Entertainment as cultural learning

Streaming video has become an important part of entertainment in the US and around the world.  As the demand for content increases and the production faces limitations an important cultural phenomenon is taking shape.

As viewers look for content on the now pervasive Netflix platform, Prime Video, and others, they discover that a very large proportion of the content they find comes from cultures other than their own.  That is not necessarily new in entertainment, but the sheer volume of culturally diverse content has dramatically increased. 

Series and movies from India, China, Korea, Argentina, Mexico, Spain, Germany, Denmark, England, Sweden, Norway, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, etc. are increasingly presented as choices.  This is not a criticism at all but a realization that inadvertently an increasing number of people around the world are becoming culturally informed.  Many times this cultural education is without the awareness of the viewer.

Many of these movies and series come with generic lip movements that can be synchronized to multiple languages.  So, for the unaware consumer it is difficult to discern that they are exposed to content from other cultures.  There is nothing inherently right or wrong with this.  Cultural learning is nevertheless taking place with or without the awareness of the viewer.

The implications of this new world of global content are many.  Multiculturalism may have a fast track in this new environment.  Tolerance of diverse points of view may increase and prejudice may give way to more understanding.  The taste for different looks and points of views may become diversified.  On the other hand some prejudices may be solidified as some viewers confirm their biases.  

I believe that paying attention to this trend towards culturally diverse content is important and worth studying.  Will children grow up more tolerant and accepting of differences?  Will viewers learn to appreciate content that diverges from the preconceived ideas of cultural norms?  

Content providers may benefit from monitoring and studying how content preferences in their audiences develop and change.  From my point of view this seems to be a promising phenomenon for the good of humanity.  

On the other hand, it is also possible that prejudices may be reinforced as some audience members avoid content that looks foreign or generic.  The look and feel of culturally diverse content is difficult to hide.  Generic lip movements can be detected and deemed as fake.  

Overall, as this trend of multinational content evolves, it is possible that it will create a more harmonious global understanding and a more tolerant society.  At least that is my hope.

The Internationalization of US Audiences in the Face of Parochialism

 Online media has been one of the few sources of content available during the virus situation in 2020 and 2021.  We have experienced great amounts of anxiety and content deprivation in times of isolation and lack of social interaction.

Netflix and Amazon Prime have been some of the few sources of content to alleviate loneliness and anomie.  These important content venues have contracted with international producers to deliver programming from most continents to the public of the US and many other countries.  This variety of international content must have some impact on the awareness and disposition of audiences everywhere.  The US being largely parroquial now has a large diet of content from different parts of the world.

Paradoxically, the previous US government had been keen on looking inwards and vilifying the rest of the world. The contrast has been interestingly challenging.  While some prefer to be isolated from the rest of the world, they currently have few choices but to be immersed in international content even without their awareness.  I say without their awareness because dubbing has gotten very sophisticated and many times undetectable. Still the culture and values reflected in international content permeates screens almost everyone is glued to.

Disruptive as it may sound, the war of the minds seems to be in favor of internationalism.  Think about the fashion, physique, language, and themes of global programming contrasted with the locally produced US content.  Sheer volume is in favor of internationalism, but also fashion and looks.  Language diversity is becoming mainstream in the living room.

Think about popular shows like "Money Heist" (not a good translation of "La casa de papel")with its mostly Spanish (from Spain) and also international cast.  The way of behaving and being in that series is appealing to audiences in the US but it is so different.  The philosophy of life in it is almost nihilist: Enjoy what you can because when the party is over it's over.  That is in contrast with deterministic and religious undertones in US domestic content.  Even English and Danish content reflects values and ways of being different from those prevalent in the United States.

Younger generations turning into adults in the US, having been influenced by the protracted "stay at home" way of life, will come out of their shells with a mindset that is in sharp contrast with that of their predecessors.  These will be the democratic leaders of tomorrow who instead of looking to close borders will aim at internationalism because they will better understand others who are different.  

When a physical virus spreads across countries and cultures with unprecedented speed, so does an international mindset despite the bitter wishes of some.  Culture is also a virus, but in my opinion, a more constructive virus that allows those of us meandering on the surface of the earth to better understand each other.

Digital Media Use in the Multicultural Marketplace

At the end of 2013 at the Center for Hispanic Marketing Communication at Florida State University we conducted a survey of 735 Hispanics, 647 non-Hispanic Whites, 744 African Americans, and 732 Asians. The data was collected courtesy of Research Now, under the supervision of Ms. Melanie Courtright and Dr. Kartik Pashupati.

One of the segments of the online survey asked about the number of hours per week that respondents engage in different activities. Many of the items measured digital media usage. The data confirms many of the trends we have observed over the past few years and also provide some interesting surprises. As can be seen in the chart below, Hispanics and Asians watch the largest number of hours of streamed videos per week.

African Americans follow in order of weekly time spent and as found in prior research, non-Hispanic Whites use the least amount of video streaming. This picture should certainly send a message to providers of digital video streaming services. And note that this is the media used in English. The amount of time spent in another language is negligible for African Americans and non-Hispanic Whites, and relatively small for Hispanics (half an hour) and for Asians (slightly over one hour per week). The fact that most streaming is done in English may be related to the nature of the online panel, the availability of content, and the fact that English is becoming more prevalent among culturally diverse groups. Still, the key implication is that the new emerging majority is diverse, and is using English language video streaming. This is important because programmers of streaming media need to understand the cultural programming that is relevant to these consumers. The chart below illustrates the use of social media like Facebook. The findings are even more surprising.

That Hispanics spend the largest amount of time with social media compared to anyone else is revealing. As learned in prior studies we found again that cultural minorities were more likely to use it.  In this study we found that Asians and non-Hispanic Whites are using social media less than their Hispanic and African American counterparts. The notion that these new technologies of liberation appeal the most to those who were previously deprived from such means of self-expression is interesting. Also, these findings show the relative sociability of the different cultural groups. The use of social media in another language for Asians and Hispanics is less than half an hour per week.

The picture of the amount of time spent listening to satellite radio is also revealing. Non-Hispanic Whites use this medium the most, followed by Hispanics and African Americans. Asians use it the least, as seen in the chart below.  These trends may be due to the costs associated with the medium and also to the availability of content relevant to these consumers.

Listening to streamed audio on the Internet (like Pandora), presents a different pattern as seen below.

Hispanics are the most avid listeners of Internet radio, followed by African Americans, then Asians and finally non-Hispanic Whites.  The amount of exposure to Internet radio in another language is about an hour a week for Hispanics and about a quarter of an hour for Asians. As discussed in our book “Hispanic Marketing: Connecting with the New Latino Consumer” the cultural affinity of Hispanics to radio appears to strongly transfer to online offerings. And that seems to be also the case for African Americans.

For the purposes of a reality check we asked about the number of hours that these different cultural groups spend talking to friends in face-to-face situations. The most socially engaged are African Americans, they are followed by Hispanics and non-Hispanic Whites. Asians lag to some extent in English, but in general the levels of interpersonal face-to-face contact is high compared with social media, for example.

Thus the notion that social media is replacing interpersonal contact may not necessarily be correct.  The study of how social media and interpersonal face-to-face contact complement each other appears to be a priority. In this case, however, the use of another language does make a substantive difference as Hispanics spend almost two hours per week talking to friends face-to-face in another language (most likely Spanish, of course), And Asians spend almost an hour and a half per week in interpersonal communication with friends. When another language is included Hispanics are the most socially engaged, and Asians closely match non-Hispanic Whites. The use of one’s native language in personal communications seems to be more relevant than when using social media, and it makes sense. Still the largest amount of interpersonal contact is in English.  Again, we need to caution the reader that the composition of the sample may be responsible for the dominance of the English language, nevertheless the trends seem to be in line with current data and observations of increased English language usage among Hispanics and Asians. Clearly, this trend highlights the importance of understanding how culture and language use intersect and change the identity of culturally diverse individuals. The overall use of the Internet is documented in the chart below:

The overall use of the Internet is very high in general and when added to Hispanic and Asians the approximately one hour they spend in another language, they all seem to use it to very much to the same extent.

This data is robust in that it was collected with quotas for US region, age (18+) in different brackets, and gender. That it may be over-representing those who prefer English is possible.  Nevertheless, the numbers make sense in light that about 30% of US Hispanics prefer to communicate in Spanish, and the rest are a mix of English language preference or no preference.

The trends generally confirm that emerging minorities continue to lead in the use of digital media. While Netflix and Pandora, for example, are doing more in satisfying content preferences of culturally diverse audiences it seems like they could be doing more to the benefit of their own businesses and these audiences are their present and their future.  It is not just having Latin American, Asian, or African American movies and music that can bring increased revenue, but the understanding of non-obvious tastes and preference. A Netflix or Amazon series that reflects the values of Latinos, for example, without necessarily being just for Latinos could be more attractive than a mafia or government affairs theme.

Again, “all marketing is cultural.”