Popular Culture

It has many possible definitions.

There are many definitions for Popular Culture, but for our discussion we will discuss 5 definitions given
by John Storey in his book Cultural Theory and Popular Culture : An Introduction:

1. Culture Widely favored or liked by many people

2. Culture left over after we have decided what is high culture
3. Culture considered as a “mass culture”
4. Culture that originates from “the people’
5. A site of Struggle

1.

Take these two TV shows for example. They're absolutely popular in Philippine
mainstream media, and as such, it can be argued that these two shows are part of our
popular culture

2. "High culture" is something that's usually associated as being "high-end" in the

sense that there's this sense of exclusivity or difficulty to access or get into things in
high culture.

Take opera, for example. Watching opera is often considered as something part of high
culture. Opera isn't really accessible in the sense that not many people (in other words,
the masses) could watch an opera show. They're very expensive.

Now compare this to the experience of watching the latest teleserye, variety show, film,
etc. Mainstream media is much more accessible and that accessibility contributes to the
popularity of things featured in mainstream media.

3. As mentioned in the previous page, one reason why popular culture is more
accessible is because it is made to be easily accessible and appealing to many people
(the masses). Popular culture is mainstream.
Think about this: back then, we could only watch local TV shows on TV. Many people
have television, which is why whenever something gets shown on National TV, there's a
huge possibility of that something becoming very popular. 

Now we have social media. Social media not only lets us access information from all
around the world, it can also help reinforce the popularity of something in local
mainstream media. 

For example, try to read what's trending on Twitter. You may notce a pattern, like a certain noontime show loveteam
getting trending hashtags, celebrity hashtags, music genre hashtags, and so on...

4.Since popular culture is a culture widely favored or liked by many people, how
“something” becomes a part of popular culture can depend on people’s perception
towards that “something”.
For example, if a group of people forms a band, whether that band gets recognized by
many would depend on how popular they become over time. If lots of people appreciate
the band's music, they have a huge chance to become a "hit" over time.

5. The last definition of popular culture that we will cover for this lesson is popular
culture as being a "site of struggle."

One thing to keep in mind for our course is that we will not only discuss matters in
popular culture merely related to entertainment and leisure. There is also power and
politics involved. 

Media works convey information, and people can have varying motives for conveying
certain information. While many media works can be deemed as entertaining, there are
also some media works that are manipulative in nature and may potentially harm a
person, especially if the person lacks media literacy.

To better understand this aspect of popular culture as being a "site of struggle", it is

important to understand the concepts of culture and ideology. We will be discussing
these two concepts in our next lesson.

8/20/2021

I have mentioned in the previous lesson that one of the possible definitions of popular
culture is that it could be considered as a "site of struggle."

So far, we have established that this has to do with pop culture being connected with
power and politics. We will elaborate further regarding this connection in this lesson.
The flow of our lesson for today will be as follows:

First, we'll discuss the concept of Culture

Second, we'll discuss the concept of Ideology
Then, by the end of the lesson, we'll discuss the connection between Culture, Ideology,
and Popular Culture.

Raymond Henry Williams (August 31, 1921 – January 26, 1988) was a Welsh academic,
novelist and critic known for his writings on politics, culture, the mass media and literature.

His work is known for having laid the foundations for the field of cultural studies.

One of his works, “The Analysis of Culture” (1961), described three general categories
in the definition of culture.
 

These 3 categories are:

1. Ideal

2. Documentary

3. Social

Culture as "Ideal"

Raymond Williams described culture as "a state or process of human perfection, in terms of
certain absolute or universal values.“

One example you can think about for this is how the concept of respect and
"pagmamano" works in Philippine culture.

We know that pagmamano is done to show respect to the elderly. This kind of thinking
is an example of the so-called "ideal" in culture. We can think of ideals like standards or
commonly-accepted beliefs in a culture.

With that in mind, we can also say that different cultures have different ideals. The act of
pagmamano, for example, would most likely not have the same meaning in, say,
Japanese or American culture. 

Culture as "Documentary"

Raymond Williams also described culture as “the body of intellectual and imaginative
work, in which, in a detailed way, human thought and experience are variously
recorded.“
This aspect of culture can be seen with how superstitions work in relation to culture.
Different cultures can have certain superstitions.

Superstitions within a certain culture spread across different people in many ways.
Some may include word-of-mouth (like when an older family member tells you about it),
or learned through social institutions (like when you learn about them in school).

Take note, however, that it can also be the case that even if a certain person is part of a
certain culture having a certain superstition, that person may opt to not have the
superstition affect them. Though at the same time, people around them can potentially
influence them to behave according to the superstitious belief anyway.

The way other people can spread and encourage certain beliefs shows the
documentary aspect of culture. As cultural information (like beliefs / values, etc.)
gets "passed" from one person to another through social interactions, those
information get "documented" in society.

Think about this. A commonly known superstition in Filipino culture is how the dropping
of a spoon or fork on the floor means that there'll be a visitor in the near future.

How did you learn about the said superstition? What about other superstitions?

Cultural information isn't limited to superstitions. The way we see the world can be
influenced by our culture, and the way we behave can also be influenced by our culture,
and this is possible because of how we encounter all sorts of cultural information in our
lives. This can be especially seen with cultural beliefs that spread throughout the years.
Think about how some superstitions are observed by people younger and older than us.

Culture as "Social"

Raymond Williams also described culture as "a description of a particular way of life,
which expresses certain meanings and values not only in art and learning but also in
institutions and ordinary behavior.” Socializing with other makes it possible to spread
cultural information. We can also learn about a culture by interacting with others.

It is through a society having its members share certain ideas and beliefs that culture
exists. This is also why a group of people having ideas and beliefs that's different from
another group can be described as people having "different" from another,
This is how we can see that culture is indeed "social."

Ideology

Let us first look into how the term ideology was coined.

Destutt de Tracy coined the term idéologie (English: “ideology”) in 1796 as a name for
his own “science of ideas.” He discussed the concept of idéologie in his work Eléments
d'idéologie (1801-15).

For Destutt de Tracy, ideology was “a science, a search for truth through the study of
ideas.” (Eidlin, 2014).

Definitions of Ideology

For our lesson, we will focus on 5 particular definitions of ideology, which are as follows:

1. A systematic body of ideas articulated by a particular group of people.

2. A certain masking, distortion, or concealment (Karl Marx).
3. Term used to refer to “ideological forms” (Karl Marx).
4. Ideology operates mainly at the level of connotations, the secondary, often
unconscious meanings that texts and practices carry, or can be made to carry (Ronald
Barthes).
5. Ideology not simply as a body of ideas, but as a material practice (Louis Althusser). 

Ideology as a Systematic Body of Ideas

Ideology can refer to a systematic body of ideas articulated by a particular group of

people.

Ideologies can be ideas that inform practices of certain social groups, or a collection of
ideas related to politics, economy or society which inform aspirations and activities.

A good example to think about for this definition is about how people are affected by
social institutions. People learn how to think about things in the world through these
social institutions. Examples of social institutions are schools and places of worship.

Ideology as a certain masking, distortion, or concealment

Ideologies present distorted images of reality. 

Ideologies produce what is sometimes called ‘false consciousness’.

This definition is said to be one of the fundamental assumptions of classical Marxism,

amd Karl Marx’s work “A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy” formulated
on this conceptualization of ideology.
Two key ideas that we can consider from this definition are as follows:

1. Ideology affects life conditions:

People may have their behavior and ways of thinking affected by things that
communicate a certain ideology.

Take how media could influence a person's thinking about a certain issue, for example.
However, take note that just because something is communicated by media, or done
commonly by other people doesn't necessarily mean that people would automatically
have their behavior influenced. Remember that as humans, we have the ability to make
our own judgements in the end.

Ideology, however, can encourage certain ways of thinking, which is why it can affect
life conditions. 

2. Ideology represents reality in a distorted manner:

The representation of reality by ideology is distorted due to the subjective aspect of

interpreting what's in reality in the first place. As ideology works in such a way that the
systematic body of ideas it is made up of is articulated by people, things in ideology can
depend on those people's own interpretations about a certain thing.

In a way, we can say that technically, ideology's way of representing reality is based on
many people's interpretations affecting other people. With that in mind, how can we be
sure that the way other people see a certain idea is indeed the absolute truth about that
thing?

Think about this: In social media for example, how can we be sure that someone is
posting the truth? How can we be sure that the information we come across is "legit"?
Would the amount of likes or views or shares, for example, equate to the "credibility" of
the source? What if those likes, views or shares are manipulated somehow?

When dealing with media works and information in general, we should be careful and
critical when thinking about them. 

2. Ideology represents reality in a distorted manner:

The representation of reality by ideology is distorted due to the subjective aspect of

interpreting what's in reality in the first place. As ideology works in such a way that the
systematic body of ideas it is made up of is articulated by people, things in ideology can
depend on those people's own interpretations about a certain thing.

In a way, we can say that technically, ideology's way of representing reality is based on
many people's interpretations affecting other people. With that in mind, how can we be
sure that the way other people see a certain idea is indeed the absolute truth about that
thing?

Think about this: In social media for example, how can we be sure that someone is
posting the truth? How can we be sure that the information we come across is "legit"?
Would the amount of likes or views or shares, for example, equate to the "credibility" of
the source? What if those likes, views or shares are manipulated somehow?

When dealing with media works and information in general, we should be careful and
critical when thinking about them. 

Popular culture is thus, as Hall (2009) claims, a site where ‘collective social understandings
are created’: a terrain on which “the politics of signification” are played out in attempts to win
people to particular ways of seeing the world.
 

Roland Barthes’ Definition of Ideology

Barthes argues that ideology (or ‘myth’ as Barthes himself calls it) operates mainly at
the level of connotations, the secondary, often unconscious meanings that texts
and practices carry, or can be made to carry. 

Ideology attempts to make universal and legitimate what is in fact partial and
particular; an attempt to pass off that which is cultural (i.e. humanly made) as
something which is natural (i.e. just existing).

Ideology as a Material Practice

 Louis Althusser conceptualized ideology as not simply as a body of ideas, but as a

material practice.

A situation that can be considered as an example of this "material practice" is with how
certain events or holidays are viewed by people.

One may interpret a store doing a sale during a certain holiday as a demonstration of
the store owner's support or celebration of the holiday, while others may think it's just to
catch attention merely for the sake of profit.

Both are related concepts, and can be said to cover much the same conceptual
landscape.
The main difference between them is that ideology brings a political dimension to the
shared terrain. In addition, the introduction of the concept of ideology suggests
that relations of power and politics inescapably mark the culture/ ideology landscape.

With that in mind, the study of popular culture (a concept that is also related to culture
and ideology due to how it works in our society) indeed amounts to something more
than a simple discussion of entertainment and leisure.
 

This concludes our lesson for today.

Take care and stay safe!