The work which was highly captivating for me was the Cultural Theory and Popular Culture by John Storey. The compilation of the different researchers’ perspectives allows analyze the influence of the culture as an intellectual movement on society. To be more precise, the reading contributes to understanding the complexity of the culture and its social impact. The work’s author addresses the various researcher positions in defining popular culture and cultural studies in general. Each researcher has a unique approach to understanding culture from the psychological, political, social, and even economic perspectives. Thus, this work was the most influential for me because of highlighting the fact that culture penetrates almost all aspects of human existence. The direct correlation between culture and society formation is addressed by all researchers (Storey 12). Popular culture can be the instrument of regulating and controlling the issues of inequality, social justice, race, power, and others are impacted.
Popular culture is deeply rooted in society’s functioning through different social products. Based on the ideas provided in the book, a mass culture primarily establishes ethical and moral norms through different types of cultural products (Storey 31). In other words, it implicitly impacts the development of society, the people’s perception of the world, their own identity, and other different concepts such as race. Popular and mass types of culture are influential because they include different forms of art with unlimited possibilities for various ideas conveying (Fedorak 9). Theoretically, the provided definitions of the culture are related to everyday life’s ideological, spiritual, and moral aspects stating that the culture is created by everyone.
On the other hand, the products of culture, such as the pieces of art, advertisements, and even legislation inquiries, are created by the people holding significant power and authority (Storey 58). However, without mass acceptance, none of the mentioned products can become a part of the culture. This means that culture and publicity are interrelated notions. Making changes around the issues such as race, inequality, social justice, identity, and subjectivity requires the mass support and acceptance which can be gained through implementing the ideologically-focused cultural products in people’s everyday life. All listed problems cannot be efficiently addressed without the proper ideological change. Such a change can be advanced through mass culture. Mentioned issues are society’s universal problems, which can be solved by allocating the power of culture.
The most affecting theorists who changed my perception of the culture are the representatives of Marxism’s ideology of understanding culture. Storey combines various researchers’ points of view to provide a comprehending and diverse representation of this ideology (Storey 87). The post-Marxism traditions of the culture offered by McRobbie, Laclau, and Mouffe reconsidered and recipes the traditional Marxism theory (Storey 35). The extension is related to the idea that culture is not centered on art only. Culture defines “the particular way of living” and everything that describes the specific context in which people exist (Storey 88). These ideas incline new contributions to my understanding of culture. Earlier, this notion was incomprehensible for me because culture includes too many aspects to be defined. However, the post-Marxism theory describes culture as the contextual life, which means that there are at least group limitations for the notion of public culture.
After course readings, I reconsidered my understanding of the world around me. The everyday life, the decisions which ordinary people make shape the culture, while the cultural products direct the life of a particular group into a specific course. I realized that culture is a powerful instrument bringing massive changes. Because the mass accepts culture, every person, as a member of a particular community, plays a critical role in cultural directions’ formation. Being more tolerant, patient, loving, and accepting can enrich the general ideological fondness of society. From my perspective, this course showed that helping others through developing culture is possible. The starting point is people’s personality and morality which impacts the decision-making process, shaping the culture.
Works Cited
Fedorak, Shirley. “What Is Popular Culture?” The Routledge Handbook of Popular Culture and Tourism, Routledge, 2018, pp. 1-10.
Storey, John. Cultural Theory and Popular Culture: An Introduction: 5th (Fifth) Edition. Pearson Education, 1994.