The purpose of this essay is to firstly explain what John Fiske means by ‘popular culture lies not in the production of commodities so much as the productive use of industrial commodities’ (Fiske, J. 1990 p.28). Secondly this essay will go on to compare Fiske’s interpretation of popular culture to MacDonald’s theory of mass culture.
The quotation given in the title proposes popular culture is not governed by those responsible for the production of commodities but by the people. One could say in order for any commodity to be a part of popular culture relies on the people as they hold the power to decide what commodities they buy into making popular. For a modern day example Individuals in society can readily access all information about phones
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It could be argued that the people and the producers of commodities is one of need since their relationship is more than buying and selling. Fiske claimed that popular culture can never be described as buying and selling since it is a culturally active process of creating meaning and pleasure. Fiske held an optimistic outlook on the formation of popular culture and believed that the people self-determine what they want, which in return goes on to creating wealth for the producers and pleasure for consumers. He also proposed that the product is at the discretion of the audience, therefore the people are in control of the culture industry (Fiske, J. …show more content…
“The average family is bombarded with 1,100 advertisements per day … people only remembered three or four of them”. Fiske’s uses an example of kids singing Razzmatazz a jingle for brand of tights at a woman in a mini skirt. This displayed to the reader that people are not mindless consumers; they modify the commodity for their use. He rejects that the audiences are helpless subjects of unconscious consumerism. In contrast to McDonald’s, Fiske’s quoted “they were using the ads for their own cheeky resistive subculture” he added. He believed that instead of being submissive they twisted the ad into their own take on popular culture (Fiske, 1989, p. 31)
In conclusion to this essay it apparent that these two theories clashed. Fiske arguing for the people rejecting that culture can be critiqued allowing the people to feel responsible for their actions. As for McDonald leaving the audience feeling gloomy depressed with the fact that they like what they. McDonald makes it clear that if people are not choosing high culture they are halfwits. However Fiske argument is impartial leaving audience with the notion that they are determining culture since they are creating the popular culture chain even though they are at the
“Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception” is a chapter in Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer’s book “Dialectic of Enlightenment” it goes onto discus the conflicts presented by the “culture industry.” Adorno states that the culture industry is a main phenomenon of late capitalism, encompassing all products from Hollywood films, to advertisements, and even extending to musical compositions. Adorno is very deliberate in noting the term “culture industry” over “mass culture” this was done to specifically distinguish, that it is not to be understood as something which spontaneously stems from the masses themselves.
Thomas Frank’s book entitled The Conquest of Cool: Business Culture, Counterculture, and the Rise of Hip Consumerism takes a poignant look at the advertising world of the 1950’s and 1960’s, exploring how advertising played a role in shaping the next generation of consumers. Frank points out that he believes many misunderstand how important the key industries of fashion and advertising were to the shaping of our consumer culture, especially in getting Americans to rethink who they were. The industry of advertising was not conforming to the upcoming generation, instead the new consumer generation was conforming to the ideals of the advertising industry. Frank believes that the advertising and fashion industries were changing, but not to conform to the new generation, instead to shape a new generation of consumers.
The historical study of popular culture is distinct in that it diverges from the elitist perspective that governs much of our reflection on past events. Although, certain groups may face subordination in a given society, that does not imply a deficiency in their cultural achievements. From the Native people of the new world to the uneducated peasants of later years, their inferior social status in society often led their unique cultural practices into relative obscurity; dominant groups were the societal dictators of culture and the practices that future generations would deem as applicable to that time period. However, neglecting outranked cultural practices of past societies deprives historians of a more complete and accurate depiction of past societal realities. Contemporary accounts of early modern popular culture such as works by Ginzburg, Yassif and Bakhtin allow the reader to witness a shift in the earlier Romantic emphasis on the fascination and domination of the subordinate cultures [Herder] to a notion of cultural reciprocity between the elite and popular strata of society.
Zizek, S. (2006). From Reality to the Real (Vol. Cultural Theory and Popular Culture: A Reader). (J. Storeys, Ed.) Harlow: Pearson.
Culture is an essential part of every human being. People can fall under the category of one culture or they can fall under many. Values derived from culture tend to reflect in an individual’s or a society’s understanding of what is wrong and right. In culture, there are many significant features. Some are material, such as food and clothing, and non-material, such as beliefs and ideas. These material and non-material objects help to push people into powerful roles and they maintain the power. With the power these people then have a strong influence on the beliefs and ideas of the lower people. They have the ability to alter and change their beliefs at any time and most times, they follow along with it. These ideas and thoughts have been in place for many decades, since cultural theorists, such as Marx and Habermas, began explaining them. They have been a thought for decades
The issue of the relationship between the mass media and the popular culture has always been a controversial issue in social sciences. The political economists insist on the role of the media industry in the creation of this phenomenon of the twentieth century. Though, advocates such as John Fiske, argue that popular culture is actually the creation of the populous itself, and is independent of the capitalist production process of the communication sector. Basing his argument on the immense interpretive power of the people, Fiske believes that the audience is able to break all the indented meanings within a media message. He also believes- by giving new meanings to that specific message they can oppose the power block that is trying to impose its ideology to the public. Consequently, this anarchistic activity of the audience creates the popular culture as a defence mechanism. Even when we accept Fiske’s ideas, we can not disregard the manipulative power of the media and its effects on cultural and social life.
Thus, as America’s society advances, “wants are increasingly created by the process by which they are satisfied,” as demonstrated in Galbraith’s text from The Dependence Effect. On the other hand, producers always actively advertise to generate wants and hence, these wants depend on production. This also means that the consumer does not spontaneously create his own wants, but rather the same entity of production creates them and later satisfies them. However, the products created do not really satisfy anything because the companies who created the products instigated this want from the beginning and the consumer, by himself, never possessed the urgency of the desire that he now satisfies by buying the product. Hence, from America’s highly materialistic society emerges the “Dependence Effect” which entraps most Americans in a boundless cycle.
In all quarters of the globe, you can see some form of popular (pop) culture shape an individual's behavior, sensibility, and perspective on life. Every culture, religion, and ethnicity has changed over time under the influence of pop culture whether it is based on food, clothing items, or simple values and beliefs. Dr. Lawrence Rubin describes popular culture as a, “...banality, it certainly seems meaningless...even potentially destructive. However, if instead we recognize that it is simply an expression of our collective experiences, its importance becomes more clear” ( Popular Culture: We are what we consume,2009). Yet, current pop culture can be seen as a heterogeneous social conception. Particularly, it is always changing and what’s new today will be old by tomorrow. Famous celebrities and latest trends of designs and
With the rise of industrialization, globalization, and mass production, the manufacturing productivity has been dramatically increased and accordingly the availability of consumer goods. And with the rise of the mass media, various products have been targeted on broad groups of consumers. Consumerism, which is propelled by a system of mass production and high levels of consumption, has been one of the themes in art works from twentieth century till now.
Consumerism is the idea that influences people to purchase items in great amounts. Consumerism makes trying to live the life of a “perfect American” rather difficult. It interferes with society by replacing the normal necessities for life with the desire for things with not much concern for the true value of the desired object. Children are always easily influenced by what they watch on television. Swimme suggests in his work “How Do Kids Get So Caught Up in Consumerism” that although an advertiser’s objective is to make money, the younger generation is being manipulated when seeing these advertisements. Before getting a good understanding of a religion, a child will have seen and absorbed at least 30,000 advertisements. The amount of time teenagers spend in high school is lesser than the amount of advertisement that they have seen (155). The huge amount of advertisements exposed to the younger generation is becomi...
American popular culture is quite serious because we find the “voices” that write, play, film, photograph, dance and explain our American history. George Lipitz notes that historians can learn a lot about the process of identity and memory in the past and present by deciphering the messages contained in popular culture forms such as films, television and music. As stated by George Lipsitz, people can either work for the economy and state, and against the population who take in the messages or they can work in a positive way as memories of the past and hopes for the future.
Sandlin, J. A. (2007). Popular culture, cultural resistance, and anticonsumption activism: An exploration of culture jamming as critical education. Wiley InterScience, 115, 73-82.
As Gore Vidal once said: “The genius of our ruling class is that it has kept a majority of the people from questioning the inequity of a system where most people drudge along, paying heavy taxes for which they get nothing in return” (Vidal, N/A). In our society, the ruling ideas are easily believed and taken as “true.” Advertisements sell ideas and lifestyles rather than objects; people consent to the ruling ideas which in turn make them less of an individual. Although we may live in a culture industry that controls what people believe is right or wrong, there is always a struggle for power. According to C. Wright Mills and Nina Eliasoph, in order to create a struggle and challenge the ruling ideas, developing a “sociological imagination” is crucial. The ruling ideas work by creating notions of our culture and giving one false needs which in turn help maintain the status quo.
Popular culture is the new name for “low culture” which is referred to cultural products that have mass standardized production such as television, music and magazines which is shared and known by most people. (Nakayama, 2013). The power of popular culture is enormous as it serves the purpose of social functions such as establishing social norms, identities and gives meaning through shared ritual. Therefore stereotyping a particular race changes the prospective of common people when they interact. As popular culture helps creating social norms, identities, etc. people get used to what they say and produce for consumption and unknowingly get used to those information and acknowledge and even participate in racial activities.
This is one of the main differences between Fiske’s and MacDonald’s theories, while Fiske believes in the power of the consumer to decide what is popular culture and to decide how to consume it, MacDonald asserts that popular culture and mass culture are something that is force-fed to consumers and forces mass conformity. Although mass culture and popular culture do breed conformity it is very important not to ignore the choice and the power of the consumer. Counter-cultures are great evidence to show that choice. The hippies of the 70’s and the hipsters of today are two well-known examples of counter-cultures formed by people who were exposed to mainstream popular culture and mass culture and chose to deviate from it. Although mass culture and the very peer pressure like influence it has can be very hard to deviate from, but the choice is still there and MacDonald ignores that choice. When faced with the commodity of popular culture we as consumers have the power to deny it as individuals and to change it as a society whether or not we chose to use that power or to even realize we have