Transcript Ch 3 - Houston Community College Learning Web

Chapter 3
Culture
and
Media
Lecture PowerPoint
© W. W. Norton & Company, 2008
Definitions of Culture
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Culture can be
loosely defined as a
set of beliefs,
traditions, and
practices.
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Definitions of Culture
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The concept of culture has evolved and expanded
throughout history.
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The oldest understandings of culture focus on the
distinction between:

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Natural environment
What is modified or created by humans
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Definitions of Culture

As Europeans came into contact with non-Westerners,
culture evolved in terms of differences between peoples,
which could be viewed positively or negatively.

In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, a new
dimension was added to the concept of culture—the idea
that culture involved the pursuit of intellectual
refinement.
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Material vs. Nonmaterial Culture
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Material culture is everything that is a part of our
constructed environment, such as books, fashion, and
monuments.
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Nonmaterial culture encompasses
values, beliefs, behaviors, and social
norms.
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Material vs. Nonmaterial Culture
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Culture includes language, the meanings we assign to
words, and concepts such as class, inequality, and
ownership.
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Nonmaterial culture can take the form of ideology,
which is a system of concepts and relationships that
includes an understanding of cause and effect.
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Material vs. Nonmaterial Culture
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Cultural relativism, a term coined by Ruth Benedict in
the 1930s, is the idea that we should recognize
differences across cultures without passing judgment on
or assigning value to those differences.
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Cultural scripts are modes of behavior and
understanding that are not universal or natural, but that
may strongly shape beliefs or concepts held by a society.
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Material vs. Nonmaterial Culture
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A subculture is a group united
by sets of concepts, values, traits,
and/or behavioral patterns that
distinguish it from others within
the same culture or society.
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Material vs. Nonmaterial Culture
Values are
moral beliefs
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Socialization is the
process by which a
person internalizes the
values, beliefs, and
norms of society and
learns to function as a
member of that
society.
Norms are
how values
tell us to act
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Material vs. Nonmaterial Culture
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Reflection theory states that culture is a projection of
social structures and relationships into the public sphere.
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A Marxist version of reflection theory argues that
cultural objects reflect the material labor and production
relationships that went into making them.
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Media
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Media are any formats or vehicles that carry, present, or
communicate information – books, posters, Web pages,
clay tablets, and radio.
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Mass media refers to any form of media that reaches the
mass of the people.
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Media
Hegemony, which is different from domination, is
important for understanding
the impact of media on
culture and for examining
how people and societies
shape and are shaped by
culture.
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The Media Life Cycle
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Media studies open paths of investigation including
 Textual analysis and audience studies
 How people create media and the biases involved
in that creation
 How media reflects the culture in which they exist
 How individuals and groups use the media to
change culture
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Media Effects
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Media effects can be placed into four categories
according to their duration and intention
 Short-term and deliberate
 Long-term and deliberate
 Short-term and unintentional
 Long-term and unintentional
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Where Do Stereotypes Come From?
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Intentionally or unintentionally, subtly or overtly, the
media can create or reinforce ethnic, racial, gender,
religious, and other stereotypes, and sometimes in the
process they distract people’s attention from
foundational issues or tensions that need to be
addressed.
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Political Economy of the Media
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Media ownership in the United States is in the hands
of six companies.
 Those companies affect the information and
messages communicated to the public.
The media, especially advertising, play a large role in
the maintenance of consumerism,
 The belief that happiness and fulfillment can be
achieved through acquisition of material
possessions.
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Political Economy of the Media
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With the global reach of media today, American culture
can be found in the farthest corners of the world. This
soft power—the effects of culture, values, and ideas on
others' behavior—has experienced a backlash recently,
in part due to negative reactions to certain American
foreign policy measures.
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Political Economy of the Media
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Culture jamming is
one example of
subverting the power of
media.
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Concept Quiz
1. Which of the following is an example of material culture?
a)
b)
c)
d)
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A Buddhist temple
A music Web site
An English garden
All of the above
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Concept Quiz
2.
Ideology can be described as _____.
a) an aspect of material culture
b) a system of concepts and relationships that guides an
individual or large group
c) an extreme point of view on a given topic
d) None of the above
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You May Ask Yourself
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Concept Quiz
3. Cultural scripts are _____.
a) modes of behavior and understanding that are not universal or
natural
b) a type of role playing that helps people learn about different
cultures
c) a type of study developed by sociologists to catalog cultural
differences
d) patterns of behavior that can be found in almost all cultures
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Concept Quiz
4. Examples of media include _____.
a)
b)
c)
d)
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television, Web sites, and radio
books, magazines, and ancient scrolls
records, cave paintings, and streaming video
All of the above
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Concept Quiz
5. Which political theorist developed the concept of
hegemony?
a)
b)
c)
d)
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Antonio Gramsci
Karl Marx
Emile Durkheim
Max Weber
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Concept Quiz
6. Which of the following is an example of soft power?
a) the enduring worldwide popularity of Michael Jordan
b) the use of English words in other languages
c) the dominance of American-made movies in theaters around
the world
d) All of the above
e) None of the above
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Figure 3.1 | Popularity of the Name Kim
Figure 3.2 | Number of U.S.
Households with Televisions, 1950-78
Figure 3.3 | Media Effects
Figure 3.4 | The Increasing Concentration of Media Outlets
Table 3.1 | Emoticons