Assess the effects of mass media on popular culture.

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Assess the effect of mass media on popular culture

Popular culture is defined as social and cultural products that are there as a form of entertainment and for use by the mass culture, and are commonly short lived and acknowledged to hold little artistic value, such as movies or pop music. Alternatively, high culture is something that is considered unique, and different to everyday life. It is usually aimed at the upper and middle class, and is commonly approved of by the intellectual elite. Furthermore it usually takes place in environments that are significant in high class culture, such as the theatre.

There are several different arguments as to how the mass media has affected popular culture, for example Marxists argue that popular culture is the bourgeoisie's way of dumbing down the proletariat, and thus controlling them. By promoting the false ideologies that popular culture bases itself off, such as owning an iPod, the proletariat are distracted from the poor working conditions and the exploitation that they are facing. Furthermore, Marxists also argue that the working class experience "false class consciousness", meaning that they have come to believe that the capitalist system is a fair one that