Samenvatting Cultural Media Studies
LES 1: What is Popular Culture?
Can you think about what popular culture means to you?
• It is not just about the references to the books and movies, but also a personal
investment, belonging to a community.
• Popular means something different for everyone.
• E.g. Short lived, enjoyed by a lot of people
• E.g. Hogwarts uniforms dress up to go to (not just the reference to the books), it’s
about personal investment → it’s something personal But also belonging to a
certain culture
• Feeling of community → Fortnite is also outside the game (cosplay)
o more than text alone – cosplaying; merchandise…
tension between community and commerce
1. Introduction
Popular culture is always defined in relation to what it is not, implied otherness
Implied otherness = a big absence, something that is missing e.g. Popular culture is not
mass culture, not high culture,…
• Popular culture is an empty conceptual category, because you can only define it in
what it is not. It can be filled in in a wide variety of often conflicting ways, depending
on the context of use
• Popular culture is always defined in contrast to other conceptual categories
You could look at it as something that has been studied in media/communication sciences
• ( = very easy way to define it), within these studies it is always linked to
power/ideology
• Popular culture gives meaning to everyday life, as well as structures people’s
everyday lives.
• Varied study objects (film, data, TV, games, social media, newspapers…)
POPULAR? CULTURE?
→ in order to define popular culture, we first need to define culture
1.1. defining ways of looking at “culture” (3 definitions)
Raymond Williams , cultural theorist, writer
“Culture is one of the two or three most complicated words In the English language”
→The schools we will use, use these definitions of popular culture.
→ William talks about three definitions
1
, 1.1.1. A general process of intellectual, spiritual and aesthetic
development
• E.g. Western European culture (represented by intellectuals, philosophers & artists)
• Refers to great philosophers, great artist, poets,… : brought definition
• Tendency toward great man definition (white men) → history as linear line
• Culture with a capital C → canonized and longitudinal
1.1.2. A particular way of life (connected to place, time and
communities)
• E.g. Western European culture ➔ religion, sport, holiday celebrations
• = lived cultures
• more concrete than first definition
• it takes into account practices, sports, holidays (Christmas),.. (everyday things)
• Demarcated by time, place and actors
1.1.3. Products and practices of intellectual and artistic activity
• E.g. writers, painters, film directors → theatre, opera, dance, soap, opera, music…
• = Looking at the small parts, the tangible things of culture
• Start to look at texts (opera, soap, pop,…), why is there meaning, how has it been
constructed
• Here we are looking at the products themselves, tangible things,…
• Culture as signifying practices
• Group of people who are engaged in a certain practice and their products
• Body of works/practices that together make up a ‘culture’
1.2. defining ways of looking at”" Ideology” (5 definitions)
Turner, cultural theorist
“the most important conceptual category in cultural studies.”
• Ideology is a crucial concept in the study of popular culture
• Like culture, ideology has many competing meanings
• It is important to understand the nature of popular culture → Focus on ideology is
what allows us to move beyond popular culture as entertainment
1.2.1. A systematic body of ideas articulated by a particular group of
people
E.g. ideology of the Labour party, professional ideology (these are the ideas that inform the
practices of particular professional groups) (brought e.g. even IKEA has this) (clearly
expressed by those involved)
2
, 1.2.2. Masking, distortion or concealment
• Ideology always involves these ideas, you are going to conceal certain things to fit
your ideology
• Ideology indicates that some texts and practices present distorted images of reality
to fit into your ideology. → they produce false consciousness (that naturalizes
unequal access to and benefits of means of production (cf. relations of production)
• These distortions work in the interest of the powerful. (=capitalism)
• Interest of the powerful against the interest of the powerless
• The subordinated classes do not see themselves as oppressed or exploited, not just
concealing also concealing that they are unaware ( =Marxism)
o Marxism says that society is divided into 2 sectors: base & superstructure → economic driven
→ remaining/concealing power relations that have been installed
o The way a society organizes the means of its material production will have a
determining effect on the type of culture that society produces or make
possible. The cultural products of this so called base/ superstructure
relationship are deemed ideological to the extent that, as a result of this
relationship, they implicitly or explicitly support the interests of dominant
groups who, socially, politically, economically and culturally, benefit from this
particular economic organization of society
• We can also use ideology is a more general sense to refer to power relations outside
of class e.g. patriarchy, distortion of gender relations, racism,…
o Base
▪ Means of productions = resources that can create things
▪ The relations that persons have towards the means of production =
ownership
o Superstructure
▪ Portray economic structure in a certain way
▪ Naturalize and legitimates what happens in the base
1.2.3. Ideological forms
3
, Stuart Hall – Marxist sociologist, cultural theorist
“Culture is a site where collective social understandings are created: a terrain on which the
politics of signification are played out in attempts to win people to a particular ways of
seeing the world.”
• Particular way of representation that which is cultural as natural
• Society is based around inequality, oppression. Texts will always take a side,
consciously or unconsciously (nothing is innocent)
• This definition draws attention to the way in which texts always present a particular
image of the world
• All texts are political in the end (either in their affirmation or rejection of a status
quo)
• Draws on/adds to the previous approach to ideology: adding substance (inhoud) to
the mechanism
• Ideological forms = what happens in the process of legitimation
o For example: Arabic culture demonized → shown relatively explicit
(denotation, not connotation)
1.2.4. Myth, operating at the level of connotations
Roland Barthes – structuralist
“The bastard form of mass culture is humiliated repetition: content,
ideological scheme, the blurring of contradictions – there are repeated, but
the superficial forms are varied: always new books…” → Barthes used the
word myth instead of ideology
• A lot is just connotation. Unconscious meaning in texts & practices,
not as the third definition suggests.
• Barthes says that myths operate at a level of connotations, often
unconscious, secondary meanings that texts carry.
• Not necessarily about the apparent meaning of a text, but rather
about what it suggests/connotes
o E.g. The ideological relevance of this image is not its depiction of a young
black boy saluting the flag, but rather the fact that it legitimates and justifies
French imperialism – regardless of whether its subjects are black or white
• The way a text tries to make certain things look normal, universal, natural
o E.g. white heterosexual middleclass = the standard, everything else is not
normal, not universal e.g. why people say “a black journalist”
• -/- ideological forms: IF’s address the immediate subject of signification, whereas
Myth’s speak to something much more abstract
1.2.5. Not only a body of ideas, but as material practice
Louis Althusser – Marxist philosopher
“Ideology has very little to do with consciousness – it is profoundly unconscious”
4
LES 1: What is Popular Culture?
Can you think about what popular culture means to you?
• It is not just about the references to the books and movies, but also a personal
investment, belonging to a community.
• Popular means something different for everyone.
• E.g. Short lived, enjoyed by a lot of people
• E.g. Hogwarts uniforms dress up to go to (not just the reference to the books), it’s
about personal investment → it’s something personal But also belonging to a
certain culture
• Feeling of community → Fortnite is also outside the game (cosplay)
o more than text alone – cosplaying; merchandise…
tension between community and commerce
1. Introduction
Popular culture is always defined in relation to what it is not, implied otherness
Implied otherness = a big absence, something that is missing e.g. Popular culture is not
mass culture, not high culture,…
• Popular culture is an empty conceptual category, because you can only define it in
what it is not. It can be filled in in a wide variety of often conflicting ways, depending
on the context of use
• Popular culture is always defined in contrast to other conceptual categories
You could look at it as something that has been studied in media/communication sciences
• ( = very easy way to define it), within these studies it is always linked to
power/ideology
• Popular culture gives meaning to everyday life, as well as structures people’s
everyday lives.
• Varied study objects (film, data, TV, games, social media, newspapers…)
POPULAR? CULTURE?
→ in order to define popular culture, we first need to define culture
1.1. defining ways of looking at “culture” (3 definitions)
Raymond Williams , cultural theorist, writer
“Culture is one of the two or three most complicated words In the English language”
→The schools we will use, use these definitions of popular culture.
→ William talks about three definitions
1
, 1.1.1. A general process of intellectual, spiritual and aesthetic
development
• E.g. Western European culture (represented by intellectuals, philosophers & artists)
• Refers to great philosophers, great artist, poets,… : brought definition
• Tendency toward great man definition (white men) → history as linear line
• Culture with a capital C → canonized and longitudinal
1.1.2. A particular way of life (connected to place, time and
communities)
• E.g. Western European culture ➔ religion, sport, holiday celebrations
• = lived cultures
• more concrete than first definition
• it takes into account practices, sports, holidays (Christmas),.. (everyday things)
• Demarcated by time, place and actors
1.1.3. Products and practices of intellectual and artistic activity
• E.g. writers, painters, film directors → theatre, opera, dance, soap, opera, music…
• = Looking at the small parts, the tangible things of culture
• Start to look at texts (opera, soap, pop,…), why is there meaning, how has it been
constructed
• Here we are looking at the products themselves, tangible things,…
• Culture as signifying practices
• Group of people who are engaged in a certain practice and their products
• Body of works/practices that together make up a ‘culture’
1.2. defining ways of looking at”" Ideology” (5 definitions)
Turner, cultural theorist
“the most important conceptual category in cultural studies.”
• Ideology is a crucial concept in the study of popular culture
• Like culture, ideology has many competing meanings
• It is important to understand the nature of popular culture → Focus on ideology is
what allows us to move beyond popular culture as entertainment
1.2.1. A systematic body of ideas articulated by a particular group of
people
E.g. ideology of the Labour party, professional ideology (these are the ideas that inform the
practices of particular professional groups) (brought e.g. even IKEA has this) (clearly
expressed by those involved)
2
, 1.2.2. Masking, distortion or concealment
• Ideology always involves these ideas, you are going to conceal certain things to fit
your ideology
• Ideology indicates that some texts and practices present distorted images of reality
to fit into your ideology. → they produce false consciousness (that naturalizes
unequal access to and benefits of means of production (cf. relations of production)
• These distortions work in the interest of the powerful. (=capitalism)
• Interest of the powerful against the interest of the powerless
• The subordinated classes do not see themselves as oppressed or exploited, not just
concealing also concealing that they are unaware ( =Marxism)
o Marxism says that society is divided into 2 sectors: base & superstructure → economic driven
→ remaining/concealing power relations that have been installed
o The way a society organizes the means of its material production will have a
determining effect on the type of culture that society produces or make
possible. The cultural products of this so called base/ superstructure
relationship are deemed ideological to the extent that, as a result of this
relationship, they implicitly or explicitly support the interests of dominant
groups who, socially, politically, economically and culturally, benefit from this
particular economic organization of society
• We can also use ideology is a more general sense to refer to power relations outside
of class e.g. patriarchy, distortion of gender relations, racism,…
o Base
▪ Means of productions = resources that can create things
▪ The relations that persons have towards the means of production =
ownership
o Superstructure
▪ Portray economic structure in a certain way
▪ Naturalize and legitimates what happens in the base
1.2.3. Ideological forms
3
, Stuart Hall – Marxist sociologist, cultural theorist
“Culture is a site where collective social understandings are created: a terrain on which the
politics of signification are played out in attempts to win people to a particular ways of
seeing the world.”
• Particular way of representation that which is cultural as natural
• Society is based around inequality, oppression. Texts will always take a side,
consciously or unconsciously (nothing is innocent)
• This definition draws attention to the way in which texts always present a particular
image of the world
• All texts are political in the end (either in their affirmation or rejection of a status
quo)
• Draws on/adds to the previous approach to ideology: adding substance (inhoud) to
the mechanism
• Ideological forms = what happens in the process of legitimation
o For example: Arabic culture demonized → shown relatively explicit
(denotation, not connotation)
1.2.4. Myth, operating at the level of connotations
Roland Barthes – structuralist
“The bastard form of mass culture is humiliated repetition: content,
ideological scheme, the blurring of contradictions – there are repeated, but
the superficial forms are varied: always new books…” → Barthes used the
word myth instead of ideology
• A lot is just connotation. Unconscious meaning in texts & practices,
not as the third definition suggests.
• Barthes says that myths operate at a level of connotations, often
unconscious, secondary meanings that texts carry.
• Not necessarily about the apparent meaning of a text, but rather
about what it suggests/connotes
o E.g. The ideological relevance of this image is not its depiction of a young
black boy saluting the flag, but rather the fact that it legitimates and justifies
French imperialism – regardless of whether its subjects are black or white
• The way a text tries to make certain things look normal, universal, natural
o E.g. white heterosexual middleclass = the standard, everything else is not
normal, not universal e.g. why people say “a black journalist”
• -/- ideological forms: IF’s address the immediate subject of signification, whereas
Myth’s speak to something much more abstract
1.2.5. Not only a body of ideas, but as material practice
Louis Althusser – Marxist philosopher
“Ideology has very little to do with consciousness – it is profoundly unconscious”
4
