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Media and Popular Culture There is an opinion that cultural studies are synonymous to the study of popular culture. In order to prove whether this hypothesis is correct (or invalid), it is important to have a clear understanding of the main concepts of cultural studies and popular culture studies, along with their history, methodology, range of problems in the light of their actuality for the subject at issue. Analytically thinking, cultural studies can hardly be a synonym to the studies of popular culture. First of all, cultural studies is an interdisciplinary sphere of cultural studies that was shaped within the frameworks of global changes that influenced the style of life and social realities of the western societies (such as rapid and intense development of mass media, communications, urbanization, collapse of classical forms of colonialism and spreading of neo colonialism, modernization, rapid commodification of the cultural forms (Warner 728), development of global economy, popularization and spreading of mass (popular) culture, Americanization, and emerging forms of economically and ideologically motivated migration, to mention a few. The cultural studies and studies of popular culture are very important for the modern science.
The interest, to a certain extent, can be related to the fact that the role of this social phenomenon has changed drastically. The popular culture studies in communication aspect gains a special meaning. Drastic changes occur in almost all spheres of public life including popular culture. It is possible to make an assumption (especially from the standpoint of cultural studies) that popular culture (to a certain degree) is the culture of subordinates, as they actively present opposition and resistance to this subordination.
At the same time, the cultural studies focus attention on the various meanings of cultural texts in day-to-day life, exposing deep understanding of the values used by ordinary people in their day-to-day life. Popular culture affects not only a considerable part of the television, printed media, literature, cinematograph, but also the way of life, culture of labor and standards of the way of conduct. To put it differently, popular culture implies all the aspects that comprise day-to-day life of people. From here it often follows a conclusion that in case culture embraces all the aspects of human day-to-day life, the studies of popular culture can be synonymous to the studies of culture in general. Rapid development of mass media that have great impact on formation, spreading and distribution of cultural production in societies attach additional significance and actuality to the present study. By other words, mass media is often understood as cultural mediators, the development of which should be examined as fundamental non-stop transformation of technologies, manners of production and circulation of symbolic forms in the modern societies.
Therefore, medication (Inglis 241) of culture is often referred to as a natural process that is an integral part of the society's way of development. Popular culture is often explored as process that points out the peculiarities of formation and production of culture and cultural values in the modern society of mass production and consumption. From this standpoint it logically follows that everything that can be called an environment comprising day-to-day life of people, clothes, education, information, communication, etc is a component of mass and popular culture that enters the persons conscience through the mechanisms of its spreading and impact primarily through communication (mass) media. Yet, lets revert to the cultural studies to support or refute the initial hypothesis. What concerns cultural studies, they were actively institutionalized in universities in different world countries.
Naturally, the peculiarities of the country had its impact on the way the cultural studies were taught. It is for this reason that cultural studies had the subject of research working class culture (by contrast with elitist culture), and later studies the issues of national, racial, ethnic, and gender identity, along with the multiculturalism and globalization issues (Czitrom 59). Sometimes the interest to the studies of popular culture is explained by the fact that the studies of popular culture are partially identical to the modern culture (and the cultural studies in general). However, it is disputable, as popular culture is not the only subject of study. The studies of culture and popular culture occur in different disciplines and theoretical constructions. All these approaches can be conditionally split into three major categories: the cultural studies, the production of culture, and popular culture studies.
All these perspectives are convinced in legitimacy of the popular culture studies, but base their reasoning on different prerequisites about nature and sequence of production along with the popular culture and consumption of popular culture (Curren 16). As one can see, the theoretical field of cultural studies emerged with the attempts to understand the complicated network of social and economic processes, involving industrialization, modernization, mass communication, and global economy. No wonder that the focus of attention of the cultural studies processes was quite wide, as the culture cannot be perceived and cognized separately from the other aspects of human social life. However, the main feature that distinguishes cultural studies from all other studies (especially it concerns the studies of popular culture) is an emphasis on subjectivity and open political orientation. In conclusion it may be said that media and popular culture is a vivid evidence of expansion of mass media in cultural environment that plays the role of structure-forming agent in the modern society. At the same time, the studies of popular culture can hardly be synonymous to the cultural studies due to several reasons.
Indeed, the cultural studies often deal with the popular culture. The cultural studies often imply the popular culture, but not all studies of popular culture deal with the cultural studies (Cultural Studies 2007). Similar to the cultural studies, the studies of popular culture is the academic discipline. Yet, the studies of popular culture consist of the cultural studies and the communication studies, while the cultural studies is a combination of different subjects (communication, social theory, political economy, film and video studies, sociology, philosophy, literary and media theory, museum studies, art history and art criticism) that examines cultural phenomena in different societies. Works Cited Cultural Studies. 11 July 2007 < web >. Curren, James.
Cultural Studies and Communication. London: Arnold, 1996. Czitrom, Daniel. Media and the American Mind. Chapel Hil: University of North Carolina Press, 1982. Inglis, Fred.
Media Theory: an Introduction. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1990. Warner, William. "The Resistance to Popular Culture. " American Literary History 2. 4 (1990): 726 - 742.
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Research essay sample on Media And Popular Culture
