is mass culture debasing the culture of ordinary people

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By Helena Collins O’ Connor        08/09/08

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Is mass culture debasing the culture of ordinary people?

   The mass media is constantly around us, through newspapers and magazines, the internet, television and film etc. these are used by us everyday in our spare time and academic work. So are we influenced by this form of secondary socialisation in our lives to create a ‘mass culture’? And does this ‘mass culture’ debase ‘ordinary culture’? In this essay I will use secondary research and my own opinion to answer this question.

   The media itself plays a big part in creating images through the way they report and advertise consumer products and moral panics. I feel that the type of media presentation demonstrated influences different subcultures into believing that what they are seeing is true, hence the change in their attitudes to different topics, music and fashion. Especially young people today can be naïve and believe everything they see or hear on television or the internet, which could cause primary socialisation to change for the children, because of these views.

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   This ‘mass culture’, I believe could destroy and make an ‘ordinary culture’ into extinction through too much influence of “babble” and consumer products on television. Although you could ask what is ordinary and normal? Normal does not have a clear definition; as no one is completely normal, but ordinary seems to be defined as routine or customary, so an ‘ordinary culture’ is considered the norm way of living. So what is mass culture? An extra- ordinary way people live, or is it a negative perception of some people’s choice of life?

   By using the textbook ‘seventh ...

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