*Raymond Williams on culture

1) A general process of intellectual, spiritual and aesthetic development.

2) A particular way of life, whether of a people, a period or a group.
3) The works and practices of intellectual, and especially artistic creativity (production
of meaning as a signifying practice)

*Culture as a practice and text

Lived culture(as a particular way of life): seaside holiday, celebration of the New Year,
celebration of religious feasts, youth subcultures.

Text culture( as signifying form): speak of soap opera, pop music, and comics,
So Culture is …

1) The whole texture of a society

2) The way language, symbols, meanings, beliefs and values
organize social pratice and this whole texture is subject to
change.

POPULAR CULTURE/ LOW CULTURE (20th century)

1) Include working class and the middle class
2) Contents of the mass media(Films, Tv, sports, popular music,
newspaper and magazines).
3) Having the potential of appealing to masses.

Popular culture can be defined as a culture that is shared by everone

or the mass of the society

Lower classes and mass society

Examples: Fast food chains and pop music, Netflix

HIGH CULTURE/ SOPHISTICATED CULTURE

1) people associated with high culture enjoy particular forms of art
that the general public do not.
Examples: Renaissance art, opera, artistixc exhibitions and ballet
performance.
In this sense, the key difference between the two
cultures stem from who has access to them; while the
upper class has access to the high culture, the majority
of the people has access to popular culture.

POP CULTURE

1) Low qualified
2) Bring people together
3)forgettable
4) Pop culture is manufactured

WHY CULTURE MATTERS?

1) Understanding culture will allow us to analyze the society we live

2) We can understand the relationship between cultural products and
the construction of social realities

WHY POPULAR CULTURE MATTERS?

PRE-MASS SOCIETY
1) Pre- industriel society
2)People mostly were living in countryside- rural society
3) they were working and living in the land
4) Small cities were were dominated by industriel middle class

Kitle öncesi toplum, insanların topluma entegrasyonlarını

etkin bir şekilde düzenleyen, hiyerarşi ve farklılığı tanıyan
paylaşılan ve üzerinde anlaşmaya varılmış bir değerler
kümesini kabul ettiği ve bunlara uyduğu komünal ve organik
bir bütün olarak görülür.

PRE-MASS CULTURE

HİGH CULTURE: Culture of the elite classes

FOLK CULTURE: Culture of the common people
HIGH CULTURE VS FOLK CULTURE
1)The culture of elites- refined art
2)Conventionally, folk culture refers to the products and practices of
relatively homogeneous and isolated small-scale social groups living
in rural locations. Thus, folk culture is often associated with tradition,
historical continuity, sense of place, and belonging.
3) folk culture can never aspire to be art, but its distinctiveness is
accepted and respected.
4) folk culture is self-created and autonomous, and directly reflects
the lives and experiences of the people.

MASS SOCIETY

1)In the late 19th century, the term associated with society as a mass
of undifferentiated- atomistic induvuduals
2) During the 20th century, for the Frankfurt school (neo-marxist), it
was connected with a society of alienated individuals aligned with
the interests of capitalism.
3) In 20 th century José Ortega y Gasset (conservative, lemanted the
decreasing of high culture in mass society
4) With the devolopment of the capitalism in 19 th mass production
become more dominant and cities become more crowded
5) To appeal masses to make them approve some ideas and make
them consume these goods, mass communication is required.

Mass production – mass consumption – mass communication

6)Comminication gained importance
MASS SOCIETY THEORY

 industrialisation
 urbanisation
 atomisation
 mass production (assembly line)
 mass consumption
 mass society / consumer society
 mass culture
 absence of moral integration
 socially atomised
 without appropriate mediatory
organisations, individuals are
vulnerable to manipulation and
exploitation by core institutions
such as the mass media and
mass culture.
 The modern society dvides people into two group. Elites
and masses

ElLITES: Qualified, creative, selective minorities

MASSES: Unqualified, unintellectual, ( they may be literate
but lack classical education)

Kitle kültürü, yüksek kültürü ve halk kültürünü

tamamen yok ettiği için tehdit olarak
algılanmaktadır

DEBATES OVER MASS CULTURE

 1920s and 1930s - decline of high culture

 coming of cinema and radio as new forms of mass media
 forms of mass production and mass consumption of culture
 the rise of fascism
 maturation of liberal democracies

 culture – profit (then it becomes and industry – culture industry)

 culture – mass production techniques
 mass entertainment ex: Hollywood cinema
 mass vs. folk/people
 audience - passive ?

MASS CULTURE
1)Mass culture=mass production and marketed for profit to a mass
public
2) it is commercial culture, mass produced for a mass market.
3) it is easy to understand and is accessible to everyone

WHAT ABOUT ART?

the alleged aesthetic complexity, creativity, experiments and

intellectual challenges of art cannot be achieved by the techniques or
conditions which produce mass culture.

AUDIENCE FOR MASS CULTURE

the mass audience
• manipulated, to have its needs and desires
• had its hopes and aspirations exploited for the sake of
consumption, by the superficially attractive sentiments, the false
dreams of mass culture.

CONCERN ABOUT MASS CULTURE

1) Concern about political regimes(fascist regimes) for mass
propoganda
2) Mass media( radio- film) transmitted the official ideology of the
fascist state.
3) fears about the commercialisation of culture
SOCIAL REALITY IN MASS CULTURE
1) mass culture lacks intellectual challenge and stimulation, providing
instead the undemanding ease of fantasy and escapism.
2) it discourages the effort of thinking and creates its own emotional
responses

MASS CULTURE AS A THREAT

 bad stuff drives out the good, since it is more easily
understood and enjoyed.
 fear of vulgarity, loss of distinction
 threat for folk and elite culture

POPULAR CULTURE/POPULAR
Wll liked by many people
Inferor kinds of work( popular literatüre and popular press)
How do we understand that?
Sales(books, CDs, DVDs)
Attendance records at concerts, events and festivals
Market research
POPULAR CULTURE

it is the culture that is left over after we have decided what is high
culture.
in other words, it is defined as inferior mass culture.

popüler kültür, seri üretilen ticari kültürdür,

oysa yüksek kültür, bireysel bir yaratma
eyleminin sonucudur.

CRITIQUE OF MASS CULTURE THEORY

 Mass culture theory is elitist
the consumption of popular culture by the general public has
been a problem for intellectuals, political leaders, and moral
and social reformers.

1) Mass culture takes time and energy which should be transfered to art,
politics or resuscitating(canlandıran) folk culture
2) Mass culture has harmed effects on it audiences. Making them passive,
weak, vulnerable. So they will be vulnerable
3) Mass culture can not arise from the lives and experience of people unlike
folk culture.
CULTURAL STUDİES VIEW ON POPULAR CULTURE

1)It sees the relationship between audience and popular culture not as mass
culture theory does. It sees it as an aspect of the changing connections
between power and knowledge.
2)audiences may be more knowing, active and discriminating in their
consumption of popular culture than has usually been accepted by mass
culture theory.

Stuart Hall understands popular culture as an ongoing process, which relations

and cultural forms has always shifting.

The Frankfurt School and the Culture Industry

MARXIST APPROACH TO CULTURE

It is based on the Base/superstructure account of social and
historical development
BASE/SUPERSTRUCTURE

*)Base- Economy
*)Superstructure- the political, legal, educational and cultural
institutions
*)The relationship between base and superstructure is
twofold
On the one hand the superstructure both Express and
legitimates the base
On the other hand, the base is said to condition or determine
the content and form of the superstructure.
ECONOMİC DETERMİNİSM

What happens in the superstructure is a passive reflection of

what is happening in the base.