Culture And Identity

Question 1

High culture and pop culture

Answer 1

Pop culture is what is enjoyed by the masses, media is largely responsible for creating pop culture.
Pop culture often borrows ideas from high culture - popularising it and making it available to the masses
Pop culture is more working class
Always changing and based in large heterogeneous(diverse) groups of people in urban areas.
Industrialisation/urbanisation lead to rise of Formal education and leisure time so people formed a pop culture
Formed by the people

High culture is elitist
Looks at pop culture as being inferior and unintelligent.
Problems arise as Shakespeare was originally popular culture but has now been converted to high culture.
High culture is seen as superior and is a way of excluding the masses
Often in hard to understand language to make it unavailable to outsiders
If you are well versed in high culture you are seen as intelligent and gives you advantages

Question 2

Folk culture

Answer 2

Traditional
Long lasting
Often localised
Symbolic
A way of expressing ethnic identity
Slowly evolves over time

Question 3

Mass culture

Answer 3

Created by commercial organisations
Passive - consumers lack critical judgment
Dumbed down
Association with industrial society
Produced for profit - false needs created through advertisement

Question 4

Mass media

Answer 4

Mass culture emerges from mass media
Do we influence media or does it influence us