Mass Mediaas a Part of Pop Culture - Essay Example

Introduction Any group of people has its own distinct set of ideals they believe in, customs and traditions that they follow, values and virtues theyabide by and this is their culture, their way of living today. Today, it is difficult, even impossible to avoid several instances of popular culture regardless of one’s age, race, gender, religion, political affiliations and other differences we have as human beings. Popular culture, fondly referred to as pop culture, is one of the many factors that have led to the world becoming a global village. It cuts across the global scenario affecting and influencing practically everyone’s day to day life. Storey (2008) suggests that the largest contributor to the rapid development and integration of pop culture across the globe is the mass media. The mass media determines what to wear, what music to listen to, which books to read, which television programs to watch, and this encompasses popular culture. In this paper I shall look at how popular culture is contradictory because it is the dominant global culture and, therefore, thoroughly commoditised, but it can also be traced to the experiences, the pleasures, the memories, the traditions of the people. Stuart Hall The twentieth century cultural theorist Stuart Hall followed in the footsteps of the German Philosopher Karl Marx in arguing that culture is not about a ruling ideology; it is a multi faceted diverse field that covers several sides of the whole of humanity (Blunden 2005).Karl Marx acknowledged that there are many possible cultures that vary by time and circumstance; that cultures may hold different perspectives and they influence different people and classes of people-an idea he referred to as hegemony. By extension Stuart Hall further looked into the issues of hegemony-the subordinate groups are not in existence merely to resist the dominating class and its ideology; instead they should be let to enjoy their culture. According to him, people produce and consume culture simultaneously. After the American war, the youth become of pivotal importance in the then society, the young people adopted a Lifestyle, formulated new styles of music, dressing and general living. This so-called pop culture began in the 1960s whereby culture was commercialized with all its trappings. Practices like wearing jeans, listening to rap music, piercings and tattoos on one’s body and using social networking sites for example Facebook and Twitter can be broadly categorized into contemporary popular cultural practice. Case Study In this particular paper, use of networking sites particularly Facebook shall be the case study and analyzed with regard to its contradictions. Recent research shows that over five hundred million people in the world today use Facebook and it is currently the fastest growing and most used social network in the world. Other social networks used today although not as popular include; my space, twitter, classmate and many others. Facebook has even managed to permeate the third world and is used there almost as much as in the developed countries. The popularity of Facebook can therefore not be questioned. Although the inventor of Facebook, Mark Elliot Zuckerberg had the idea of making profits at first, Facebook has become most known for its place in the social scene. Today Facebook is an all important part of most young people’s life and is breaking the barrier with even the older generation taking a keen interest. Facebook has managed to break all social barriers including race, class, religion, age and level of education among others. Facebook is used particularly because it is the “in thing” and has been for quite a while. On Facebook one is allowed to be themselves without any fear of prejudice or discrimination. Storey (2009) claims that the term ‘popular’ as used in “popular culture” is used to be synonymous with the word ‘mass’ or ‘common’. However, Facebook defies the meaning of the word common. As much as over four hundred people are on facebook, not all of them communicate with each other. One is allowed to ignore friend requests, remove friends, join particular groups as well as enhance privacy settings to block certain users. This enables the formation of sub groups within the larger facebook a situation that is regarded as highly paradoxical. This is contradictory to facebook’s plan to connect people and share with them and make new friends internationally. Some groups formed also only allow some specific people to join, going further in ensuring the classification of people. Facebook can therefore no longer be seen as a general tool for social networking but as a home to different groups, classes and categories. Several people have joined Facebook just to be part of the crowd-to avoid feeling like an outcast and enjoy the assurance and security of a group. One is also allowed to form groups of their choice and join those that he/she wishes to. However this is very contradictory to the fact that everyone has a unique profile page and status updates that reflect one’s true identity. This promotes individuality as one’s profile has to match one’s personality and hence discarding the ‘group mentality’. Every human being desires to have company and to feel some sense of belonging but no one wants to lose their special identity in the process. According to Stuart Hall, one way of defining cultural identity lies in the ‘oneness’, a shared cultural background, a sort of togetherness in culture which provides an artificial constant, table meaning and unity amidst the ever changing separations of our culture. This is exactly what Facebook provides; an outward mask of togetherness as one big social networking site but within it changes keep happening with division being inevitable (Harrington & Bielby 2001). Everybody joins Facebook with the same intention-to stay in touch with their social circle and make new friends but few maintain that. Culture may have a history but its present is still not well defined (Storey 2009). It keeps going through the process of change and transformation. Stuart Hall further gives the first way of defining cultural identity as individualism. He clearly says that as much as sharing a culture means having many similarities there are also many deep seated differences amongst people of the same culture. This, on Facebook is emphasized by the unique profile photos, status updates, notes and groups. Once one joins Facebook, he/she updates their profile information, their likes and dislikes; this way one is invited to groups that suit the particular personality and find friends of their nature. Eventually no two people have the same Facebook page and each person’s page is under constant development. Culture does not have a creator, it is an ongoing process with no end and more importantly, no one defines culture (Guinz & Cruz 2005). Although Facebook has a founder, it only means that he marked the beginning of a cultural trend not exactly defined its boundaries. Different people may use the site differently and for very diverse reasons. For instance, a young entrepreneur may use the site to set up meetings, to keep in touch with his customers and advertise his business unlike a student whose main motive will be to gossip, make new friends and stay in tune with ongoing fashion trends. A mother will use the same site to exchange cook books with other mothers, complain about their children and maybe even spy on her children’s friends. Such a scenario can be referred to as the sum of inter relationships whose study Stuart Hall gives as the second definition of culture. In this sense, culture largely contradicts itself as it is not quite possible for one site to have such a diverse array of uses. Facebooks mobile users’ number is growing, with more than 150 million users connecting to the social network on their mobile devices. Mobile users are more active than non-mobile users. This means that for one to be regularly in touch with Facebook, one must own an internet-enabled phone. If not so, one must regularly check into a cyber cafe and probably spend a lot more money. Take an example of a teenager who comes from a lower class family and she can not afford an internet enabled phone yet she has pressure to keep in touch with her friends. She will be forced to visit a cyber often but her participation on the site can not be compared to one who owns a phone. This is emphasized because one can tell whether the update is from a phone or a computer. Those with mobile phones are therefore placed at a higher advantage making the mobile industry increase their sales while those who do not own mobile phones feel left out and at a disadvantage. Ironically, a site that is meant to unify all separates people on the basis of income (Danesi 2008) and thus asserting the old adage ‘money talks.’ Over indulgence on Facebook has led to students performing poorly in exams and employees not working to their full potential. Facebook like any other popular culture e.g. rap music can be addictive especially to young people. Employees have banned visiting the network during working hours and parents have confiscated mobile phones from their children to no avail. Facebook users are stubborn and their numbers keep increasing. According to Danesi (2008) this kind of defiance is typical of all kinds of popular cultural practices. It arises from a deep seated need to stay loyal and fight for one’s social class .It is rather puzzling that people to continue to partake of an activity that does not help them in any way instead leads them into conflict with those they love and respect. This defiance can also be viewed as excorporation-a process by which the sub ordinate make their own culture out of the resources and commodities provided by the dominant system (Harrington & Bielby 2001). The younger generation is using phones bought by their parents to try and make a sub culture out of it while employees use computers and internet both provided by their employees to distract themselves from their jobs and rebel. Stuart particularly delved into the matter of ‘the popular forces verses the power block’. He concluded that any popular culture should be studied from the view point that there is always a resistance inside the culture. If a child has refused to quit Facebook as an act of defiance, a parent may decide to join the same site in order to keep the child in check as a way to contain the defiance. The first few months after Facebook was invented, there was a common profile picture for everyone-a silhouette .Most people did not like this as they preferred to be identified through their own photos. They then started updating photos from the internet. Facebook realized that they had to get customized photos and eventually added a new option where one could put up their photo or their sketch directly from their phone. This has helped the users to feel they have more control of their profile pages. It has directly targeted college going students who love to take photos and put them up on their profile pages. This is unique from all other social networks as it’s faster and more flexible. Guinz & Cruz (2005) say that even if popular culture is for all, one has to modify it to suit their own interests and fulfil their personal pleasures. As Facebook gained popularity, so did its competitors lose their market. Several new social networking sites emerged for example, Twitter, my space, tagged, classmates which are like Facebook but with a few modifications. Obviously not everyone liked Facebook, those who did not like it joined its competitors. However, out of Facebook new sites emerged either ridiculing updates, groups or just the general Facebook appearances for instance the online page- fail-Facebook. This is a way of their respective producers making money through the deep involvement of Facebook users with their site. Storey (2009) states that, the semiotic richness of any popular culture does not therefore only allow it to have one use, instead it has multiple users and each user has a different utility for it. Throughout this paper, the use of social networking sites to keep in touch with family and other social reasons have been thoroughly looked into. Their use for business related purposes has not been properly looked into. According to Stuart Hall’s cultural theory of encoding and decoding, one does not simply accept a text passively; he or she has to be actively involved in the process of reception. He suggests that regardless of how the producer frames his message, the reader must interpret it in a slightly different way, what is referred to as the margin of understanding (Steinberg et al 2006). In light of this, Mark Elliot Zuckerberg produced a social networking site to be used by the whole world; different people are now enjoying different benefits out of it. The young college going students took it as way of livening up their social life, older adults made the best out of it by establishing several dating sites whereas business men took it as a way of expanding their business, attracting new customers and enhancing the already established business connections. The economic aspect of popular culture has to come out because in today’s world, everything, including culture is for commercial benefit. Conclusion: The only constant aspect in life is change. This applies most accurately to culture than any thing else in our lives. Pop culture will always change from generation to generation depending on the times. Since the early days of black and white television back in the sixties to today’s internet craze, the mass media remains the single most influential aspect in our social lives. It is much easier to be influenced by the social media today than it was some fifty tears back. Popular culture is more global today as it cuts through race, colour, age, customs and nations than it did in yester years. The internet has made this possible and is an active tool in making the world a global village. Facebook has gained world wide recognition as the most visited social network in recent history. This then begs the question; is it a dominant culture or a popular one? Its dominance in the global social scene is greatly determined by its reception as a popular culture. Social networking came at a time when transport had been made easier and close relatives and friends had relocated all over the world to study and work hence communication was getting more difficult. This was boosted by the fact that life is busier today and there is little time to interact with friends one on one. Eventually many young people joined the site and pressured the rest to join-a process that slowly but surely ensured its spread in the world. For this generation; social networking has over taken any other craze-fashion, music, books- that the world has ever experienced and it remains the ‘in thing’ till a new generation sets another trend. References Danesi, M 2008, Popular culture: Introductory perspectives, Rowman & Littlefield publishers. Guins, R & Cruz, Z O 2005, Popular culture: A reader, Sage. Harrington, LC & Bielby, DD 2001, Popular culture: Production and consumption, Wiley-Blackwell publishers. Steinberg PS, Parmar P, Richard, B 2006, Contemporary youth culture: An international encyclopedia, volume 2, Greenwood publishing group. Storey J, 2009, Cultural theory and popular culture: an introduction, 5th edn, Longman publishers. Blunden, A 2005, Karl Marx: Capital volume one, viewed August 12 2010, Read More