Mass Society Essay Example

Dominates of Mass culture theory

• Where democratic and egalitarian, nevertheless are highly hierarchically structured
• Listening to certain forms of music or expressing a preference of certain films still identifies one as a member of the cultural elite, the political and economic elite, the descending part of the middle classes, or the working class.
• Traditional culture survives in relatively few pockets in societies that have not been touched more than superficially by global mass culture, in a perverted form as tourist attraction, and as a conscious attempt to resist the attractions of mass cultures. Such secondary folk cultures are often regenerated after they had all but succumbed to invaders or to global mass culture as a conscious effort to regain some form of cultural identity.
• The typical ‘elite’ reaction to mass culture is still very much in evidence.
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Mass Culture, Popular Culture and Cultural Identity

• Mass culture theory holds that through ‘atomization’ individuals can only relate to each other like atoms in a chemical compound. Individuals are vulnerable to exploitation by core institutions of mass media and pop culture
• Mass culture is popular culture produced by mass production industrial techniques and is marketed for a profit to a mass public of consumers
• The main determinant of mass culture is the profit that production and marketing can make from the potential mass market
• Standardized, formulaic and repetitive products of mass culture are then sold to a passive audience, prone to manipulation by mass media * To sell the standard must be bland and standardized to a formula
• Both folk and high art at risk from mass culture High culture is that culture associate