MEDIA CULTURE
College 1: Introduction
1.1: What is culture? Sociological roots
- General definition of culture
1.2: High culture vs popular culture – A short cultural history
- Norbert Elias – The Civilizing Proces (1939)
1.3: 20th century: High culture vs ‘mass (media) culture’ – denying or rejecting
- 20th century: the rise, popularity and influence of mass media
- Elitist theory
1.4: The social meaning and academic relevance of (empirically) studying media
culture
PART 1 : TEXT AND CULTURAL MEANING
College 2: Media and ideology
2.1: Ideology and media text
2.2: The capitalist ideology of (neo)liberalism
2.3: The ideology of neo-liberalism in media texts
- 2.3.1: Reality Shows - ‘The Apprentice’ (2004)
- 2.3.2: Reality shows - Survivor (1992-…)
- 2.3.3: The meaning of weight loss in reality-shows
- 2.3.4: The neo-liberal body
2.4: Advertising: iconic brands as ideological parasites
- Douglas Holt (2006)
- Case-study Jack Daniel’s America – culture branding:
2.5: Conclusion: Media and hegemonic ideology
College 3: Horror
3.1: The appeal of horror
- 3.1.1: The ideological theory
- Repression
- Oppression
- Horror
3.2: The female monster
3.3: The witch
3.4: From monster to monster-hunter
3.5: Conclusion
1
,College 4: Fantasy Fiction
4.1: Modernity and Romantic discontent in 18th / 19th century Europe
- 4.1.1: Romanticism and the fantasy genre
4.2: The fantasy genre
- 4.2.1: J.R.R. Tolkien (1892-1973) -- The Romantic legacy in fantasy
- 4.2.2: Transmediality: from books, films to online computer games
- 4.2.3: MMORPGs: World of Warcraft (2004)
- 4.2.4: Globalization and ‘banal cosmopolitanism’
Kuipers and De Kloet (2006) – the case of LOtR trilogy
4.3: Explaining the (global) cultural appeal of the fantasy genre
- Max Weber (1864-1920)
- Schaap & Aupers (2016)
College 5: Science Fiction
5.1: Societal function of science fiction
5.2: Evolution
- 5.2.1: The Golden Age of sci-fi: 1937-1950s
- 5.2.2: Exploration of the universe -- 2001 – A Space Odyssey - Kubrick (1968)
5.3: Between science fiction and science faction
5.4: Topic 1 : From surveillance to sousveillance
- 5.4.1: Modern Surveillance
- 5.4.2: Digital Technology: From surveillance to sousveillance
- 5.4.3: Google, Meta, TikTok and…the State
Is Big Brother Watching again?
5.5: Topic 2 : From humanism to posthumanism
- 5.5.1: Brave New World – enhancing humans
- 5.5.2: Humanism vs transhumanism. The end of humanity as we know it?
- 5.5.3: Implications evolution: From natural selection to technical mutation
5.6: Topic 3 : Machines: from control to out of control
- 5.6.1: Science & technology: out of control
- 5.6.2: The ‘problem’ of AI and robotics
- 5.6.3: ‘Human-hating supercomputers’ (Dinello, p.91)
Out of control: will AI and robots take over?
5.7: Conclusion
College 6: Paranoia Fiction
2
,6.1: Conspiracy
6.2: Conspiracy Theories
- 6.2.1: Studying conspiracy theories as a cultural phenomenon
- 6.2.2: Popularization and normalization
- 6.2.3 : The transformation of conspiracy theories in the West
6.3: Why more conspiracy theories in media texts over the last decades?
- 6.3.1 :”The truth is out there”
- 6.3.2: “Nothing is what it seems”
- 6.3.3: “I want to believe”
6.4: Conclusion
College 7: Postmodern Texts
- The Substance (2024) – a postmodern movie?
7.1: What is postmodernism?
- 7.1.1: Modernity: Progress in art and culture
7.2: Postmodernity
- 7.2.1: The end of (innovative) art?
7.3: Postmodernisme and media texts
- 7.3.1: Cross-over: mixing of different genres
- 7.3.2: Inter-textuality: reference in a media tekst to other media texts / film producers
- 7.3.3: Mixing of ‘high brow’ and ‘low brow’ culture
- 7.3.4: Recycling en retro
PART 2: AUDIENCE AND CULTURAL CONSUMPTION:
College 8: Consumption and Cultural Inequality
8.1: Cultural consumption
- 8.1.1: What is cultural consumption?
o 1.No ‘rational choice’ (economic calculation) but symbolic (cultural) meaning
o 2. No individual practice but socially constructed
o 3.No agency but structured by class position
- 8.1.2: The divide between ‘high-brow’ and ‘low-brow’
8.2: Social class and consumption
- Bourdieu: ´high brow` versus ´low brow` consumption
8.3 : Cultural capital
- Structures …WHAT one consumes (Holt, 1998)
- Structures …HOW one consumes
- Structures how one EVALUATES
8.4: Cultural capital -- Distinction and inequality
3
, - 8.4.1: The end of high versus low culture?
Bourdieu under attack..
8.5: Conclusion
College 9: Consumption and Subculture
9.1: From ‘cultural capital’ to ‘subcultural capital’
9.2: Youth culture and the rise of subcultures
9.3: Studying subcultures
9.4: The social logic of subcultural capital (Thornton, 1995)
- 9.4.1: Case-study ‘club- and rave culture’ in the UK, 1990s
9.5: Beyond subcultures
Symbolic Boundary work (Lamont et al, 2015)
- 9.5.1: Symbolic Boundary Work on social media platforms
9.6: Online subcultures
- 9.6.1: Symbolic boundary work of gamers
9.7: Conclusion ‘Consumption and subculture’
College 10: Consumption and Counterculture
10.1: Authenticity in Contemporary Consumer Culture
10.2: Examples
- 10.2.1: Product authenticity
- 1.Naturalness / ‘sustainability’:
- 2.Historical roots
- 3.Local roots:
- 4.Artisanal production
10.3: Conclusion: Consumption and Counterculture
College 11: Celebrity Culture
11.1: Audience and cultural consumption
11.2: Celebrity culture – what is a celebrity?
11.3: A sociological perspective on ‘celebrities’ -- A new ‘status group’
- 11.3.1: Interactional privileges
- 11.3.2:Normative privileges
- 11.3.3: Economic privileges
11.4: Conclusion
College 12: Silicon Valley Culture
4
,12.1: Silicon Valley Culture - Californian ideology
12.2: Phase 1 (1950-1975)
- 12.2.1: Counterculture 1.0: Hackers and Hippies
12.3: Phase 2: (1995-2010): Internet from counterculture to cyberculture
- 12.3.1: A declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace’ – JP Barlow (1996)
- 12.3.2: Time Magazine (2008) You control the Information Age
- 12.3.3: Media studies -- Henry Jenkins (2006)
12.4: Phase 3 (2010-2025) The platform economy
12.5: Phase 4 (2024…?) The coalition between Big-Tech and Politics
College 13: Social media & Post-truth
13.1: Postmodernism: The end of objective truth
13.2: Modern Enlightenment: the imperative of objectivism
- 13.2.1: From modernism to postmodernism
13.3: Postmodernism: the social construction of truth
13.4: Postmodernism and post-truth society
- 13.4.1: Explanation 1: Internet and democratization of knowledge
- 13.4.2: Explanation 2 : Socialization: the formation of online ‘echo chambers’
- 13.4.3: Explanation 3: Algorithmic filter bubbles
13.5: Conclusion post-truth Internet: from modern to postmodern knowledge
College 14: AI and Post-humanism
14.1: Bruno Latour (1947-2022)
- 14.1.1: Beyond the modern distinction object-subject
14.2: Actor-Network Theory
- 14.2.1: (Passive) objects become subjects
- 14.2.2: Subjects become ‘objects
14.3: From humanism to post-humanism
- 14.3.1: Renaissance
- 14.3.2 : Humanism as modern worldview
- 14.3.3: The rise of transhumanisme in philosophy
14.4: Conclusion and discussion
5
,College 1: Introduction
1.1: What is culture? Sociological roots
Cultural sociology of Emile Durkheim and Max Weber
General definition of culture
The shared beliefs, values, norms and social actions that provide meaning in an
(otherwise) meaningless world.
The human condition: in contrast with other animals (instinct) Homo Sapiens a cultuur-
creating animal
The social function: create order, meaning in / to the contingent/meaningless world
(e.g. religion)
Durkeim: being ‘outside’ culture = anomie/madness…
Without culture there is no meaning. Norms about what is good and what is bad.
The social actions that are the results of these beliefs. we are animals without culture
o “What makes humans different from other animals?” bv: neurologen zouden
zeggen, door ons grote brein. Artiesten zouden zeggen dat wij anders zijn omdat
we kunst maken.
Cultural sociologists : “We humans make culture, we make norms…”
Creating of meaning and creation of order. (BV: iemand die een sterk geloof heeft, zegt
dat wat er in de bijbel staat de waarheid is, niet zomaar het gelood)
Durkheim (een van de founders of sociology) : in individualised societies, we are losing
culture. We are not embedded anymore in a collective culture that brings meaning.
Anomie : people become depressed. We are no longer part of a bigger cohesive thing.
From his perspective there is no shared cultural system of meaning.
Culture = social construction
We shape culture / culture shapes us
o (we create society and society creates us. Language does not exist in a vacuum,
it grows out of different people. If you decide to not do anything with language
you fall out of society and become anomic)
Culture liberates culture limits us
There is no such thing as a “fixed culture” culture differs in time, place and varies
per social group (bv: if you look at Russia, china… there are different cultures)
Culture binds people, but does also exclude people => culture provide in-group
cohesion and out-group conflict
Researchers are not deciding what is good and what is bad you just study what
people believe to be true (not what is really true)
Culture differs in time, place and varies per social group
Cultures provide in-group cohesion and out-group conflict
Study of cultural meaning is not about taking sides or determining what is ‘really true’
Researcher is neutral/value-free/ agnostic
6
,1.2: High culture vs popular culture – A short cultural history
Tension between high culture and popular culture
Norbert Elias – The Civilizing Proces (1939)
Always a cultural elite who define what the meaning of culture is
Analysis: how the cultural elite / Aristocracy in Western Europe has defined the
standard culture
o Values, manners, taste and style since the Middle Ages
o Bv: influencers die bepalen welke muziek mooi is, welke kleren trending zijn =>
media elite
Looking down on ‘popular culture’ as ‘uncivilized, simplistic, vulgar, uncontrolled
and potentially anarchistic (and non-western cultures…!)
Distinction through high art, refined manners and controlling emotions (sexual
impulses/violence) = regime of civilization
o Cultural elite distinguish themselves from the lower class, because they have
more taste, more knowledge… not because of the money
o How you control your emotions : showing sadness, anger, sexual desires… is
seen as weakness
Trickling down = over time ordinary people take over the cultural standards of elite
o Lower classes are not rebelling, but are incorporating these manners
Spiraling up = over time civilization level (e.g., control over emotions, refined taste)
increases
o People become more civilized, the lower class are thought by the elite to
behave in a certain way
Cultural elite Ordinary people
High-brow: art / abstract Low-brow: folklore / realistic
Civilized: refined / cognitive Uncivilized: raw / emotional
More wild emotionally expressive dances
It is also about how you control your emotions
This does not mean that one culture is better than the other
The cultural elite looks down on the ordinary people and their cultures
The lower class imitates what the higher class is doing
It is about symbolic power
It is a cultural divide
7
,1.3: 20th century: High culture vs ‘mass (media) culture’ –
denying or rejecting
20th century: the rise, popularity and influence of mass media
Battle between high culture (reading…) and low culture (media…)
1920: “Golden Age of Hollywood”
Movie stars as role models in how to act/dress/look cool
Mass consumption film, radio, advertising, celebrities
These were not based on tradition (what your father or mother did)
Cultural elite: moral concerns about the influence on Culture (ART) and culture, high
values, norms socialization and life-style
Critical theory about the ‘culture industry’ (Horkheimer and Adorno, 1944)
Culture industry – “this is not art, this is not fine literature” (they talk about the films of
Hollywood)
Elitist theory
It is amusement, it is not transcending people – the standardization and
commodification of culture
= it is a capitalistic enterprise
Passive consuming audiences?
The decline of high culture (classical music, art, literature, philosophy) and civilization?
(bv: ging van klassiek naar jazz, ze haatten het vroeger het werd gezien als mass
music) (bv: in hun view was er geen vergelijking tussen een boek lezen en passief een
film kijken)
In academia ‘mass (media) culture’ has been neglected (trivial/not serious topic) or explicitly
considered as indicating a decline of (high) culture – “dumbing down-thesis”
Neglecting = “let them play games, let them go to the movies…”
OR
Writing about it in a very negative way = “dumbing donw-thesis”
“The consequence is that every generation becomes more dumb”
Walter Benjamin
‘The work of Art in the age of mechanical reproduction’ (1935): the loss of
authenticity, originality, aura
Not just film or radio, but photography became a reason why art became less
valuable. Why would you make a beautiful painting when you can just make a photo
that you can reproduce
o When you can reproduce art, it loses its aura, value…
Herbert Marcuse
‘One-Dimensional Man (1968): capitalism and media entertainment reduce humans in
a pattern of one-dimensional thought and behavior” (26-27)
People are no longer reflecting, they are at the receiving end of the bombastic
information.
Neal Postman
Amusing Ourselves to Death (1984): “when cultural life is redefined as a perpetual
round of entertainments, when serious public conversation becomes a form of baby
talk (..) then a nation finds itself at risk; culture-death is a clear possibility” (p. 156)
We come from a culture where we read newspapers, talk about it in coffee houses,
8
, that make people smarter now we look at politic debates on television, it becomes
entertaining and makes us stupid.
We can no longer see reality as it is, we always view it through the prism of films. life is
threatened by films
Bashing film and entertainment
Neal Gabler – Life: the Movie: How Entertainment Conquered Reality (1998)
Bashing the Internet and social media:
Andrew Keen (2007) The Cult of the Amateur: How Today’s Internet is Killing our Culture
Andrew Keen
We used to have good journalists, encyclopedias… now we have the internet with
amateurs who are not trained… Everybody thinks that they are a journalist. Its
undermining high culture. You should leave culture to real artists, real journalists…
On the internet you can publish your own material. Ordinary people can just publish
their amateur work.
Media culture is seen as something bad, standardized, making people dumb
We should study what people believe is true.
1.4: The social meaning and academic relevance of (empirically)
studying media culture
The relevance of studying media culture :
Elitist exclusion of popular culture / mass media culture in academia and culture (e.g.,
Bourdieu on cultural capital; cultural distinction and cultural inequality)
Studying media and popular culture since the 1970s/ 1980s ->
Text and audience studies
What is the cultural meaning of mass media for individuals, social groups,
society
Birmingham Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies (1964-2002)
Critique on passive audience in behaviorism, psychology (media-effects) and
neoMarxism (culture industry)
Most famous – ‘Encoding-decoding model’ from Stuart Hall (1980) we can have our
own decodings of these texts
Understanding Popular Culture (2010)
Quote: “Culture is a living, active process (..) A homogeneous, externally produced culture can
not be sold ready-made to the masses: culture simply does not work like that. Nor do the
people behave or live like the masses, an aggregation of alienated, one-dimensional persons
whose only consciousness is false, whose only relationship to the system that enslaves them
is one of unwitting (if not willing) dupes.
Popular culture is made by the people, not produced by the culture industry”
(John Fiske, p. 23-24).
9
, Production of media culture – people are not only consuming culture but as well producing
culture
From mass media to Internet, social media, influencers
The consumption and production of media culture
Posting, sharing and appropriating User-Generated Content is, literally, the production
of media culture (= is mediatized values, norms and social practices)
PART 1 : TEXT AND CULTURAL MEANING
College 2: Media and ideology
Media-content: texts containing cultural narratives that both reflect and shape society
Media texts may be ‘original’ (e.g., art house), realistic (e.g., documentary) and/or
totally ‘fictituous’ but ALWAYS reflect values, norms (= culture) of the society in
which it is produced
o Media texts contain cultural narratives that reflect and shape society
o Media texts may be also totally fictitious in what way does fantasy reflect and
shape cultural values and cultural norms
Media texts are consumed, appropriated and internalized by audiences and hence
reproduce and shape values, norms (= culture) of the society in which it is produced
o A mutual relationship
o Media text Society and Culture
Analysis relation media text and society
Rooted in ‘critical’ theory :
Karl Marx = one of the founders of the social sciences
This society, centered around capitalist production, creates inequality
Neo-Marxisist perspective on the reflection and reproduction of inequality
Theory: economy (= ‘basis’) and culture/ideology (= ‘super structure’)
o He said that the culture and ideology were supporting the basis
Ideological hegemony: dominant ideology consolidates the interests of those in power
False consciousness: the lower classes consider the hegemonic ideology as ‘natural’
o This is just an ideology supported by those in power
o “the lower class should start a revolution”
Function ideology: conceals inequality and exploitation in a society
2.1: Ideology and media text
Neo-Marxists: Louis Althusser (1918-1990) and Antonio Gramsci (1891-1937)
They were interested in equality, but said we should focus more on HOW ideology and culture
works in creating consensus.
Critical analysis shifts from economie (‘basis’) to culture / ideology (‘superstructure’)
Critical analysis shifts from economic class to inequality of gender, ethnicity etc.
10
College 1: Introduction
1.1: What is culture? Sociological roots
- General definition of culture
1.2: High culture vs popular culture – A short cultural history
- Norbert Elias – The Civilizing Proces (1939)
1.3: 20th century: High culture vs ‘mass (media) culture’ – denying or rejecting
- 20th century: the rise, popularity and influence of mass media
- Elitist theory
1.4: The social meaning and academic relevance of (empirically) studying media
culture
PART 1 : TEXT AND CULTURAL MEANING
College 2: Media and ideology
2.1: Ideology and media text
2.2: The capitalist ideology of (neo)liberalism
2.3: The ideology of neo-liberalism in media texts
- 2.3.1: Reality Shows - ‘The Apprentice’ (2004)
- 2.3.2: Reality shows - Survivor (1992-…)
- 2.3.3: The meaning of weight loss in reality-shows
- 2.3.4: The neo-liberal body
2.4: Advertising: iconic brands as ideological parasites
- Douglas Holt (2006)
- Case-study Jack Daniel’s America – culture branding:
2.5: Conclusion: Media and hegemonic ideology
College 3: Horror
3.1: The appeal of horror
- 3.1.1: The ideological theory
- Repression
- Oppression
- Horror
3.2: The female monster
3.3: The witch
3.4: From monster to monster-hunter
3.5: Conclusion
1
,College 4: Fantasy Fiction
4.1: Modernity and Romantic discontent in 18th / 19th century Europe
- 4.1.1: Romanticism and the fantasy genre
4.2: The fantasy genre
- 4.2.1: J.R.R. Tolkien (1892-1973) -- The Romantic legacy in fantasy
- 4.2.2: Transmediality: from books, films to online computer games
- 4.2.3: MMORPGs: World of Warcraft (2004)
- 4.2.4: Globalization and ‘banal cosmopolitanism’
Kuipers and De Kloet (2006) – the case of LOtR trilogy
4.3: Explaining the (global) cultural appeal of the fantasy genre
- Max Weber (1864-1920)
- Schaap & Aupers (2016)
College 5: Science Fiction
5.1: Societal function of science fiction
5.2: Evolution
- 5.2.1: The Golden Age of sci-fi: 1937-1950s
- 5.2.2: Exploration of the universe -- 2001 – A Space Odyssey - Kubrick (1968)
5.3: Between science fiction and science faction
5.4: Topic 1 : From surveillance to sousveillance
- 5.4.1: Modern Surveillance
- 5.4.2: Digital Technology: From surveillance to sousveillance
- 5.4.3: Google, Meta, TikTok and…the State
Is Big Brother Watching again?
5.5: Topic 2 : From humanism to posthumanism
- 5.5.1: Brave New World – enhancing humans
- 5.5.2: Humanism vs transhumanism. The end of humanity as we know it?
- 5.5.3: Implications evolution: From natural selection to technical mutation
5.6: Topic 3 : Machines: from control to out of control
- 5.6.1: Science & technology: out of control
- 5.6.2: The ‘problem’ of AI and robotics
- 5.6.3: ‘Human-hating supercomputers’ (Dinello, p.91)
Out of control: will AI and robots take over?
5.7: Conclusion
College 6: Paranoia Fiction
2
,6.1: Conspiracy
6.2: Conspiracy Theories
- 6.2.1: Studying conspiracy theories as a cultural phenomenon
- 6.2.2: Popularization and normalization
- 6.2.3 : The transformation of conspiracy theories in the West
6.3: Why more conspiracy theories in media texts over the last decades?
- 6.3.1 :”The truth is out there”
- 6.3.2: “Nothing is what it seems”
- 6.3.3: “I want to believe”
6.4: Conclusion
College 7: Postmodern Texts
- The Substance (2024) – a postmodern movie?
7.1: What is postmodernism?
- 7.1.1: Modernity: Progress in art and culture
7.2: Postmodernity
- 7.2.1: The end of (innovative) art?
7.3: Postmodernisme and media texts
- 7.3.1: Cross-over: mixing of different genres
- 7.3.2: Inter-textuality: reference in a media tekst to other media texts / film producers
- 7.3.3: Mixing of ‘high brow’ and ‘low brow’ culture
- 7.3.4: Recycling en retro
PART 2: AUDIENCE AND CULTURAL CONSUMPTION:
College 8: Consumption and Cultural Inequality
8.1: Cultural consumption
- 8.1.1: What is cultural consumption?
o 1.No ‘rational choice’ (economic calculation) but symbolic (cultural) meaning
o 2. No individual practice but socially constructed
o 3.No agency but structured by class position
- 8.1.2: The divide between ‘high-brow’ and ‘low-brow’
8.2: Social class and consumption
- Bourdieu: ´high brow` versus ´low brow` consumption
8.3 : Cultural capital
- Structures …WHAT one consumes (Holt, 1998)
- Structures …HOW one consumes
- Structures how one EVALUATES
8.4: Cultural capital -- Distinction and inequality
3
, - 8.4.1: The end of high versus low culture?
Bourdieu under attack..
8.5: Conclusion
College 9: Consumption and Subculture
9.1: From ‘cultural capital’ to ‘subcultural capital’
9.2: Youth culture and the rise of subcultures
9.3: Studying subcultures
9.4: The social logic of subcultural capital (Thornton, 1995)
- 9.4.1: Case-study ‘club- and rave culture’ in the UK, 1990s
9.5: Beyond subcultures
Symbolic Boundary work (Lamont et al, 2015)
- 9.5.1: Symbolic Boundary Work on social media platforms
9.6: Online subcultures
- 9.6.1: Symbolic boundary work of gamers
9.7: Conclusion ‘Consumption and subculture’
College 10: Consumption and Counterculture
10.1: Authenticity in Contemporary Consumer Culture
10.2: Examples
- 10.2.1: Product authenticity
- 1.Naturalness / ‘sustainability’:
- 2.Historical roots
- 3.Local roots:
- 4.Artisanal production
10.3: Conclusion: Consumption and Counterculture
College 11: Celebrity Culture
11.1: Audience and cultural consumption
11.2: Celebrity culture – what is a celebrity?
11.3: A sociological perspective on ‘celebrities’ -- A new ‘status group’
- 11.3.1: Interactional privileges
- 11.3.2:Normative privileges
- 11.3.3: Economic privileges
11.4: Conclusion
College 12: Silicon Valley Culture
4
,12.1: Silicon Valley Culture - Californian ideology
12.2: Phase 1 (1950-1975)
- 12.2.1: Counterculture 1.0: Hackers and Hippies
12.3: Phase 2: (1995-2010): Internet from counterculture to cyberculture
- 12.3.1: A declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace’ – JP Barlow (1996)
- 12.3.2: Time Magazine (2008) You control the Information Age
- 12.3.3: Media studies -- Henry Jenkins (2006)
12.4: Phase 3 (2010-2025) The platform economy
12.5: Phase 4 (2024…?) The coalition between Big-Tech and Politics
College 13: Social media & Post-truth
13.1: Postmodernism: The end of objective truth
13.2: Modern Enlightenment: the imperative of objectivism
- 13.2.1: From modernism to postmodernism
13.3: Postmodernism: the social construction of truth
13.4: Postmodernism and post-truth society
- 13.4.1: Explanation 1: Internet and democratization of knowledge
- 13.4.2: Explanation 2 : Socialization: the formation of online ‘echo chambers’
- 13.4.3: Explanation 3: Algorithmic filter bubbles
13.5: Conclusion post-truth Internet: from modern to postmodern knowledge
College 14: AI and Post-humanism
14.1: Bruno Latour (1947-2022)
- 14.1.1: Beyond the modern distinction object-subject
14.2: Actor-Network Theory
- 14.2.1: (Passive) objects become subjects
- 14.2.2: Subjects become ‘objects
14.3: From humanism to post-humanism
- 14.3.1: Renaissance
- 14.3.2 : Humanism as modern worldview
- 14.3.3: The rise of transhumanisme in philosophy
14.4: Conclusion and discussion
5
,College 1: Introduction
1.1: What is culture? Sociological roots
Cultural sociology of Emile Durkheim and Max Weber
General definition of culture
The shared beliefs, values, norms and social actions that provide meaning in an
(otherwise) meaningless world.
The human condition: in contrast with other animals (instinct) Homo Sapiens a cultuur-
creating animal
The social function: create order, meaning in / to the contingent/meaningless world
(e.g. religion)
Durkeim: being ‘outside’ culture = anomie/madness…
Without culture there is no meaning. Norms about what is good and what is bad.
The social actions that are the results of these beliefs. we are animals without culture
o “What makes humans different from other animals?” bv: neurologen zouden
zeggen, door ons grote brein. Artiesten zouden zeggen dat wij anders zijn omdat
we kunst maken.
Cultural sociologists : “We humans make culture, we make norms…”
Creating of meaning and creation of order. (BV: iemand die een sterk geloof heeft, zegt
dat wat er in de bijbel staat de waarheid is, niet zomaar het gelood)
Durkheim (een van de founders of sociology) : in individualised societies, we are losing
culture. We are not embedded anymore in a collective culture that brings meaning.
Anomie : people become depressed. We are no longer part of a bigger cohesive thing.
From his perspective there is no shared cultural system of meaning.
Culture = social construction
We shape culture / culture shapes us
o (we create society and society creates us. Language does not exist in a vacuum,
it grows out of different people. If you decide to not do anything with language
you fall out of society and become anomic)
Culture liberates culture limits us
There is no such thing as a “fixed culture” culture differs in time, place and varies
per social group (bv: if you look at Russia, china… there are different cultures)
Culture binds people, but does also exclude people => culture provide in-group
cohesion and out-group conflict
Researchers are not deciding what is good and what is bad you just study what
people believe to be true (not what is really true)
Culture differs in time, place and varies per social group
Cultures provide in-group cohesion and out-group conflict
Study of cultural meaning is not about taking sides or determining what is ‘really true’
Researcher is neutral/value-free/ agnostic
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,1.2: High culture vs popular culture – A short cultural history
Tension between high culture and popular culture
Norbert Elias – The Civilizing Proces (1939)
Always a cultural elite who define what the meaning of culture is
Analysis: how the cultural elite / Aristocracy in Western Europe has defined the
standard culture
o Values, manners, taste and style since the Middle Ages
o Bv: influencers die bepalen welke muziek mooi is, welke kleren trending zijn =>
media elite
Looking down on ‘popular culture’ as ‘uncivilized, simplistic, vulgar, uncontrolled
and potentially anarchistic (and non-western cultures…!)
Distinction through high art, refined manners and controlling emotions (sexual
impulses/violence) = regime of civilization
o Cultural elite distinguish themselves from the lower class, because they have
more taste, more knowledge… not because of the money
o How you control your emotions : showing sadness, anger, sexual desires… is
seen as weakness
Trickling down = over time ordinary people take over the cultural standards of elite
o Lower classes are not rebelling, but are incorporating these manners
Spiraling up = over time civilization level (e.g., control over emotions, refined taste)
increases
o People become more civilized, the lower class are thought by the elite to
behave in a certain way
Cultural elite Ordinary people
High-brow: art / abstract Low-brow: folklore / realistic
Civilized: refined / cognitive Uncivilized: raw / emotional
More wild emotionally expressive dances
It is also about how you control your emotions
This does not mean that one culture is better than the other
The cultural elite looks down on the ordinary people and their cultures
The lower class imitates what the higher class is doing
It is about symbolic power
It is a cultural divide
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,1.3: 20th century: High culture vs ‘mass (media) culture’ –
denying or rejecting
20th century: the rise, popularity and influence of mass media
Battle between high culture (reading…) and low culture (media…)
1920: “Golden Age of Hollywood”
Movie stars as role models in how to act/dress/look cool
Mass consumption film, radio, advertising, celebrities
These were not based on tradition (what your father or mother did)
Cultural elite: moral concerns about the influence on Culture (ART) and culture, high
values, norms socialization and life-style
Critical theory about the ‘culture industry’ (Horkheimer and Adorno, 1944)
Culture industry – “this is not art, this is not fine literature” (they talk about the films of
Hollywood)
Elitist theory
It is amusement, it is not transcending people – the standardization and
commodification of culture
= it is a capitalistic enterprise
Passive consuming audiences?
The decline of high culture (classical music, art, literature, philosophy) and civilization?
(bv: ging van klassiek naar jazz, ze haatten het vroeger het werd gezien als mass
music) (bv: in hun view was er geen vergelijking tussen een boek lezen en passief een
film kijken)
In academia ‘mass (media) culture’ has been neglected (trivial/not serious topic) or explicitly
considered as indicating a decline of (high) culture – “dumbing down-thesis”
Neglecting = “let them play games, let them go to the movies…”
OR
Writing about it in a very negative way = “dumbing donw-thesis”
“The consequence is that every generation becomes more dumb”
Walter Benjamin
‘The work of Art in the age of mechanical reproduction’ (1935): the loss of
authenticity, originality, aura
Not just film or radio, but photography became a reason why art became less
valuable. Why would you make a beautiful painting when you can just make a photo
that you can reproduce
o When you can reproduce art, it loses its aura, value…
Herbert Marcuse
‘One-Dimensional Man (1968): capitalism and media entertainment reduce humans in
a pattern of one-dimensional thought and behavior” (26-27)
People are no longer reflecting, they are at the receiving end of the bombastic
information.
Neal Postman
Amusing Ourselves to Death (1984): “when cultural life is redefined as a perpetual
round of entertainments, when serious public conversation becomes a form of baby
talk (..) then a nation finds itself at risk; culture-death is a clear possibility” (p. 156)
We come from a culture where we read newspapers, talk about it in coffee houses,
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, that make people smarter now we look at politic debates on television, it becomes
entertaining and makes us stupid.
We can no longer see reality as it is, we always view it through the prism of films. life is
threatened by films
Bashing film and entertainment
Neal Gabler – Life: the Movie: How Entertainment Conquered Reality (1998)
Bashing the Internet and social media:
Andrew Keen (2007) The Cult of the Amateur: How Today’s Internet is Killing our Culture
Andrew Keen
We used to have good journalists, encyclopedias… now we have the internet with
amateurs who are not trained… Everybody thinks that they are a journalist. Its
undermining high culture. You should leave culture to real artists, real journalists…
On the internet you can publish your own material. Ordinary people can just publish
their amateur work.
Media culture is seen as something bad, standardized, making people dumb
We should study what people believe is true.
1.4: The social meaning and academic relevance of (empirically)
studying media culture
The relevance of studying media culture :
Elitist exclusion of popular culture / mass media culture in academia and culture (e.g.,
Bourdieu on cultural capital; cultural distinction and cultural inequality)
Studying media and popular culture since the 1970s/ 1980s ->
Text and audience studies
What is the cultural meaning of mass media for individuals, social groups,
society
Birmingham Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies (1964-2002)
Critique on passive audience in behaviorism, psychology (media-effects) and
neoMarxism (culture industry)
Most famous – ‘Encoding-decoding model’ from Stuart Hall (1980) we can have our
own decodings of these texts
Understanding Popular Culture (2010)
Quote: “Culture is a living, active process (..) A homogeneous, externally produced culture can
not be sold ready-made to the masses: culture simply does not work like that. Nor do the
people behave or live like the masses, an aggregation of alienated, one-dimensional persons
whose only consciousness is false, whose only relationship to the system that enslaves them
is one of unwitting (if not willing) dupes.
Popular culture is made by the people, not produced by the culture industry”
(John Fiske, p. 23-24).
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, Production of media culture – people are not only consuming culture but as well producing
culture
From mass media to Internet, social media, influencers
The consumption and production of media culture
Posting, sharing and appropriating User-Generated Content is, literally, the production
of media culture (= is mediatized values, norms and social practices)
PART 1 : TEXT AND CULTURAL MEANING
College 2: Media and ideology
Media-content: texts containing cultural narratives that both reflect and shape society
Media texts may be ‘original’ (e.g., art house), realistic (e.g., documentary) and/or
totally ‘fictituous’ but ALWAYS reflect values, norms (= culture) of the society in
which it is produced
o Media texts contain cultural narratives that reflect and shape society
o Media texts may be also totally fictitious in what way does fantasy reflect and
shape cultural values and cultural norms
Media texts are consumed, appropriated and internalized by audiences and hence
reproduce and shape values, norms (= culture) of the society in which it is produced
o A mutual relationship
o Media text Society and Culture
Analysis relation media text and society
Rooted in ‘critical’ theory :
Karl Marx = one of the founders of the social sciences
This society, centered around capitalist production, creates inequality
Neo-Marxisist perspective on the reflection and reproduction of inequality
Theory: economy (= ‘basis’) and culture/ideology (= ‘super structure’)
o He said that the culture and ideology were supporting the basis
Ideological hegemony: dominant ideology consolidates the interests of those in power
False consciousness: the lower classes consider the hegemonic ideology as ‘natural’
o This is just an ideology supported by those in power
o “the lower class should start a revolution”
Function ideology: conceals inequality and exploitation in a society
2.1: Ideology and media text
Neo-Marxists: Louis Althusser (1918-1990) and Antonio Gramsci (1891-1937)
They were interested in equality, but said we should focus more on HOW ideology and culture
works in creating consensus.
Critical analysis shifts from economie (‘basis’) to culture / ideology (‘superstructure’)
Critical analysis shifts from economic class to inequality of gender, ethnicity etc.
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