Definition of Mass Culture

The concept of mass culture is a very complex concept that has developed especially throughout the 20th century to refer to an endless number of cultural phenomena that are supported by the arrival of a large number of the population that makes up a society.

Cultural, social and other events that reach a large number of people, usually through the media

Mass culture has a lot to do with the social and political phenomena that began to take shape in the West in the first half of the twentieth century and that would lead later in the second half into a much more complex phenomenon and strengthened.

When we speak of mass culture we are referring to all those cultural and social events that they reach a significant number of the population, that is, the masses comprised as the majority of a population society.

Origins and mission of the media

Mass culture arises from phenomena such as political totalitarianisms (which based their power on the support of the masses) or as the progressive appearance of the mass media of

communication on the sceneculturalespecially from radio and television.

The primary mission of the mass media such as those indicated, radio and television, is to keep public opinion informed of everything that happens in their nation and in the rest of the world but also to offer you entertainment and to allow you to know other cultural realities and natural resources that are not affordable in many cases for people, especially those who cannot travel or approach those places. In this case, they fulfill their role of informing, entertaining and many times even educating.

Now, beyond these functions that the books that make theory on the subject repeat from memory, we cannot ignore that their content, with the to run of time they have ceased to be harmless and spontaneous, becoming to a large extent in clear dependence on the political and economic interests of their owners and the politicians of the day.

This state of affairs clearly affects the independence of opinions and of course they end up becoming mere manipulators and formers of opinions of the mass that consumes them. They make use of the power that was conferred on them and that they knew how to earn over the years to model the behaviors of their consumers and to guide them towards the side that they propose.

Association with globalization and consumerism

Mass culture is a concept that is also associated with the notion of globalization since thanks to it the culture of the dominant countries such as the United States or England have reached an important amount of regions, being absorbed into them as part of the original culture and thus nullifying traditional elements of every place.

Mass culture is normally described as a type of culture based on consumerism, on permanent access to new products that range from the simplest to the most complex, in the unification of cultural concepts or phenomena at a global level, in the cancellation of diversities, in the access to culture of a greater part of the population, etc. All these elements can be considered negative or positive according to the ideological position of each one.

Unfortunately for those who rebel against this action that perpetrates mass culture in all aspects of people's daily lives we have a bad news: it is very difficult, if not impossible, that someone can avoid that influence that this culture proposes, that they can remain isolated from their actions and their effects.

It is even so for those who boast of having their own deep-rooted opinions and convictions, since mass culture is capable of destroying them if it sets out to do so ...

The action of this well-designed system is so subtle that in spite of reluctance it manages to tell as it is, regardless of the degree of independence it shows, what think, what to do before such an event, or what to do during the free time.

Topics in Mass Culture