The Impact of Mass Culture on Society

Television, Radio, and Film: Shaping Identity

Television, radio, film and other products of media culture provide materials where people forge their identities. The notion of what it means to be female or male, sense of selfhood, sense of class, race and ethnicity, sexuality and nationality. Culture shapes the view of what is considered good or bad, negative or positive, evil or moral. It provides the myths, symbols, and resources through which people constitute a common culture which people insert them. It also demonstrates who has power and who is powerless, who is allowed to exercise violence and force and who is not. They legitimate and dramatize the power of the forces that be showing the powerless that they must stay in their places and be oppressed. Through this, we find ourselves graved in media and consumer society thus it is necessary for one to learn how to interpret, understand and criticize the messages and meanings. Mass culture contributes to how people behave, think, belief, desire, feel and fear. It teaches us how to be women and men, how to look, consume, and dress. It also teaches one how to react to different cultures, communities, social groups, popularity, avoiding failure, values, practices, and success.

The Production and Consumption of Cultural Objects

Many people believe that culture is a collective product. People need to understand how culture and cultural objects are produced learning the impacts of cultural objects, processes, and means. Culture includes the production and distribution, marketing techniques that include co-opting mass media and advertising and creation situations bringing potential cultural consumers. People through talent, knowledge, etc. transform culture into the technical subsystem. [1] There is a need for restricting the system because if not there would be more singers, novelists, and filmmakers. There are input boundaries where creative artists use limiting the entrance to the industry such as agents. Production companies employ their boundaries too. The management system consists of film studios, publishing houses, and record companies. Culture producing companies are turning into producing similar products where people can focus on producing one project for a period involving the director, actor and the producer.

The Influence of Social Media and Technology

The demand for mass culture is increasing due to the advancement of technology and the fact that everyone is now on social media. Increased demand for mass entertainment where one can now even stream a movie using applications such as Netflix. As the demand increases, the consumption of mass culture has increased. The social media has greatly affected the mass culture both positively and negatively. People who adopt mass culture perspective see culture industry as the technology for producing mass culture. Such entertainment aims at the low taste, morals, intellectual capturing a wide market.[2]

The Impact on Society

With the huge production of mass culture, it leads to products that render recipients apathetic and numb. The apathy later leaves the passive recipients crying out for political tyranny forcing producers to come up with more sensational, shocking materials responding to the demand.

The Changing Landscape of Society

Mass culture affects the lives of people from political views to food and clothing. It changes the way of living where many tend to look up to celebrities copying their style. With the increased use of the internet, the mass culture will continue to affect our lives positively and negatively. Although there is a good part of mass culture, people have changed morally especially the youth. When the culture producers are producing culture, they may have a specific purpose in mind but the audience and consumers tend to use it for the wrong purpose in many cases. Every person has a different way of receiving and consuming culture.

Bibliography

Hodge, Bob. “Social semiotics.”The Routledge Companion to Global Popular Culture.

Routledge, 2014. 58-66.

Lowenthal, Leo. Literature and Mass Culture: Volume 1, Communication in Society. Routledge,

2017.

[1]

Hodge, Bob. “Social semiotics.”The Routledge Companion to Global Popular Culture. Routledge, 2014. 58-66.

[2]

Lowenthal, Leo. Literature and Mass Culture: Volume 1, Communication in Society. Routledge, 2017.