MASS CULTURE/MASS SOCIETY

Emerging out of the 19^th century’s industrial revolution and the movements of millions of people into urban areas, these terms refer to the culture and society of the general population, often with the negative connotation that it is homogenous and conformist group in media discourse.

 -                - Refers to working class people

 -                - People who were working in factories.

 MASS MEDIA

Term that has been used since the 1920s to describe those media forms designed to reach large audiences perceived to have shared interest.

Usually those coming from a relatively centralized mass distribution source such as a newspaper corporation, a national television network, a major film studio, or a news and entertainment media conglomerate.

CYBERBLITZ

French philosopher Jean Baudrillard used the term cyberblitz to describe the escalation of random and unpredictable media forms, images, and information that have bombarded us in postmodern society.

MEDIUM AND MEDIA

Medium- is a means of mediation or communication- a neutral or intermediary form through which messages pass.  Your voice is the medium and your tone is the message.

Media- refers to the group of communications industries and technologies that together produce and spread public news, entertainment and information.

CONVERGENCE

Term used in the 1990s to describe the coming together of media forms, has resulted in the merger of such previously discrete instruments and technologies as the still camera, the video camera, the telephone, the musical listening device, the internet, and the video screen.

        - Netflix Ipad App

        - Telecommunication Bundles

BROADCAST/NARROWCAST

      - Media that are transmitted from one central point to many different receiving points (early TV and Radio)

 -         

      - Media that have a limited range through which to reach audiences  and hence are capable of carrying programming tailored to audiences that are more specific than broadcast audiences. (cable TV on local channels)

THE CULTURE INDUSTRY

An entity that both creates and caters to mass public that, tragically, can no longer see the difference between the real world and the illusory world that these popular media forms collectively generate.

5 Key Themes in “The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception”:

1. Individuality compromised
2. Increasing homogeneity of cultural products
3. Culture Industry as Capitalist Ideology
4. Relation between leisure/amusement and work
5. The trajectory of the Culture Industry as Commodity (use value to exchange value)

SOCIETY OF THE SPECTACLE

The term spectacle was used by French theorist Guy Debord in his book Society of the Spectacle to describe how representations dominate contemporary culture and how all social relations are mediated by and through images.

PUBLIC SPHERE

Social space (which may be virtual) in which citizenscome together to debate and discuss the pressing issues of their society. Concept has been critiqued for being too idealistic about who exactly constituted the public.

- A term that originated with German theorist Jurgen Habermas

IMAGINED COMMUNITY

Term used by Benedict Anderson to describe the fact thatnationalism is an imagined political community that is imagined as both limited (with borders) and sovereign (self-governing).