3.1.2

Mass Culture

Test yourself

Mass Culture

The terms mass, popular and low culture are often used interchangeably to refer to the same type of culture in slightly different ways.

Illustrative background for Mass culture Illustrative background for Mass culture  ?? "content

Mass culture

  • Mass culture refers to commercial, mass produced culture and is, again, contrasted with high culture.
  • Examples of mass culture include products such as ‘red top’ tabloid newspapers, TV soaps and reality shows, popular music, video games, blockbuster movies and websites like Twitter and Facebook.
Illustrative background for Features of mass cultureIllustrative background for Features of mass culture ?? "content

Features of mass culture

  • Mass culture has a number of features that distinguish it from other forms of culture:
    • The product of industrialised societies.
    • Standardised, short-lived products, designed to appeal to ‘the masses’ rather than being set aside as special.
Illustrative background for Features of mass culture cont.Illustrative background for Features of mass culture cont. ?? "content

Features of mass culture cont.

  • Products are inauthentic, in that they are produced by businesses for profit in consumer societies (in contrast to the products produced with folk cultures).
  • Demands little critical thought, analysis or discussion, that is, products have no lasting intellectual or artistic value.
Illustrative background for __Strinati__Illustrative background for __Strinati__ ?? "content

Strinati

  • Strinati (a post-modernist) argues that mass culture as popular culture, having value and worthy of study and rejects the view that there is a single mass audience and mass culture, suggesting that people critically chose from a wide variety of options on offer.
Illustrative background for __Livingstone (1988)__Illustrative background for __Livingstone (1988)__ ?? "content

Livingstone (1988)

  • Livingstone (1988) found that writers and producers of TV soap operas saw them as educating and informing the public by raising and commenting on important or controversial social issues.

Mass Culture: The Marxist Perspective

The terms mass, popular and low culture are often used interchangeably to refer to the same type of culture in slightly different ways.

Illustrative background for Mass culture Illustrative background for Mass culture  ?? "content

Mass culture

  • Mass culture refers to commercial, massed produced culture and is, again, contrasted with high culture.
  • Examples of mass culture include products such as ‘red top’ tabloid newspapers, TV soaps and reality shows, popular music, video games, blockbuster movies and websites like Twitter and Facebook.
Illustrative background for Marxist perspective Illustrative background for Marxist perspective  ?? "content

Marxist perspective

  • Marxists, such as Bourdieu, argue that mass culture (and, to an extent, popular culture) is only regarded as inferior when compared to high culture because the dominant class has the power to impose its own ideas of ‘good taste’ on the rest of society.
Illustrative background for MarketingIllustrative background for Marketing ?? "content

Marketing

  • Some Marxists argue that the culture industries produce mass cultural products with little artistic merit in order to make a profit and then manipulate people through marketing and advertising into wanting them.
Illustrative background for Social controlIllustrative background for Social control ?? "content

Social control

  • Marxists also claim that mass culture acts as a form of social control and repression of the working class, lulling consumers into passivity, escapism, and uncritical conformity, undermining people’s ability to think for themselves.

Jump to other topics

1Theory & Methods

2Education with Methods in Context

3Option 1: Culture & Identity

4Option 1: Families & Households

5Option 1: Health

6Option 1: Work, Poverty & Welfare

7Option 2: Beliefs in Society

8Option 2: Global Development

9Option 2: The Media

10Crime & Deviance

Go student ad image

Unlock your full potential with GoStudent tutoring

  • Affordable 1:1 tutoring from the comfort of your home

  • Tutors are matched to your specific learning needs

  • 30+ school subjects covered

Book a free trial lesson