conceptiosn of pop culture: Frankfurt vs Birmingham

Question 1

describe the Frankfurt school perpectives on culture

Answer 1

-applied marxist theory+critical theory to analyze mass media and cultutal production

Question 2

key ideas

Answer 2

-Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer created the concept
-argue that mass media/entertainemnt are tools of capitalistic control
- films/music are standarized and prediuctable
- people value commodities bsed on price rather than their use value
- manopulated customers into brelecing they need certian products
- it discourages critical thinking and reinforced social hierarchies

Question 3

some critics of frankfurt school

Answer 3

-too pesimistic
- understimayes how audiences interpret/engage with media differently.

Question 4

describe birmingham schools perspective

Answer 4

• empahsises how audiences actively engage with and shape pop-culture

Question 5

key ideas

Answer 5

-saw pop-culture as a site of struggle and resistance
- encoding/decoding model /stuart hall)–> audiences interpret media differently based o their backgroudn
- studied youth subcultures (punks, mods, goths) to show how groups create their own cultutal identities –> use fashion, sland, music to resist dominant cultutal norms.
- people negotiate meaning and can reinterpret media in ways not intended by creators

Question 6

critisism of bimingham school

Answer 6

• overestiamyes power of audiences and understeimated corporate control over media.