By the nature of the creations, one can distinguish the culture represented in single samples and popular culture... The first form, according to the characteristic features of the creators, is subdivided into folk and elite culture. Folk culture represents single works of most often unnamed authors. This form of culture includes myths, legends, tales, epics, songs, dances, etc. Elite culture- a set of individual creations that are created renowned representatives the privileged part of society or by its order by professional creators. Here we are talking about creators with a high level of education and well-known to the enlightened public. This culture includes art, literature, classical music, etc.

Mass (public) culture represents the products of spiritual production in the field of art, created by large circulations counting on the general public. The main thing for her is the entertainment of the widest masses of the population. It is understandable and accessible to all ages, to all segments of the population, regardless of the level of education. Its main feature is the simplicity of ideas and images: texts, movements, sounds, etc. Samples of this culture are aimed at the emotional sphere of a person. At the same time, mass culture often uses simplified samples of elite and folk culture ("remixes"). Popular culture averages the spiritual development of people.

Subculture- this is the culture of any social group: confessional, professional, corporate, etc. It, as a rule, does not deny the common human culture, but it has specific features... Signs of a subculture are special rules of behavior, language, symbols. Each society has its own set of subcultures: youth, professional, ethnic, religious, dissident, etc.

Dominant culture- values, traditions, views, etc., shared only by a part of society. But this part has the ability to impose them on the entire society, either because it constitutes the ethnic majority, or because it has a coercive mechanism. A subculture that opposes a dominant culture is called a counterculture. The social basis of the counterculture is people who are to some extent alienated from the rest of society. The study of counterculture allows us to understand cultural dynamics, the formation and spread of new values.

The tendency to evaluate the culture of one's own nation as good and correct, and another culture as strange and even immoral, is called "Ethnocentrism". Many societies are ethnocentric. From the point of view of psychology, this phenomenon acts as a factor in the unity and stability of a given society. However, ethnocentrism can be a source of intercultural conflicts. Extreme forms manifestations of ethnocentrism constitute nationalism. The opposite is cultural relativism.

Elite culture

Elite, or high culture created by a privileged part, or by its order by professional creators. It includes fine arts, classical music and literature. High culture, such as Picasso painting or Schnittke's music, is difficult for an unprepared person to understand. As a rule, it is decades ahead of the level of perception of an average educated person. The circle of its consumers is a highly educated part of society: critics, literary critics, regulars of museums and exhibitions, theater-goers, artists, writers, musicians. When the level of education of the population grows, the circle of consumers of high culture expands. Its variety includes secular art and salon music. Formula of elite culture - “ art for art”.

Elite culture is intended for a narrow circle of highly educated public and opposes both popular and popular culture. It is usually incomprehensible to the general public and requires good preparation for correct perception.

The elite culture includes avant-garde trends in music, painting, cinema, complex literature of a philosophical nature. Often the creators of such a culture are perceived as residents of the "ivory tower", fenced off by their art from the real Everyday life... As a rule, elite culture is non-profit, although sometimes it can turn out to be financially successful and become mass culture.

Modern trends are such that mass culture penetrates into all areas of "high culture", mixing with it. At the same time, popular culture reduces the overall cultural level its consumers, but at the same time itself gradually rises to a higher cultural level. Unfortunately, the first process is still proceeding much more intensively than the second.

Folk culture

Folk culture recognized as a special form of culture. Unlike elite folk culture, culture is created by anonymous unskilled creators... The authors of the folk creations are unknown. Folk culture is called amateur (not by level, but by origin) or collective. It includes myths, legends, tales, epics, fairy tales, songs and dances. In terms of performance, elements of folk culture can be individual (presentation of a legend), group (performance of a dance or song), mass (carnival processions). Folklore is another name folk art, which is created by various segments of the population. Folklore is localized, that is, it is associated with the traditions of the area, and democratic, since everyone is involved in its creation. Modern manifestations of folk culture include anecdotes and urban legends.

Mass culture

Massive or public does not express the refined tastes of the aristocracy or the spiritual quest of the people. The time of its appearance is the middle of the XX century, when mass media(radio, print, television, gramophone records, tape recorders, video) penetrated into most countries of the world and became available to representatives of all social strata. Popular culture can be international and national. Popular and pop music is a vivid example of mass culture. It is understandable and accessible to all ages, to all segments of the population, regardless of the level of education.

Popular culture is usually has less artistic value than an elite or folk culture. But she has the widest audience. It satisfies the immediate needs of people, reacts to any new event and reflects it. Therefore, samples of mass culture, in particular hits, quickly lose their relevance, become obsolete, go out of fashion. This does not happen with the works of elite and folk culture. Pop culture Is a slang name for popular culture, and kitsch is its kind.

Subculture

The set of values, beliefs, traditions and customs by which most members of society are guided is called dominant culture. Since society splits into many groups (national, demographic, social, professional), each of them gradually forms its own culture, that is, a system of values ​​and rules of behavior. Small cultures are called subcultures.

Subculture- part of a general culture, a system of values, traditions, customs inherent in a particular one. Talk about youth subculture the subculture of the elderly, the subculture of national minorities, the professional subculture, the criminal subculture. The subculture differs from the dominant culture in language, outlook on life, demeanor, combing, dressing, and customs. The differences can be very strong, but the subculture is not opposed to the dominant culture. Drug addicts, deaf and dumb people, homeless people, alcoholics, athletes, lonely people have their own culture. Children of the aristocracy or the middle class are very different in their behavior from the children of the lower class. They are reading different books, go to different schools, are guided by different ideals. Each generation and social group has its own cultural world.

Counterculture

Counterculture denotes a subculture that not only differs from the dominant culture, but opposes, is in conflict with the dominant values. The subculture of terrorists opposes human culture, and the hippie youth movement in the 1960s. denied the dominant American values: hard work, material success, conformity, sexual restraint, political loyalty, rationalism.

Culture in Russia

The state of spiritual life in modern Russia can be characterized as a transition from the upholding of values ​​associated with attempts to build a communist society, to the search for a new meaning of social development. We have entered the next round of the historical dispute between Westerners and Slavophiles.

Russian Federation - multinational country... Its development is due to the peculiarities of national cultures. The uniqueness of the spiritual life of Russia lies in the diversity of cultural traditions, religious beliefs, moral norms, aesthetic tastes, etc., which is associated with the specifics of the cultural heritage of different peoples.

Currently, in the spiritual life of our country, there are conflicting trends... On the one hand, the mutual penetration of different cultures promotes interethnic understanding and cooperation, on the other, the development of national cultures is accompanied by interethnic conflicts. The latter circumstance requires a balanced, tolerant attitude towards the culture of other communities.

a type of culture characterized by the production of cultural values: - designed for mass consumption and for an average mass taste; - standardized in form and content; - suggesting commercial success; and - disseminated by the media

Excellent definition

Incomplete definition ↓

MASS CULTURE

a term used in modern cultural studies to denote a specific type of spiritual production, focused on the "average" consumer and assuming the possibility of widespread replication of the original product. The appearance of M.K. it is customary to associate it with the era of the formation of large-scale industrial production, which required the creation of an army of hired workers for its service. The simultaneous breakdown of the traditional social structure of feudal society also contributed to the emergence of a mass of people cut off from their usual forms of activity and associated spiritual traditions. M.K. arises, on the one hand, as an attempt by new social strata (hired workers and employees) to create their own kind of urban folk culture, on the other, as a means of manipulating mass consciousness in the interests of the dominant political and economic structures. M.K. seeks to satisfy the natural human yearning for the ideal with the help of a set of stable worldview clichés that form an implicit code of world outlook and models of behavior. M.K. operates, as a rule, with basic archetypal ideas and feelings (desire for love, fear of the unknown, striving for success, hope for a miracle, etc.), creating on their basis products designed for an immediate emotional reaction of the consumer, similar to children's direct perception of reality ... M.K. creates modern mythology, constructing his own world, which is often perceived by its consumers as more real than their own everyday existence. The essential side of M.K. is the exact choice of the addressee-consumer (age, social and national groups), which determines the choice of appropriate artistic and technical techniques and, if successful, brings significant income. M.K. is traditionally opposed to an elite culture capable of creating products of unique artistic value that require certain intellectual efforts and initial cultural baggage for their perception. The element of innovation in M.K. insignificant, since its creators are mainly engaged in the creation of simplified versions of the achievements of "high" culture adapted for the mass consciousness. At the same time, it is inappropriate to consider M.K. a preserve of vulgarity and bad taste, which has nothing to do with true art. In fact, M.K. serves as a kind of mediator between the generally accepted values ​​of elite culture, the avant-garde "underground" and traditional folk culture. Turning esoteric revelations and marginal artistic experiments into a part of "naive" consciousness, M.K. contributes to its enrichment and development. At the same time, fixing the mass attitudes and orientations existing in society, M.K. has the opposite effect on elite cultural creation and largely sets the perspective of modern reading cultural tradition... The dynamics of M.K. is able to give a fairly accurate picture of the evolution of social ideals and worldview models, the main trends in the spiritual life of society. M.K. is a natural offspring of modern civilization. The most striking phenomena of M.K. (comics, "black" crime novels, family saga) are often viewed as varieties of urban folklore. Therefore, the significance of a specific product of M.K. is determined not by its universal value, but by the ability to express the illusions, hopes and problems of the era in the language of its time.

M.R. Zhbankov

Mass culture is a specific product of a modern industrial urbanized society. Various directions of her analysis were closely related to the corresponding versions of the theory of mass society. Critical analysis of mass culture emphasized in it the characteristics of "low", primitive culture, "culture of the masses", which poses a threat to "high culture", or emphasized the use by elites of mass culture, which arouses "base instincts" for the spiritual exploitation of the masses, mass standardization and depersonalization. With more optimistic approaches, mass culture was viewed as a generally quite satisfactory form of culture, characteristic of a mature industrial society with high level education, high standard of living, with a developed system of mass communications.

V modern sociology the concept of "mass culture" is increasingly losing its critical orientation. Underlined functional significance mass culture, which ensures the socialization of huge masses of people in the complex, changeable environment of a modern industrialized urbanized society. While affirming simplified, stereotypical ideas, mass culture nevertheless performs the function of permanent life support for a wide variety of social groups. It also ensures the mass inclusion in the consumption system and thus the functioning of mass production. Popular culture is characterized by universality, it covers a wide middle part of society, affecting in a specific way both the elite and the marginal layers.

It should be noted that in recent years, with the development of modern information technologies, fundamentally new phenomena have appeared. There is a division of the "mass" into segments, the processes of demassification are developing. This leads to an increase in cultural diversity, segmentation of the market for cultural products. Now the concept of "mass culture" emphasizes only one - the market aspect of the modern cultural situation. Popular culture is a collection of cultural products with commercial properties; it is a product in which economic characteristics, i.e. the ability to sell on the market is the main criterion, and the value load has faded into the background. This is what leads to the priority development of entertainment, rather than ideological or analytical programs, to the transformation of show business into one of the most profitable types of business. In the 90s. the struggle of the largest multinational corporations for segments of the cultural products market unfolded. The development of global networks has given this struggle a global character. The six largest TNCs in the world now dominate the cultural industry market, and each of them pursues its own cultural policy. The changed technological forms of cultural production will no longer allow a return to the old, traditional models - they can be preserved only on the periphery of cultural life. During life cycle of a modern cultural product, including such stages as creative work, production of an author's copy, industrial production (replication), advertising, wholesale and retail trade, import / export and archives, the creative part is 10%, and the rest is subject to ordinary commodity laws. Nevertheless, the struggle between the defenders of the value of culture and supporters of the application of the criterion "marketability" to any type of product, including cultural, continues.

Excellent definition

Incomplete definition ↓

Mass culture or pop culture, mass culture, the culture of the majority - the culture of everyday life, entertainment and information, prevailing in modern society. It includes such phenomena as the media (including television and radio), sports, cinema, music, popular literature, visual arts, etc.

The content of mass culture is determined by the daily events, aspirations and needs that make up the life of the majority of the population (i.e., the mainstream). The term "mass culture" originated in the 40s. XX century in the texts of M. Horkheimer and D. MacDonald, dedicated to the criticism of television. The term has become widespread thanks to the works of representatives of the Frankfurt School of Sociology.

Popular culture in the 18th and 19th centuries

The preconditions for the formation of mass culture are inherent in the very existence of the structure of society. Jose Ortega y Gasset formulated a well-known approach to structuring based on creative potential. Then there is an idea about the "creative elite", which, naturally, constitutes a smaller part of society, and about the "mass" - quantitatively the main part of the population. Accordingly, it becomes possible to talk about and about the culture of the "masses" - "mass culture". During this period, a division of culture takes place, determined by the formation of new significant social strata that receive access to a full-fledged education, but do not belong to the elite. Receiving the opportunity for a conscious aesthetic perception of cultural phenomena, newly emerging social groups constantly communicating with the masses make the phenomena of "elite" significant on a social scale and at the same time show interest in "mass" culture, in some cases they are mixed (see, for example, Charles Dickens ).

Popular culture in the 20th century

In the twentieth century mass society and the mass culture associated with it became the subject of research by the most prominent scientists in various scientific fields: the philosophers Jose Ortega y Gasset (The Rise of the Masses), Karl Jaspers (The Spiritual Situation of Time), Oswald Spengler (The Decline of Europe); sociologists Jean Baudrillard ("Phantoms of the present"), P. A. Sorokin ("Man. Civilization. Society.") and others. Analyzing popular culture, each of them notes a tendency towards its commercialization.

Karl Marx, analyzing the problems of the market economy, noted commercialization literary work:

“Milton, who wrote„ Lost heaven“And who received £ 5 for it, was an unproductive laborer. In contrast, a writer who works in a factory manner for his bookseller is a productive worker. Milton created Paradise Lost with the same urgency as the silkworm produces silk. It was a real manifestation of his nature. Then he sold his piece for £ 5. And the Leipzig literary proletarian, fabricating at the behest of his publisher of the book ... is a productive worker, since his production from the very beginning is subordinated to capital, and is carried out only to increase the value of this capital. "

Speaking about art in general, a similar trend was noted by P. A. Sorokin in the middle of the 20th century: “As a commercial product for entertainment, art is increasingly controlled by merchants, commercial interests and fashion trends ... A similar situation creates the highest connoisseurs of beauty from commercial dealers. forces artists to comply with their demands, imposed in addition through advertising and other media. " At the beginning of the XXI century, modern researchers state the same cultural phenomena: “Modern trends are cumulative and have already led to the creation of a critical mass of changes that have affected the very foundations of the content and activities of cultural institutions. The most significant of them, in our opinion, are: the commercialization of culture, democratization, blurring of boundaries - both in the field of knowledge and in the field of technology - as well as a predominant attention to the process, rather than to the content. "

The attitude to mass culture in modern philosophical and culturological thought is not unambiguous. If Karl Jaspers called mass art "the decline of the essence of art", and Jean Baudrillard said that all spheres of contemporary art "enter the transeesthetic sphere of simulation", then these concepts were revised in 1960-1970. within the framework of postmodernism, which has destroyed for many researchers the opposition between mass and elite cultures of qualitative evaluative meaning. Speaking about art (meaning elite art) of the early 20th century, Ortega y Gasset speaks of its dehumanization. In such conditions, the increase in the role of "superhumanized" mass art is a natural process.

Popular culture genres

A necessary property of mass culture products must be entertaining, so that it has commercial success, so that it is bought and the money spent on it yields a profit. Amusement is set by the strict structural conditions of the text. The plot and stylistic texture of the products of mass culture may be primitive from the point of view of elite fundamental culture, but it should not be poorly done, but, on the contrary, in its primitiveness, it should be perfect - only in this case it will ensure readership and, therefore, commercial success. ... Stream of consciousness, defamiliarisation, intertext are not suitable for mass culture. Mass literature requires a clear plot with intrigue and twists and turns and, most importantly, a clear division into genres. We see this well in the example of mass cinema. The genres are clearly delineated, and there are not many of them. The main ones are detective, thriller, comedy, melodrama, horror film, or, as it is called recent times, "Chiller" (from the English chill - to tremble with fear), fantasy, pornography. Each genre is a self-contained world with its own linguistic laws, which in no case should be overstepped, especially in cinema, where production is associated with the largest number financial investments. Using the terms of semiotics, we can say that genres of mass culture should have a rigid syntax - an internal structure, but at the same time they may be poor semantically, they may lack deep meaning... In the 20th century, popular culture replaced folklore, which is also syntactically structured extremely rigidly. This was most clearly shown in the 1920s by V. Ya. Propp, who analyzed a fairy tale and showed that it always contains the same syntactic structural scheme, which can be formalized and represented in logical symbols. The texts of mass literature and cinema are structured in the same way. Why is this needed? This is necessary so that the genre can be recognized immediately; and the expectation should not be violated. The viewer shouldn't be disappointed. A comedy should not spoil a detective story, and a thriller plot should be exciting and dangerous. That is why stories within mass genres are so often repeated. Repetition is a property of myth - this is the deep kinship of mass and elite culture, which in the 20th century, willy-nilly, is guided by the archetypes of the collective unconscious. Actors in the minds of the viewer are identified with the characters. A hero who died in one film, as it were, is resurrected in another, as archaic mythological gods... After all, movie stars are the gods of modern mass consciousness.

Cult texts of mass culture

A variety of mass culture texts are cult texts. Their main feature is that they penetrate so deeply into the mass consciousness that they produce intertexts, but not in themselves, but in the surrounding reality. That is, the cult texts of mass culture form around themselves a special intertext reality.

Elite culture, which in its internal structure is built in a complex and sophisticated way, cannot influence the extra-textual reality in such a way. It is difficult to imagine anecdotes about Hans Castorp from The Magic Mountain or Joseph Knecht from The Glass Bead Game. True, it happens that any modernist or avant-garde technique is mastered by the fundamental culture to such an extent that it becomes a cliché, then it can be used by the texts of mass culture. As an example, we can cite the famous Soviet cinematographic posters, where on foreground the huge face of the protagonist of the film was depicted, and in the background little men were killing someone or just flitting (depending on the genre). This change, distortion of proportions is the stamp of surrealism. But the mass consciousness perceives it as realistic, although everyone knows that there is no head without a body, and that such space is, in essence, absurd. Postmodernism - this carefree and frivolous child of the late 20th century - finally let in popular culture and mixed it with the elitist. At first it was a compromise called kitsch. But then the classic texts of postmodern culture, such as Umberto Eco's novel "The Name of the Rose" or Quentin Tarantino's film Pulp Fiction, began to actively use the strategy of the internal structure of mass art.

Mass culture

With the advent of the media (radio, mass printed publications, television, gramophone, tape recorders), the distinction between high and popular culture was erased. This is how a mass culture arose, which is not associated with religious or class subcultures. The media and popular culture are inextricably linked. Culture becomes "mainstream" when its products are standardized and disseminated to the general public.

Mass culture (lat. Massa - lump, piece) is a concept that in modern cultural studies is associated with such social groups, which are characterized by an "average" level of spiritual needs.

Popular culture, a concept that encompasses the diverse and diverse cultural phenomena of the 20th century, which became widespread in connection with scientific and technological revolution and constant updating of the mass media. The production, distribution and consumption of mass culture products is of an industrial and commercial nature. The semantic range of mass culture is very wide - from primitive kitsch (early comics, melodrama, pop hit, "soap opera") to complex, meaningful forms (some types of rock music, "intellectual" detective stories, pop art). The aesthetics of mass culture is characterized by a constant balance between the trivial and the original, the aggressive and the sentimental, the vulgar and the sophisticated. By actualizing and objectifying the expectations of the mass audience, mass culture meets its needs for leisure, entertainment, play, communication, emotional compensation or relaxation, etc. Mass culture does not express the refined tastes or spiritual searches of the people; it has less artistic value than elite or folk culture. But she has the widest audience and she is the author's. It satisfies the immediate needs of people, reacts to any new event and reflects it. Therefore, samples of mass culture, in particular hits, quickly lose their relevance, become obsolete, go out of fashion. It can be international and national. Pop music is a vivid example of mass culture. It is understandable and accessible to all ages, to all segments of the population, regardless of the level of education.

Mass culture and its social functions

In the morphological structure of culture, two areas can be distinguished: ordinary and specialized culture. Mass culture occupies an intermediate position with the function of a translator. The gap between ordinary and specialized cultures in antiquity was small (the specialty of an artisan or a merchant was mastered in the process of home education), but with scientific and technological development, it increased much (especially in science-intensive professions).

Everyday culture is realized in the corresponding forms of lifestyle. The way of life is determined, among other things, by the type of professional occupation of a person (a diplomat inevitably has different ways of life than a peasant), the aboriginal traditions of the place of residence, but most of all - the social status of a person, his estate or class affiliation. Exactly social status sets the direction of the economic and cognitive interests of the individual, the style of his leisure, communication, etiquette, information aspirations, aesthetic tastes, fashion, image, everyday rituals and rituals, prejudices, images of prestige, ideas about their own dignity, general outlook, social philosophy, etc., which constitute the bulk of the features of everyday culture.

Everyday culture is not studied by a person specifically (with the exception of emigrants who purposefully master the language and customs of the new homeland), but is assimilated spontaneously in the process child education and general education, communication with relatives, social environment, colleagues in the profession, etc. and is corrected throughout the life of the individual as the intensity of his social contacts.

Modern knowledge and cultural patterns are developed in the depths of highly specialized areas of social practice. They are understood and assimilated by the relevant specialists, while for the bulk of the population the language of modern specialized culture (political, scientific, artistic, engineering, etc.) is almost inaccessible. Therefore, society needs a system of means to "translate" information from the language of highly specialized areas of culture to the level of ordinary understanding of unprepared people, to "interpret" this information to its mass consumer, to infantilize its figurative incarnations, as well as to "control" the consciousness of the mass consumer.

This kind of adaptation has always been required for children when, in the processes of upbringing and general education, "adult" meanings were translated into the language of fairy tales, parables, entertaining stories, and simplified examples. Now such an interpretive practice has become necessary for a person throughout his life. Modern man, even being very educated, remains a narrow specialist in one area, and the level of his specialization increases from century to century. In other areas, he needs a permanent "staff" of commentators, interpreters, teachers, journalists, advertising agents and other kind of "guides" who lead him through the endless sea of ​​information about goods, services, political events, artistic innovations, social conflicts, etc.

Mass culture has become the implementer of this kind of needs. The structure of being in it is given to a person as a set of more or less standard situations, where everything has already been chosen by those very "guides" through life: journalists, advertising agents, public politicians, etc. In mass culture, everything is already known in advance: the "correct" political system, the only correct doctrine, leaders, place in the ranks, sports and pop stars, fashion for the image of a "class fighter" or "sexual symbol", movies where "ours" are always right and always win, etc.

This begs the question: weren't there problems in the past with the translation of the meanings of a specialized culture to the level of everyday understanding? Why mass culture appeared only in the last one and a half to two centuries, and what cultural phenomena performed this function before?

Apparently, before the scientific and technical revolution of recent centuries, there really was no such gap between specialized and ordinary knowledge. The only exception was religion. We know very well how great the intellectual gap was between "professional" theology and the mass religiosity of the population. Here a "translation" from one language to another was really necessary. This task was solved by preaching. Obviously, we can regard church preaching as the historical predecessor of the phenomena of mass culture.

Phenomena of mass culture are created professional people, deliberately reducing complex meanings to a primitive. This is not to say that this kind of infantilization is simple to execute; It is well known that the technical skill of many stars of show business evokes sincere admiration among the representatives of the "artistic classics".

Among the main manifestations and directions of mass culture of our time, the following can be distinguished:

the industry of "subculture of childhood" (works of art for children, toys and industrially produced games, goods specifically for children's consumption, children's clubs and camps, paramilitary and other organizations, technologies for collective education of children, etc.);

mass general education school, introducing students to the basics of scientific knowledge, philosophical and religious beliefs about the world around us with the help of standard programs;

mass media (print and electronic), broadcasting current information, "explaining" to an ordinary person the meaning of current events, judgments and actions of figures from specialized spheres;

the system of ideology and propaganda, which forms the political orientations of the population;

mass political movements initiated by the elite in order to involve broad strata of the population in political actions, for the most part far from political interests, little understanding of the meaning of political programs;

entertainment leisure industry, which includes mass artistic culture (practically in all types of literature and art, perhaps, with the exception of architecture), mass production and entertainment performances (from sports and circus to erotic), professional sports, structures for organizing recreational leisure (corresponding types of clubs, discos, dance floors, etc.) and other types of shows. Here, the consumer, as a rule, acts not only as a passive spectator, but is also constantly provoked to active inclusion or an ecstatic emotional reaction to what is happening. Mass artistic culture achieves its effect through a special aestheticization of the vulgar, ugly, physiological, i.e. acting on the principle of a medieval carnival and its semantic "shape-shifters". This culture is characterized by:

replication of the unique and reducing it to the commonplace;

the industry of recreational leisure, physical rehabilitation of a person and correction of his bodily image (resort industry, mass physical culture movement, bodybuilding and aerobics, sports tourism, as well as a system of medical, pharmaceutical, perfumery and cosmetic services to correct appearance);

the industry of intellectual leisure ("cultural" tourism, amateur art activities, collecting, hobby groups, various societies of collectors, amateurs and admirers of anything, scientific and educational institutions and associations, as well as everything that falls under the definition of "popular science ", intellectual games, quizzes, crosswords, etc.), which introduces people to popular science knowledge, scientific and artistic amateurism, and develops the general" humanitarian erudition "of the population;

a system for managing consumer demand for things, services, ideas for both individual and collective use (fashion advertising, image-making, etc.), which forms the standard of socially prestigious images and lifestyles, interests and needs, types of appearance;

gaming complexes - from mechanical gaming machines, electronic consoles, computer games, etc. to virtual reality systems;

all kinds of dictionaries, reference books, encyclopedias, catalogs, electronic and other banks of information, special knowledge, the Internet, etc., designed not for trained specialists, but for mass consumers.

And no one imposes this "cultural production" on us. Everyone has the right to turn off the TV whenever he wants. Popular culture as one of the freest in terms of the mode of its distribution of goods on the information market can exist only in conditions of voluntary and rush demand. Of course, the level of such excitement is artificially supported by interested sellers of goods, but the very fact of increased demand for this very thing, made precisely in this figurative style, in this language, is generated by the consumer himself, and not by the seller.

In the end, images of mass culture, like any other imaginative system, show us nothing more than our own "cultural face", which in fact has always been inherent in us; just in Soviet time this "side of the face" was not shown on television. If this "face" were absolutely alien, if there was no really massive demand for all this in society, we would not react to it so sharply.

Although mass culture is undoubtedly the "ersatz product" of specialized areas of culture, does not generate its own meanings, but only imitates phenomena, one should not evaluate it only negatively. Mass culture is generated by the objective processes of modernization of society, when the socializing and inculturing functions of traditional culture lose their effectiveness. Popular culture actually assumes the functions of an instrument for ensuring primary socialization. It is quite possible that mass culture is the embryonic predecessor of some new, still nascent everyday culture.

One way or another, but mass culture is a variant of the ordinary culture of the urban population, competent only in a narrow sphere, and otherwise preferring to use printed, electronic sources of information reduced "for the fools". Finally, pop singer dancing at the microphone sings about the same thing that Shakespeare wrote about in his sonnets, but only in this case translated into the language of "two booms, three booms".

University: VZFEI

Year and city: Tula 2010

Introduction 3

1. Popular culture 4

2. Reading Crisis 10

3. Elements of mass culture 11

4. Comics 12

1. Introduction .

The subject of cultural studies is the concept of culture. The object of cultural studies is living people, creators and carriers of culture, as well as cultural phenomena, processes and institutions. Culture is closely related to society. If society is understood as the totality of people, then culture is the totality of the results of their activities.

In everyday life, the concept of culture is used in at least three meanings.

First, by culture we mean a certain sphere of social life that has received institutional consolidation (ministries of culture with a ramified apparatus of officials, middle specialists and higher educational establishments, training specialists in culture, magazines, societies, clubs, theaters, museums, etc., engaged in the production and dissemination of spiritual values).

Secondly, culture is understood as a set of spiritual values ​​and norms inherent in a large social group, community, people or nation (elite culture, Russian culture, Russian foreign culture, culture of youth, culture of the working class, etc.).

Thirdly, culture expresses a high level of qualitative development of spiritual achievements (“ cultured person"In the meaning of educated," culture of the workplace "in the meaning of neatly tidy, clean functional space). We introduce a “level” meaning into the concept of “culture”, when we contrast culture with the lack of culture - the absence of culture. There is no society, people, group or person devoid of culture.

2. Mass culture. .

Mass culture includes only those elements of culture that are broadcast thanks to the mass media, or channels of mass communication - these are radio, television, cinema, and the press. With their invention, the boundaries between town and country were first erased, and then between countries. According to I. Lamonde, these three criteria - television, radio and the press - distinguish popular culture from popular culture. Mass media is a form of what mass culture is the content of.

Although the roots of mass and popular culture, according to Leo Lowenthal, go back to Europe in the 16th century, in the strict sense of the word they must be considered a product of modern society... This is especially true of mass culture.

The emergence of modern mass media made it possible to replicate one cultural product in thousands and millions of copies, and therefore, to reduce the cost of each and make it available to the general population. Industrial and especially postindustrial society associated with two important processes - the spread mass production and the emergence mass leisure.

The transition to mass production took place in the United States in the 30s, and to mass leisure in the 50s, therefore, the USA is considered the homeland of both. Hence, mass production and mass leisure spread to other countries of the world, primarily in Western Europe... Mass culture was formed on the basis of mass production and mass leisure. Why are the three phenomena - mass production, mass leisure and mass culture - closely related to each other, and must be considered in close unity?

Mass production, which spread after the appearance of conveyors and the Ford system, not only standardized the labor process, facilitated labor, filled the market with consumer goods, but it also made it possible to significantly reduce the price of goods. Mass production has caused a new phenomenon - mass consumption and mass consumer, and it is most often identified with the middle class, that is, not very rich, but no longer poor strata of society.

In the mid-1950s, the United States experienced rapid economic growth and a rise in the material well-being of the population, an increase in labor productivity and a corresponding reduction in the working week, a reorientation of the average American from the values ​​of labor to the values ​​of leisure, the widespread use of household appliances, an increase in literacy and facilitation of the leisure of the population. to cultural institutions, including schools and universities, libraries and theaters, film and television. Sociologists began to talk about the cultural revolution of leisure taking place during the transition of developed countries from industrial to post-industrial society.

In the middle of the century, a middle-class society was emerging in the United States, in which the main emphasis was on upward mobility and individual labor efforts. It was the middle class that subsequently played a major role in the formation of mass culture and leisure societies... The characteristic attraction of Americans to the fruits of technical civilization, inventive pathos and the desire to technize everything and everyone helped to create tangible media mass culture - radio, television, transnational newspaper empires. Finally, the third factor is the passion of Americans to turn everything they touch into profitable business, - contributed to the commercialization of leisure activities of medium and young generation America in the 50s - 60s.

At the end of the 60s, mass culture also appeared in the USSR. But it depends little on the market, mass production and mass consumption. The main factor was the state. Popular culture was funded and supervised by the state through the mass media, it included propaganda and official culture - from photography to cinema, everything was aimed at promoting a socialist way of life. Official propaganda became widespread thanks to the introduction of tape recorders, radios, televisions and, of course, the press into the everyday life of Soviet people.

Popular culture pushed to the periphery folk culture, which gradually began to be forgotten. If it were not for the folklore expeditions of philologists who recorded legends, songs and rituals that are gone into the past, the folk (folklore) culture would not have survived at all. True, the government encouraged the holding of festivals, competitions and shows of folk ensembles.

The spread of popular culture gave rise to Scientific research... In the United States, and then in other countries, the sociology of mass culture was formed.

The phenomenon of mass production is not so harmless to society. On the one hand, it makes available to broad strata what in the old days was used only by the elite. It improves the working and living conditions of people. On the other hand, it simplifies our needs and tastes. Generally available goods are sold at low prices and are produced with low quality. Reproductions of paintings by Rembrandt or Van Gogh from the store do not convey the full range of strong feelings experienced by a person contemplating the originals. But not every inhabitant of, say, Russia is able to come to Moscow or go to Europe to communicate with great originals.

According to A.Ya. Flier, popular culture is doing an important broadcast. The language of modern specialized culture (political, scientific, artistic, engineering, etc.) is almost inaccessible to a wide audience, so society needed some translators (translators). An important step was the introduction of universal and compulsory education of the population, and then the development of the mass media (mass media). Since professional knowledge is constantly expanding and deepening, a person throughout his life needs the presence of those who interpret and adapt complex information to his level. The best broadcaster is popular culture, which uses both print and television. Numerous commentators, journalists, political observers, showmen, TV stars and others not only interpret, but also manipulate our consciousness, driving hackneyed stereotypes and formulations into our heads.

Popular culture is culture at home. She is always with us. We join it when it is beneficial and convenient for us, and not for authors or performers.

But this has already happened in the history of mankind. In ancient times, pharaohs, sultans, kings invited professional artists to their homes, and only much later they began to go out into the "world", occupying an honorary box in the theater. Salon culture XVIII- XIX centuries is also a home culture. True, home music-making and home amateur performances were the privilege of a thin layer of the intelligentsia. Beginning with mid XIX for centuries, communication with art has become available to almost all strata and takes place in specialized institutions - in museums, art galleries, theaters, conservatories, concert halls. It is available to the general public.

In the second half of the 20th century, art returns to the house again thanks to television, radio, sound and video equipment, reproductions, and slides. Art became domestic, but ceased to be the lot of a narrow circle of the elite.

From the great three of mass media - press, radio and television - the press emerged earlier than others, becoming already in the 19th century the bearer of the emerging mass and popular culture. Newspaper circulation increased as the urban population grew. With the increase in the number of subscribers, there was an opportunity to make the newspaper more attractive and cheaper, while maintaining a high level of income by increasing turnover. You can have a newspaper with you everywhere - on the street and at home. Previously, to buy it, you had to go to a kiosk. Home delivery increases the comfort and appeal of high-circulation newspapers.

From now on, it became possible to preserve not only fruits and vegetables, but also information and entertainment on recording equipment. You can turn on the melody you like at any time and in any place, listen to it as many times as you like. Of course, there is nothing similar in traditional culture based on the oral transmission of information and a living source. The second distinguishing feature is an incomparably wider range and variety of transmitted information. In Moscow, you can see or hear what is happening at the moment in New York or Tokyo.

Mass media is expanding the circle of art lovers immeasurably. The first concert of P. Tchaikovsky in 1891, held at Carnegie Hall in New York, was listened to by 2,000 people. The first US performance of the Beatles at the same Carnegie Hall in 1964, thanks to television, was watched and listened to by 73 million people.

No less important feature mass culture - hybridization of the media, that is, the combination of a variety of technical achievements into a whole. This is how film, radio and television came into being. Television, whose function is education, information and entertainment, has combined almost all the previous forms of information - school, cinema, radio. In turn, the radio, even before the advent of television, accumulated a newspaper (news reports), a book (radio shows), a theater and a concert hall (radio performances, concert broadcasts), a stadium (sports reports), a stage (playing records). As for the cinema, it brought us closer to various aspects visual sphere - from photography to theater, circus and stage.

Traditional theater culture proved to be widely available. Commercial entertainment enterprises that have become from the second half of the XIX century a characteristic feature of urban culture, faced with competition. Now the actors did not play on stage, but in front of a microphone and a movie camera; people could choose whether to go to theaters and concert halls or listen to the radio and watch TV. Opera singers, musicians and journalists began to work on the radio. Cinema - the youngest of all forms of entertainment - flourished at first, using the expertise of radio and the popularity of movie stars, until television came along. Traditional forms of culture and leisure were changing their status and experiencing a financial crisis. With the advent of radio broadcasting and television, theater and cinema have lost their audience.

Today the expression “culture on hastily". Radio, television and the press satisfy the basic condition of mass culture: a momentary reaction to what is happening and, consequently, the absence of any selectivity. With the advent of communication satellites, news spread around the world almost instantly. At the same time, a huge audience gets the same culture.

Popular culture, being more mobile and technically equipped, began to crowd out traditional forms of art. At first, cinema lured away almost all theatergoers, and then it was itself ousted by television. Struggle for an audience, competition is a new phenomenon in the field of culture, which did not exist before. Competing for the return of the audience, theater and cinema were forced to look for new forms, style, language of expression, which had a fruitful effect on their further development.

However, the “visual civilization”, which replaced speech and writing, has not only positive, but also negative aspects. Some experts believe that visual information leads to early adulthood in children and infantilism in adults. It causes the same reaction in people regardless of the level of education, affecting the lower levels of the psyche (emotions and feelings) to the detriment of the mind.

Experts believe that school teaching methods have discouraged children's interest in serious books.

3. Reading crisis.

The reading crisis manifests itself in two forms: a) passive literacy, when adults and children simply do not like to read, and b) active illiteracy, or functional illiteracy (this term is applicable to any person who has largely lost reading and writing skills and is unable to the perception of a short and uncomplicated text related to everyday life), in which people love but cannot read.

The scale of both phenomena in developed countries is impressive: in highly cultured France, the number of adults who have never opened a book ranges from 50 to 55%; from 23 to 30 million Americans are completely illiterate, that is, they actually cannot read or write, from 35 to 54 million are semi-literate - their reading and writing skills are much lower than is necessary for a full life in society. In Canada, among people aged 18 and over, 24% are illiterate or functionally illiterate. In Poland and Germany, 40% of children school age understanding of the simplest literary texts causes difficulty. Up to 30% of high school students in France read very badly and will soon join the ranks of the unread public, whose intellectual demands are limited to comics and entertainment films. Researchers have identified real cultural deserts, especially in the rural area, located just a few kilometers from Paris. Surprisingly, in France, on the one hand, there is a cultural elite, fed with all kinds of book products and claiming to be the bearer of true culture, and on the other hand, there are broad masses who are hungry for books and reject the culture offered to them.

Functionally illiterate people are culturally limited to one degree or another and cut off from social and intellectual communication. They can be characterized as follows: poor school performance, negative attitude towards cultural institutions due to inability to use them and fear of being judged by experts, etc. For this category of readers, the world of culture is beyond their vital interests: they do not go to libraries and bookstores, and the education they received at school made them more likely to be rejected from literature than stimulated a deep interest in reading and self-education skills.

4. Elements of mass culture.

Experts consider a very wide range of phenomena to be elements, types and means of expression of mass culture. So, for example, A.Ya. Flier names the following: the media, school and university education, ideology and propaganda, the entertainment industry, including mass staged and spectacular performances (from circus sports to erotic), professional sports (as a spectacle for fans), institutions of organized entertainment (clubs, discos, dance floors, etc.), the recreational leisure industry (resorts, physical education, bodybuilding and aerobics, sports tourism, medical, pharmaceutical, cosmetic services), the intellectual leisure industry (amateur art activities, collecting, hobby groups, scientific and educational institutions, intellectual games, etc.), slot machines and computer games, all kinds of dictionaries, reference books, encyclopedias, catalogs, the Internet, show business, cinema, etc.

But we will single out only two of the most typical genres for mass culture, widespread throughout the world - comics and cinema.

4.1. Comics.

These include oral stories or dialogues accompanied by pictures. At the same time, there are several of their varieties: 1) magazine and newspaper inserts in the form of a block of funny pictures; 2) book comics published as a separate brochure; 3) comic films; 4) comic cartoons. Aside, there is a special genre of comics that appeared in the late 60s in the underground hippie press and represent an element of counterculture.

The first newspaper comics in the United States appeared in 1892. In 1946, 60 million comics were sold every month to teenagers under the age of 18 in the country. The peak came in 1954, when 650 different comic books sold 100 million per month. In 1928, the famous Mickey Mouse cartoons appeared.

Over time, comics have become a powerful industry and have become a kind of cult symbol for many generations of Americans. For example, the Star Wars series has captured the imagination of teenagers for over 20 years. Experts believe that the role of comics in the United States is akin to that of a major cultural institute performing an important task for the masses of fans. All ages, men and women, rich and poor alike, are obedient to comics.

Experts talk about the emergence of the sociology of comics, which, as a subdiscipline, has its own subject and object, empirical data and theoretical developments, methodology and explanatory concepts. The scientific literature on comics contains many hundreds of articles and monographs. Scientists analyze publications in teen magazines, interview comic book readers, and conduct cross-cultural and historical research.

It turned out that comics do not serve as a means of persuading from acute problems of reality into a fictional world, as was previously thought, but to break the monotonous rhythm of everyday life. In addition, by making fun of political leaders and movie stars, comics serve as a means of democratic education for young people. Countercultural comics are popular not with those between 10 and 18, but with those over 20, college and university students find answers to pressing social and political problems in samizdat newspapers and leaflets. Their audience is students who have experienced fatigue from the norms of official culture and are looking for their place in modern society. Most often it is a kind of protest literature. Today comics have become an integral part of educational and educational programs in the United States.

The cultural significance of cartoon comics can be seen in the fact that their characters have long turned into additional agents of socialization of the younger generation who grew up on them. They teach adolescents to deal with difficulties, not to be afraid of dangers, to believe in themselves and hope for success at any turn of events.

At the same time, sociologists note that the moral focus of comic book heroes on the fight against evil is almost completely balanced by the propaganda of violence, with which the pages of such literature are oversaturated. The cartoonist cannot do otherwise: comics simultaneously simplify the ways of solving real problems, offering sometimes very primitive and vulgar methods: kill, use violence, rob. Even if they come from villains, adolescent consciousness still legitimizes them as correct and possible, since they come from favorite cartoons.

In general, the cultural world of comics is heterogeneous, there are undoubted masterpieces that educate people in the spirit of respect for moral ideals, and there is outright consumer goods created on the topic of the day. That's why in American literature the opinions of experts are divided: supporters overestimate the progressive cultural role comics, and opponents exaggerate the social harm they cause. Some sociologists emphasize the catastrophic role of comics in allowing teenagers to release accumulated energy and aggression, while others point out that comics are more often read by delinquent teenagers than by law-abiding youth. The use of special tests that track school success and the intellectual level of adolescents over several decades indicates that there is some deterioration in motivation and academic achievement. The generation of Americans brought up on comics has become worse in thinking and learning.

4.2. Cinema.

Cinema was the first medium of popular culture. Cinematography was born as a form of leisure for the working class. V late XIX century in the United States, silent cinema, unlike theater and journalists, was the most accessible form entertainment for expats from Eastern and Southern Europe who did not understand of English language... The first film producers were also emigrants. They understood the needs of their audience, creating comedies, science fiction films and action films. Early cinema was extremely unpretentious, devoid of internal intrigue and was a set of simple scenes: a gardener sprays water from a hose, hunters drive the beast.

When the movie camera was invented in 1903, and the profession of cameraman emerged, films became more complex in plot. Heroes with their own character and dramatic destiny appeared on the screen. In 1927 - 1928, when sound films entered life, the peak of cinema came. Then giant cinemas appeared in America (for 3-6 thousand viewers), which were visited daily by 7-10 million people. Sound expanded the possibilities of cinema, new genres appeared, unknown to silent cinematography, built on pantomime, in particular, musical, "horror films", social cinema.

From 1990 - 1911 begins the history of the greatest film industry in the world - Hollywood, which is also called the world "dream factory". By 1918, he was producing up to 97% of world cinema: 841 films annually, which were shown in 21,000 cinemas. The six giants of Hollywood - Warner Brothers, Universal, Twentieth Century Fox, Paramount, United Artists and Columbia - now earn several billion dollars a year, creating products not only for the domestic market, but also for export. In the 70s, Hollywood, having also begun to create television films, turned into the world capital of television production.

In 1933, the first cinemas with a platform for cars appeared, and in the late 40s they became a mass phenomenon. In the early 80s, every fourth cinema was for motorists. Although the cinema did everything to win the American audience, its time seemed to be inexorably coming to an end. After the war, interest in cinema declined, while interest in television, on the contrary, grew. In the mid-70s, 20 million viewers visited cinemas a week (for comparison: in the 20s, 100 million every week). As cinema went down, it grew in popularity TV.

5. Conclusion.

The mass society is contradictory. On the one hand, it made books publicly available, and with them made public literacy and scientific knowledge publicly available. On the other hand, it is mass society that discourages people from deep and interested reading. The reading crisis in the West is one of the varieties of the cultural crisis.

Popular culture, being more mobile and technically equipped, began to crowd out traditional forms of art. At first, cinema lured away almost all theatergoers, and then it was itself ousted by television. Struggle for an audience, competition is a new phenomenon in the field of culture, which did not exist before.

Crowding out or squeezing out traditional species art is explained by the greater accessibility of mass culture, proximity to the audience and a higher level of comfort. At the same time, the technical advances of an excellent assistant. Classical works literature and drama, folk songs and dances now could be seen not by tens, but by hundreds of thousands of people. The technique of cinematography has increased the effect of the classics on the viewer.

Competing for the return of the audience, theater and cinema were forced to look for new forms, style, language of expression, which had a fruitful effect on their further development.

1 . Kravchenko A.I.; Culturology: Tutorial for universities. - M. Academic Project, 2000 .-- 736 p.

Liked? Click on the button below. To you not difficult and we nice).

To free download Test work at maximum speed, register or log in to the site.

Important! All presented Test papers for free download are intended to draw up a plan or the basis for your own scientific papers.

Friends! You have a unique opportunity to help students like you! If our site helped you find the job you need, then you certainly understand how the job you added can make the work of others easier.

If the Test, in your opinion, is of poor quality, or you have already met this work, let us know about it.