AD ALTA
JOURNAL OF INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH
In the 1970s there came to a theoretical turn in the field of
research of culture and mass media. The fundamental
development of critical cultural theory was brought along by the
Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies, which was founded
in 1964 in Birmingham. Social and cultural approach that was
asserted by the director of the Centre - theorist of culture and
sociologist Stuart Hall (1932) – became known as „Birmingham
School“. It was right Stuart Hall, who helped to distinctly
distinguish mass and popular cultures. According to him popular
culture developed from folk culture, which however cannot be
said about mass culture. He considered the latter to be
„corrupted“ popular culture (Jirák-
Kӧpplová, 2003, pp. 107). In
this connection D. McQuail again reminds of the most important
American defender of popular culture – John Fiske. According
to him popular culture is culture of people. He says that
popularity is a measure of into what extent a given form of
culture can satisfy desires of its consumers. In addition, he says
that if a cultural commodity is to be successful, it must suit at the
same time the interests of people, among which it is popular, but
also the interests of its producers (McQuail, 1999, pp. 128).
We may talk about the origin of popular culture in the second
half of the 19th century. It was determined by urbanisation and
technological progress. It is not rare that mass and popular
cultures are perceived as counterparts. By popular culture we
may emphasize succession to older folk culture, closer contact
among its authors and users. Popular culture is a result of mutual
discussion among mass media and cultural producers on the one
side and consumers on the other side on what they will produce.
Popular culture unlike mass culture cannot be made beforehand;
popular culture must become popular among the audience on its
own. It happens in a way that people start to like, adapt or
reshape (make popular) certain cultural products (made by
cultural industry) or activities. One of the most striking
differences is that mass culture is made for the audience, but
without cooperation of the audience. In popular culture, on the
contrary, it is counted on the audience as a co-creator. Therefore
popular culture is understood as „favourite culture“.
J. Malíček (2012, pp. 17-18) in his publication Popkultúra:
návod na použitie (Pop culture: guidebook for use) mentions
individual differences between mass and popular cultures. Mass
culture is culture of the mass and it communicates quantity,
unlike pop culture, which due to the word pop expresses
something quality. It unambiguously results that the terms mass
and popular are not synonyms. Mass culture is the object of
passive reception (accepting) and pop culture is perceived by
active subjects. Mass culture denotes a wide spectrum of events
and phenomena, about which we can however say only that they
are mass. On the contrary, pop culture devotes only to such
phenomena that are to some extent popular. If we want to
express the relationship of these two cultures in mutual
interaction, we may state that mass culture can be to some extent
also pop culture. However, pop culture is never
automatically mass culture. It is only that part of the mass
culture, which the receiver picks up on the basis of focused
interest. Besides
J. Malíček the most famous Slovak authors and
researches of this issue involve also Viera Gažová, Erich
Mistrík, Vincent Šabík or Pavol Rankov, who develop issues of
popular culture in the frameworks of culturology, aesthetics and
mass media studies.
Here, we may also mention the fact that component parts of
popular culture are forms that are not products of mass media,
for example new dance steps, hair-cuts, games, fashionable
clothes and accessories or other subjects of ordinary
consumption. Popularity is a dynamic phenomenon that disturbs
static model of high and low cultures; therefore it can reach work
of any cultural level (highbrow, lowbrow, middlebrow)
regardless its inner qualities. Another option is that certain work
is made popular at another level than it originally appeared (Eco,
1995, pp. 60-63).
We agree with H. Pravdová (2011, pp. 22), according to whom
popular culture bounds upon individual approaches and assumes
the ability of receivers to form their own meanings, which reflect
their needs and are different from the dominant mainstream
meaning and values. She understands popularity as an indicator
of potential of a cultural product and proves that given media
content suits needs of its receivers. If any cultural product is to
become popular, it must satisfy needs and various interest of
addressees, for whom it is determined. However, H. Pravdová
(2009, pp. 28) in her publication Determinanty kreovania
mediálnej kultúry (Determinants of creating media culture)
points out the fact that mass and popular cultures are necessary
to be distinguished in the production of mass media.
Nevertheless, at the same time this differentiation cannot be
strict, since both cultures are mutually determined and have an
identical tendency to standardisation and commercialisation.
Both cultures are substantially related to the production of media
contents and messages, as well as to the way of their reception
and interpretation, while they in a fundamental way determine
manifestations of media production of culture and social cultural
reality.
Fundamental signs of popular culture are as follows:
it is created also by its users;
it serves to interests of manifold subjects;
it is polysemous;
it is inter-textual;
it brings along pleasure;
it is the source of socially relevant meanings.
Conclusion
The paper is focused on theoretical reflection of mass and
popular cultures. In the introduction the author presented the
term culture and its scope in general. The core of the paper
consists of chapters on mass and popular cultures, where the
author presented basic definition frameworks to the terms, their
signs, ways of production and other specifics. One of the most
differential attributes of submitted subcultures is that products
and contents of mass culture are produced by mass media and by
media or creative authors. Although it is meant for masses,
however in production only the preferences of the audience are
important. On the contrary, popular culture is made by the sole
audience and users of cultural products. Popular culture cannot
be created in advance; it must become popular on its own. The
paper provides receivers with a more detailed overview on these
subcultures, their origins, authors and tendencies, which
cooperated in their production and development from the
culturological, mediological and sociological perspectives.
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