Trends in cultural participation

This article focuses on trends in cultural participation. How have the extent and the way in which people consume culture changed? Research shows that participation in highbrow culture remains relatively stable, whereas the consumption of popular, commercial culture has increased since the 1970s. A number of societal developments drive these evolutions in cultural participation. Sociodemographic changes, most notably educational expansion, as well as the rise of the entertainment industry and the Internet boom, greatly affect the field of artistic production, mediation, and consumption. These changes result in the shifting, or, as some argue, the erosion of esthetic boundaries, and the rise of the cultural omnivore – someone who participates in a variety of cultural activities – as provisional endpoints.

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