Features of the production and consumption of cultural values ​​allowed culturologists to identify two social forms existence of culture: mass culture and elite culture. Mass culture is a type of cultural production that is produced daily in large volumes. It is assumed that mass culture is consumed by all people, regardless of place and country of residence. It's a culture Everyday life presented to the widest audience through various channels, including the media and communications.

When and how did mass culture appear? About the origins mass culture In cultural studies, there are a number of points of view.

Let us give as an example, the most common in the scientific literature:

• 1. The prerequisites for mass culture are formed from the moment of the birth of mankind, and, in any case, at the dawn of Christian civilization.
• 2. The origins of mass culture are associated with the appearance in European literature of the 17th-18th centuries of an adventure, detective, adventure novel, which significantly expanded the audience of readers due to huge circulations. Here, as a rule, the work of two writers is cited as an example: the Englishman Daniel Defoe, the author of widely famous novel“Robinson Crusoe” and 481 more biographies of people in the so-called risky professions: investigators, military men, thieves, etc. and our compatriot Matvey Komarov.
• 3. The law on compulsory universal literacy adopted in 1870 in Great Britain had a great influence on the development of mass culture, which allowed many to master the main form of artistic creativity XIX century - a novel.

And yet, all of the above is the prehistory of mass culture. And in the proper sense, mass culture manifested itself for the first time in the United States.

The phenomenon of the emergence of mass culture is presented as follows. For turn of XIX centuries has become characteristic of a comprehensive massification of life. It affected all its spheres: economics and politics, management and communication of people. The active role of the masses in various social spheres has been analyzed in several philosophical writings XX century.

X. Ortega y Gasset in his work “The Revolt of the Masses” derives the very concept of “mass” from the definition of “crowd”. The crowd in quantitative and visual terms is the multitude, and the multitude from the point of view of sociology is the mass, explains Ortega. And further he writes: “Society has always been a mobile unity of the minority and the masses. The minority is a collection of persons singled out especially, the mass - not singled out in any way. Mass is the average person. Thus, purely quantitation turns into quality

Even more deep Scan"mass culture" was made by the Canadian sociologist M. McLuhan. He, like D. Bell, comes to the conclusion that the mass media generate and new type culture. McLuhan emphasizes that the starting point of the era of "industrial and typographical man" was the invention of the printing press in the 15th century. McLuhan, defining art as the leading element of spiritual culture, emphasized the escapist (that is, leading away from reality) function of artistic culture.

Of course, today the mass has changed significantly. The masses have become educated, informed. In addition, the subjects of mass culture today are not just a mass, but also individuals united by various ties. In turn, the concept of “mass culture” characterizes the features of the production of cultural values ​​in modern industrial society, designed for the mass consumption of this culture.

There are rather contradictory points of view on the issue of the time of the emergence of “mass culture”. Some consider it an eternal by-product of culture and therefore discover it already in ancient times. There are much more grounds for attempts to link the emergence of "mass culture" with the scientific and technological revolution, which gave rise to new ways of producing, distributing and consuming culture.

Regarding the origins of mass culture in cultural studies, there are a number of points of view:

1. The prerequisites for mass culture are formed from the moment of the birth of mankind, and, in any case, at the dawn of Christian civilization. As an example, simplified versions of the Holy Books are usually cited (for example, the "Bible for Beginners"), designed for a mass audience.

2. The origins of mass culture are associated with the appearance in European literature of the 17th-18th centuries of an adventure, detective, adventure novel, which significantly expanded the audience of readers due to huge circulations. Here, as a rule, the work of two writers is cited as an example: the Englishman Daniel Dafoe (1660-1731) - the author of the well-known novel "Robinson Crusoe" and 481 more biographies of people in the so-called risky professions: investigators, soldiers, thieves, prostitutes, etc. d. and our compatriot Matvey Komarov (1730 - 1812) - the creator of the sensational bestseller of the XVIII-XIX centuries "The Tale of the Adventures of the English Milord George" and other equally popular books. The books of both authors are written in brilliant, simple and clear language.

3. The law on compulsory universal literacy adopted in 1870 in Great Britain, which allowed many to master the main form artistic creativity 19th century novel.

And yet, all of the above is the prehistory of mass culture. And in the proper sense, mass culture manifested itself in the United States on turn of XIX-XX centuries. The well-known American political scientist Zbigniew Brzezinski liked to repeat the phrase that became commonplace over time: "If Rome gave the world the right, England - parliamentary activity, France - culture and republican nationalism, then the modern USA gave the world a scientific and technological revolution and mass culture."

The phenomenon of the emergence of mass culture is presented as follows. At the turn of the 19th-20th centuries, a comprehensive massification of life became characteristic. It affected all its spheres of economy and politics, management and communication of people. The active role of the human masses in various social spheres was analyzed in a number of philosophical works of the 20th century.

Of course, today the mass has changed significantly. The masses have become educated, informed. In addition, the subjects of mass culture today are not just a mass, but also individuals united by various ties. Since people act both as individuals, and as members of local groups, and as members of mass social communities, the subject of "mass culture" can be considered as a dual subject, that is, both individual and mass. In turn, the concept of "mass culture" characterizes the features of the production of cultural values ​​in a modern industrial society, designed for the mass consumption of this culture. At the same time, mass production of culture is understood by analogy with the conveyor industry.

educational level and social status(popularization of science, comics with summary stories classical literature and etc.).

By the end of the 20th century, the strengthening of the second direction of masculture (adaptation of complex plots for a simplified perception by an unprepared audience) allows scientists to talk about the emergence of midculture (culture of the “middle level”), which somewhat narrows the gap between elite and mass cultures.

One of the manifestations of mass, mainly youth, culture has become pop culture (from the English popular: popular, public). This is a set of neo-avant-garde views on art, formed in the 60s of the twentieth century. It is characterized by the denial of the experience of previous generations; the search for new forms in art, a lifestyle that expresses the ideological protest of young people against the sanctimonious morality of modern Western society.

Despite the seeming democratic nature, masculu active creator spiritual values ​​to the level passive user

mass culture, programmed for its thoughtless and soulless consumption (from a producing position to an appropriating one).

Mass culture is always a devaluation of high cultural patterns, an imitation of familiarization with culture.

Therefore, masculuture as a phenomenon, although derived from culture itself, but, in fact, far removed from culture in its high understanding and meaning, should be called paracultural (from Greek para: near, at, about), i.e., near-cultural, phenomenon.

The only way to oppose the standardization of culture and the expansion of mascult is to familiarize yourself with the values ​​of genuine culture in the process of spiritual education of the individual, including in the course of cultural studies and other humanitarian disciplines.

5.4. Elite culture

The culturological opposition to mass culture is elitist culture (from French e lite: the best, selective, chosen).

Its origins are in the ancient philosophy of Heraclitus and Plato, in which for the first time intellectual elite as a special professional group - the custodian and bearer of higher knowledge.

AT the Renaissance, the problem of the elite was posed by F. Petrarch

in his discourse "On Genuine Nobility". For the humanists of that time, "rabble", "despicable" people are uneducated fellow citizens, self-satisfied ignoramuses. In relation to them, the humanists themselves appear as an intellectual elite.

The theory of elites takes shape at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. The founders of the theory of elites are the Italian scientists V. Pareto (1848–1923), G. Mosca (1858–1941), R. Michels (1876–1936). Before the Second World War, the theory of elites became widespread except for Italy - in Germany and France, after the war - in the United States. The recognized theorist of the elite was the Spanish philosopher J. Ortega y Gaset, who believed that there is an elite in every social class.

According to elite theory, the necessary constituent parts any social structure is the highest privileged layer or layers that carry out the functions of management and development of culture.

This is the elite.

The elite is the part of society most capable of spiritual activity, endowed with high moral and aesthetic inclinations, which ensures progress.

The elite is characterized by a high degree of activity and productivity. It is usually opposed to mass.

There are many definitions of the elite, we will name only some of its specific features.

The elite is made up of people with such qualities as organization, will, ability to unite to achieve a goal (G. Mosca); enjoying the greatest prestige, status, wealth in society, having the highest sense of responsibility, intellectual or moral

superiority over the mass (J. Ortega y Gaset); this is a creative minority as opposed to an uncreative majority (A. Toynbee).

According to V. Pareto, society is a pyramid with an elite on top. The most gifted from the bottom rise to the top, replenishing the ranks of the ruling elite, whose members, in turn, degrading, sink down into the masses. There is a circulation, or cycle, of elites; renewal of the elite is facilitated by social mobility. Alternation, change of elites is the law of the existence of society. (As mentioned above, the idea of ​​society as a social pyramid is also contained in the sociology of P. A. Sorokin, who also developed the problems of social mobility.)

Science has developed a classification of elite theories: 1) biological - the elite are people occupying the highest

places in society due to their biological and genetic origin;

2)psychological - based on the recognition of the exclusively psychological qualities of the elite group;

3) technical - understands the elite as a set of people who own and manage technical production;

4)organizational - refers to the elite of executives, including the bureaucratically organized bureaucracy;

5)functional - classifies as an elite people who perform the most important functions in society, in a certain group or in a certain territory;

6)distribution - considers the elite of those who receive maximum material and non-material benefits;

7)artistic and creative- includes representatives in the elite various areas spiritual production (science, art, religion, culture).

The elite is characterized by cohesion and activity, the ability to develop stable patterns of thinking, assessments and forms of communication, standards of behavior, preferences and tastes.

A striking example of the development of such samples and standards are the elite culture and elite art.

Typical of elite art is the aesthetic isolationism of "pure art" or "art for art's sake".

Elite art is a trend in the Western artistic culture, creating art for the few, for the elite, for the aesthetic and spiritual elite, incomprehensible to the general public, the masses.

Elite art became especially widespread at the beginning of the 20th century. It manifested itself in a variety of directions of decadence and modernism (abstractionism in painting; surrealism in the visual arts, literature, theater and cinema; dodecaphony1 in music), which focused on the creation of art of "pure form", the art of true aesthetic pleasure, devoid of any practical meaning and social values.

Supporters of elite art opposed themselves mass art, amorphous mass, the tendencies of "massization" in culture, opposed the vulgar ideals of a well-fed, petty-bourgeois life.

Theoretical understanding elite culture found its reflection in the works of F. Nietzsche, V. Pareto, J. Ortega y Gaset and other philosophers.

The most complete and consistent concept of elite culture is presented in the works of J. Ortega y Gaset, who gave a philosophical assessment of the artistic avant-garde of the 20th century. In the book "Dehumanization of Art" (1925), he divided people into "the people" (mass) and the elite - a particularly gifted minority, the creators of genuine culture. He believed that the Impressionists, Futurists, Surrealists, Abstractionists split the audience of art into two groups: artistic elite(outstanding people who understand the new art) and the general public (ordinary people who are not able to understand it). Therefore, the artist-creator consciously turns to the elite, and not to the masses, turns away from the layman.

1 Dodecaphony (from Greek dōdeka: twelve + phōnē: sound) is a method of composing music developed in the 20th century by the Austrian composer A. Schoenberg. Based on a specific sequence of 12 sounds of various pitches.

There are rather contradictory points of view on the question of the time of the emergence of “mass culture”. Some consider it an eternal by-product of culture and therefore discover it already in ancient times. There are much more grounds for attempts to link the emergence of "mass culture" with the scientific and technological revolution, which gave rise to new ways of producing, distributing and consuming culture. Bourgeois "mass culture" was first formed in the United States. On the one hand, this democratized the sphere of culture, on the other hand, it contributed to the penetration into this sphere of commercial, political interests, the pursuit of profit.

The American sociologist D. White believes that the first elements of mass culture include, for example, the fights of Roman gladiators, which attracted numerous spectators. According to A. Adorno, the forms of culture that appeared during the formation of capitalism in England, that is, at the turn of the 17th-18th centuries, should be considered the prototypes of modern mass culture. He is convinced that the novels written during this period (Defoe, Richardson) were intended for the market and had a clear commercial focus. Consequently, they gravitated towards "mass" rather than "elitist" culture. However, Russian opponents (E. P. Smolskaya and others) point out that these works did not contain the well-known patterns that are typical for works of mass culture.

Probably, the starting point in the emergence and development of mass culture should still be considered late XIX- the beginning of the XX century.

In Europe, "mass culture" (folk entertainment, the art of janglers, mimes) has always been opposed to the official culture, which was controlled by the state and the church. In the US, "mass culture" initially propagated the stereotypes and ideas of official culture, the main regulator of which was advertising. "Mass culture" has become such an integral part of the culture of American society, its cultural consciousness that its study exceeds in the system, for example, American higher education. 56% training courses in the USA are devoted to the study of "popular" types of culture (courses on television, cinema, advertising, journalism). In England, special courses are included in the university education system, which include materials from the culture of cinema, music, science fiction and even football. In America, "popular culture" has acquired a dual character: the American mind, which is not busy with practical concerns, remains at rest, while the other part of it is occupied with discovery, production and social organization. The American will is embodied in the skyscraper, the American intellect in the colonial buildings.

What is "mass culture"? As in the case of traditional culture, there is still no universal definition of mass culture. This situation has its own rational explanation. The fact is that as a scientific and philosophical category, "mass culture" includes three concepts. First, "culture" as a special character of the product. Secondly, "mass" as the degree of distribution of the product. Thirdly, "culture" as a spiritual value.

One of the most interesting and productive is the approach to the definition of "mass culture" by D. Bell, according to which mass culture is a kind of organization of everyday consciousness in the information society, a special sign system or a special language in which members information society reach an understanding.

Now mass culture penetrates almost all spheres of society and forms its own single semiotic space.

Obviously, mass culture is far from a homogeneous phenomenon. It has its own structure and levels. AT modern cultural studies, as a rule, there are three main levels of mass culture:

* kitsch culture (i.e. base, even vulgar culture);

* mid-culture (so to speak, the culture of the "middle hand");

* art culture (mas-culture, not devoid of a certain, sometimes even high, artistic content and aesthetic expression).

Analyzing mass culture as a special socio-cultural phenomenon, it is necessary to indicate its main characteristics. Those features, in my opinion, are:

* focus on a homogeneous audience;

* reliance on the emotional, irrational, collective, unconscious;

* escapism;

* quick availability;

* quick forgetting;

* traditionalism and conservatism;

* operating the average linguistic semiotic norm;

* entertainment.

"Mass culture" pays special attention to the theme of aggression. The brutality of the scenes of violence on the screen impresses the presentation both in quantity and in its naturalness. The merits of this or that militant are often estimated in proportion to the number of corpses - in the form of false violence attracts like a drug. The explanation for this fact is given on the basis of the philosophy of Z. Freud. Since culture oppresses the natural principle in a person, instincts, he is forced to look for the illusory realization of his unsatisfied passions in art. That is why there is so much sex and aggression in "mass culture". Another favorite topic is fear: popular culture genres such as thriller, horror film, disaster film, etc. exploit this topic very actively. As a result, the human psyche, "hardened" by modern mass culture, becomes less sensitive to what is happening in reality. Man gets used to murder and violence. Mental indifference today is becoming the rule rather than the exception.

Before the emergence of a technological society, a person was connected with nature, thanks to religion he felt himself an organic part of the world and, in constant communication with others, drew vital energy. In modern artificial world, surrounded by concrete, steel and glass of industrial civilization, the connection of man with higher powers, with the organics of nature and with other people was narrowed to an absolute minimum and, left in the vacuum of his loneliness, man began to need "drugs" much more than ever before. Moreover, the world has become so overcomplicated that it has become pointless to try to understand it. But the need to fill inner peace persisted and this request could not be answered by the traditional forms of escape from reality - alcoholism, drugs, the sexual sphere, especially since these forms of escapism (escape from reality) are considered an anomaly, and the only acceptable form of escapism was art that transforms reality into aesthetically acceptable forms.

When the masses came to the forefront of history, the entire civilized world, regardless of the political system of each country, faced the question of how to control these millions and direct their energy into a safe channel for power.

The culture of previous centuries could not be used, the ideas that it contained contradicted the tasks that the government set itself, and was too complex, it required many years of education.

Culture, like science, cannot exist without a customer, according to Scott Fitzgerald, "culture follows money." The new masters of life ordered music from performers, armed them with new technical means.

New technologies made it possible to simplify culture and make it available for general consumption. As one of the customers, Lenin, said, “The most important of all the arts for us is cinema, because our population is mostly illiterate.”

Radio, cinema, and then television, the very nature of these new technical means made the simplification of ideas, images traditional culture, and gave innumerable opportunities for the gradual replacement of a broad vision of the world with that flat, one-dimensional world that is understandable to the viewer and necessary for the customer.

Movie lens pulls out real life the fragment determined by the director separates it from everything else by a frame and, as a result of the installation of images, a picture of the world is created that corresponds to the tasks that its creator sets for himself.

The television screen creates a window into the vast world, narrowing its multidimensionality to a few tens of centimeters of a flat image, and this is no longer a three-dimensional reality of the world, but its pale, simplified copy, devoid of the broad content of the original.

Another Soviet ideologist, Arbatov, thus defined the tasks for the creators of proletarian mass culture - ".... the artist is imbued with the idea of ​​expediency, processing the material not for the sake of subjective tastes, but in accordance with the objective tasks of production, ... artists become employees of engineers, scientists , administrators. To organize a common product guided not by personal motives, but by the objective needs of production, performing class assignments ... "

"Objective needs of production" - to distract the masses from the real problems of their lives and make them see the world the way the customer wants it.

"Mass culture, compensating for the feeling of helplessness of the average person, creates images of supermen who overcome those obstacles that are insurmountable in practice, winning where the average person inevitably faces defeat. Supermen do not go to work from nine to five, do not tremble in front of their superiors, are not afraid, that tomorrow they will be fired without any explanation... They have no problem how to pay monthly bills.Supermen single-handedly solve all social problems, in a simple and understandable way - more often physical strength. These fairy tales do not reduce stress, but at least for a while, before going to sleep, they bring a state of sweet slumber. Alexander Zinoviev.

The Nazis burned books in the streets and squares, Soviet authority rotted books in the library archives, which aroused public interest in forbidden knowledge. The market makes it more effective way- it instills indifference to knowledge.

Ray Bradbury was afraid that the state would ban the reading of books. Aldous Huxley was afraid of another, that conditions would be created in which people would no longer want to read books. But they were both wrong, today they read much more than before.

Today there are 1,500 daily newspapers and 7,000 weeklies. 75,000 new books are published annually. This is primarily entertainment literature, and the mass demand exists only for it, for "hamburger" type literature, for information chewing gum simplified to the level of mass taste, "literature for the poor."

And, at the same time, serious literature that poses acute social problems never reaches even 10,000 copies. They are mainly acquired only by universities, they are included in the curricula of many colleges, thousands of students have read these books, but this does not change anything in their attitude to the existing status quo.

According to the first point, we can conclude that the essence of "mass culture" lies in the influence of "mass culture" on the consciousness of a person, his attitude to reality and spiritual sensuality. The reason for the emergence of "mass culture" was the need of the authorities to control millions of masses and direct their energy into a safe channel for the authorities. Now mass culture penetrates almost all spheres of society and forms its own single semiotic space.

Mass culture- the most important social phenomenon of modern society. Its products, ranging from mass-produced things and services provided, to hits (songs or melodies used in given time especially popular), bestsellers (the book is the leader in sales), blockbusters (films with a big budget, expensive actors, the best scenery), entered the everyday life of people.

Since its inception, mass culture has become a subject of study and heated discussions for philosophers and sociologists. Disputes about the meaning of this culture, its role in the development of society continue today.

CULTURAL DIVERSITY

Culture, as you have already seen, is many-sided and many-sided. It takes on specific forms. In it you can trace different directions, select sufficiently autonomous regions. These differences form the basis of various classifications and typologies of cultural phenomena and processes. Culture is divided into material and spiritual. The division of culture into folk, elite and mass has become widespread. Causes of the emergence of mass culture inherent in it characteristics we'll look at it in detail below. The division of culture into elite and folk was established in the 19th century. and was largely associated with the social class stratification of society.

folk culture includes values ​​not only “consumed”, but also created, created by the people. Such a culture, covering various directions, represented by many genres, has always existed. AT mid-nineteenth in. the English archaeologist J. Thomson coined the word "folklore" (from the English folk - people, lore - knowledge, wisdom). Gradually, this word entered many languages ​​​​of the world to refer to the artistic works of folk culture, that is, folk art. Along with oral folk art (fairy tales, epics, proverbs) important areas of this art are choreography (dance), song creativity(lyrical songs, romances, ballads, ditties), puppet show, as well as applied art (embroidery, toys, etc.).

In folk art, representations and expectations of those who are habitually called " ordinary people". These values ​​have evolved over the centuries. In legends and epics, lyrical tunes and ditties, proverbs and sayings, we find not only signs of a particular historical time, but also enduring social and cultural values- ideals of goodness, beauty, justice, solidarity. This art was created both in joint work, and on common holidays, and with the observance of numerous rituals that illuminate the main milestones of the earthly life of each person (birth of a child, entry into adult life, marriage, farewell to the deceased). folk art does not know the division into creators and "consumers". Recall that at various concerts one can hear such a presentation of the next number: “A song is being performed (such and such), a composer (such and such), folk words”; "Russian is being performed folk dance”(and there are no names of the director, choreographer, etc.). There is often no separation between performers and listeners. Folk culture always bears the originality of the people that gave birth to it, the peculiarities of its mentality, cultural and historical traditions.

Elite culture became widespread in cities among the educated part of the population and was created by a privileged part of society or by its order by professional artists, writers, musicians. The term "elite culture" refers primarily to works of fine art, literature, music, so they often talk about elite or high art. Before the advent of mass culture, it was believed that the alienation of the people from the elite culture was caused primarily by the inaccessibility of financially products of this culture, as well as the illiteracy of the bulk of the population. Following the classic domestic literature N. A. Nekrasov, many believed that as soon as these factors were overcome, the inspired people would “carry Belinsky and Gogol from the market”. However, the reality turned out to be different. What was in demand by wide sections of society was not a high culture, but one that later became known as mass culture. There was a conviction that the perception of elite culture requires a certain level of education, a broad cultural outlook, a developed aesthetic sense, and good taste. Those who do not have these qualities, and they are always in the majority in society, remain "deaf" to the creations of high art. In other words, they are addressed to the most aesthetically developed part of the population.

The researchers noticed that high art assumes a certain distance from the viewer, listener. Its creation is facilitated by the solemn, magnificent decoration of those halls in which the perception of art takes place: museums, concert halls, opera houses.

MASS SOCIETY AND "MASS MAN"

The emergence of mass culture is associated with the formation at the turn of the XIX-XX centuries. so-called mass society. The material basis of what happened in the XIX century. significant changes were the transition to machine production, which sharply increased and at the same time cheapened the production of goods. But industrial machine production involves standardization, and not only equipment, raw materials, technical documentation, but also the skills and abilities of workers, working hours, work clothes, etc. The processes of standardization and spiritual culture have been affected.

Two spheres of the life of a working person were quite clearly identified: work itself and leisure - socially significant free time.

As a result, effective demand arose for those goods and services that helped to spend leisure time. The market responded to this demand with the offer of a “typical” cultural product: books, films, gramophone records, etc. They were intended primarily to help people spend their free time interestingly, take a break from monotonous work.

The use of new technologies in production, the expansion of the participation of the masses in politics required a certain educational preparation. In industrial developed countries Important steps are being taken to develop education, especially primary education. So, in the 70s. 19th century in the UK, compulsory education was introduced for children aged 5-12 years; at the end of the century, tuition fees were abolished in primary school. As a result, an extensive readership appeared in a number of countries, and after this, one of the first genres of mass culture, mass literature, was born.

Weakened with the transition from traditional society to industrial, direct connections between people partly replaced the emerging means of mass communication, capable of quickly broadcasting different kind messages to a large audience.

Mass society, as many researchers have noted, gave birth to it typical representative- "man of the masses" - the main consumer of mass culture. Philosophers of the early 20th century endowed him with predominantly negative characteristics - "a man without a face", "a man - like everyone else." In the first half of the last century, the Spanish philosopher X. Ortega y Gaset was one of the first to give a critical analysis of this new social phenomenon - the "mass man". It is with the “mass man” that the philosopher connects the crisis of high European culture, the existing system of public power. The mass displaces the elite minority (“people with special qualities”) from leading positions in society, replaces it, begins to dictate its conditions, its views, its tastes. The elite minority are those who demand a lot from themselves and take burdens and obligations on themselves. The majority does not require anything, for them to live is to go with the flow, remaining as they are, not trying to surpass themselves. X. Ortega y Gaset considered the main features of the "mass man" to be the unrestrained growth of life's demands and an innate lack of gratitude for everything that satisfies these demands. Mediocrity with an unbridled thirst for consumption, “barbarians who poured out of the hatch onto the stage of the complex civilization that gave birth to them” - the philosopher so unflatteringly characterizes most of his contemporaries.

In the middle of the XX century. The “mass man” to an increasing extent began to be correlated not with the “rebellious” violators of the foundations, but, on the contrary, with a completely well-intentioned part of society - with the middle class. Realizing that they are not the elite of society, people of the middle class are nevertheless satisfied with their material and social position. Their standards, norms, rules, language, preferences, tastes are accepted by society as normal, generally accepted. For them, consumption and leisure are as important as work and career. In the works of sociologists, the expression "society of the mass middle class" appeared.

There is one more point of view in science today. According to her, mass society generally goes with historical scene, the so-called demassification occurs. Uniformity and unification are being replaced by emphasizing the features of an individual, personalization of personality, the “mass man” of the industrial era is being replaced by the “individualist” of a post-industrial society.

So, from "a barbarian who burst onto the scene" to "a respectable ordinary citizen" - such is the spread of views on the "mass man".

ESSENCE AND FEATURES OF MASS CULTURE

Consider the main features of mass culture.

Publicity. Accessibility and recognition have become one of the main reasons for the success of mass culture. They even talk about its primitiveness. But the lightness of these works was largely due to the objective conditions that brought mass culture to life. The difficulty of adapting to an unusual urban environment, monotonous, exhausting work at an industrial enterprise increased the need for intensive rest, the rapid restoration of psychological balance, energy after labor day. To do this, a person searched on bookstores, in cinema halls, in the media, first of all, easy-to-perceive, entertaining performances, films, publications.

The simplicity of works of mass culture cannot be unequivocally associated with their low level. The concept of "mass culture" is not the same as the concept of "bad culture". Outstanding artists worked within the framework of mass culture: actors Charlie Chaplin, Lyubov Orlova, Nikolai Cherkasov, Igor Ilyinsky, Jean Gabin, dancer Fred Astaire, worldwide famous singers Mario Lanza, Edith P-af, composers F. Lowe (author of the musical "My wonderful lady”), I. Dunaevsky, film directors G. Alexandrov, I. Pyryev and others. The names of the creators of wonderful samples of “culture for the people” can be listed for a long time.

Amusement. The foregoing leads us to the conclusion that this feature is inherent in many works of mass culture. Amusement is provided by appealing to those aspects of life and emotions that cause constant interest and are understandable to most people: love, sex, family problems, adventure, violence, horror. In detectives, "spy stories" events follow each other with kaleidoscopic speed. The heroes of the works are also simple and understandable, they do not indulge in long discussions, but act.

Serialization, replicability. This feature is manifested in the fact that the products of mass culture are produced in very large quantities, designed for consumption by a really mass of people. Books are sometimes published in millions of copies, and soap operas on television are also watched by millions of viewers. A certain seriality is also manifested in the well-known repetition of plot moves, similar to the characters. Passivity of perception. This feature of mass culture was noted already at the dawn of its formation. Bellet-ristics, comics, light music did not require intellectual or emotional efforts from the reader, listener, viewer for their perception. The development of visual genres (cinema, television) only strengthened this trait. Chi-tai even lightened literary work, we inevitably conjecture something, create our own image of heroes. Screen-early perception does not require us to do this.

commercial nature. A product created within the framework of mass culture is a product intended for mass sale. To do this, the product must be democratic, that is, fit, like a large number of people of different sex, age, religion, education. Therefore, manufacturers of such products began to focus on the most fundamental human emotions.

MEDIA AND MASS CULTURE

Newspaper and magazine, radio and television, cinema and the Internet - these are the channels through which we basically join the fruits of culture, mainly mass.

These channels are called mass media (because the message arrives immediately to large groups people) communications, thanks to them messages and the “picture” penetrate into the most remote corners of the planet, into the widest strata of society.

In our country they are often called the mass media, although we agree that in this case the matter is not limited to information.

The media system evolved gradually. The first in the 17th century newspapers and magazines appeared. In the 19th century there is a division into the so-called quality and mass press. In the USA begins its active life yellow press. In the last century, the media system was supplemented by radio stations, and then by television studios. End of XX century was marked by the creation of the Internet.

From the 70s. 20th century the thesis about the exclusive influence of mass communication on mass consciousness is affirmed. By this time, the technical capabilities of the media, primarily thanks to television, had increased dramatically. The media, as you know, began to be called the fourth estate.

The role of mass media becomes especially significant in the conditions of modern globalization of the world. Their omnipresence is indicated, in particular, by such a fact, described in the book of the sociologist L. Turow. The author traveled with friends Saudi Arabia. In the remote desert area, many kilometers from the nearest roads and electric lines, they noticed a Bedouin tent, equipped with a satellite dish and a current generator for receiving television broadcasts. “They saw on the screen the same thing as us!” - exclaims the author. According to a number of researchers, the global media system leads to the leveling of cultural differences, the loss of the cultural identity of peoples. The media contributes to globalization, but they themselves are influenced by it. One of the manifestations of this is the creation of so-called global newspapers, which are read in various parts of the world. There are few of them, and all of them are still published in English - the language of communication of international business.

Another side of the globalization process is the growth of the local press and small-circulation, but influential publications for small towns. The number of specialized publications is growing in the journal de le.

For a long time, the so-called yellow, or tabloid, press developed quite rapidly: more and more new newspapers and magazines of this direction appeared, their circulation grew. AT last years in the Western countries, reverse processes have been outlined. There are still a few traditional tabloid newspapers in England, but their circulation is declining. There are practically no daily tabloids in France. These publications are being replaced by entertaining weeklies, "men's" and "women's" magazines.

In a post-industrial society, where high-quality and reliable information becomes the main resource, the demand for more serious publications is growing. Their readers are predominantly white-collar, educated circles of society.

At the same time, the serious press itself expands the range of topics covered and becomes more democratic.

Of all the mass media, one might say, television is the most massive. In terms of its depth (the length of time a program is watched) and its breadth (the number of people who watch it), television has become such an influential cultural force that has no analogues in the past. This is obvious not only to researchers who constantly study the television audience, but it is also clear to you and me - the "ordinary" army of TV viewers. More than 75% of Russians in one of the sociological surveys assigned television a decisive role in social development. There is such data. The average American teenager watches TV 21 hours a week, spending 5 minutes alone with his father and 20 minutes alone with his mother. Russians also spend a lot of time in front of the TV screen. Of course, different age and social groups of the population are not equally passionate about TV viewing. In addition to teenagers, older people experience a certain amount of TV addiction. This is largely due to a decrease in their ability to move and, as a result, to communicate.