Page 154 - CULTURE IN THE COMMUNICATION AGE

SUPERCULTURE FOR THE COMMUNIC ATION AG E

expansion of all kinds of popular culture forms not transmitted by the Internet.
The number of television stations in the world has quadrupled in just the past
fifteen years, for instance, with most of the new channels looking for already
produced, popular programming that falls into the categories of universal
appeal mentioned above. Low-power radio stations are appearing in abundance
now. Personal communications devices accompany the mass media expansion.
In fact, commercial telecommunication systems, the international film industry,
and radio, as well as other global cultural phenomena including tourism, theme
parks, popular music, and professional sports cumulatively reach and influence a
far greater proportion of the world’s population than personal computers and
websites do.
Given that the social consequences of cultural globalization extend beyond
political borders and social classes, the overall effect of the technological explo-
sion is the creation of a much greater range of cultural options. The astounding
material and symbolic productivity stimulated by the international economic
and cultural market is fundamental to the emergence of the superculture as a
dominant cultural modality.
Widespread popular culture resources today are less tied to particular nations.
The cultural situation in Mexico is an especially intriguing case, not least
because it shares a long, tension-filled border with the United States. Nowhere
else in the world do countries with such contrasting developmental profiles
exist side by side, and no two cities in the world reveal this contrast more than
San Diego and Tijuana. Current controversies about illegal immigration and
drug smuggling only intensify the smoldering bad feelings. Moreover, Ameri-
can popular culture has long been regarded by many Mexican intellectuals as
clear and detested evidence of cultural imperialism. The ‘invasion’ of American
movies, television programs, pop music, and all the rest is considered by some
Mexican critics to be especially insidious because, in addition to enthusiasm
shown for their own cultural materials, Mexican people also eagerly consume
and enjoy the symbolically charged cultural products from the United States.
That’s why Néstor García Canclini’s view of these issues is so interesting and
important. Rather than follow the typical line of critical thinking, wherein the
global market is condemned outright and American popular culture is roundly
criticized, banned, or censored, García Canclini takes a more realistic and
nuanced approach. He says that Mexican people have tired of their terribly
inefficient state bureaucracies, the paralyzing political partisanship, corrupt
labor unions, and elitist public media. They now look to commercial mass
media ‘to get what the civil institutions don’t give them: services, justice,
reparations, or simple attention’ (García Canclini 1995: 13). He describes the
Mexican populace’s attitude towards ‘citizenship’ in globalization and the
Communication Age: ‘Where I belong, what rights I have, how I can learn
things, and who represents my interests . . . these kinds of questions can be
answered more in the private consumption of goods and on the mass media
than in the abstract rules of democracy or in collective participation in

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