CULTURAL MEDIA STUDIES
(FULL EXAM EXAMPLE QUESTIONS)
Chapter 1: What is popular culture?
Preliminary questions
o What is ‘culture’?
o What is ‘popular culture’?
o Do you think that the terms ‘culture’ and ‘popular culture’ are easy to fix or define? Or, are
both terms somewhat elusive?
o Do the concepts seem to point to other terms? If so, what are these? Do some terms appear
more important than others? If so, why do you think this is?
o Is Chapter 1 really setting out to stabilize what is meant by culture or fix what is understood
when we think of popular culture?
o Does Chapter 1 point to a single definition of ‘culture’ or ‘popular culture’? Or, did your initial
reading suggest that a range of debates and a diversity of competing concepts and meanings
are being underlined?
o What does Chapter 1 point to as significant when considering the meaning of these terms?
‘Popular culture’ and ‘culture’: Definitions
Look at the following and consider which can be defined as popular culture. If you think they can be,
answer True; if not, answer False.
.
1) A television episode of Mad Men?
o True
o False
o
2) A The music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart played yesterday on the radio?
o True
o False
3) A reunion concert of the boyband One Direction?
o True
o False
4) The videogame Minecraft?
o True
o False
5) texts of Romantic poetry (1789-1832) read by schoolchildren in the twenty-first century?
o True
o False
6) Television reality shows such as Big Brother or Extreme Makeover?
o True
o False
CULTURAL MEDIA STUDIES (EXAM EXAMPLE QUESTIONS) – Gilles 1
, 7) The World Cup?
o True
o False
8) Comics?
o True
o False
9) The plays of William Shakespeare studied by a class of university students last week?
o True
o False
10) A popular romance novel by Barbara Cartland?
o True
o False
Names and claims
Which term is regarded to be one of the most complicated words to define in the English language by
this theorist?
a) culture
b) popular culture
c) mass culture
Which theorist made this statement (see above)?
a) Karl Marx
b) Raymond Williams
c) Louis Althusser
A theorist claimed that there are three broad definitions of culture. Which of the following closely
matches these definitions? (Make three selections).
a) a study visit to New York
b) a general process of intellectual, spiritual and aesthetic development
c) the works and practices of intellectual and artistic activity
d) a particular way of life
The same theorist identified four meanings of the term "popular". Select the four that best match
these.
a) texts and practices that are well-liked by many people
b) culture made by the people for themselves
c) trashy television
d) inferior kinds of work
e) culture made by the middle-classes for the working-classes
f) work deliberately setting out to win favour with the people
What makes culture so popular anyway?
A quantitative index of popular culture is
a) more to do with the extent of a text's popularity
b) more to do with why someone likes a text
Defined as a residual category, then, popular culture
a) m meets all the standards accorded to high culture
b) is what is left over after high culture has been defined
CULTURAL MEDIA STUDIES (EXAM EXAMPLE QUESTIONS) – Gilles 2
, Cultural sociologist, Pierre Bourdieu, suggests that cultural taste
a) means classical music is inferior to the popular music charts
b) functions as a marker of social class
Mass culture – often linked but not synonymous with popular culture – is said to emanate from
a) the universities of Oxford and Cambridge
b) America
Hegemony theory sees popular culture in terms of
a) struggles concerning resistance and incorporation among opposing groups in society
b) banking funds
One claim about postmodern culture is that it is a culture in which
a) you can be whoever you want to be on waking up in the morning
b) the distinctions between high and low culture cease to be recognized
Popular culture is a culture which emerged
a) out of the Industrial Revolution
b) in the United States of America
Popular culture is thought to be
a) an historically fixed set of texts and practices
b) historically variable and contingent
History, class and ideology
Having read Chapter 1, which broad claim most fits the definition of 'ideology'?
a) Things people feel about their bodily self
b) A systematic body of ideas
c) A political manifesto
It is claimed that one thing about ideology is that it
a) makes people in the Government feel happy about their ideas
b) can conceal the realities of domination and power at work in culture
c) forces a dominant group in any society to relinquish its power peacefully and happily
Karl Marx argued that the way a society organizes the means of its economic production, primarily, will
have an effect on
a) the type of culture that society produces
b) global warming
c) the United Nations
Bertolt Brecht, summarizing issues to do with ideology and culture, argued that
a) art is never without consequence
b) his plays were simply the best!
c) all plays and theatrical performances are non-political
Which of the following examples best fits Althusser's understanding of ideological practices?
a) doing this exercise as a student
b) being alive in the twenty-first century
c) the celebration of Christmas
CULTURAL MEDIA STUDIES (EXAM EXAMPLE QUESTIONS) – Gilles 3
(FULL EXAM EXAMPLE QUESTIONS)
Chapter 1: What is popular culture?
Preliminary questions
o What is ‘culture’?
o What is ‘popular culture’?
o Do you think that the terms ‘culture’ and ‘popular culture’ are easy to fix or define? Or, are
both terms somewhat elusive?
o Do the concepts seem to point to other terms? If so, what are these? Do some terms appear
more important than others? If so, why do you think this is?
o Is Chapter 1 really setting out to stabilize what is meant by culture or fix what is understood
when we think of popular culture?
o Does Chapter 1 point to a single definition of ‘culture’ or ‘popular culture’? Or, did your initial
reading suggest that a range of debates and a diversity of competing concepts and meanings
are being underlined?
o What does Chapter 1 point to as significant when considering the meaning of these terms?
‘Popular culture’ and ‘culture’: Definitions
Look at the following and consider which can be defined as popular culture. If you think they can be,
answer True; if not, answer False.
.
1) A television episode of Mad Men?
o True
o False
o
2) A The music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart played yesterday on the radio?
o True
o False
3) A reunion concert of the boyband One Direction?
o True
o False
4) The videogame Minecraft?
o True
o False
5) texts of Romantic poetry (1789-1832) read by schoolchildren in the twenty-first century?
o True
o False
6) Television reality shows such as Big Brother or Extreme Makeover?
o True
o False
CULTURAL MEDIA STUDIES (EXAM EXAMPLE QUESTIONS) – Gilles 1
, 7) The World Cup?
o True
o False
8) Comics?
o True
o False
9) The plays of William Shakespeare studied by a class of university students last week?
o True
o False
10) A popular romance novel by Barbara Cartland?
o True
o False
Names and claims
Which term is regarded to be one of the most complicated words to define in the English language by
this theorist?
a) culture
b) popular culture
c) mass culture
Which theorist made this statement (see above)?
a) Karl Marx
b) Raymond Williams
c) Louis Althusser
A theorist claimed that there are three broad definitions of culture. Which of the following closely
matches these definitions? (Make three selections).
a) a study visit to New York
b) a general process of intellectual, spiritual and aesthetic development
c) the works and practices of intellectual and artistic activity
d) a particular way of life
The same theorist identified four meanings of the term "popular". Select the four that best match
these.
a) texts and practices that are well-liked by many people
b) culture made by the people for themselves
c) trashy television
d) inferior kinds of work
e) culture made by the middle-classes for the working-classes
f) work deliberately setting out to win favour with the people
What makes culture so popular anyway?
A quantitative index of popular culture is
a) more to do with the extent of a text's popularity
b) more to do with why someone likes a text
Defined as a residual category, then, popular culture
a) m meets all the standards accorded to high culture
b) is what is left over after high culture has been defined
CULTURAL MEDIA STUDIES (EXAM EXAMPLE QUESTIONS) – Gilles 2
, Cultural sociologist, Pierre Bourdieu, suggests that cultural taste
a) means classical music is inferior to the popular music charts
b) functions as a marker of social class
Mass culture – often linked but not synonymous with popular culture – is said to emanate from
a) the universities of Oxford and Cambridge
b) America
Hegemony theory sees popular culture in terms of
a) struggles concerning resistance and incorporation among opposing groups in society
b) banking funds
One claim about postmodern culture is that it is a culture in which
a) you can be whoever you want to be on waking up in the morning
b) the distinctions between high and low culture cease to be recognized
Popular culture is a culture which emerged
a) out of the Industrial Revolution
b) in the United States of America
Popular culture is thought to be
a) an historically fixed set of texts and practices
b) historically variable and contingent
History, class and ideology
Having read Chapter 1, which broad claim most fits the definition of 'ideology'?
a) Things people feel about their bodily self
b) A systematic body of ideas
c) A political manifesto
It is claimed that one thing about ideology is that it
a) makes people in the Government feel happy about their ideas
b) can conceal the realities of domination and power at work in culture
c) forces a dominant group in any society to relinquish its power peacefully and happily
Karl Marx argued that the way a society organizes the means of its economic production, primarily, will
have an effect on
a) the type of culture that society produces
b) global warming
c) the United Nations
Bertolt Brecht, summarizing issues to do with ideology and culture, argued that
a) art is never without consequence
b) his plays were simply the best!
c) all plays and theatrical performances are non-political
Which of the following examples best fits Althusser's understanding of ideological practices?
a) doing this exercise as a student
b) being alive in the twenty-first century
c) the celebration of Christmas
CULTURAL MEDIA STUDIES (EXAM EXAMPLE QUESTIONS) – Gilles 3
