Lecture 5 Culture and Media 02 28 2014 Values Socialization moral beliefs Norms Breaching beliefs in action Culture the sum of social categories and concepts we recognize in addition to our beliefs behaviors and practices Basically everything except nature Material culture physical environment tools and technology media and Nonmaterial culture values and norms of any given social group o Concept of private land property in contemporary culture versus lands worked on my native Americans Ethnocentrism when your culture values and norms are superior to that art of another s Cultural Relativism you place different cultures on some kind of hierarchy they all seem equal o E g female genital circumcision mutilation 1 Clitoridectomy 2 Exition 3 Infibulation etc wherein the procedure takes place 200 million girls every year mostly in Egypt Somalia for religious and social purposes Also the prevalence of plastic surgery in certain cultures May be gross to westernized culture and Feminists would say that it is used to reestablish patriarchy to oppress women Conflict between going against this with ethnocentrism is to say that they are barbaric or cultural relativism where you are blatantly ignoring mutilation Ideology A system of concepts and relations an understanding of cause and effect An explicit and consciously articulated system of beliefs E g Republican vs Democrats political ideologies Hegemony a condition by which a dominant group uses its power to elicit the voluntary consent of the masses Domination by belief and not my coercion Based upon taken for granted concepts belief s and values in our culture that perpetuate inequality and the power of ruling groups Direct domination different from hegemony because it rules by force E g capitalist hegemony we believe in it without having a gun pointed to our head Capitalism is often justified because people are naturally greedy and the system complements intrinsic traits well o Ethnocentrism supported patriarchy slavery and colonial mentality Women was not allowed to vote they get paid less because it s a risk to invest in someone who believe that once they have a child they must leave their job to take care of them Black men do not have souls Westernized cultures can help educate and civilize inferior colonized country CAPITALIST EXAMPLE OF HEGEMONY AND IDEOLOGY Hegemony belief that we should have a capitalist economy belief that economic growth is good and desirable Lecture 5 Culture and Media 02 28 2014 o Ideology 1 government intervention is good for the capitalist economy high taxes on the wealthy promotes economic growth o Ideology 2 government intervention is bad for the economy taxes on the wealthy stifles economic growth Media any format or vehicle that carry present or communication information This definition would include newspapers periodicals magazines books and posters But it would also include wax tables sky writing web pages and the children s game of telephone Ownership few number of corporation that control a majority of the US media Time Warner Viacom NBC Disney o Concentration of ownership is controlled but ironically large companies publish wide range of opinions Does not necessarily lead to narrow information but it sometimes can e g weapons on mass destruction led to war with Iraq o Aimed at making profit so integrity of news is sometimes overlooked for better entertainment That is why BBC is seen as most reliable because it is funded by the government not a private company Consumer culture advertising promotes consumption E g Channel 1 is shown to public children schools their programming shows a lot of advertising Average child watching TV than they do in school most of what they see are advertising Low to middle class parents prioritize their child s social comfort hence buying products to help them feel like they fit in Stereotypes hegemony that supports racial domination Two dimensional images of races only white people are complex people Black people are either evil or good E g Hollywood movies African Americans are rarely represented in films however nowadays they are overly romanticized o Saturday Night Live Kerri Washington plays all the female black parts of the show because they do not have a regular On the one hand SNL is owning up to not having any black women in their show but they make Washington s different roles highlights racial problems which becomes her master status o Harold and Kumar vs Japanese characters of Mickey Rooney Harold and Kumar both come from different parts of Asia but their race becomes irrelevant to the show they are just friends o The Manic Pixie Dream Girl girls that are kind of sexy but they are also smart and funny They defy the stereotypes of women but then again they are still a type Their characters are poorly developed they perform a function for the male personality exist solely as tools for the man Lecture 5 Culture and Media 02 28 2014 o Girls TV show stereotypes are being defied in different ways Gender stereotype a character is not a sex object although she is naked a lot in the show She defies the concept of a lead character she s spoiled makes terrible decisions she complains a lot that s basically every male character for every other character which is more acceptable than an annoying female character Second season she sleeps with a republican black man in response to her being criticized to not hiring minorities Discussion about Media Gender and Racial Hegemony The Republican African American in show Girls represented a flipped hegemony race of a black guy and also a conservative republican Film Consuming Kids consumer culture perpetuated in Channel One shown to children in low income schools o Symbolic indulgence low income families buy trendy toys for their kids to compensate for their economical statuses o Symbolic deprivation whereas middle income families do not buy trendy toys to save money Ideology vs Hegemony in flying first class vs flying couch you don t see people flying in economy using the business class s bathroom