Mass Media, Popular Culture and Transmission of Culture – Culture (SOC)

00:00 Now, another player in culture and driver in culture is Mass Media.

00:06 And we are really recipients of tons of information that’s inundating us.

00:10 Mass media refers to a diversified collection of media technologies that reach a large audience via mass communication.

00:17 So fancy way of saying, this information is being given to us and it’s affecting a large group of individuals typically in our whole country, a whole mass or whole culture.

00:27 Things like radio, TV, movies, print, internet, all of these things inundating us on a daily basis.

00:33 So the ads that we watch, what we read and print, what we look at on our smartphone, the pop-up ads that are on the internet. These all will directly impact our culture.

00:43 We look at the mass media as a subset of society that actually can influence and determine the social messages and impact that needs to be delivered.

00:52 Mass media can actually direct the way the cultureship is going to go.

00:59 They are going to steer it.

01:00 So if mass media feels like right now, a certain and initiative or something that’s a real importance it needs to be brought to the forefront they would do so.

01:10 You’ll find in a lot of print, a lot of ads and all of a sudden becomes a focus of attention.

01:14 An example I can use in today’s society is right now a really hot topic in our culture is the premise of privacy.

01:22 So nowadays with everything being on the internet, Facebook, people posting things, access to emails, access to your own personal data, privacy is a huge issue.

01:33 Then rewind a 5 to 10 years ago and privacy was even on the radar.

01:37 It was an annoying thing that you have to agree upon when you’re installing something and try to access it and says, “Do you agree with our privacy policy, yes accept… blah blah blah”.

01:45 Now, it’s a huge news topic. And part of that is there has been a cultural shift which has been propagated by what’s out in mass media.

01:54 So you see in ads and new articles, it’s all over the place… privacy, privacy, privacy.

01:59 To the point where is one of the largest growing areas in terms of a personal data.

02:07 Pop Culture is another huge driver of culture.

02:10 I mean the name itself is pop culture. And it refers to popular culture.

02:14 So what are the ideas right now or perspectives that are extremely popular within our masses, within our culture.

02:21 So things like arts, images, attitudes, customs, music the things that are really, really relevant and popular.

02:28 And it can be a social culture, a social movement.

02:31 It could be straight up music, artist a type of music, style fashion, all of these things are directly driven by what the masses want.

02:43 But then that is also influenced and driven by what the mass media is presenting to you.

02:48 So again, if we turn on the TV every 10 minutes or seeing an ad for the new Rihanna CD or for a concert that’s coming to town.

02:57 It’s going to be on your radar.

02:59 You see this in food movements; you see that all of a sudden you’re seeing whole bunch of different ads for a type of cooking or a style of cooking or a type of food and that now shifts the culture to move in that direction.

03:12 So mass media can influence pop culture which ultimately affects the culture that you and I experience.

03:18 Now, how is this information transmitted? We have some called transmission of culture, which is the process of learning new information through socialization engagement with those around you.

03:27 So I keep saying that mass media is helping direct pop culture and what is that culture.

03:32 We’ll part of that is information that we got to say through our family, through our parents, through our peer networks, people at work, the people we engage with.

03:40 That whole thing falls under the umbrella of socialization.

03:43 So the more you socialize within that culture environment, the better you will understand that culture.

03:48 So back in our previous example of traveling, if you move to a new place, the best way to really absorb and understand that culture is if you engage with that culture, if you go down to the markets, if you go down and speak to the locals and try to understand exactly how it is that their culture has been set up. What are their values? What are their norms? What are their beliefs?