Popular culture, fans, and globalization

Few aspects of contemporary everyday life capture the imagination of scholars of globalization as much as global media events. The SoccerWorld Cup,Olympic Games, theWimbledon Lawn Tennis Championships, the Super Bowl or the Eurovision Song Contest in their seemingly exceptional and spectacular, yet in their sum almost quotidian nature, evoke passion, enthusiasm, and committed consumption among audiences across the globe. Box office hits such as the Lord of the Rings and StarWars, internationally distributed and franchised television shows from 24 to various casting and reality shows have led to a convergence of audiences’ viewing practices and experiences across different global regions. The images of stars and celebrities – from John Lennon,who notoriously proclaimed to be more famous than Jesus, to Mohammed Ali and David Beckham – are among the cultural resources that enjoy widespread transnational recognition and adoration. Global communication, then,more often than not is popular communication.While 24-hour

news channels such as CNN, or more recently Al Jazeera, are frequently identified as iconic examples of the globalization of communication, media genres such as sports, music, and film have attracted much larger global audiences. This chapter explores the premises and consequences of these audiences’ individual and collective participation in popular culture and popular media in their transnational and global distribution.