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3 examples of popular culture. Characteristics of television as a phenomenon of mass culture

20th century to characterize the changed place of culture in modern society. The time of its appearance is the middle of the 20th century, when the means mass media(radio, print, television) penetrated into most countries of the world and became available to representatives of all social strata. The exceptionally intensive development of mass media and communications has led to the fact that not an individual person, but a large number - a mass of people - has come to be considered as the addressee of culture. In contrast to the elite, mass culture focuses on the average level of mass consumers.

The phenomenon of mass culture reflects the impact of the modern technogenic world on the formation of the human personality. It is unique as the art of manipulating elementary "subhuman" reactions and impulses ("drives") of the masses of people, using the most refined achievements of culture (technology and science). A system of tested techniques is being created, designed for the simplest unconditional reactions, attraction, increased eventfulness, and shock moments are used.

Mass culture is emphatically focused on entertainment, it is quite cheerful, and in many ways it exploits such areas of the human psyche as the subconscious and instincts.

Consider the influence of television on popular culture.

Television is a very young cultural phenomenon, which, when it appeared, had to be integrated into the already existing "system of things" and into the corresponding system of ideas. For comparison: when the first car was created (1895), its shape resembled the shape of a carriage and, we emphasize, could not be otherwise: in the minds of the creators of the car, and all other people, the idea of the carriage as the most comfortable means of transportation dominated. Let's call the carriage the model-prototype of the car in order to briefly characterize the phenomenon itself. The entry of television into culture demonstrates the same approach and, very importantly, something completely new.

When radio appeared (A. S. Popov, 1895), the model-prototype was the sounding human speech, later - sounding music, that is, phenomena related to the beginning of human culture. When cinema arose (the Lumiere brothers, 1895, J. Méliès), its prototype models were the theater (the European tradition goes back to the ancient theater of the 5th century BC) and photography (the founders are the inventors L. J. M. Daguerre, 1839 , J. N. Niepce in France; W. G. F. Talbot, 1840-1841, in England), which, in turn, had painting as a prototype model (the origin is about 40,000 BC. ). At the expense of photography, the cinema has already come closer to that "effect of television" that interests us.

At its inception, television did not rely on ancient prototype models, they were radio and cinema, that is, the latest phenomena that themselves had not yet been sufficiently mastered by mankind (additionally: a newspaper, an older model). Subsequently, the same effect was repeated with the emergence of computer culture (in particular, the Internet), where among the models-prototypes it is necessary to name first of all television. Behind the latest models, ancient and even new models are viewed only historically, outside of actual awareness, and this is something new that was formed in culture with the advent of television.

It is the renewal of prototype models that takes place in the culture of the twentieth century that can explain why the essence of television remains insufficiently identified.

The latest models have not yet been fully mastered, which leads to a desire to rely on a stronger foundation (that is, more familiar).

Hence the concept of television as a new art form. There has been extensive discussion about this. From the stated point of view, its hidden meaning is in drawing an analogy between television (new in culture) with art (old, mastered, understandable in culture) or in criticizing this analogy.

A large amount of evidence can be cited confirming that television is a special form of art (or, more broadly, artistic culture).

Then, having accepted the general thesis, it is necessary to take the next step - to compare television with various types art (artistic culture). No matter how the specifics of the artistic possibilities of television are revealed, its propensity for secondariness and orientation towards an audience of millions of people, that is, features of mass artistic culture, will inevitably come to the fore. This, it seems, led to the traditional idea of television as a form of mass culture (which acted as an explanatory model-prototype of television). The concept of "mass culture" is painted in negative tones, hence the quite logical transfer of this emotional shade to the conceptual interpretation of television.

Meanwhile, television, despite its outward resemblance to the mass artistic culture, performs a different role, obviously so new that it cannot be easily defined through analogy and requires a special study.

The unique property of television as a communicative subsystem of culture is the transmission of an image over a distance. It fulfilled the long-standing dream of mankind about a kind of "all-seeing", about the possibility of looking beyond the horizon of the visible living space. Thanks to this, television spread so quickly and widely, it turned out to be so in demand by people.

“Television messages - especially now, with the presence of communication satellites - come from all over the world, which means that the great gift of television is that through it the whole world has gained visibility. And since TV does not “remove” the viewer from his everyday environment, on the contrary, it itself strives there, then together with television the whole world breaks into the home of an individual ... In the era of television, it is not a person who travels around the world, but images from all over the world - from all countries and continents - rush to the viewer and, having lost their materiality, swarm around him - as if to dutifully get into his "cumulative social experience" and "model of the world," wrote the famous television researcher V. I. Mikhalkovich.

Television expands the boundaries of the real world, accessible for vision and comprehension by a person, completes and supplements the socio-cultural space accessible to the individual, that is, it contributes to the formation of an individual image of reality. This means that the requests of a particular person to television as a source of information about the surrounding reality, in general, are the same as for reality itself.

The French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu makes a very accurate observation: “For some of our philosophers (and writers), “to be” means to be shown on television, that is, to end up being noticed by journalists or, as they say, to be in good standing with journalists (which is impossible without compromise and self-compromise). Indeed, since they cannot rely on their own works alone to continue to exist for the public, they have no other choice but to appear on the screen as often as possible, and therefore write works at regular and as short intervals as possible, the main whose function, according to Gilles Deleuze, is to provide their authors with an invitation to television.

A person, constantly orienting himself in the world of changing social conditions, can make a wide variety of demands on television content. Life orientation is one of the most important functions of television in relation to the viewer, along with recreational and compensatory ones. For example, a person does not understand the sphere of self-realization. He lacks human contact. He needs some life alternative if the directly accessible social reality is not valuable and desirable enough. In search of responses to these requests, a person turns to TV as well.

TV programs, in turn, reflecting one or another part of social reality, organizing it, carry certain meanings of this reality that can influence a person, acting as sources of value alternatives to sociocultural guidelines in relations with the world. Therefore, special attention should be paid to such a feature of television programs as the formation of these alternatives for the viewer, and their specific content should be considered in the context of the three defining processes of human life: activity, behavior and communication. Perceiving certain meanings of TV programs, forming new sociocultural guidelines on their basis, a person can form a personal value attitude towards them, and these new guidelines can, according to B.M. Sapunova, "determine his life attitudes and behavior". .

The role of television is characterized by multifunctionality. However, in the multiplicity of specific functions, two fundamental functions stand out, which allows us to speak of the bipolar functionality of television. The first function is informational. The second function is leisure.

The information function is the basic feature of television as a cultural phenomenon. To clarify this idea, let's compare the screening of a feature film in a cinema and on TV.

In the cinema, no matter how poorly technically equipped it is, we meet with the work of art itself, this is the form of its existence.

On the contrary, a film shown on television, even the most perfect one, is only information about a work of art (just as Leonardo da Vinci's La Gioconda, which we see in an illustrated magazine or book, is only information about a painting in Louvre).

In a narrower and more familiar sense, information on television acts as a collection of information about events, news.

At a new stage in the development of television broadcasting (in our country since perestroika, in the West - much earlier), the information function of television has fundamentally changed in content (and, as a result, in forms), because the very idea of television information has changed.

The domestic viewer, brought up on the programs of information and educational (with a pronounced ideological orientation) Soviet television, was amazed by the appearance on television commercial advertising. At first inept, imitating Western models, then more and more high-quality, even talented, she persistently interfered with the broadcasting grid.

Information-advertising permeates the entire sphere of television broadcasting. It is both open in nature (commercials) and hidden (mentions of advertising objects in the speech of presenters and participants in programs, clothes, hairstyles, other surroundings of characters that are authoritative for viewers, what they hold in their hands, what they touch, what watch that they listen to what surrounds them, etc.). Information about events, turning into advertising information, changes its structure.

Thus, the sequence of news programs of the Soviet period (official block - country's working life - foreign news block - cultural news - sports - weather) is replaced by another sequence: the most sensational news (catastrophe, murder, etc.) - less sensational news (including, for example, the official bloc). If a major scientific discovery is made, this is the material of the end of the issue, but if the scientist received the Nobel Prize, it is the beginning.

IN Soviet times set a certain percentage of negative news in information program: no more than 40%.

An analysis of current news shows that negative news prevails even on official channels. On some (for example, on "RenTV" with Romanova), their number reaches 90% and sometimes even more.

The news is interrupted by commercials. A stable tandem arises: the real news of the day is terrible (contract killings, corruption, wars, terrorism), catastrophic (hurricanes, tsunamis, mass epidemics), terrible for the common man (fires, leaks, failures in the operation of power systems, water supply, sewerage, poor living conditions , low wages, bribes of low-level officials, unfair trial, deprivation of benefits, rise in price of food, gasoline, increase in housing costs, negligence in schools and hospitals, fraud, hooliganism, drunkenness, poverty), while in commercials the viewer is presented with an ideal, happy life(beautiful things - from pantyhose to refrigerators, all washing powders, medicines for any disease according to the latest scientific developments, almost free loans for almost any amount, allowing you to dance even on critical days; toothpaste and chewing gums, luxury cars and computers of the latest models, exciting films, grandiose concerts, political parties standing guard over the interests of the people).

These two blocks are constantly interspersed, collectively evoking the polar emotions of the viewers, through which television culture has, in essence, a suggestive influence on the consciousness and subconsciousness of millions.

Sensationalism as a principle of presenting information on modern television turns out to be a connecting bridge in the bipolarity of the main functions of television - informational and leisure.

Television, reflecting new realities, has developed its own new forms that implement the leisure function. In the spectrum of these proper television forms, two TV genres were formed, which turned out to be at different poles: a video clip (in the brevity of which the option of minimizing leisure was reflected) and a television series (in the duration of which, reaching several thousand episodes, the option of maximizing leisure was reflected). Between these poles, an intermediate place was occupied by a talk show that combined information and leisure as television functions, but not through sensationalism, but through the illusion of interactivity.

Adapted to the tastes of the broad masses of people, it is technically replicated in the form of many copies and distributed using modern communication technologies.

The emergence and development of mass culture is associated with the rapid development of mass media, capable of exerting a powerful influence on the audience. IN mass media usually there are three components:

media(newspapers, magazines, radio, television, Internet blogs, etc.) - replicate information, have a regular impact on the audience and are focused on certain groups of people;
means of mass influence(advertising, fashion, cinema, popular literature) - do not always regularly affect the audience, are focused on the average consumer;
technical means of communication(Internet, telephone) - determine the possibility of direct communication of a person with a person and can serve to transfer personal information.

It should be noted that not only the mass media have an impact on society, but society also seriously affects the nature of the information transmitted in the mass media. Unfortunately, public demand often turns out to be culturally low, which reduces the level of television programs, newspaper articles, variety performances, etc.

In recent decades, in the context of the development of means of communication, they speak of a special computer culture. If earlier the main source of information was a book page, now it is a computer screen. A modern computer allows you to instantly receive information over the network, supplement the text with graphic images, videos, sound, which provides a holistic and multi-level perception of information. In this case, the text on the Internet (for example, a web page) can be represented as hypertext. those. contain a system of references to other texts, fragments, non-textual information. The flexibility and versatility of the means of computer display of information greatly increase the degree of its impact on a person.

At the end of the XX - the beginning of the XXI century. mass culture began to play an important role in ideology and economics. However, this role is ambiguous. On the one hand, mass culture made it possible to reach out to broad sections of the population and introduce them to the achievements of culture, presenting the latter in simple, democratic and understandable images and concepts, but on the other hand, it created powerful mechanisms for manipulating public opinion and forming an average taste.

The main components of mass culture include:

information industry- press, television news, talk shows, etc., explaining current events in an understandable language. Mass culture was originally formed precisely in the sphere of the information industry - the "yellow press" of the 19th - early 20th centuries. Time has shown the high efficiency of mass media in the process of manipulating public opinion;
leisure industry- films, entertainment literature, pop humor with the most simplified content, pop music, etc.;
formation system mass consumption, which focuses on advertising and fashion. Consumption is presented here as a non-stop process and the most important goal of human existence;
replicated mythology- from the myth of the "American dream", where the beggars turn into millionaires, to the myths of "national exceptionalism" and the special virtues of this or that people in comparison with others.

Detailed solution paragraph Questions for chapter 2 on social science for students in grade 10, authors L.N. Bogolyubov, Yu.I. Averyanov, A.V. Belyavsky 2015

1. What makes culture stand out as an independent sphere public life? Name the areas, elements that form the sphere of culture, reveal the links between them.

Culture is a concept that has great amount values in various areas of human life. Culture is the subject of study of philosophy, cultural studies, history, art history, linguistics (ethnolinguistics), political science, ethnology, psychology, economics, pedagogy, etc.

Basically, culture is understood as human activity in its most diverse manifestations, including all forms and methods of human self-expression and self-knowledge, the accumulation of skills and abilities by a person and society as a whole. Culture also appears as a manifestation of human subjectivity and objectivity (character, competencies, skills, abilities and knowledge).

The variety of activities included in the sphere of culture can be divided into four large groups:

Artistic creativity;

Preservation of cultural heritage;

Club and entertainment activities;

Mass creation and dissemination of cultural goods (cultural industry).

The basis for distinguishing these four groups is the difference in the composition of functions (creation, preservation, distribution of benefits) and types of needs satisfied (aesthetic, entertainment, information), the orientation to which is the leading, fundamental for the respective types of activity.

2. “Culture,” wrote the French philosopher J.-P. Sartre, - saves no one and nothing, and does not justify. But it is the work of man - in it he seeks his reflection, in it he recognizes himself, only in this critical mirror can he see his face. What did the author mean? Can you agree with him on everything? Can culture save a person?

Sartre is absolutely right when he considers culture as a critical mirror in which only a person can see his own face. Is it a lot or a little? Obviously, it is not enough if a person is simply satisfied with the fact that he managed to look in the "mirror". And at the same time, it’s a lot if he, having peered, will be able to draw a practical conclusion: is he capable or not capable of accomplishing his plan in terms of his cultural appearance? The same applies to society as a whole. Consequently, the same Sartre is wrong when he assures that culture does not save anyone and nothing. It saves - even when it is able to help a person in his historical actions; and when, having critically assessed itself (which is undoubtedly also an act of high culture), society refrains from actions that are utopian and meaningless in the given socio-cultural conditions.

3. According to the German-French thinker A. Schweitzer, the worldview must meet three requirements: to be conscious (“thinking”), ethical, the ideal of which is the transformation of reality on moral principles, and optimistic. What, in your opinion, is the detailed content of each of these requirements? Do you share the opinion of the scientist, or do you consider it necessary to revise or expand the range of these requirements? Justify your position.

Any views and worldview of a person must have a certain basis, a person’s beliefs must first of all be comprehended by himself, and at some points everyone must rethink their views in order to ultimately find their “truth” based on life experience and observations, reasoning , thinking as such.

The worldview must be consistent with the general ethical standards and, above all, aim at improving existing world and orders in accordance with moral principles, morality, humanity - a person should not get hung up on what has already been achieved and must look to a bright future, while participating in its "building", and not waiting for the world to change itself.

I share the opinion of the thinker A. Schweitzer. Now this is very important for our society, because speech and thinking are heavily polluted, and this is repulsive.

4. G. Hegel believed that an outstanding person who creates world-historical deeds is not subject to morality. What matters is the greatness of the deed, not its moral meaning. Do you share this position? Justify your point of view.

Morality is heavily averaged. General rules necessary for social balance. And save the state. Any new undertaking requires going beyond these limits. Genius always falls out of the general flow. Even the famous religious reformers violated the already established written laws, for which they were executed. Only history showed who was great and who attributed to himself the immortal glory of the maker of history. The opinion of contemporaries is often deceptive and hasty. And the farther from the event, the more adequate the assessment. Above the average morality, the creators of the consciousness of mankind, but they only expand the scope. Impostors have always been distinguished by unjustified cruelty and lack of modesty.

5. What folk proverbs and sayings condemn laziness, indiscipline and irresponsibility? Use the collection of proverbs and sayings collected by V. I. Dahl.

I want to swallow, but I'm too lazy to chew.

A lazy man in the middle of the river asks for a drink.

While the lazy one is warming up, the diligent one will return from work.

Mother Sloth was born before him.

Under a lying stone and water does not flow.

You will become lazy, you will drag yourself with a bag.

Him perishing and be lazy - the laziness.

Labor feeds a person, but laziness spoils.

The day is long until the evening, if there is nothing to do.

Boredom take matters into your own hands.

A small deed is better than a big idleness.

Tyap-blunder - the ship will not come out.

You won't wake up a drowsy one, and you won't send a lazy one.

The lazy always have a holiday.

Postpone idleness, but do not postpone business.

Drinking tea is not chopping wood.

White hands love other people's works.

The seat of the city is not taken.

Long thread is a lazy seamstress.

6. Russian scientist, Nobel Prize winner Academician Zh. I. Alferov, shortly after the award, stated that if Nobel Prize existed in the 18th century, then the first should have been given to Peter the Great for building an education system according to the triad: gymnasium - university - academy. Justify based on modern experience, the essence and meaning of this triad.

The triad: gymnasium - university - academy, in the modern world reflects the continuity of education.

Lifelong education is the process of growth of the educational (general and professional) potential of the individual throughout life, organizationally provided by the system of state and public institutions and appropriate to the needs of the individual and society. The goal is the formation and development of the personality both during periods of its physical and socio-psychological maturation, flourishing and stabilization of vitality and abilities, and during periods of aging of the body, when the task of compensating for lost functions and capabilities comes to the fore. The system-forming factor is the social need for the constant development of the personality of each person.

7. Find in reference publications on religious studies, for example, in the dictionary "Religions of peoples modern Russia”, concepts related to the moral teachings of Christianity, Islam, Buddhism and Judaism. Compare them and highlight their common or similar content.

Christianity is an Abrahamic world religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ as described in the New Testament. Christians believe that Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah, the Son of God and the Savior of mankind. Christians do not doubt the historicity of Jesus Christ. Christianity is the largest world religion. The largest currents in Christianity are Catholicism, Orthodoxy and Protestantism. Christianity arose in the 1st century in Palestine and in the first decades of its existence it spread to other provinces and among other ethnic groups.

Islam is the youngest and the second largest adherent after Christianity in the world monotheistic Abrahamic religion. Islam is the state or official religion in 28 countries. The majority of Muslims (85-90%) are Sunnis, the rest are Shiites, Ibadis. The founder of Islam is Muhammad (d. 632). Holy book - Koran. The second most important source of Islamic doctrine and law is the Sunnah, which is a set of traditions (hadith) about the sayings and deeds of the Prophet Muhammad. The language of worship is Arabic. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims.

Buddhism is a religious and philosophical doctrine (dharma) about spiritual awakening (bodhi), which arose around the 6th century BC. e. in ancient India. The founder of the teaching is Siddhartha Gautama, who later received the name Buddha Shakyamuni. This is one of the oldest world religions, recognized by a wide variety of peoples with completely different traditions.

Judaism is a religious, national and ethical worldview formed by the Jewish people, one of the oldest monotheistic religions of mankind and the oldest of those that still exist. Jews are an ethno-religious group that includes those who were born Jewish and those who converted to Judaism. About 42% of all Jews live in Israel and about 42% live in the US and Canada, most of the rest live in Europe. Judaism claims a historical continuity spanning over 3,000 years.

8. How are culture and religion related? Show on specific examples the relationship between secular and religious principles in works of art.

Religion is one form of culture. Religion forms a certain worldview, gives answers to questions about the meaning of life and death. Cultural monuments are created in the religious sphere: temples, icons, musical compositions.

9. How is the knowledge of the world around through art? Why is art called "figurative knowledge"?

Knowledge of the surrounding world with the help of art occurs as a person perceives. Let's take an example. Let's say pictures. They can depict people, plants, nature, interiors, landscapes, anything. Often art is based on reality, but there are exceptions. But these exceptions are the knowledge of the world of human psychology, which is also our environment. Art is called “figurative knowledge”, because there is an intuitive assimilation of new phenomena.

Additional material:

All art objects are historical source. And through the study of this art, people learn about the world in the past, distant or not so far, as well as in the present. After all, let's say modern avant-garde art- it's a good indication of what's going on modern man what forms of expression he finds, what problems haunt him, etc.

On the other hand, while creating, a person also learns the world primarily through self-knowledge. Expressing oneself in art is one of the ways of reflection, ways not only to know, but also to come to terms with the surrounding reality.

The subject of art - the life of people - is extremely diverse and is reflected in art in all its diversity in the form of artistic images. The latter, being the result of fiction, nevertheless reflect reality and always bear the imprint of real-life objects, events and phenomena. The artistic image performs the same functions in art as the concept in science: with the help of it, the process of artistic generalization takes place, highlighting the essential features of cognizable objects. The created images constitute the cultural heritage of society and are capable, having become symbols of their time, to have a serious impact on public consciousness.

10. Give a specific example of the phenomenon of mass culture. Highlight the relevant features in it and explain how it affects the consumer.

Example: modern stage (pop music, TV show).

Signs: the most important thing is available to the majority, does not require monetary costs, arose at the time of globalization.

Influence: positive, entertains people, makes it possible to get acquainted with the culture of other countries (example: manner of singing, dancing, speaking)

11. Try to independently develop a specific model of a work of one of the genres of popular culture. According to the laws of the genre, determine what the main character should be, what must be present in the plot, what the denouement should be, etc.

The main character must first be a nondescript, loser, working 5/2, who suddenly has superpower / luck / money / fame (and everything that the loser dreams of from reality), then any test must necessarily appear (save the world / sister / bank / love, etc.), and of course ZhK is a brilliant villain whom no one could catch until this moment, but then he appears, nothing comes out of him the first time, but the second hero wins, but he must be injured in order to there was a tearful scene, a kiss at the end

12. Name the works elite culture. Explain why you assigned them to her. Show how they interact with the sphere of mass culture.

Elite culture (high) is a creative avant-garde, a laboratory of art, where new types and forms of art are constantly being created. It is also called high culture, because it is created by the elite of society, or by its order by professional creators. It includes fine arts, classical music and literature. As a rule, elite culture is ahead of the level of its perception by an average educated person, by the broad masses. The creators of elite culture, as a rule, do not count on a wide audience. To understand these works, one must master a special language of art. Thus, the works of abstractionists in the form of color compositions are difficult to perceive by a person who is not familiar with the laws of painting, symbolic color images. The motto of the elite culture is “Art for the sake of art”. In modern culture, films by Fellini, Tarkovsky, books by Kafka, Belle, Picasso's paintings, music by Duval, Schnittke are classified as elite. However, sometimes elite works become popular (for example, films by Coppola and Bertolucci, works by Salvador Dali and Shemyakin).

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