Media culture

Norms, behaviors and artifacts of Western society as shaped by 20th-century mass communications

In cultural studies, media culture refers to the current Western capitalist society that emerged and developed during the 20th century under the influence of mass media.[1][2][3] The term highlights the extensive impact and intellectual influence of the media, primarily television, but also the press, radio, and cinema, on public opinion, tastes, and values.

The alternative term mass culture suggests that such culture arises spontaneously from the masses, similar to the development of popular art before the 20th century.[4] However, the term media culture implies that this culture is largely a product of mass media. Another related term is image culture, which further emphasizes the visual and symbolic aspects of media influence.[1][2]

## Media Culture in Cultural Studies

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This section contains too many or overly lengthy quotations. Please help summarize the quotations. Consider transferring direct quotations to Wikiquote or excerpts to Wikisource. (February 2011)

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> "Popular culture and the mass media have a symbiotic relationship: each depends on the other in an intimate collaboration."

> — K. Turner (1984), p. 4[5]

The news media draws from the work of scientists and scholars, presenting it to the general public with an emphasis on elements that are inherently appealing or astonishing. For example, giant pandas, a species native to remote Chinese woodlands, have gained significant recognition in popular culture, while parasitic worms, despite their greater practical importance, have not. Both scientific facts and news stories are often altered during popular dissemination, sometimes to the extent of becoming entirely inaccurate.

## Media Culture as the "Dumbing Down of Society"

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Hannah Arendt's 1961 essay "The Crisis in Culture" argued that a market-driven media would lead to culture being replaced by the demands of entertainment.[6] Similarly, Susan Sontag suggested that values originating from entertainment industries increasingly dominate modern culture, normalizing shallow or sensationalist topics.[6]

Critics argue that popular culture promotes a "dumbing down" of society, exemplified by:

* Newspapers have increasingly emphasized celebrity gossip and sensational stories over in-depth international reporting.[6]
* Television schedules now prioritize lifestyle programs such as gardening and cooking shows, replacing a focus on high-quality dramas.[6]
* Reality TV and light-hearted soap operas have risen in popularity, capturing audiences with content centered around celebrities.[6]

This change has been described as replacing high-quality art and genuine folk traditions with mass-produced items designed to cater to the broadest and simplest tastes.[6] Critics contend that post-World War II popular culture furthered the concentration of media into a few multinational conglomerates. These conglomerates reduced substantive news content, replacing it with entertainment and sensationalism that amplify "fears, prejudice, scapegoating processes, paranoia, and aggression."[6]

## Media's Influence on Television and Cinema

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Altheide and Snow propose that media culture increasingly shapes other institutions, such as politics, religion, and sports, constructing them alongside a media logic.[7] Since the 1950s, television has been the dominant medium for shaping public opinion.[8]

A clapperboard, a tool widely associated with filmmaking, used to synchronize audio and video during production

In Rosenberg and White's book "Mass Culture," Dwight Macdonald observed that popular culture makes light of profound aspects of life, such as sex, death, failure, and tragedy, by emphasizing simple and fleeting pleasures. Over time, audiences conditioned by this content begin to prefer unchallenging and shallow cultural products.[6] Van den Haag similarly criticized mass media for intensifying individuals’ isolation from reality and personal experiences.[6][9]

The pursuit of ratings has diluted television content, prioritizing superficial and eye-catching material. Hollywood films increasingly emphasize shock value, superficial thrills, and special effects. Themes often cater to aggression, revenge, violence, and greed, resulting in formulaic plots, bland characters, and un-engaging dialogue. These trends fail to accurately represent real-life complexities or explore creative storytelling.[6]

More recently, scholars studying the mediatization of culture describe how media influences cultural processes. Media not only serves as cultural artifacts but also shapes other domains, further integrating media logic into diverse aspects of society.[10]

### Social Media and Modern Filmmaking

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Social media and streaming platforms in shaping modern movie and television consumption.

The rise of social media platforms has introduced new challenges and opportunities for the film industry. Social media has become a powerful tool for filmmakers to market their work, connect with audiences, and experiment with storytelling techniques. However, it has also shifted content priorities, emphasizing visually striking moments and easily shareable clips over intricate narratives. This trend reflects a broader cultural shift, where audience preferences shaped by digital platforms encourage filmmakers to adopt formulaic approaches, focusing on viral appeal rather than experimental storytelling.[11]

## Media Culture and Religion

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Media culture's mass marketing has been likened to the role of traditional religions in the past.[12][13][14] Waves of consumer enthusiasm and exaltation for products have been compared to the ecstatic rituals of religious fetishism.[15][16] Conversely, the Catholic Church has been retrospectively seen as early examples of public relations, marketing their beliefs to worshippers in ways similar to modern media strategies.[17][18]

## Symbolic Consumption

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Consumer decisions are influenced not only by the material utility of goods but also by their symbolic value in constructing identity and group affiliation. Products help individuals create a narrative about who they are and who they aspire to be.[19] Scholars regard symbolic consumption as a social construct, with shared perceptions about a product's meaning conveyed through advertising, magazines, and television.[20]

Jean-Paul Sartre suggested that objects and even people could become part of an extended self-concept. Consumption choices allow individuals to maintain or redefine their identity, create continuity with their past, or signal changes in their sense of self. The symbolism of goods relies on shared societal beliefs, shaping how people use consumption to navigate personal and social identities.[19]

## Feminist Approaches to Media Culture

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Feminist approaches to media culture emerge from feminist theory, exploring how media impacts women, portrays their roles, and perpetuates or challenges societal perspectives.[21] Angela McRobbie’s analysis of teenage girls’ magazines like "Jackie" exemplifies this. Using structural feminism, McRobbie identified how codes of romance, domesticity, fashion, and beauty shaped young women’s identities.[22] Her more recent work continues to reveal the lasting effects of media culture on women.

Feminist analysis also critiques postfeminist influences in media, such as the sexualization of young girls through fashion marketed with postfeminist ideologies. While postfeminism has societal significance, it raises concerns about how certain media perpetuate harmful stereotypes and norms.[23] This particular concept, is not to disregard the meaning that postfeminism approach provides for society and women, but to see how a specific way of feminist thinking has affected women and media culture. While feminist approaches are significant, they represent just one lens for understanding and dissecting media culture. Other perspectives also contribute to a fuller understanding of media’s influence.

## Media Culture as Manipulation

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Media culture, particularly through advertising and public relations, is often viewed as a system designed to influence and manipulate society.[24] Corporate media frequently serves to reinforce dominant ideologies, as theorized by Theodor Adorno.[25][24] Media culture’s association with consumerism has earned it the alternative label of "consumer culture."[1][3]

## See also

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* Advanced capitalism
* Agenda-setting theory
* Consumer capitalism
* Consumtariat (Consumer-Proletariat)
* Culture industry
* Infotainment
* Low culture
* Mass communication
* Mass or crowd psychology
* Media studies
* Mediatization
* More popular than Jesus
* Propaganda
* The Society of the Spectacle
* Dumbing down

## Notes

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1. ^ a b c Jansson (2002)
2. ^ a b Thoman (1992)
3. ^ a b Thomas (2012) p.30 quotation:

> The twenty-first century Western world, driven by American corporate and consumer ideology, is a perpetual media culture that depends on sound bites and the next thing, leaving the public reduced to media consumers never allowed time to reflect on the information. Volume and speed have consumed and obliterated nuance, ethics, and accuracy.

4. ^ Adorno (1963) quotation:

> ...the interpretation agreeable to its advocates: that it is a matter of something like a culture that arises spontaneously from the masses themselves, the contemporary form of popular art.

5. ^ Shuker, Roy (1994). Understanding Popular Music, p. 4. ISBN 0-415-10723-7.
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j "Dumbing down". Nomuzak.co.uk. Archived from the original on October 29, 2010. Retrieved August 25, 2012.
7. ^ Altheide, D. L., & Snow, R. P. (1979). Media Logic. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.`{{cite book}}`: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
8. ^ Diggs-Brown, Barbara (2011) Strategic Public Relations: Audience Focused Practice p. 48
9. ^ Van den Haag, in Bernard Rosenberg and David Manning White, Mass Culture, p. 529.
10. ^ S. Hjarvard; L. N. Petersen (2013). "Mediatization and cultural change". MedieKultur (54): 1–7.1-7&rft.date=2013&rft.au=S.+Hjarvard&rft.au=L.+N.+Petersen&rfr_id=info:sid/en.wikipedia.org:Media+culture" class="Z3988">
11. ^ Africa, Canon Central and North. "The impact of social media on filmmaking". Canon Central and North Africa. Retrieved December 13, 2024.
12. ^ from Debord (1977) thesis 20: "The spectacle is the material reconstruction of the religious illusion."
13. ^ Debord (1967) thesis 25 on the spectacle and the sacred
14. ^ Nomai (2008) p.176
15. ^ Debord (1977) Thesis 67
16. ^ from Debord (1977) thesis 132: "The masters who make history their private property, under the protection of myth, possess first of all a private ownership of the mode of illusion: in China and Egypt they long held a monopoly over the immortality of the soul ... The growth of their real historical power goes together with a popularization of the possession of myth and illusion."
17. ^ Ballardini, Bruno (2006) Gesù lava più bianco. Ovvero come la chiesa inventò il marketing. Review and excerpts [1].
18. ^ Ballardini, Bruno (2011) 'Gesù e i saldi di fine stagione. Perché la Chiesa non «vende» più. Review [2].
19. ^ a b Wattanasewan, Kritsadarat (2005). "The Self and Symbolic Consumption" (PDF). Journal of American Academy of Business: 179.
20. ^ Hirschman, Elizabeth (1981). "Comprehending Symbolic Consumption: Three Theoretical Issues". Symbolic Consumer Behavior. Vol. SV-04. Association for Consumer Research. pp. 4–6.4-6&rft.pub=Association+for+Consumer+Research&rft.date=1981&rft.aulast=Hirschman&rft.aufirst=Elizabeth&rft_id=http://www.acrwebsite.org/search/view-conference-proceedings.aspx?Id=12219&rfr_id=info:sid/en.wikipedia.org:Media+culture" class="Z3988">
21. ^ The handbook of media and mass communication theory. Volume 1. Robert S. Fortner, Mark Fackler. Chichester, England. 2014. ISBN 978-1-118-76997-3. OCLC 878119490.`{{cite book}}`: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) CS1 maint: others (link)
22. ^ Laughey, Dan (2010). Key themes in media theory. Open University Press. ISBN 978-0-335-21813-4. OCLC 771128584.
23. ^ Jackson, Sue; Vares, Tiina; Gill, Rosalind (May 2013). "'The whole playboy mansion image': Girls' fashioning and fashioned selves within a postfeminist culture". Feminism & Psychology. 23 (2): 143–162\. doi:10.1177/0959353511433790. ISSN 0959-3535. S2CID 145092969.143-162&rft.date=2013-05&rft_id=https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:145092969#id-name=S2CID&rft.issn=0959-3535&rft_id=info:doi/10.1177/0959353511433790&rft.aulast=Jackson&rft.aufirst=Sue&rft.au=Vares,+Tiina&rft.au=Gill,+Rosalind&rft_id=http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0959353511433790&rfr_id=info:sid/en.wikipedia.org:Media+culture" class="Z3988">
24. ^ a b Bignell (2007) pp.21-2
25. ^ Nomai (2008) pp.5, 41

## References

[edit]

* Adorno (1963) Culture Industry Reconsidered
* Bignell, Jonathan (2007) Postmodern Media Culture
* Debord (1977) [1967] The Society of the Spectacle, translation by Fredy Perlman and Jon Supak (Black & Red, 1970; rev. ed. 1977). Online at Library.nothingness.org (accessdate=2011-08-20)
* Debord (1994) [1967] The Society of the Spectacle, translation by Donald Nicholson-Smith (New York: Zone Books). Online at Cddc.vt.edu (accessdate=2011-08-20)
* Jansson, André (2002) The Mediatization of Consumption, Journal of Consumer Culture, March 2002 vol. 2 no. 1 5-31
* Nomai, Afsheen Joseph (2008) Culture Jamming: Ideological Struggle and the Possibilities for Social Change. Free pdf download available.
* Thoman, Elizabeth (1992) Rise of the Image Culture, in Media & Values, Issue# 57
* Thomas, P. L. (2012) Ignoring Poverty in the U.S. the Corporate Takeover of Public Education

## Further reading

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* Duncan, Barry (1988). Mass Media and Popular Culture. Toronto, Ont.: Harcourt, Brace & Co. Canada. ISBN 0-7747-1262-7

* v
* t
* e

Media culture

Media|

* 24-hour news cycle
* Alternative media
* Digital media
* Electronic media
* Independent media
* Lost media
* Mass media
* Mainstream media
* Mobile media
* New media
* News broadcasting
* News media
* Old media
* Physical media
* Social media
* Influencers
* State media
* Streaming media

Principles|

* Media development
* Media policy
* Media independence
* Freedom of information
* Freedom of speech
* Media pluralism
* Media transparency

Ideology|

* Advanced capitalism
* American Dream
* Bipartisanship
* Consumerism
* Pensée unique

Deception|

| Forms|

* Advertising
* Propaganda
* Fake news
* Public relations
* Spin
* Tabloid journalism

|

Techniques|

* Cult of personality
* Dumbing down
* Framing
* Media circus
* Media event
* Narcotizing dysfunction
* Recuperation
* Sensationalism
* Viral phenomenon

Others|

* Catch and kill
* Crowd manipulation
* Managing the news
* Media manipulation

Philosophers|

* Theodor W. Adorno
* Jean Baudrillard
* Edward Bernays
* Noam Chomsky
* Guy Debord
* Walter Lippmann
* Marshall McLuhan
* Jacques Rancière

Counterculture|

* Boycott
* Call-out culture
* Cancel culture
* Civil disobedience
* Culture jamming
* Demonstration
* Graffiti
* Occupation
* Political satire
* Protest
* Punk
* Review bomb
* Strike action

In academia|

* Influence of mass media
* Media studies
* Mediatization
* Semiotic democracy
* The Lonely Crowd

Issues|

* Anonymity
* Concentration of media ownership
* Exploitation of women
* Freedom of speech
* Media bias
* Privacy
* Social influence
* Transparency
* Violence

Synonyms|

* Advanced capitalism
* Culture industry
* Mass society
* Media franchise
* Post-Fordism
* Society of the Spectacle

* v
* t
* e

Disinformation and misinformation

Types

* Algorithmic radicalization
* Alternative facts
* Big lie
* Cherry picking
* Circular reporting
* Cognitive bias
* List of cognitive biases
* Conspiracy theory (list)
* Deception
* Denialism
* Disinformation attack
* Doublespeak
* Euphemistic misspeaking
* Factoid
* Fake news
* online
* list of websites
* Lying press
* Fallacy
* List of fallacies
* False accusation
* False dilemma
* False flag
* Fear, uncertainty, and doubt
* Firehose of falsehood
* Forgery as covert operation
* Gaslighting
* Half-truth
* Historical negationism
* Hoax
* Infodemic
* Internet manipulation
* Manipulation (psychology)
* Media culture
* Media manipulation
* Potemkin village
* Post-truth politics
* Psychological warfare
* Memetic warfare
* Military deception
* Propaganda
* black propaganda
* counterpropaganda
* State-sponsored Internet propaganda
* Quote mining
* Scientific fabrication
* Smearing
* Social bot
* Spin
* Truthiness
* Urban legend
* Whataboutism
* Yellow journalism

Books and documentaries

* Disinformation by Ion Mihai Pacepa
* Dezinformatsia: Active Measures in Soviet Strategy
* The KGB and Soviet Disinformation
* Who's Who in the CIA
* Merchants of Doubt
* After Truth: Disinformation and the Cost of Fake News

Examples

* Bermuda Triangle
* Congo Free State propaganda war
* Climate change denial
* Free energy suppression
* Genocide denial
* Holocaust denial
* Illuminati
* International Jewish conspiracy
* Misinformation in the Israel–Hamas war
* Disinformation in the Russian invasion of Ukraine
* New World Order
* Red mercury
* Reptilians
* Rothschilds
* Strategy of tension

| Health|

* 5G
* COVID-19 misinformation
* by governments
* Ebola
* HIV/AIDS denialism
* Mental illness denial
* Misinformation related to abortion
* Transgender health care
* Vaccines
* anti-vaccination
* autism
* COVID-19
* Water fluoridation controversy

|

Operations and events by country

| Canada|

Jihadunspun.com

|

China|

* Chinese information operations
* 50 Cent Party
* cyberwarfare
* Little Pink
* Internet Water Army
* PLA Unit 61398
* Spamouflage
* COVID-19
* Global Times

Czechoslovakia|

Operation Neptune

Germany|

* Funkspiel
* Propaganda in Nazi Germany
* Myth of the clean Wehrmacht

India|

* Fake news in India
* Godi-media
* Paid news in India
* OpIndia

Israel|

Team Jorge

Korea|

Voluntary Agency Network of Korea

Kuwait|

Fintas Group

Mexico|

Peñabots

Philippines|

* COVID-19 misinformation in the Philippines (ChinaAngVirus disinformation campaign)
* Fake news in the Philippines
* Historical distortion regarding Ferdinand Marcos

Russia /
Soviet Union|

| Soviet era|

* Active Measures
* K-1000 battleship
* Operation INFEKTION
* Operation Toucan
* Seat 12
* Soviet influence on the peace movement
* U.S. Army Field Manual 30-31B
* Useful idiot

|

Post-Soviet era|

* Cyberwarfare
* on Estonia
* during the Russo-Georgian War
* Information war against Ukraine
* Disinformation in the Russian invasion of Ukraine
* On US elections
* 2016
* 2018
* 2020
* 2016 Brexit referendum
* 2024 Romanian presidential election
* Russian Institute for Strategic Studies
* Trolls from Olgino
* Web brigades

South Africa|

HIV/AIDS denialism

Turkey|

* Conspiracy theories
* Media censorship and disinformation during the Gezi Park protests
* AK Trolls

United Kingdom|

* Bell Pottinger
* Double-Cross System
* Clockwork Orange plot
* Euromyth
* Lancet MMR autism fraud
* Operation Mass Appeal
* Psychological Warfare Division
* Zinoviev letter

United States|

* 1995 CIA disinformation controversy
* Attempts to overturn the 2020 election
* Conspiracy theories
* 9/11 conspiracy theories
* CIA Kennedy assassination
* QAnon
* Sandy Hook
* COVID-19
* Fake news
* online
* Election denial movement in the United States
* The Freedom Fighter's Manual
* Habbush letter
* Information Operations Roadmap
* Litter boxes in schools
* Mohamed Atta's alleged Prague connection
* Niger uranium forgeries
* Tobacco industry playbook
* Operation Shocker
* Yellow rain

Venezuela|

Bolivarian Army of Trolls

Vietnam|

* Public opinion brigades
* Force 47

Opposition

* Fact-checking
* Fact-checking website
* Active Measures Working Group
* Counter disinformation unit
* Counter Misinformation Team
* Countering Foreign Propaganda and Disinformation Act
* The Disinformation Project
* East StratCom Task Force
* FactCheck.org
* Full Fact
* Logically
* NewsGuard
* PolitiFact
* Snopes
* StopFake
* United States Information Agency
* USAFacts

* v
* t
* e

Culture

Outline

Sciences|

* Cultural anthropology
* Cultural astronomy
* Cultural ecology
* Cultural geography
* Cultural neuroscience
* Cultural studies
* Culturology
* Culture theory

Subfields|

* Bioculture
* Cross-cultural studies
* Cross-cultural communication
* Cross-cultural leadership
* Cross-cultural psychiatry
* Cross-cultural psychology
* Cultural analytics
* Cultural economics
* Cultural entomology
* Cultural history
* Cultural mapping
* Cultural mediation
* Cultural psychology
* Cultural values
* Culturomics
* Intercultural learning
* Intercultural relations
* Internet culture
* Philosophy of culture
* Popular culture studies
* Postcritique
* Semiotics of culture
* Sociology of culture
* Sound culture
* Theology of culture
* Transcultural nursing

Types|

* Constructed culture
* Counterculture
* Dominant culture
* Folk culture
* High culture
* Individualistic culture
* Legal culture
* Low culture
* Microculture
* Official culture
* Political culture
* Civic
* Popular culture
* Urban
* Primitive culture
* Resistance through culture
* Subculture
* Alternative culture
* Fandom
* Far-right subcultures
* Youth subculture
* list
* Super culture
* Underground culture
* Vernacular culture
* Culture by location

Aspects|

* Acculturation
* Cultural appreciation
* Cultural appropriation
* Cultural area
* Cultural artifact
* Cultural baggage
* Cultural behavior
* Cultural bias
* Cultural capital
* Cross-cultural
* Cultural communication
* Cultural conflict
* Cultural cringe
* Cultural dissonance
* Cultural emphasis
* Cultural framework
* Cultural heritage
* Destroyed
* Cultural icon
* Cultural identity
* Cultural industry
* Cultural invention
* Cultural landscape
* Cultural learning
* Cultural leveling
* Cultural memory
* Cultural pluralism
* Cultural practice
* Cultural property
* Cultural reproduction
* Cultural system
* Cultural technology
* Cultural universal
* Cultureme
* Enculturation
* High- and low-context cultures
* Interculturality
* Manuscript culture
* Material culture
* Non-material culture
* Organizational culture
* Print culture
* Protoculture
* Relational mobility
* Safety culture
* Technoculture
* Trans-cultural diffusion
* Transculturation
* Visual culture

Politics|

* Colonial mentality
* Consumer capitalism
* Cross cultural sensitivity
* Cultural assimilation
* Cultural attaché
* Cultural backwardness
* Cultural Bolshevism
* Cultural conservatism
* Cultural contracts
* Cultural deprivation
* Cultural diplomacy
* Cultural environmentalism
* Cultural exception
* Cultural feminism
* Cultural genocide
* Cultural globalization
* Cultural hegemony
* Cultural imperialism
* Cultural intelligence
* Cultural liberalism
* Cultural nationalism
* Cultural pessimism
* Cultural policy
* Cultural racism
* Cultural radicalism
* Cultural retention
* Cultural Revolution
* Cultural rights
* Cultural safety
* Cultural silence
* Cultural subsidy
* Cultural Zionism
* Culture change
* Culture minister
* Culture of fear
* Culture war
* Deculturalization
* Dominator culture
* Interculturalism
* Monoculturalism
* Multiculturalism
* Biculturalism
* Multiracial democracy
* Pluriculturalism
* Polyculturalism
* Transculturism

Religions|

* Buddhism
* Christianity
* Catholicism
* Cultural Christians
* Protestantism
* Role of Christianity in civilization
* Eastern Orthodoxy
* Mormonism
* Cultural Hindus
* Islam
* Cultural Muslims
* Judaism
* Sikhism

Related|

* Animal culture
* Archaeological culture
* Bennett scale
* Cannabis culture
* Circuit of culture
* Civilization
* Coffee culture
* Cross-cultural
* Cultural center
* Cultural competence
* Cultural critic
* Cultural determinism
* Cultural diversity
* Cultural evolutionism
* Cultural homogenization
* Cultural institution
* Cultural jet lag
* Cultural lag
* Cultural literacy
* Cultural mosaic
* Cultural movement
* Cultural mulatto
* Cultural probe
* Cultural relativism
* Cultural tourism
* Pop-culture
* Cultural translation
* Cultural turn
* Cultural sensibility
* Culture and menstruation
* Culture and positive psychology
* Culture and social cognition
* Culture gap
* Culture hero
* Culture industry
* Culture shock
* Culturgen
* Children's culture
* Culturalism
* Cyberculture
* Death and culture
* Disability culture
* Deaf culture
* Drinking culture
* Drug culture
* Eastern culture
* Emotions and culture
* Intercultural communication
* Intercultural competence
* Languaculture
* Living things in culture
* Media culture
* Oppositional culture
* Participatory culture
* Permission culture
* Rape culture
* Remix culture
* Tea culture
* Transformation of culture
* Urban culture
* Welfare culture
* Western culture
* Youth culture

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