Essay on Comm Study Guide

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Exam 4 Study Guide
Chapter 19
Describe the concept of culture.
Defined as a social heritage of society- its total ‘design’ for conducting a collective live. Refers to what those people in society believe, do, use, or produce
Describe the concept of society.
A large number of living people who lead a common life interacting in various ways according to a pattern of social organization and usually in a defined spatial area
Describe the concept of subculture.
Focuses more on narrowly on the way of life (social heritage) of some particular category of people in a complex society. This may be social class, a regional population, a religious, radical, or ethnic category; or those in a particular occupation. For example, the middle-class category
Give an example of folk culture.
Stories, songs, and dances of early Americans who lived in remote and isolated areas in the Ozark Mountains, or in costal areas of Louisiana. Poetry traditionally made and used daily in particular Native American tribes is another example
Describe the concept of popular culture.
Generally refers to the content of the several mass media, which offer simple forms of entertainment to large numbers of people without making intellectual demands upon them
Describe the media dependency on popular culture.
They are almost totally dependent on advertising to earn their way. To attract advertisers they need to attract an audience- the bigger the better. The overwhelming majority that make up audiences want to be entertained with unsophisticated content that make few intellectual demands and provides diversion- in short, the kinds of popular culture that one finds any day, and hour, on any medium in the USA.
Describe the term "kitsch".
Trashy, garnish products that are in bad taste and have no redeeming artistic merits. Originally used to label objects that might be found in a low-level carnival such as a stuffed animal won at a ball toss or a pillow that says Nigeria Falls on one side and Mother on the other.
Describe how media provides a "status conferral function".
Popular culture emphasizes celebrities but ignores, or even diminishes, the recognition of individuals who have truly contributed to human existence. (The principle is this: If a person is important, then surely he or she will receive a great deal of media attention)
Explain why popular culture linked to advertising is a necessary condition within a capitalistic economy.
Products being obtained through media advertising are an essential part of the process by which products are purchased by the consuming population. Vigorous advertising simulates sales for existing products, which in turn keeps a labor force employed to manufacture, distribute, and retail those products.

Explain how the economic forces and consumer taste systems driving the media result in a constant production and dissemination of kitsch.
1. Our privately owned media, functioning with a capitalistic economic system are dedicated to maximizing their profits by presenting popular culture that will increase circulations, number of viewers, and other audience sizes.
2. This locks them into an economic dependency on attracting and holding the attention of the largest number of people who make up their potential media audience, regardless of their level of artistic tastes.
3. The members of the audience rely on the media to offer a broad range of entertainment content to fill an ever increasing amount of leisure time, but it is content that makes limited intellectual demands to its consumer
4. To maximize profits from advertising, subscriptions, movie admissions, or direct sales, the media manufactured and disseminate an endless and complex flow of kitsch- popular culture products with limited redeeming artistic value but which command wide attention among the audience

Chapter 20
Explain the factors that provided the beginnings of both the Age of Mass Communication and the foundation of the "creeping cycle of