Introduction
Culture and media are two aspects in the society that have influence each other in one way or another. In most cases media has been used in the society to mode the culture practiced in the society, the reason behind this is that media in its self is very powerful and it influences the thoughts of people and the culture that is believed in is easily influenced by the media. (BN 2000)
Mass media has a great impact on the perception of the people in the society and plays a great role of changing people’s thoughts on certain thing, it means that mass media changes the mass culture believed in by many of the people in the society as evidenced in American politics (BN, 2000).
The project is aimed at analyzing the mass culture and the influence of mass media on culture. In order to show a clear relationship between the two and how each one of them influences the other an analysis of the film a face in the crowd and different readings on the aspect will be analyzed. Together with this an analysis of the current United States of America elections will be done in order to see its application and influence even in today’s world.
Theoretical context
The mass culture theory believes that “through atomization individuals can only relate to each other like atoms in a chemical compound.” Based on this believe it is clear that mass culture can be changed or developed within a short time when there is effect of atomization. In this case atomization is caused by use of mass media in the society; mass media in real sense has great impact on what the society believes in and changes the perception of society greatly. Mass culture then can be defined as “the popular culture produced by mass production industrial techniques and is marketed for a profit to a mass public of consumers.” It means that through use of mass media techniques many of the public consumers of the media are easily influenced and their perceptions changed towards certain direction in the society (Deborah, 1996).
Mass culture is usually determined by the profit that is gained by the mass media from production and marketing of a certain aspect to the potential mass market. This is what is used by many politicians during politics whereby they invest a lot in mass media in order to gain advantage of the mass population reached by mass media. Television is one of the tools of mass media that is highly utilized to get attention of the mass population and to change their perception towards certain mass culture in the society (Dominic, 2008).
Mass culture has been criticized for a long period of time, the criticism is usually based on the impact it has in the society based on the different author’s views. The mass culture does not result to greater cultural uniformity in the society; there are those who use it to achieve high heights in the society than most of the other people. In most cases the mass culture theory is seen to favor the rich people in the society than the less well up. The reason is that the rich people are able to pay huge amounts of money to the mass media to promote their ideas, because mass media is always after maximizing profits. This is seen as an American myth and it is interpreted differently by different people hence bringing in critics on its applicability (Dominic, 2008).
The other critic of the theory is that consumers are assumed to be very much passive such that they make decisions without much knowledge. This is not true since many of the consumers take time to analyze the message passed and they have the opportunity of making decision on what to believe in (Dominic, 2008).
Historical content
The influence of mass culture and media is evidenced in the film a face in the crowd media and especially television has been used in the political arena to promote politics by then in America. The film a face in the crowd is basically “focused on the duplicitous megalomaniacal Rhodes who is viewed as the source o the evil media manipulation.” Television media by Lonesome Rhodes who was a singer used his television popularity to promote presidential campaign of Senator Fuller. Through television popularity he was in a position of changing perceptions of many of the people in the society to support the senator. This shows how media can have great influence of what mass population believes in (Thomas, 2004).
Mass media uses certain products of mass culture that are passed to the audience in a manner that is passive such that the audience thoughts and perceptions are manipulated and changed without knowledge by mass media to desired direction. This is what is illustrated by the film that “Rhodes manipulated perceptions of people towards supporting the senator passively.” Because of his successful manipulation he thought that the battle was over before it was and he altered words that showed how easily he manipulated the mass and brought challenges for his campaigns and support. This is because they were made public through media (Scott & Jeff, 2008).
There are certain elements that are associated with the mass culture theory and that are mostly used to promote it in the society. The first element is advertising; advertising has been popularly used in the society through use of mass media. Television is the tools of mass media that are popularly used in advertising. Television reaches many people in the society and it provides both audio and visual elements of an advert. Hence provision of these two elements plays a great role in influencing thinking and perceptions of people towards certain direction (Mick, 2005).
Based on the study television as a mass media tool has been greatly used to influence mass culture in the society. For instance in the film a face in a crowd mass media was used to change perceptions of Americans towards supporting a black person who is viewed as the face in the crowd. He was the only black person and Americans did not believe in black people hence media was greatly used to change the mass culture of Americans in supporting the black person. This was done by a singer Rhodes through pop music that made him popular in the American society and instead he used that popularity to support and change the mass culture of Americans to support a black person. Though this was not what Americans believed in mass media played great role in changing the mass culture of the entire society. Also television in the film is associated with the achievement of power or instance in the film “Rhodes is all too aware of his power over his audience, and becomes a monster, hungry or political power and contemptuous o his followers.” This is one of the elements o television and mass culture that is evidenced from the film (Brian, 2008).
The other element is use of pop art to promote mass culture in the society through use of mass media. Pop art is associated with singing whereby singers come up with songs that support certain aspects in the society, though the aspect may not be popular through the music the perception of the aspect is changed and people start viewing it as important in the society. This is what was used in the film and through various songs in praise of the candidate and popularity in the mass media the perception of the person was changed and people supported him (Brian, 2008).
Contemporary Relevance
Music and its popularity in the media play great role in building a mass culture in the society. This has been evidenced in the past United States election conducted recently, elect president Barrack Obama capitalized on mass media and through this he managed to change the mass culture and believe in United States of America. This is because through the mass media he changed the perception of Americans of black Americans and made them believe in his policies and ideas and through the support of mass media he gained enough support from the Americans against his opponent senator McCain (Bill, 2008).
The critic that consumers are passive is not true and it is evident in the current United States elections whereby the Americans made their decisions not through passive contributions but through charisma and mass media he managed to go through. The success of Obama can not be based on passive decision making by the Americans but it is through the personality Obama established, through his well defined policies and the support of mass media that showed confidence in Obama. Because of the combination of these characteristics, Obama managed to sail through the political arena to become the 44th president of United States of America (Dominic, 2008).
It is assumed that mass culture is used as a defense mechanism by the people in the upper class and middle classes but based on the 2008 presidential elections this is not true since the Obama is a black American and for along time black Americans have not been as confident enough to lead whites meaning that Obama was among the low-class people but he managed to sail through to the top. This shows that mass culture is not used by the upper class to press the lower class (Dominic, 2008).
In conclusion personality or charisma of a person, celebrity and commercial television are used to build mass culture. In the case of presidential elections in the United States Obama used his personality through the policy of change we believe in to build his celebrity and personality with the support of the media and today it has become the mass culture in the entire continent (Bill, 2008).
Works cited
- Bill, Presidential election results maps, 2008 vs 2004
- BN, Theoretical Approaches to the mass media, 2000
- Brian Koller’s, Review Face in the Crowd.
- Deborah Cook, Adorno on mass culture; cook [rev]. 1996
- Dominic Strinati, A critique of mass culture theory, Web.
- Mick Lasalle, A face in the crowd Review, Warner Home Video Database. Web.
- Scott McGee & Jeff Stafford, a Face in the crowd: The essentials.
- Thomas Beltzer, A face in the crowd (1957) Review, 2004.