CMM1101 Reading Media Texts    500 Words –  Tutorial Week 2.                Susanne Harford

The fascinating connections between Western-world mass culture, and Ameri/Euro-centric popular culture and the mass media, first described in the 1920s and 1930s, are sketched out by Strinati in (1995, p. 2). In this writing, although acknowledging the whole matter may have commenced much earlier in Europe, even as far back as ancient Rome (1995, p. 2), Strinati concentrates on three major streams (1995, p.3).

The three streams Strinati deals with are firstly; what or who determines popular culture, a matter still of great mystery and interest today; secondly, the emergence of culture in commodity forms , which probably means criteria such as ensuring profitability or marketability (within not only media product, but flowing through to the production of cultural artefacts, all the way through to all parts of everyday life) take precedence over maintaining quality, artistry, integrity and intellectual challenge within those influential fields. This leads Strinati to the question of whether there are intolerable levels of influence of commercialisation and industrialisation upon popular culture. The third point Strinati makes concerns the ideological role of popular culture. There are famous and well-known examples of this, such as the Nazi regime, and use of popular culture. (1995, p.3). Within those three major streams there are many interesting major points, and all the points are multi-faceted.

One point Strinati deals with when quoting Williams’ work is how in the 19^th. C, popular culture underwent a radical ‘shift’, to allow the adoption into culture of the viewpoint of the common masses, where previously all historic, traditional cultural spheres were under the total control, one way or another, of distanced, elite groups. Strinati provides background to this development, with a brief and interesting outline with how the European positions, detailed in the 16th. and 17^th. C  by writers such as Pascal and Montaigne, noted types of connection to the development of a “market economy” (Lowenthal, as quoted by Strinati, 1995, p.2). Strinati explains a very interesting section of this theory; that the continuing development of Western-world mass culture may possibly be connected with the rise of nationalism in 18^th. C Europe, by incorporating the work of Burke (as quoted by Strinati, 1995, p. 2).

Another interesting point is:  Strinati stresses that, although clothed in all types of disguises this situation has been exposed from time to time, particularly by respected, learned – also by demoralised and disaffected writers, this situation has continued unabated.  Strinati’s position seems shared, during and after the Second World War in particular, by modern writers such as Hoffstead and Adorno, and later Hoggart, as quoted by Strinati, (p. 31). It appears they began the essential work of analysing this situation. These writers generally considered mass culture, popular culture and mass media this as a controlled and oppressive triangle of power.  Developing ideas such as those of Hodge and Kees, (1991), who state “social control rests on control over the representation of reality”. Strinati says: “it is clear that mass culture theory can and has accommodated the idea that democracy and education have been harmful developments because they have contributed to the pathological constitution of a mass society” (reader. p. 7). However, there are other writers who see a more positive view, such as Berman.

A further interesting point is: Strinati seems to be of the view that in the modern or post-modern Western world of today, the whole concept of ‘public virtue’ is virtually unknown, yet barely a hundred years ago, was it one of the major moral thrusts of patriarchal European thought, and to hold ‘popular culture and mass culture largely responsible.  While Strinati appears to think this the case in our affluent, privileged, still-patriarchal society today, how can that be so, when the reality many Western citizens are still very concerned with, and involved in trying to better the status of mankind generally ?

Strinati, D. (1995). Mass Culture and Popular Culture: An introduction to theories of popular culture. London: Routledge. Found in CMM1101 Reading Media Texts Book of Readings

Edith Cowan University Mt Lawley. Semester 1, 2010. Tutor Dr. J. Burton              Page 2 of 2