Media and culture Defining Culture One of the

Media and culture

Defining ‘Culture’ • One of the slipperiest concepts in social theory – A 1952 survey of the anthropology literature by Kroeber and Kluckhorn identified 500 possible definitions • Most recognized definition, by Tylor: – “Culture, or civilization, is that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, law, morals, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society. ”

Historical definition • Emphasizes social heritage or social tradition • People have a social and biological heritage that they get from a certain “group” with its own history. • Sapir: “culture, that is, . . . the socially inherited assemblage of practices and beliefs that determines the texture of our lives”

Normative definition • Patterns, rules and customs that may be arbitrary or artificial • Titiev: “those objects or tools, attitudes, and forms of behavior whose use is sanctioned under given conditions by the members of a particular society” • Bidney: “A culture consists of the acquired or cultivated behavior and thought of individuals within a society, as well as of the intellectual, artistic, and social ideals which the members of the society profess and to which they strive to conform. ”

Psychological definition • Culture represents the result of responses to physiological drives and needs or as the learning of culture • Davis: “all behavior learned by the individual in conformity with a group”

Structural definition • Definitions emphasizing the patterning or organization of a culture. – Relationships among elements • Kluckhorn and Kelly: “a historically derived system of explicit and implicit designs for living, which tends to be shared by all or specially designated members of a group”

Kroeber and Parson • “transmitted and created content and patterns of values, ideas, and other symbolic -meaningful systems as factors in the shaping of human behavior and artifacts produced through behavior”

Major theoretic concerns of cultural study • • • Kinship systems and relations Religion Nationalism Race Myths and rituals Value systems Conformity/deviance Art/Literature Economic System Politics

Relation with media • Clearly, there are close ties to the media of communication • Media industries produce a vast array of cultural artifacts • Many of the values, beliefs, etc. of society influence the production of media content which, in turn, may undermine or support those same values and beliefs

Major concerns • High v. low culture – Uplifting of masses v. degradation of popular morals, aesthetic tastes • Free v. controlled culture – Impact of structural power on nature of content produced • Critical theory – Ideology, hegemony • Avant-garde

Major concerns • Presentation of values in mass content – Morality – System support – Consensus – Portrayal of groups

Major concerns • Community-building – Chicago School of Sociology – Community press – Ethnic groups and media • Racism, Sexism, etc.

Common division of ‘cultures’ • High culture • Folk culture • Mass or popular culture