🍿 – Every successful movie is a universe. Every cult book is a series. Popular media is a recycling engine — but when it hits, it still feels like magic.
For most of the 20th century, popular media operated on a model of scarcity. With limited television channels and radio frequencies, "popular" culture was largely homogenous. Major networks acted as cultural gatekeepers, determining what the public would see. This era fostered "watercooler moments"—shared cultural experiences where vast portions of the population watched the same show at the same time.