You are working in culture – what does that mean?

Culture Defined

The symbols of expression that individuals, groups and societies use to make sense of everyday life and to articulate values.

• Cultural values can be contested
• Many smaller, bounded cultures (sometimes co-cultures) exist within large, national culture
• People who like football – cheer for a certain team(s)
• Culture can divide and/or unite
• Chocolate and Vanilla
• AFC North
• Edward and the werewolf kid with no shirt
• Differentiation can divide (even within the group)

• Culture constructed and maintained through communication (This is how you know who you are in the group) Soph, Richmond, Biology major

Functions and Effects of Culture

• Limits our options and provides useful guidelines for behavior
• Culture’s limiting effects can be negative
• In pluralistic society, dominant culture (sometimes mainstream culture) often challenged openly
• Co-cultures (smaller cultures within the mainstream)
• Steelers Nation, Deadheads, Jocks, Stoners, Southern Ladies, Frat Boys etc.
• Our culture can divide us Steelers vs. Raven – Americans vs. Communists

Fear of a Black Hat 1993

Cultural definition of communication

“Communication is a symbolic process whereby reality is produced, maintained, repaired and transformed”         (James W. Carey)

• Our stories help define our culture
• We know who we are by the stories we tell each other and the stories that we accept.
• Change comes when we disregard the story.
• What would make us disregard the story?
• Something personal?
• A change in media perhaps?
• Changing the way we think

What story changed you?

(This is a good opportunity to think about how you talk about yourself on your blog.)

Models of Mass Communication

• Linear Model:
  • Sender—message—mass media channel—(gatekeepers)—receivers
  • How does feedback fit into the model?
• Cultural Approach:
  • Individual cultural component
  • Selective exposure
  • Storytelling

Coming back to “What does media do to us?”

• Some who likes Beethoven also like American Idol.
• Do The Munsters rip off Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein?
• Does popular culture cheapen public life?
• • Some who likes Beethoven also like American Idol.
  • Did The Munsters rip off Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein?
  • Does popular culture cheapen public life?
  • TV sets in use for more than seven hours a day
  • Social media accounts for A LOT of your time
  • More refined culture struggles to find an audience
  • Popular media may inhibit social progress by transforming us into cultural dupes. (Go back to Brave New World.)

• We have been seduced by the promise of products

• The “Big Mac” theory: We have lost our discriminating taste for finer fare.

BLOG POST ASSIGNMENT 

Write about how you see media influencing consumer culture? What stories are important in your view of yourself – either from a personal or a consumer position. Both are valid.

Include links, video if applicable and photos. 500 words. Due Thursday.