CHAPTER 3
Culture and Media
3.1 Definitions of Culture
Culture = Human – Nature
• Culture: The sum of the social categories and concepts we embrace in
addition to beliefs, behaviors (except institutional ones), and practices;
everything but the natural environment around us.
• The term culture has also been used to refer to the distinction between
what is natural and what is modified or created by humans (culture).
• Culture is always a relative concept; we cannot talk about culture without
reference to the global world.
Culture = (Superior) Man – (Inferior) Man
• As colonialism led to interaction with non-
Western peoples, Europeans realized that
alternative ways of living existed and questioned
the culture they had previously taken for granted.
• Ethnocentrism: The belief that one’s own culture
or group is superior to others and the tendency to
view all other cultures from the perspective of
one’s own.
Culture = Man – Machine
• In the 19th century, Matthew Arnold redefined culture as the pursuit of
perfection and broad knowledge of the world in contrast to narrow self-
centeredness and material gain.
• This was an extension of Plato’s argument that culture is an ideal, standing
in opposition to the real world.
• Arnold’s definition elevated culture above dull, middle-class institutions
such as religion, liberal economics, and political bureaucracy.
3.2 Material versus Nonmaterial Culture
Material versus Nonmaterial Culture
• Nonmaterial culture: Values, beliefs, behaviors, and social norms.
• Material culture: Everything that is a part of our constructed, physical
environment, including technology.
• Nonmaterial culture and material culture have a bidirectional relationship;
they both affect each other.
• Cultural lag: The time gap between the appearance of a new technology
and the words and practices that give it meaning.
Culture Shock and Code Switching
• Culture is what feels normal to us but is actually socially produced; it is
what we do not notice at home but would spot in a foreign context.
• Culture shock: Doubt, confusion, or anxiety arising from immersion in an
unfamiliar culture.
• Code switch: To flip fluidly between two or more languages and sets of
cultural norms to fit different cultural contexts.
• Elijah Anderson notes that many African Americans learn to code switch
between standard English and African American English.
Language, Meaning, and Concepts
• Language is an important part of culture.
• According to the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis in linguistics, the language we
speak directly influences (and reflects) the way we think about and
experience the world.
• Concepts such as race, gender, class, and inequality are part of our culture
as well. In some cases, when opposing concepts come into contact, one will
necessarily supplant the other.
Ideology
• Ideology: A system of concepts and relationships; an understanding of
cause and effect
• Ideology is embedded within an entire series of suppositions, and if you
cast aside some of them, they will no longer hold together as a whole.
• Ideologies can shatter. The fall of the former Soviet Union, for example,
marked not just a transition in government but also the shattering of a
particular brand of Communist ideology.
Studying Culture
• Cultural relativism: Taking into account the differences
across cultures without passing judgment or assigning
value.
• Interpreting cultural relativism can be difficult when local
traditions conflict with universally recognized human
rights.
• Cultural scripts: Modes of behavior and understanding
that are not universal or natural.
• Margaret Mead introduced the idea that cultural scripts
shape our notions of gender.
Subculture
• Subculture: The distinct cultural values and
behavioral patterns of a particular group in society.
• Historically, a subculture has been defined as a
group united by sets of concepts, values, symbols,
and shared meaning specific to the members of that
group and distinctive enough to distinguish it from
others within the same culture or society.
Culture Effects: Give and Take
• Values: Moral beliefs.
• Culture affects us by shaping our values; an example of this process is how
America’s individualistic culture encourages a belief in equal opportunity
that is more fiction that reality.
• Norms: How values tell us to behave.
• Socialization: The process by which individuals internalize the values,
beliefs, and norms of a given society and learn to function as members of
that society.
Reflection Theory
• Reflection theory: The idea that culture is a projection of social structures
and relationships into the public sphere, which serves as a screen onto
which the film of the underlying reality of social structures of a society is
projected.
• A Marxist version of reflection theory argues that cultural objects reflect the
material labor and production relationships that went into making them.
Discussion Questions
• List three social norms for classroom behavior.
• What values do you think are reflected in each of these norms?
3.3 Media
Media
• Media: Any formats, platforms, or vehicles that carry, present, or
communicate information
• Discussions about media are generally about mass media. Innovations in
mass media include:
• the invention of the printing press and movable type in the 15th century
• the creation of moving pictures at the turn of the twentieth century
• the adoption of the scrolling ticker by today’s 24-hour news channels
Hegemony: The Mother of All Media Terms
• Hegemony: A condition by which a dominant group uses its power to elicit
the voluntary “consent” of the masses.
• Hegemony stands in contrast to domination, or getting people to do what
you want through the use of force.
• The concept of hegemony is important for understanding the impact of the
media. Are people molded by the culture in which they live or do they
actively participate in shaping the world around them?
3.4 The Media Life Cycle
Media Studies
• Media studies open paths of investigation, including the following:
• How people create media
• How the media shape the culture in which people live
• How the media reflect the culture in which they exist
• How individuals and groups use the media as their own means to
shape, redefine, and change culture
3.5 Media Effects
Four Categories of Media Effects
• Media effects can be placed into four categories
according to their duration and intention:
• Short-term and deliberate: advertising
• Long-term and deliberate: a campaign
• Short-term and unintentional: violence in
the media encourages violent behavior
• Long-term and unintentional: prejudices,
stereotypes, desensitization to violence
3.6 Mommy, Where Do Stereotypes Come
From?
Racism in the Media
• The media can create, reinforce, and
perpetuate racist ideologies and stereotypes
based on ethnicity, gender, religion, and other
factors.
• These acts of racism and stereotyping can be
intentional or unintentional, and they can
manifest subtly or overtly.
Racism in the Coverage of Hurricane Katrina
• An example of this was the difference in
wording used to describe survivors of
Hurricane Katrina.
• A Black survivor was described as “looting
a grocery store” while a pair of White
survivors were described as “finding bread
and soda at a store.”
Sexism in the Media
• Two frequent critiques of the media centers
on the representation of women:
• Glamorizing and perpetuating unrealistic
ideals of feminine beauty
• Publishing images of violence against
women
• Some advertisers are responding to these
criticisms with new approaches.
Discussion Questions
• What is your favorite TV show?
• Does this show perpetuate or challenge stereotypes about a particular
group? Give an example.
3.7 Political Economy of the Media
Consumer Culture
• Consumerism: The steady acquisition of material possessions, often with
the belief that happiness and fulfillment can thus be achieved.
• America is often described as a consumer culture.
• This is reflected in sales that thrive on major holidays.
• Through the vending of brands, goods, and possessions, we are being
sold a self-image, a lifestyle, and a sense of belonging and self-worth.
Advertising and Children
• Advertising is an increasing
presence in middle and high schools.
• The result of such advertising is the
creation of a self-sustaining
consumer culture among children.
• This culture is different for low-
income and high-income families.
Culture Jams
• Culture jamming: The act of turning media
against themselves
• This is part of a larger movement against
consumer culture and consumerism, based
on the notion that advertisements are a
form of propaganda.
• The satirical Joe Chemo ad is one example.
Review & Discuss
Review Question 1
Which of the following is an example of material culture?
a. Buddhist temple
b. music website
c. English garden
d. all of the above
Review Question 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
Review Question 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.
Review Question 4
Examples of media include
a. television, websites, and radio.
b. books, magazines, and ancient scrolls.
c. records, cave paintings, and streaming video.
d. all of the above
Review Question 5
True or false? The globalization of the media has spread American culture
around the world.
a. true
b. false
Discussion Questions
• In your opinion, does the media impact culture? If so, how?
• Does the media create culture, simply reflect culture, or both?