British Media and Cultural Studies - Essay Example

It is often called as Pop culture or popular culture since this is followed by people irrespective of their class or religious affinities. Mass media plays a very importanty role in disseminating values or ideas of mass culture. In fact, mass culture is possibly acquired due to modern communications and electronic media. These agencies use their wide networks and mass reach to popularize and transmit ideas and values that are picked by the population. Thus mass culture is different from so called subcultures where there is a certain distinctiveness due to community or religious or regional concepts.

This culture or concept actually gains recognition because it is loosely based on ideas of freedom and liberalization. People can choose to be free from their regional and religious disparities and gain common ground for interaction with each other. This could in a form of music, art, films, fashion or the form of language they use to comminicate with each other. Earlier. It was thought this mass culture or pop culture is only associated with young population. But it is not so , even the adults or the older generation identifies itself with with the value system or the new ideas.

Thus mass culture is the value system whose appeal cuts across all barriers of education, sex, age, religion or community. Paul Hodkinson talked about the concept of subcultural substance in h. These four criterias should be used to ascertain the worthiness of something being a subculture. Thus these criteria are used as a tool for description and analysis of different subcultures. A subculture is a distinct subset of a culture, which coexists within a culture and is distinguishable from the majority culture by its values, ideas and a common way of life.

Fischer defines a subculture as, ".a large set of people who share a defining trait, associate with one another, are members of institutions associated with their defining trait, adhere to a distinct set of values, share a set of cultural tools and take part in a common way of life" (Fischer, 1995). Identity: The people of a subculture have a distinct feeling of identity which they share with other members.of their group. This feeling is the feeling of oneness amongst them. Commitment: The commitment of the members of a subculture towards a common shared way of life is another important factor.

The people follow certain rules or set of practices that they follow in their everyday routine. And they show a particular commitment to guard or protect their unique practices or the values that make them distinct from others. This is passed on from generation to generation within the community. Consistent distinctiveness: The third criteria of consistent distinctiveness is the existence of a set of shared tastes and values which is distinctive from those of other groups and reasonably consistent, from one person to the next and over the years.

This is again passed from generation to generation.Autonomy : As per Hodkinson, autonomy is the fourth criterion to be evaluated when defining something as a subculture. Autonomy is nothing but a action of self government. This is not a sort of