CMNS 110 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Cultural Capital, Mass Media, Low Culture

• School: Simon Fraser University
• Department: Communication
• Course: CMNS 110
• Professor: Gary Mc Carron

Document Summary

Inglis states that the cultural situation today is disastrous: mindless "entertainments" is privileged over "high culture", expanding its power and influence, marginalized as well as trivialized, works of art are manipulated and altered for capitalistic consumer needs. Inside mass culture: high culture defined by upper class, bias of pop culture, e. g. If art is disconnected from daily life, we miss: how "art" is deemed as art, the connection between how pop culture is produced, distributed, and consumed the same as high culture art. Less comfortable being in museums: more to like low culture. Low culture as the opposite of great art: Relativity of cultural judgments poses a problem as to what should be classified as high and low culture. Tchaikovsky"s music from "the nutcracker" is seen as low culture because its superficial and tacky: however, some may see his music as very beautiful because it"s airy, tuneful, and dance-like.