Mass culture

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  • Mass culture
    • The development of the mass media was debasing the culture of ordinary people, creating problems and dangers in Western societies.
      • Mass culture is designed to appeal to the lowest common denominator.
    • Problems of mass culture (Macdonald 1957)
      • People found mass culture easier to understand as it took less mental effort. It thus tended to undermine high culture.
      • The triumph of mass culture would lead to increased alienation among those who created cultural products.
      • Mass culture was undermining the fabric of society. It was creating a mass society, in which individuals were atomised.
    • A critique of mass culture theory (Strinati, 1995)
      • Mass culture theory is very elitist as it makes the assumption that the masses are 'cultural dopes'
      • Mass culture theory sees all popular culture as homogeneous - it is all the same.
    • Cultural Politics (Strinati)
      • Mass culture threatens the hierarchy of taste by giving everybody the chance to choose what they think are the best books films, music, paintings or images and so on.

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