Mass Media and Mass Culture

"Culture" is a term which defies definition. Or to put it differently, it can be defined differently by each person. It includes everything practically that we find in a society -arts, sciences, social beliefs, conventions and institutions - that go into the making of a society's culture.


Prefix this already undefinable word with "mass" and one has a more difficult term to define!Since it is the creation of mass media it would be appropriate to call it 'mass media culture'.

With the giant strides made by technology there has emerged various media, especially radio, television, and films. Communication has shrunk geographies. it affects multitudes of communities within society and influence the formation of mass opinions, ideologies, aspirations and antipathies. A close look has resulted in in demarcating 'mass culture' as something different from elite culture, folk culture and popular culture.

In the evolution of culture the first stage is tribal culture. With the development of agricultural society fol;k culture came into being. The growth of urban societies and the popularity of the mass media saw new culture imaging. This in brief was the path that led to the formation of mass culture - an entirely urban phenomenon resulting from rapid industrialisation and alienation from folk culture.

Somewhere along the way, between the transition from folk to mass culture there developed a minority culture. It was the culture of an elite minority which happened because of the growth of individual societies with varying high standards of high culture. The new culture was called 'elite culture' or 'high culture'. This has been overtaken by the new phenomenon called 'mass culture' and come to be identified as a debased representation of cultural products.

What are the possible ways in which mass culture reveals itself.
1. Mass Culture destroys high culture. With the disappearance of culture elites, high culture must compete for survival in the public marketplace.

And in the public marketplace mass culture has all the advantages. it is more easily understood and enjoyed by the culture consumers.

Where 'mass culture' does not destroy 'high culture', it corrupts the latter. Mass culture is quick to seize anything new, standardize it and mass produce it. thus it is that we see culture industry emerging and from here comes products packaged for a market!

The end product is homegenization of 'high' and 'mass' cultures. aiming at majority tastes, mass culture either bypasses unique traditions and cultural idioms or it blends them into a homogenised totality. "the folk artist today lacks cultural roots or intellectual toughness.... to resist for long the pressures of mass culture."

Mass culture also borrows from high culture, standardizes it and introduces to larger sections of the population. In this manner it takes on elements of high culture and finally it subsumes high culture.