Sector

REFERENCES:
Bill, Trine (2010). The Nordic approach to the Experience Economy – does it make
sense?. Copenhagen Business School. Retrieved from
<https://research.cbs.dk/files/58952160/44_TB_The_Nordic_Approach_to_
Experience_Economy_Does_it_make_Sense_Final.pdf>
Pine, B.J. and J.H. Gilmore (1999). The Experience Economy – Work is Theatre &
Every Business a Stage, Harvard Business School Press, Boston Mass.
Ramos, Luis Moura (n.d.). The Experience Economy and Local Development.
University of Coimbra. Retrieved from <http://www.creative-
heritage.eu/creative-
heritage.eu/Luis_Moura_Ramos_The_experience_economy_and_local_de
velopmentf38e.pdf?eID=tx_nawsecuredl&u=0&file=uploads/secure/mit_do
wnload/Luis_Moura_Ramos_The_experience_economy_and_local_develo
pment.pdf&t=1438425615&hash=89b76a07c7ebf1feee68f381b6d634eb>
 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
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 as “Chocolate City” in Guangzhou,
China, where many African businessmen 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
imperialism that many scholars decry. While its influence is undeniable, “the United
States is no longer the puppeteer of a world system of images but is only one node in a
complex transnational construction of imaginary landscapes” (Appadurai, 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.
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 reality rather than representation, the
result is an “illusion of knowing.” Much of what “we think we know” about people,
places, and ideas is obtained and 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 that you aren’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-minded?
Would your “openness” to another 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.
 Local Popular Culture and Global
Popular Culture

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
The student must be able to:

 Describe and compare local to global culture.

 Differentiate the impact of each in Philippines and other
countries.

The globalization of the production and distribution of goods and services is a

welcome development for many people in that it offers them access to products that they
would not otherwise have. However, some are concerned that the changes brought about
by globalization threaten the viability of locally made products and the people who
produce them. For example, the new availability of foreign foods in a market—often at
cheaper prices—can displace local farmers who have traditionally earned a living by
working their small plots of family-owned land and selling their goods locally.

Globalization, of course, does more than simply increase the availability of

foreign-made consumer products and disrupt traditional producers. It is also increasing
international trade in cultural products and services, such as movies, music, and
publications. The expansion of trade in cultural products is increasing the exposure of all
societies to foreign cultures. And the exposure to foreign cultural goods frequently brings
about changes in local cultures, values, and traditions. Although there is no consensus on
the consequences of globalization on national cultures, many people believe that a
people's exposure to foreign culture can undermine their own cultural identity.

6.1 THE INTEGRATION OF CULTURES

Although the United States may play a dominant role within the phenomenon of
cultural globalization, it is important to keep in mind that this is not an entirely one-way
street. Many other countries also contribute to global culture, including American culture
itself. Just as American popular culture influences foreign countries, other national
cultures are influential within the United States and also increase their presence
worldwide.
 Hollywood is a good example of an industry that integrates elements from more
than one culture. Most people would think of Hollywood as something entirely
American. However, while Hollywood dominates world cinema, American movies are
subject to foreign influence. According to The Economist, "one reason for Hollywood's
success is that from the earliest days it was open to foreign talent and foreign money."

Many American movies are remakes of foreign films. For example, the 2007
Academy Award Winner for Best Picture, “The Departed”, is a remake of the Chinese
film, “Infernal Affairs.” There has also been a recent explosion of American remakes of
European films. A perfect example is “The Tourist” (originally the French film,
“Anthony Zimmer”) which raked in $287 million at the box office. In 2011 the
Millennium Trilogy, a Swedish series, was adapted to film in "The Girl with the Dragon
Tattoo" which opened to critical acclaim and grossed over $230 million at the box office
(Box Office Mojo, 2011). Also, many film- making companies, producers, and actors in
Hollywood are not inherently American. The Columbia Tristar and Twentieth Century
Fox companies are owned by Japan's Sony and Australia's News Corporation,
respectively, two foreign media conglomerates. James Cameron, producer of the movie
Titanic, is Canadian. Moreover, many of Hollywood's most famous actors are not
Americans. Arnold Schwarzenegger is from Austria, and Nicole Kidman grew up in
Australia. From this perspective, it can be argued Hollywood is a multicultural
institution.

However, it is also true that actors such as Nicole Kidman and Mel Gibson, upon
arriving in Hollywood, were given language lessons to help them lose their foreign
accents. Hollywood producers ask actors to Americanize their accents largely over
sensitivities that American audiences might perceive actors negatively if they appeared to
be foreign. So, while Hollywood may incorporate many foreign elements into its craft—
especially behind the scenes—its public face is distinctly American.

6.2 REAFFIRMATION OF LOCAL CULTURE

Despite these homogenizing effects, some people would argue that globalization
can also reinforce local cultures. In India, for example, satellite TV permits an increase in
the number of regional channels, many of which can and do telecast Indian content. This
gives an Indian individual new opportunity to identify with his regional ties. Similarly,
global companies have to take into account the culture of all the countries where they
conduct operations or sell products. This can also enhance cultural awareness.
 Many observers have speculated that the homogenizing effect of globalization on
national cultures in fact tends to produce a reaction among indigenous peoples, which
leads those whose cultures are threatened to want to reaffirm their own local traditions.
Author Benjamin Barber, in particular, has made the case that the sometimes-violent
reactions against the West by elements within Islamic society may be seen in this light.
Barber argues that these rebellious movements may be seen as negative manifestations of
a broader desire to reaffirm their traditional values, against the disruptive onslaught of
Western beliefs. For example, capitalism favors a more fast-paced environment and a
consumer culture, which differ from the lifestyle that people in some countries are used
to. This is particularly hard to accept for people who are afraid of change and want to
preserve their traditions.

The popular culture of the majority has always been a concern of powerful
minorities. Those with political power have always thought it necessary to police the
culture of those without political power, reading it symptomatically for signs of political
unrest, reshaping it continually through patronage and direct intervention. In the 19th
century, however, there is a fundamental change in this relationship. Those with power
lose, for a crucial period, the means to control the culture of the subordinate classes.
When they begin to recover control, it is culture itself, and not culture as a symptom or
sign of something else, that becomes, really for the first time, the actual focus of concern.
The two factors are crucial to an understanding of these changes: industrialization and
urbanization. Together they produce other changes that contribute to the making of a
popular culture that marks a decisive break with the cultural relationships of the past.

Popular culture has been criticized in some countries for distracting citizens from
concerns such as education and religion, and governments have both censored and
mobilized popular culture to further their ideological goals. Popular culture produced in
east and southeast Asia often reaches a global audience and impacts the popular cultures
of many parts of the world. Popular culture is an integral part of daily life throughout east
and southeast Asia, and reflects the ethnic, linguistic, religious, and socioeconomic
diversity of the region.

6.3 GLOBALIZATION AND ASIAN VALUES

Some government officials in East Asian nations have boldly proclaimed an

alternative to the Western cultural model by declaring an adherence to traditional "Asian
values." Asian values are typically described as embodying the Confucian ideals of
respect for authority, hard work, thrift, and the belief that the community is more
important than the individual. This is said to be coupled with a preference for economic,
social, and cultural rights rather than political rights. The most frequent criticism of these
values is that they run contrary to the universality
of human rights and tend to condone undemocratic undercurrents in some countries,
including the suppression of dissidents, and the excessive use of national security laws.

Some commentators have credited Asian values as contributing to the stunning

economic rise of several countries in East Asia. It is also suggested that Asians have been
able to protect and nurture their traditions in the face of utilitarian modernity, lax morals,
and globalization. (Suh, 1997). Neighboring Singapore's former leader Lee Kwan Yew
has used the term to justify the extremely well- ordered society Singapore maintains, and
its laissez-faire economic approach. His theories are often referred to as the "Lee Thesis,"
which claims that political freedoms and rights can actually hamper economic growth and
development. According to this notion, order as well as personal and social discipline,
rather than political liberty and freedom, are most appropriate for Asian societies.
Adherents to this view claim that political freedoms, liberties, and democracy are
Western concepts, foreign to their traditions.

But critics argue that the concept of Asian values is merely an excuse for
autocratic governance and sometimes corruption. Martin Lee, the democratically elected
leader of the opposition in Hong Kong, has been severely critical of the concept, calling it
a "pernicious myth." Lee proclaimed that the Asian financial crisis of 1997-1998 and
ensuing economic collapse should mark the death knell of the Asian values argument,
and the "related notion that economic progress can or should be made independent of
the establishment of democratic political institutions and principles.”

Other critics have leveled more strident criticisms against the use of the Asian
values argument. They argue that these supposed values have stymied independent
thinking and creativity and fostered authoritarian regimes. According to this view, Asian
values were partly responsible for the corruption that affected so many nations in the
region, making the press and people reluctant to criticize their governments.

6.4 CULTURAL FLOWS

The pervasiveness of Western popular culture is common to most east and

southeast Asian nations. Korea was Asia’s biggest importer of Hollywood movies in the
1920s and 1930s; Thailand was an avid consumer of American film musicals in the
1950s; hits by the Beatles and Frank Sinatra have long resounded in karaoke clubs from
Mongolia to Vietnam; and each Harry Potter novel was eagerly anticipated in the 2000s.
Some Western pop culture has been more successful in this region than at home.
Danish band Michael Learns to Rock has won millions of Asian fans with its easy-
listening rock songs and American saxophonist Kenny G’s
song “Going Home” can be heard across China on trains and in shopping centers at
closing time or the end of long journeys.

Western popular culture’s reach into east and southeast Asia has met with
varying responses. Some have condemned its corrosive influence upon local traditions,
considering as a hindrance to the development of national culture. People in the
Philippines, for example, bemoan the “hamburgerization” of Filipino culture and daily
life. American fast-food joints are popular across east and southeast Asia, enticing
patrons with their Western-style decor, free Internet access, collectable gifts, and sociable
atmosphere. The infiltration of Western popular culture has resulted in many hybrid
cultural forms and practices. Burmese rock (“stereo”) features Western pop melodies set
to Burmese lyrics; Taiwanese pop star Jay Chou mixes hip-hop beats and aesthetics with
references to traditional Chinese and Taiwanese culture; and British television formats
such as Pop Idol have been adopted in many countries, including Indonesia, Vietnam,
and Singapore.

Regionally produced
popular culture is often funded by Examples:
transnational capital and targets
Japanese cartoons (Pokemon, Hello Kitty)
multiple audiences. Japanese
popular culture was the most Computer games (Super Mario Bros.,
widely consumed during the 1980s Dance Dance Revolution)
and 1990s, although its
popularization was hindered in Horror movies (Ringu, remade in the
some countries by anti-Japanese United States as The Ring),
sentiment
stemming from the country’s Chinese martial arts films (Hero, Crouching
colonial past. More recently, South Tiger, Hidden Dragon)
Korean pop songs and television Famous Stars (Jet Li, Jackie Chan)
dramas, known as the Korean
Wave, have become
hugely popular throughout Asia. Both South Korea and Japan are known for their
productive popular culture industries, which churn out commercial pop acts like Korean
boy bands Super Junior and Mandarin-speaking Super Junior M, and all- female Japanese
supergroup Morning Musume. Countries with smaller populations, less affluent pop
industries, or which are less fashionable, tend to be bigger importers than exporters of
popular culture. East and Southeast Asian popular culture has a considerable impact on
global popular culture.
6.5 WESTERN VALUES AND ISLAM

The controversy over westernization had major historical implications in the

Middle East over the past several decades. Globalization is accelerating some people’s
concerns about the infusions of Western values in Islamic countries. In the 1960s and
70s, the Shah of Iran sought rapid modernization-- regardless of conservative Muslim
opinion. His plan called for land reform designed to aid the poor, the extension of voting
rights to women, and the allowance of the formation of political parties. His plan,
along with other social and economic changes, led to increased resentment and hostility
toward the Shah. Rightly or wrongly, reform efforts became symbolic of what was wrong
with Iranian society. Fundamentalist clerics began to rail against Iran’s “westoxification,”
and brought about a radical revolutionary movement that sought to expel all western
influence from their ancient civilization.

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has likewise adopted an approach with the motto
“modernization without westernization.” Seeking in part to avoid the kind of outcome
seen in Iran, the Saudi regime has strived carefully to limit the encroachment of many
values that westerners consider fundamental. Consequently, Saudi Arabia guarantees no
voting rights, and censorship of all things Western, including movies, alcohol, and
Internet access, is deep and thorough. One such example is a new Saudi police issue ban
on pet dogs and cats. As noted by foxnews.com (Thursday, July 31, 2008):

“Saudi Arabia Bans Sale of Dogs and Cats in Capital

in Effort to Keep Sexes Apart

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — Saudi Arabia's Islamic

religious police, in their zeal to keep the sexes apart, want to
make sure the technique doesn't catch on here. The
solution: Ban selling dogs and cats as pets, as well as
walking them in public.

The prohibition may be more of an attempt to curb

the owning of pets, which conservative Saudis view as a
sign of corrupting Western influence, like the fast food,
shorts, jeans and pop music that have become more
common in the kingdom.

Pet owning has never been common in the Arab

world, though it is increasingly becoming fashionable
among the upper class in Saudi Arabia and other countries
such as Egypt.”
 The aforementioned clash between Western values and Islam culture reached an
all-time high on September 11, 2001 with the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center
in New York City. The event widened the chasm between the cultures, exemplified by
anti-America riots in several Islamic countries, or the post 9-11 ‘anti-Muslim backlash’ in
the United States. Since the attack, assaults on Arabs, Muslim, as well as South-Asian
Americans have severely increased. President Obama's policy of heightened security has
led to complaints by privacy groups that he has increased racial profiling. Defenders of
the policy claim it is the easiest way to target potential threats, even if racial profiling is
considered a "dirty word" (Fox News, 2010).

More recently, however, during the recent Arab Spring, western cultural values
were used to achieve popular political goals in the Middle East. Western cultural staples
such as social networking tools like Facebook and Twitter were essential to the
organization of recent uprisings in the Middle East. According to The National, “nearly 9
in 10 Egyptians and Tunisians surveyed in March [of 2011] said they were using
Facebook to organize (sic.) protests or spread awareness about them” (Huang, 2011).
And almost all of these protests came to fruition, inciting popular political action through
westernized means.

The use of social media in political unstable regions can be seen in the years
following the Arab Spring of 2011, Egypt's Supreme Military Council used Twitter to
make official announcements until the deposition of Mohammed Morsi. Social media
outlets have also been used to achieve short term political goals by some groups, making
use of its anonymity and global reach to spread rumors and influence public opinion
(Morrow & al-Omrani, 2013).

KEYWORDS
Asian Values Cultural Awareness Cultural Flow Cultural Product
Cultural Services Global Culture Hamburgerization International Trade
Islam Local Culture Modernization Multicultural
Traditions Values Westernization Westoxification
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>
Inwood, Heather. (n.d) . Popular Culture. Ohio State University.
Retrieved from
<https://www.escholar.manchester.ac.uk/api/
datastream?publicationPid=uk-ac- man-
scw:210986&datastreamId=FULL-TEXT.PDF>