3. The Media, Globalisation and Popular Culture

Question 1

Global village

Answer 1

Developed by McLuhan
Refers to how the electronic media collapse space and time barriers in communication so people can now interact instantaneously on a global scale.
The speed of technological change is so great the world is rapidly becoming a global village

Question 2

Popular culture (5)

Answer 2

Culture liked and enjoyed by ordinary people and is sometimes called mass culture
Passive entertainment, designed to be sold to a large audience
Highly commercialized
Seen by many as not having lasting value
Simple, undemanding and easy to understand

Question 3

What does popular culture involve?

Answer 3

Mass produced, standardized and short-live products, sometimes of trivial content

Question 4

Examples of popular culture

Answer 4

Mass-circulation magazines
Red-top tabloid newspapers
TV soaps
Reality TV
Social media

Question 5

High culture

Answer 5

Seen as something set apart from everyday life, something ‘special’ to be treated with respect, involving things of lasting value and worth preserving

Question 6

Who is high culture aimed at?

Answer 6

Mainly upper class and professional m/c audiences

Question 7

Examples of high culture

Answer 7

The ballet
Opera
Fine art
Daily Telegraph

Question 8

Who argues that the distinction between popular and high culture is changing?

Answer 8

Postmodernists. They believe the distinction between the two is weakening

Question 9

Why has the distinction between popular and high culture become meaningless according to postmodernists?

Answer 9

The global reach of contemporary media, mass production of goods on a world scale, and easier transportation make a huge range of media an cultural products available to everyone.
This paired with the expansion of the media-based industries (E.g. film, TV, advertising and music) makes distinction meaningless

Question 10

How has the new media weakened the distinction between high and popular culture?

Answer 10

Original music and other high culture products can now be consumed by the mass of people in their homes due to the new media

Question 11

Exclusivity of high culture in postmodern society

Answer 11

High culture is no longer exclusive to cultural elites and people can now pick and mix from either popular or high culture

Question 12

Negative evaluation of popular culture: Marxism

Answer 12

Popular culture is used to maintain the power of the dominant social class in society

Question 13

Negative evaluation of popular culture: critical theorists

Answer 13

They believe mass-produced products are imposed on the masses by businesses for financial gain

Question 14

Negative evaluation of popular culture: key criticism of popular culture

Answer 14

Attacked for diverting people away from more useful activities, for driving down cultural standards and for having harmful effects

Question 15

Negative evaluation of popular culture: Marcuse believes it’s a form of social repression. What does this mean?

Answer 15

It locks people into the present system, promoting conformity

Question 16

Positive evaluation of popular culture: how did writers and producers see popular culture according to Livingstone?

Answer 16

Livingstone found that the writers and producers of TV soaps saw them as educating and informing the public on issues that aren’t commonly shown on TV news (E.g. domestic abuse)

Question 17

Positive evaluation of popular culture: response to Marxuse’s belief that it’s a form of social repression

Answer 17

Strinati rejects his claims and points to the choice and diversity in the media, which people freely choose from and critically respond to

Question 18

2 sociologists that talked about the global popular market

Answer 18

Flew
Sklair

Question 19

Consequence of globalisation according to Flew

Answer 19

Globalisation has undermined national and local cultures, as the same cultural and consumer products are now sold across the world
New digital media breaks down cultural distance between countries

Question 20

What does Flew claim is the process of powerful media making the cultures of different countries become more alike?

Answer 20

Cultural homogenisation

Question 21

The global popular market according to Sklair

Answer 21

The media blue the differences between information, entertainment and the promotion of products, and sell across the world ideas, values and products associated with the consumerist American lifestyle

Question 22

Sklair’s “culture-ideology of consumerism”

Answer 22

Dominant ideology of western capitalist societies is becoming the ideology of the world

Question 23

Cultural imperialism

Answer 23

Idea that western culture is taking over and damaging local culturen

Question 24

Media imperialism

Answer 24

Idea the western media is becoming popular around the world and is becoming more important than the local media

Question 25

Cocacolonisation

Answer 25

Fenton argues that most media conglomerates are based on the US and dominate media communications

Question 26

Existence of popular culture according to pluralists

Answer 26

There’s no such thing as popular or mass culture

Question 27

Do media audiences have choice according to pluralists?

Answer 27

The huge range of media products available gives consumers across the world a wide diversity of cultural choices

Question 28

Consequence of global competition according to pluralists

Answer 28

Global competition is expanding sources of information and entertainment, rather than restricting them or dumbing them down

Question 29

What does pluralist Tomlinson believe is happening rather than cultural imperialism from the western world?

Answer 29

Tomlinson argues hybridisation or the mixing of cultures is occurring rather than cultural imperialism from the western world

Question 30

Rather than being passive victims of the west, what does new media technology enable according to pluralists?

Answer 30

New media technology enables consumers to create and distribute their own media products, rather than being passive victims of the west

Question 31

How is the globalisation of popular culture of great advantage to media owners according to critical sociologists?

Answer 31

The globalisation of popular culture is of great advantage to media owners as they can gain huge profits exporting and advertising their products across the globe

Question 32

What has diverted people’s attention away from more serious issues like global inequality according to critical sociologist Thussu?

Answer 32

The globalisation of TV and competition between media conglomerates for audiences and advertisers has led to TV news across the world becoming tabloidised, designed to entertain and inform

Question 33

What do postmodernists regard the diversity of the globalised media as offering?

Answer 33

They regard the diversity of the globalised media as offering the population more choices in terms of their consumption, opening up a greater global awareness and access to a diversity of cultures

Question 34

Key postmodernist of the globalisation of media topic

Answer 34

Baudrillard

Question 35

What society do we live in according to Baudrillard?

Answer 35

A media-saturated society in which media images dominate and distort the way we see the world (E.g. news reporting of war makes it seem like a video game)

Question 36

What does Baudrillard call the distorted view of the world?

Answer 36

Hyperreality

Question 37

The media and reflecting reality according to postmodernists

Answer 37

The media no longer reflect reality, but actively create it

Question 38

How is blurring the distinction between reality and hyperreality according to postmodernist Garrod?

Answer 38

Reality TV shows and social networking sites are blurring the distinction between reality and hyperreality, leaving audiences confused about what’s real and what’s media created

Question 39

Evaluation of postmodernism: Marxist critcism

Answer 39

Marxists emphasise that the choice alleged by postmodernists is a myth as media conglomerates control the major media