From national culture to mass culture. Popular culture as a social phenomenon

at the same time it is necessary to take into account that in the HULE-XIX century. none of the designated social subcultures or their mechanical sum (on the scale of one ethnic group or state) can be called the national culture of the state. At that time, there were no uniform national standards of social adequacy and unified mechanisms of socialization of the individual for the whole culture. All this arises only in modern times in connection with the processes of industrialization and urbanization, the emergence of capitalism in its classical, postclassical and even alternative (socialist) forms, the transformation of class societies into national ones and the erosion of class barriers separating people, the spread of universal literacy of the population, the degradation of many forms of traditional everyday culture of the pre-industrial type, the development of technical means of replicating and broadcasting information, the liberalization of the way of life of society, the growing dependence of political elites on the state of public opinion, and the production of consumer goods on the sustainability of consumer demand, regulated by fashion, advertising, etc.

In these conditions, the tasks of standardizing socio-cultural attitudes, interests and needs of the bulk of the population, intensifying the processes of manipulating the human personality, its social aspirations, political behavior, ideological orientations, consumer demand for goods, services, ideas, one's own image, etc., have become just as relevant. NS. In previous eras, the monopoly on such control of consciousness on a more or less massive scale belonged to the church and political power. In modern times, private producers of information, goods and services of mass consumption also entered the rivalry for the consciousness of people. All this led to the need to change the mechanisms of general socialization and inculturation of a person, which prepare a person for the free implementation of not only his productive labor, but also his socio-cultural interests.

If in traditional communities the tasks of general socialization of the individual were solved mainly by means of personal transmission of knowledge, norms and patterns of consciousness and behavior (activity) from parents to children, from teacher (master) to student, from priest to neighbor, etc. social experience, a special place belonged to the personal life experience of the educator and his personal sociocultural orientation and preferences), then at the stage of the formation of national cultures, such mechanisms of social and cultural reproduction of the individual begin to lose their effectiveness. There is a need for greater universalization of the transmitted experience, value orientations, patterns of consciousness and behavior; the formation of national norms and standards of social and cultural adequacy of a person, initiating his interest and demand for standardized forms of social benefits; increasing the efficiency of the mechanisms of social regulation due to the unifiable impact on the motivation of human behavior, social claims, images of prestige, etc. This, in turn, necessitated the creation of a channel for the transmission of knowledge, concepts, sociocultural norms and other socially significant information to the broad masses of the population, a channel , covers the entire nation, and not just its separate educated layers. The first steps in this direction were the introduction of universal and compulsory primary and later secondary education, and then the development of the mass media (mass media), democratic political procedures, embracing ever large masses of people, and In. 1 Formation national culture does not change its distribution to the social subcultures described above. National culture complements the system of social subcultures, turning into a unifying superstructure over them, which reduces the severity of social and value tension between different groups of people, determines the universal standards of some socio-cultural characteristics of the nation. Of course, even before the creation of nations, there were the same unifying features of ethnic culture for various states, primarily language, religion, folklore, some everyday rituals, elements of clothing, household items, etc. At the same time, ethnographic cultural characteristics inferior to national culture primarily in terms of universality (due to the overwhelming lack of institutionalization). The forms of ethnic culture are very flexible and variable in the practice of various groups of the population. Often, even the language and religion in the aristocracy and the plebs of that same ethnos are far from identical. The national culture sets fundamentally the same etalons and standards, which are introduced by publicly available specialized cultural institutions: general education, press, political organizations, massive forms artistic culture etc. For example, certain forms fiction exist among all peoples who have a written language, but before the historical transformation of an ethnos into a nation, it does not face the problem of forming a national literary language from the language that exists in different regions in the form of local dialects. One of the essential characteristics of national culture is that, unlike ethnic culture, which is predominantly memorial, it reproduces the historical tradition of collective forms of people's life, national culture is primarily predictive. It produces goals rather than results of development, knowledge, norms, the composition and content of a modernization orientation, filled with the pathos of intensifying all aspects of social life.

However, the main difficulty in the dissemination of national culture is that modern knowledge, norms, cultural patterns and content are produced almost exclusively in the depths of highly specialized branches of social practice. They are more or less successfully understood and assimilated by the relevant specialists; for the bulk of the population, the language of modern specialized culture (political, scientific, artistic, engineering, etc.) is almost inaccessible to understanding. Society needs a system of means for adapting the content, "transferring" the transmitted information from the language of highly specialized areas of culture to the level of ordinary understanding of unprepared people, means for "interpreting" this information to the mass consumer, a certain "infantilization" of its figurative incarnations, as well as "control" of the consciousness of the mass the consumer in the interests of the producer of this information, the offered goods, services, etc.

Such adaptation has always been required for children when, in the processes of upbringing and general education"adult" content was translated into the language of fairy tales, parables, interesting stories, simplified examples, etc., more accessible to the child's mind. Now such an interpretive practice has become necessary for a person throughout his life. A modern person, even a very educated person, remains a narrow specialist, and the level of her specialization (at least in the elite and bourgeois subcultures) increases from century to century. In other areas, she needs a permanent "staff" of commentators, interpreters, teachers, journalists, advertising agents and other "guides" whose task is to guide her through the endless sea of ​​information about goods, services, political events, artistic innovations, social collisions, economic problems, etc. It cannot be argued that modern man became less intelligent or more infantile than her ancestors. It's just that his psyche, obviously, cannot process such an amount of information, carry out such a multifactorial analysis of such a number of simultaneously emerging problems, use his social experience with the necessary promptness, etc. Let's not forget that the speed of information processing in computers is many times higher than the capabilities of the human brain ...

This situation requires the introduction of new methods of intelligent search, scanning, selection and systematization of information, "pressing" IT into large blocks, the development of new technologies for forecasting and decision-making, as well as mental preparation of people to work with such voluminous information flows. After the current "information revolution", that is, an increase in the efficiency of information transmission and processing, as well as making management decisions with the help of computers, mankind, rather, expects a "predictive revolution" - an abrupt increase in the efficiency of forecasting, calculating probable, factor analysis, etc. , however, we will not predict with the help of what technical means (or methods of artificial stimulation of brain activity) this can happen.

In the meantime, people need a way that would neutralize excessive mental stress from information flows, turn complex intellectual problems into primitive dual oppositions ("good - bad", "ours - strangers", etc.), and also gave an opportunity to "take a break" from social responsibility, personal choice, dissolved it in the crowd of spectators of "soap operas" or mechanical consumers of advertised goods, ideas, slogans, etc.

The fulfillment of such needs has become Mass culture... This is not to say that it completely frees a person from personal responsibility, rather it comes precisely about removing the problem of independent choice. The structure of being (at least that part of it that concerns the individual directly) is given to a person as a set of more or less standard situations, where everything is already planned by the same "guides" - journalists, advertising agents, public politicians, show business stars, etc. In popular culture, everything is already known in advance: "correct" political system, the only true doctrine, leaders, sports and pop stars, fashion for the image of a "class fighter" or "sexual symbol", movies where "ours" are always right and will certainly win, etc.

Popular culture is a concept that is used to characterize modern cultural production and consumption. This is the production of culture, organized on the type of mass, serial conveyor industry and supplies the same standardized, serial, mass product for standardized mass consumption. Popular culture is a specific product of a modern industrial urbanized society.

Popular culture is a culture of the masses, a culture intended for consumption by the people; it is not the consciousness of the people, but of the commercial cultural industry; she is genuinely hostile folk culture... She does not know traditions, has no nationality, her tastes and ideals change at a dizzying speed in accordance with the needs of fashion. Popular culture appeals to wide audience, appeals to simplistic tastes, claims to be folk art.

In 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, stereotyped notions, mass culture, nevertheless, performs the function of constant 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 marginalized layers.

Popular culture asserts the identity of material and spiritual values, equally acting as products of mass consumption. It is characterized by the emergence and accelerated development of a special professional apparatus, whose task is to use the content of consumed goods, the techniques of their production and distribution in order to subordinate the mass consciousness to the interests of the monopolies and the state apparatus.

There are rather contradictory points of view on the question of the time of the emergence of “mass culture.” Some consider it an eternal by-product of culture and therefore find it already in antique era... There are much more grounds for attempts to link the emergence of "mass culture" with the scientific and technological revolution, which gave rise to new methods of production, distribution and consumption of culture. Golenkova Z.T., Akulich M.M., Kuznetsov I.M. General Sociology: Tutorial... - M .: Gardariki, 2012 .-- 474 p.

There are a number of points of view regarding the origins of mass culture in cultural studies:

• 1. The preconditions of mass culture are formed from the moment of the birth of mankind.
• 2. The origins of mass culture are associated with the emergence of an adventure, detective, adventure novel in European literature of the 17th-18th centuries, which significantly expanded the audience of readers due to huge circulations.
• 3. A great influence on the development of mass culture was also exerted by the law on compulsory universal literacy, adopted in 1870 in Great Britain, which allowed many to master the main type of artistic creativity XIX century - a novel.

Mass has changed significantly these days. The masses have become educated and informed. In addition, the subjects of mass culture today are not just the masses, but also individuals united by various ties. Since people act simultaneously as individuals, and as members of local groups, and as members of mass social communities, insofar as the subject of "mass culture" can be regarded as two-fold, that is, both individual and mass at the same time. In turn, the concept of "mass culture" characterizes the features of production cultural property in a modern industrial society, calculated for the mass consumption of this culture. In this case, the mass production of culture is understood by analogy with the flow-conveyor industry.

What are the economic prerequisites for the formation and social functions of mass culture? The desire to see a product in the sphere of spiritual activity, combined with the powerful development of mass media, led to the creation of a new phenomenon - mass culture. A predetermined commercial setting, conveyor production - all this in many respects means transferring to the sphere of artistic culture the same financial and industrial approach that reigns in other branches of industrial production. In addition, many creative organizations are closely associated with banking and industrial capital, which initially predetermines them to release commercial, cash, and entertainment works. In turn, the consumption of these products is mass consumption, because the audience that perceives this culture is a massive audience of large halls, stadiums, millions of viewers of television and movie screens. In social terms, mass culture forms a new social stratum, called the "middle class", which has become the backbone of life. industrial society... He also made popular culture so popular. Popular culture mythologizes human consciousness, mystifies real processes taking place in nature and in human society. There is a rejection of the rational principle in the mind. The goal of mass culture is not so much to fill leisure and relieve tension and stress in a person of industrial and post-industrial society, but to stimulate consumer consciousness in the recipient (that is, the viewer, listener, reader), which in turn forms a special type - passive, uncritical perception of this culture in humans. All this creates a personality that is quite easy to manipulate. In other words, the human psyche is manipulated and the emotions and instincts of the subconscious sphere of human feelings are exploited, and above all feelings of loneliness, guilt, hostility, fear, self-preservation.

Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation

Federal State Budgetary Educational

institution of higher professional education

"Volgograd State Technical University"

Department of History, Culture and Sociology

Abstract on cultural studies

"Trends in the development of mass culture"

Completed:

student of group F-469

Senin I.P.

Teacher:

senior lecturer Solovieva A.V.

_________________

Score ___ b., __________

Volgograd 2012

1. Introduction ……………………………………………………………… ..… ... 3
2. Historical conditions and stages of the formation of mass culture ... ... ... 4
3. Social functions mass culture …………………… ... ……… ..5
4. Conclusion …………………………………………………… .. ………… ..8
5. Bibliography…………………...………………………. ..………….nine

Introduction

Culture is a set of industrial, social and spiritual achievements of people. Culture is a system of means of human activity, which is constantly being improved, and thanks to which human activity is stimulated and realized. The concept of "culture" is very ambiguous, has different content and different meanings not only in everyday language, but also in different sciences and philosophical disciplines. It must be disclosed in differential-dynamic aspects, which requires the use of the categories "social practice" and "activity", linking the categories of "social being" and " public consciousness”,“ Objective ”and“ subjective ”in the historical process.

If we recognize that one of the main features of genuine culture is the heterogeneity and richness of its manifestations, based on national-ethnic and class-class differentiation, then in the 20th century it was not only Bolshevism that turned out to be the enemy of cultural “polyphony”. Under the conditions of an “industrial society” and scientific and technological revolution, humanity as a whole has shown a clearly pronounced tendency towards stereotypes and uniformity to the detriment of any kind of originality and identity, whether it is about an individual or certain social strata and groups.

The culture of modern society is a combination of the most diverse layers of culture, that is, it consists of a dominant culture, subcultures and even countercultures. In any society, high culture (elite) and folk culture (folklore) can be distinguished. The development of the mass media has led to the formation of the so-called mass culture, simplified in semantic and artistic terms, technologically accessible to all. Mass culture, especially with its strong commercialization, is capable of displacing both high and popular cultures. But in general, the attitude towards mass culture is not so unambiguous.

The phenomenon of "mass culture" from the point of view of its role in the development of modern civilization is not assessed by scientists unambiguously. A critical approach to "mass culture" comes down to its accusations of neglecting the classical heritage, that it is allegedly an instrument of deliberate manipulation of people; enslaves and unifies the sovereign personality, the main creator of any culture; contributes to her alienation from real life; distracts people from their main task - "the spiritual and practical development of the world" (K. Marx). The apologetic approach, on the contrary, is expressed in the fact that "mass culture" is proclaimed as a natural consequence of irreversible scientific and technological progress, that it contributes to the rallying of people, especially young people, regardless of any ideologies and national-ethnic differences in a stable social system and not only does not reject the cultural heritage of the past, but also makes its best examples the property of the widest popular strata through their replication through the press, radio, television and industrial reproduction. The debate about the harm or beneficialness of "mass culture" has a purely political aspect: both democrats and supporters of authoritarian rule, not without reason, strive to use this objective and very important phenomenon of our time in their own interests. During the Second World War and in the post-war period, the problems of "mass culture", especially its most important element - mass information, were studied with equal attention both in democratic and totalitarian states.

Historical conditions and stages of the formation of mass culture

The peculiarities of the production and consumption of cultural values ​​allowed cultural scientists to distinguish two social forms the existence of culture: popular culture and elite culture. Mass culture is a type of cultural product that is produced in large quantities every day. It is assumed that popular culture is consumed by all people, regardless of place and country of residence. This is the culture Everyday life presented to the widest possible audience through various channels, including mass media and communication.

When and how did mass culture appear? There are a number of points of view regarding the origins of mass culture in cultural studies.

Let us give as an example, the most frequently encountered in the scientific literature:

1. The preconditions of mass culture have been formed since the birth of mankind, and, in any case, at the dawn of Christian civilization.

2. The origins of mass culture are associated with the emergence of an adventure, detective, adventure novel in European literature of the 17th-18th centuries, which significantly expanded the audience of readers due to huge circulations. Here, as a rule, the work of two writers is cited as an example: the Englishman Daniel Defoe, the author of the well-known novel "Robinson Crusoe" and 481 more biographies of people of the so-called risky professions: investigators, military men, thieves, etc. and our compatriot Matvey Komarov ...

3. A great influence on the development of mass culture was exerted by the law on compulsory universal literacy, passed in 1870 in Great Britain, which allowed many to master the main form artistic creation XIX century - a novel.

And yet, all of the above is the prehistory of mass culture. And in a proper sense, mass culture showed itself for the first time in the United States. The famous American political scientist Zbigniew Brzezinski liked to repeat a phrase that became commonplace over time: “If Rome gave the world the right, England - parliamentary activity, France - culture and republican nationalism, then modern USA gave the world scientific and technological revolution and popular culture ”.

The phenomenon of the emergence of mass culture is as follows. For turn of XIX centuries has become characteristic of the all-encompassing massification of life. She touched upon all her spheres: economics and politics, management and communication of people. The active role of the masses of people in various social spheres has been analyzed in a number of philosophical works of the 20th century.

X. Ortega y Gasset in his work “The Rise of the Masses” deduces the very concept of “mass” from the definition of “crowd”. The crowd is quantitatively and visually many, and the multitude from the point of view of sociology is the mass, explains Ortega. And further he writes: “Society has always been a mobile unity of the minority and the masses. A minority is a set of individuals singled out separately, a mass - not singled out by anything. Mass is average person... Thus, a purely quantitative definition turns into a qualitative one. "

The book "The End of Ideology" by the American sociologist, professor at Columbia University D. Bell, in which the peculiarities of modern society are determined by the emergence of mass production and mass consumption, is very informative for the analysis of our problem. Here, the author formulates five meanings of the concept of "mass":

1. Mass - as an undifferentiated set (that is, the opposite of the concept of class).

2. Mass - as a synonym for ignorance (as X. Ortega y Gasset wrote about it).

3. The masses - as a mechanized society (that is, a person is perceived as an appendage of technology).

4. The masses - as a bureaucratized society (i.e. in mass society personality loses its individuality in favor of herd nature). 5. The masses are like a crowd. There is a psychological meaning here. The crowd does not reason, but obeys the passions. A person himself may be cultured, but in a crowd he is a barbarian.

And D. Bell concludes: the masses are the embodiment of herd, uniformity, stereotyped.

An even deeper analysis of "mass culture" was made by the Canadian sociologist M. McLuhan. He also, like D. Bell, comes to the conclusion that the mass media give rise to a new type of culture. McLuhan emphasizes that the starting point of the era of "industrial and typographic man" was the invention of the printing press in the 15th century. McLuhan, defining art as the leading element of spiritual culture, emphasized the escapist (i.e., diverting from reality) function of artistic culture.

Of course, the mass has changed significantly these days. The masses have become educated and informed. In addition, the subjects of mass culture today are not just the masses, but also individuals united by various ties. In turn, the concept of "mass culture" characterizes the characteristics of the production of cultural values ​​in a modern industrial society, calculated for the mass consumption of this culture.

Social functions of mass culture

From the social point of view, mass culture forms a new social stratum called the “middle class”. The processes of its formation and functioning in the field of culture are most concretized in the book French philosopher and sociologist E. Morena "Zeitgeist". The concept of "middle class" has become fundamental in Western culture and philosophy. This “middle class” has become the backbone of the life of an industrial society. He also made popular culture so popular.

Popular culture mythologizes human consciousness, mystifies real processes taking place in nature and in human society. There is a rejection of the rational principle in the mind. The goal of mass culture is not so much to fill leisure and relieve tension and stress in a person of industrial and post-industrial society, but to stimulate consumer consciousness in the recipient (i.e., the viewer, listener, reader), which in turn forms a special type - passive, uncritical perception of this culture in humans. All this creates a personality that is quite easy to manipulate. In other words, the human psyche is manipulated and the emotions and instincts of the subconscious sphere of human feelings are exploited, and above all feelings of loneliness, guilt, hostility, fear, self-preservation.

The mass consciousness formed by mass culture is diverse in its manifestation. However, it is notable for its conservatism, inertia, and limitedness. It cannot cover all the processes in development, in all the complexity of their interaction. In the practice of mass culture, mass consciousness has specific means of expression. Popular culture is more focused not on realistic images, but on artificially created images (image) and stereotypes. In popular culture, the formula is the main thing.

Mass culture in artistic creation performs specific social functions. Among them, the main one is the illusory-compensatory one: the introduction of a person into the world of illusory experience and unrealizable dreams. And all this is combined with open or hidden propaganda of the dominant way of life, which has as its ultimate goal the distraction of the masses from social activity, the adaptation of people to existing conditions, conformism.

Hence the use in mass culture of such genres of art as detective story, melodrama, musical, comics.

The negative impact of mass culture on society

The culture of modern society is a combination of the most diverse layers of culture, that is, it consists of a dominant culture, subcultures and even countercultures.

34% of Russians believe that mass culture has a negative impact on society and undermines its moral and moral health. The All-Russian Center for the Study of Public Opinion (VTsIOM) came to such a result as a result of the conducted in 2003. poll.

The positive influence of mass culture on society was stated by 29% of Russians surveyed, who believe that mass culture helps people to relax and have fun. 24% of respondents believe the role of show business and mass culture is greatly exaggerated and are convinced that they do not have a serious impact on society.

80% of the respondents are extremely negative about the use of profanity in public speeches of show business stars, considering the use of obscene expressions an unacceptable manifestation of promiscuity and mediocrity.

13% of respondents admit the use of profanity in cases where it is used as a necessary artistic means, and 3% believe that if it is often used in communication between people, then attempts to prohibit it on stage, in cinema, on television is just hypocrisy ...

The negative attitude towards the use of profanity is also reflected in the Russians' assessments of the situation around the conflict between journalist Irina Aroyan and Philip Kirkorov. 47% of the respondents sided with Irina Aroyan, while the pop star was supported by only 6%. 39% of respondents showed no interest in this process at all.

Social functions of mass culture …………………… ... ……… ..5
The negative impact of mass culture on society ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 6
Positive functions of mass culture ……… ... ……… ... ……… .7
Conclusion …………………………………………………… .. ………… ..8
Bibliography…………………...…

- adapted to the tastes of the broad masses of people, is technically replicated in the form of many copies and distributed using modern communication technologies.

The emergence and development of mass culture is associated with the rapid development of mass media capable of exerting a powerful influence on the audience. V mass media usually there are three components:

• mass media(newspapers, magazines, radio, television, Internet blogs, etc.) - disseminate information, have a regular impact on the audience and are targeted at certain groups of people;
• mass media(advertising, fashion, cinema, mass literature) - they do not always regularly influence the audience, they are focused on the average consumer;
• technical means of communication(Internet, telephone) - determine the possibility of direct person-to-person communication and can serve to transmit personal information.

Note that not only the mass media have an impact on society, but society also seriously affects the nature of the information transmitted in the mass media. Unfortunately, public inquiries are often culturally low, which lowers the level of television programs, newspaper articles, pop performances, etc.

V recent decades in the context of the development of communication means speak of a special computer culture. If earlier the main source of information was book page, now - a computer screen. Modern computer allows you to instantly receive information over the network, add text graphics, video films, sound, which provides a holistic and multi-level perception of information. In this case, text on the Internet (for example, a web page) can be represented as hypertext... those. contain a system of references to other texts, fragments, non-textual information. The flexibility and multidimensionality of the means of computer display of information multiply the degree of its impact on a person.

At the end of XX - early XXI v. popular culture began to play important role in ideology and economics. However, this role is ambiguous. On the one hand, mass culture made it possible to cover broad strata of the population and introduce them to the achievements of culture, presenting the latter in simple, democratic and understandable to all images and concepts, but on the other, it created powerful mechanisms for manipulating public opinion and forming an average taste.

The main components of mass culture include:

• information industry- press, television news, talk shows, etc., explaining what is happening understandable language... Mass culture was originally formed precisely in the information industry - the “yellow press” of the 19th - early 20th centuries. Time has shown the high efficiency of mass communication in manipulating public opinion;
• leisure industry- films, entertainment literature, pop humor with the most simplified content, pop music, etc.;
• formation system mass consumption which focuses on advertising and fashion. Consumption is presented here in the form of a non-stop process and the most important goal of human existence;
• replicated mythology - from the myth about “ american dream", Where beggars turn into millionaires, to myths about" national exclusivity "and the special virtues of this or that people in comparison with others.