Global Television

This chapter explores some of the reasons why upper-middle-class and elite audiences in Latin America have turned increasingly to U.S., European, and other outside television programs and services like Netflix, and pay-TV channels like HBO. This chapter examines several theoretical arguments and tries to empirically examine the evidence for them from the TGI Latina data. One, articulated by Bourdieu (Distinction. 1984), is that elites are driven by an interest in showing their cultural distinction from other classes of society by consuming media and culture that are seen as more sophisticated, which we argue now includes foreign streaming television. Another theory is that upper-middle and upper classes, who possess the various economic, cultural, and social cap itals required, acquire more cosmopolitan attitudes that lead them to have more interest in cultures from beyond the region. Another complementary theory is that cultural elites are driven now not so much to consume only elite media and culture, but to become cultural omnivores, interested in many forms and sources of culture. Interestingly, the TGI data shows that these theories help explain the data about cultural preferences of Latin American elites. Download chapter PDF This chapter explores two theoretical implications that seem promising to explain some of the television preferences of upper-middle-class and elite audiences in Latin America. We discuss how both cultural distinction (Bourdieu, 1984) and cosmopolitanism (Beck, 2004; Szerszynski & Urry, 2006; Hannerz & Ulf Hannerz, 1996) are useful for thinking about streaming services like Netflix, Amazon Prime, or Disney spread through the world, in our particular interest here, through Latin America. Bourdieu’s theories of capital help us explain how economic and social advantages can provide access and sufficient cultural knowledge to consume and understand foreign cultural products, specifically television and film. He also discusses in his original work Distinction (1984) how those in upper-middle or upper classes also use their greater store of cultural capital to draw social distinctions between them and those in lesser classes with lower cultural capital. Recently, sociologists have been drawing on Bourdieu to examine the ways cosmopolitanism is related to stratification at a global scale (Igarashi & Saito, 2014). We find both distinctions through cultural capital and its relation to global stratification to be highly useful in understanding why upper-middle and upper classes in Latin America seem to be pursuing high status forms of television and film from the U.S. and Europe, while most Latin Americans, as noted in Chap. 3, are still relatively content with nationally produced television.

This chapter explores some of the reasons why upper-middle-class and elite audiences in Latin America have turned increasingly to U.S., European, and other outside television programs and services like Netflix, and pay-TV channels like HBO. This chapter examines several theoretical arguments and tries to empirically examine the evidence for them from the TGI Latina data. One, articulated by Bourdieu (Distinction. 1984), is that elites are driven by an interest in showing their cultural distinction from other classes of society by consuming media and culture that are seen as more sophisticated, which we argue now includes foreign streaming television. Another theory is that upper-middle and upper classes, who possess the various economic, cultural, and social cap

itals required, acquire more cosmopolitan attitudes that lead them to have more interest in cultures from beyond the region. Another complementary theory is that cultural elites are driven now not so much to consume only elite media and culture, but to become cultural omnivores, interested in many forms and sources of culture. Interestingly, the TGI data shows that these theories help explain the data about cultural preferences of Latin American elites.

Download chapter PDF

This chapter explores two theoretical implications that seem promising to explain some of the television preferences of upper-middle-class and elite audiences in Latin America. We discuss how both cultural distinction (Bourdieu, 1984) and cosmopolitanism (Beck, 2004; Szerszynski & Urry, 2006; Hannerz & Ulf Hannerz, 1996) are useful for thinking about streaming services like Netflix, Amazon Prime, or Disney spread through the world, in our particular interest here, through Latin America. Bourdieu’s theories of capital help us explain how economic and social advantages can provide access and sufficient cultural knowledge to consume and understand foreign cultural products, specifically television and film. He also discusses in his original work Distinction (1984) how those in upper-middle or upper classes also use their greater store of cultural capital to draw social distinctions between them and those in lesser classes with lower cultural capital. Recently, sociologists have been drawing on Bourdieu to examine the ways cosmopolitanism is related to stratification at a global scale (Igarashi & Saito, 2014). We find both distinctions through cultural capital and its relation to global stratification to be highly useful in understanding why upper-middle and upper classes in Latin America seem to be pursuing high status forms of television and film from the U.S. and Europe, while most Latin Americans, as noted in Chap. 3, are still relatively content with nationally produced television.