Signs of mass culture examples. Mass and elite culture. Questions to the text

Detailed solution paragraph Questions for chapter 2 in social studies for 10th grade students, authors L.N. Bogolyubov, Yu.I. Averyanov, A.V. Belyavsky 2015

1. What makes it possible to distinguish culture into an independent sphere of public life? Name the areas, elements that form the sphere of culture, reveal the connections between them.

Culture is a concept that has great amount meanings in various areas of human life. Culture is the subject of study of philosophy, cultural studies, history, art history, linguistics (ethnolinguistics), political science, ethnology, psychology, economics, pedagogy, etc.

Basically, culture is understood as human activity in its most diverse manifestations, including all forms and methods of human self-expression and self-knowledge, the accumulation of skills and abilities by man and society as a whole. Culture also appears as a manifestation of human subjectivity and objectivity (character, competencies, skills, abilities and knowledge).

The variety of activities included in the cultural sphere can be divided into four large groups:

Artistic creativity;

Preservation of cultural heritage;

Club and entertainment activities;

Mass creation and distribution of cultural goods (cultural industry).

The basis for distinguishing these four groups is the difference in the composition of functions (creation, preservation, distribution of goods) and types of satisfied needs (aesthetic, entertainment, information), the orientation towards which is leading and fundamental for the corresponding types of activities.

2. “Culture,” wrote the French philosopher J.-P. Sartre, - does not save anyone or anything, and does not justify. But she is the work of man - in her he looks for his reflection, in her he recognizes himself, only in this critical mirror can he see his face.” What did the author mean? Can you agree with him on everything? Is culture capable of saving a person?

Sartre is absolutely right when he views culture as a critical mirror in which only a person can see his own face. Is it a lot or a little? Obviously, it is not enough if a person is simply satisfied with the fact that he managed to look in the “mirror”. And at the same time, it is a lot if, after looking closely, he is able to draw a practical conclusion: is he capable or not, due to his cultural appearance, of accomplishing his plans? The above applies to society as a whole. Consequently, the same Sartre is wrong when he assures that culture does not save anyone or anything. It saves - even when it is able to help a person in his historical actions; and then when, having critically assessed itself (which is undoubtedly also an act of high culture), society refrains from actions that are utopian and meaningless in the given sociocultural conditions.

3. According to the German-French thinker A. Schweitzer, the worldview must meet three requirements: to be conscious (“thinking”), ethical, the ideal of which is the transformation of reality on moral principles, optimistic. What, in your opinion, is the detailed content of each of these requirements? Do you share the scientist’s opinion or do you consider it necessary to revise or expand the range of these requirements? Give reasons for your position.

Any views and worldview of a person must have some basis, a person’s beliefs must first of all be comprehended by himself, and at some moments everyone must rethink their views in order to ultimately find their “truth”, based on life experience and observations, reasoning , thinking as such.

The worldview must correspond to the general ethical standards and first of all, be aimed at improving the existing world and order in accordance with moral principles, morality, humanity - a person should not get hung up on what has already been achieved and must look into a bright future, while participating in its “building”, and not waiting until the world will change itself.

I share the opinion of the thinker A. Schweitzer. Now this is very relevant for our society, because speech and thinking are highly polluted and this is repulsive.

4. G. Hegel believed that an outstanding personality who creates world-historical deeds is beyond the jurisdiction of morality. It is the greatness of the matter that matters, not its moral meaning. Do you share this position? Justify your point of view.

Morality is highly averaged. General rules necessary for social balance. And preservation of the state. Any new endeavor requires going beyond these boundaries. Genius always falls out of the general flow. Even famous religious reformers violated already established written laws, for which they were executed. Only history has shown who is great and who has ascribed to himself the immortal glory of being the maker of history. The opinion of contemporaries is often deceptive and hasty. And the further from the event, the more adequate the assessment. The creators of the consciousness of humanity are above average morality, but they only expand the scope. Impostors have always been distinguished by unjustified cruelty and lack of modesty.

5. What folk proverbs and sayings condemn laziness, indiscipline and irresponsibility? Use the collection of proverbs and sayings collected by V. I. Dahl.

I want to swallow it, but I’m too lazy to chew it.

A lazy man in the middle of the river asks for a drink.

While the lazy one warms up, the diligent one returns from work.

Mother Sloth was born before him.

Water does not flow under a lying stone.

You will become lazy, you will drag your money around.

He's too lazy to be lazy.

Labor feeds a person, but laziness spoils him.

It's a long day until the evening, if there's nothing to do.

Out of boredom, take matters into your own hands.

A small deed is better than a big idleness.

Blooper - the ship won't leave.

You won't wake up the sleepy one, and you won't get the lazy one.

It's always a holiday for the lazy.

Put off idleness, but don’t put off doing things.

Drinking tea is not cutting wood.

White hands love other people's works.

They don't take cities as a seat.

Long thread - lazy seamstress.

6. Russian scientist, Nobel Prize laureate Academician Zh. I. Alferov, soon after the award, stated that if the Nobel Prize had existed in the 18th century, the first one should have been given to Peter the Great for building an education system according to the triad: gymnasium - university - academy. Justify, based on modern experience, the essence and meaning of this triad.

The triad: gymnasium - university - academy, in the modern world reflects the continuity of education.

Continuing education is the process of growth of an individual’s educational (general and professional) potential throughout life, organizationally supported by a system of state and public institutions and corresponding to the needs of the individual and society. The goal is the formation and development of personality both during periods of its physical and socio-psychological maturation, flourishing and stabilization of vital forces and abilities, and during periods of aging of the body, when the task of compensating for lost functions and capabilities comes to the fore. The system-forming factor is the social need for the constant development of the personality of each person.

7. Find in reference publications in religious studies, for example, in the dictionary “Religions of Nations modern Russia", concepts related to the moral teachings of Christianity, Islam, Buddhism and Judaism. Compare them and highlight their common or similar content.

Christianity is an Abrahamic world religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ as described in the New Testament. Christians believe that Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah, the Son of God and the Savior of mankind. Christians do not doubt the historicity of Jesus Christ. Christianity is the largest world religion. The largest movements in Christianity are Catholicism, Orthodoxy and Protestantism. Christianity arose in the 1st century in Palestine and already in the first decades of its existence became widespread in other provinces and among other ethnic groups.

Islam is the youngest and second largest monotheistic Abrahamic religion in the world after Christianity. In 28 countries, Islam is the state or official religion. The majority of Muslims (85-90%) are Sunnis, the rest are Shiites and Ibadis. The founder of Islam is Muhammad (d. 632). Holy book - Koran. The second most important source of Islamic doctrine and law is the Sunna, which is a set of traditions (hadith) about the sayings and deeds of the Prophet Muhammad. The language of worship is Arabic. Followers of Islam are called Muslims.

Buddhism is a religious and philosophical teaching (dharma) about spiritual awakening (bodhi), which arose around the 6th century BC. e. in Ancient India. The founder of the teaching is considered to be Siddhartha Gautama, who later received the name Shakyamuni Buddha. It is one of the world's oldest religions, recognized by a wide variety of peoples with completely different traditions.

Judaism is a religious, national and ethical worldview formed among the Jewish people, one of the oldest monotheistic religions of mankind and the oldest existing to the present day. Jews are an ethno-religious group that includes those who were born Jewish and those who converted to Judaism. About 42% of all Jews live in Israel and about 42% live in the United States and Canada, with most of the rest living in Europe. Judaism claims historical continuity spanning more than 3,000 years.

8. How are culture and religion related? Show with specific examples the relationship between secular and religious principles in works of art.

Religion is one of the forms of culture. Religion forms a certain worldview and provides answers to questions about the meaning of life and death. In the religious sphere, cultural monuments are created: temples, icons, musical compositions.

9. How does one learn about the world around us through art? Why is art called “figurative cognition”?

Understanding the world around us through art occurs as a person perceives it. Let's give an example. Let's say paintings. They can depict people, plants, nature, interiors, landscapes, anything. Often art is based on reality, but there are exceptions. But these exceptions are knowledge of the world of human psychology, which is also our environment. Art is called “imaginative cognition” because there is an intuitive assimilation of new phenomena.

Additional material:

All art objects are a historical source. And through the study of this art, people understand the world in the past, distant or not, as well as in the present. After all, let’s say, contemporary avant-garde art is a good indicator of what worries a modern person, what forms of expression he finds, what problems haunt him, etc.

On the other hand, by creating, a person also learns about the world around him, first of all, through knowing himself. Expressing oneself in art is one of the ways of reflection, a way not only to learn, but also to come to terms with the surrounding reality.

The subject of art - people's lives - is extremely diverse and is reflected in art in all its diversity in the form of artistic images. The latter, being the result of fiction, nevertheless reflect reality and always bear the imprint of really existing objects, events and phenomena. Artistic image performs the same functions in art as a concept in science: with its help, the process of artistic generalization occurs, highlighting the essential features of cognizable objects. The created images constitute the cultural heritage of society and are capable, having become symbols of their time, to have a serious impact on public consciousness.

10. Bring specific example phenomena of mass culture. Highlight the relevant features in it and explain how it affects the consumer.

Example: modern pop music (pop music, TV shows).

Signs: the most important thing is accessible to the majority, does not require monetary expenditure, arose at the time of globalization.

Influence: positive, entertains people, provides an opportunity to get acquainted with the culture of other countries (example: manner of singing, dancing, speaking)

11. Try to independently develop a specific model of a work from one of the genres of mass culture. According to the laws of the genre, determine what the main character should be like, what must be present in the plot, what the outcome should be, etc.

The main character must first be a nondescript, loser, working 5/2, who suddenly has superpower/luck/money/fame (and everything that a loser from reality dreams of), then any test must appear (save the world/sister/bank / love, etc.), and of course the LCD genius villain, whom no one could catch until this moment, but then he appears, nothing works out for him the first time, but the hero wins the second time, but he must be wounded in order there was a tearful scene and a kiss at the end

12. Name the works of elite culture. Explain why you assigned them to her. Show how they interact with the sphere of popular culture.

Elite culture (high) is a creative avant-garde, a laboratory of art, where new types and forms of art are constantly created. It is also called high culture, because it is created by the elite of society, or at its request by professional creators. It includes fine art, classical music and literature. As a rule, elite culture is ahead of the level of perception of it by a moderately educated person and the general public. Creators of elite culture, as a rule, do not count on a wide audience. To understand these works you need to master the special language of art. Thus, the works of abstract artists in the form of color compositions are difficult to perceive by a person who is not familiar with the laws of painting and symbolic color images. The motto of elite culture is “Art for art’s sake.” IN modern culture The elitist category includes films by Fellini, Tarkovsky, books by Kafka, Böll, paintings by Picasso, music by Duval, Schnittke. However, sometimes elite works become popular (for example, films by Coppola and Bertolucci, works by Salvador Dali and Shemyakin).

“If Rome gave the world law, England - parliamentary activity, France - culture and republican nationalism, then the modern USA gave the world a scientific and technological revolution and mass culture.”Mass culture- a culture that is popular and dominant among a wide segment of the population in a given society. It may include such phenomena as everyday life, entertainment (sports, pop music, popular literature), media mass media and so on.

Mass culture does not express the refined tastes or spiritual quest of the people. The time of its appearance is the middle of the 20th century, when the media (radio, print, television) penetrated into most countries of the world and became available to representatives of all social strata. Mass culture can be international and national. Pop music is a vivid example of this: it is understandable and accessible to all ages, all segments of the population, regardless of level of education.
IN socially mass culture is forming a new social system, called the “middle class”.
The purpose of mass culture is not so much to fill leisure time and relieve tension and stress in a person in an industrial and post-industrial society, but rather to stimulate consumer consciousness in the viewer, listener, reader, which in turn forms a special type of passive, uncritical perception of this culture in a person. In other words, the human psyche is manipulated and the emotions and instincts of the subconscious sphere of human feelings and, above all, feelings of loneliness, guilt, hostility, and fear are exploited.

Elite culture

Elite culture - this is high culture , contrasted with mass culture by the type of impact on the perceiving consciousness, preserving its subjective characteristics and providing a meaning-forming function.
The subject of elitist, high culture is the individual - a free, creative person, capable of carrying out conscious activities. The creations of this culture are always personally colored and designed for personal perception, regardless of the breadth of their audience, which is why the wide distribution and millions of copies of the works of Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, and Shakespeare not only do not reduce their significance, but, on the contrary, contribute to the widespread dissemination of spiritual values. In this sense, the subject of elite culture is a representative of the elite.
Elite culture has a number of important features.

Features of elite culture:

complexity, specialization, creativity, innovation;
the ability to form a consciousness ready for active transformative activity and creativity in accordance with the objective laws of reality;
the ability to concentrate the spiritual, intellectual and artistic experience of generations;
the presence of a limited range of values recognized as true and “high”;
a rigid system of norms accepted by a given stratum as mandatory and strict in the community of “initiates”;
individualization of norms, values, evaluative criteria of activity, often principles and forms of behavior of members of the elite community, thereby becoming unique;
the creation of a new, deliberately complicated cultural semantics, requiring special training and an immense cultural horizon from the addressee;
the use of a deliberately subjective, individually creative, “defamiliarizing” interpretation of the ordinary and familiar, which brings the subject’s cultural assimilation of reality closer to a mental (sometimes artistic) experiment on it and, in the extreme, replaces the reflection of reality in elite culture with its transformation, imitation with deformation, penetration into meaning - conjecture and rethinking of the given;
semantic and functional “closedness”, “narrowness”, isolation from the whole of national culture, which turns elite culture into a kind of secret, sacred, esoteric knowledge, and its bearers turn into a kind of “priests” of this knowledge, chosen ones of the gods, “servants of the muses” , “keepers of secrets and faith,” which is often played out and poeticized in elite culture.

XX century to characterize the changed place of culture in modern society. The time of its appearance was the middle of the 20th century, when the media (radio, print, television) penetrated into most countries of the world and became available to representatives of all social strata. The exceptionally intensive development of the media and communications has led to the fact that not an individual person, but a large number of- a lot of people. Unlike elitist culture, mass culture focuses on the average level of mass consumers.

The phenomenon of mass culture reflects the impact of the modern technogenic world on the formation of human personality. It is unique as the art of manipulating elementary “sub-human” reactions and impulses (“drives”) of masses of people, using the most refined achievements of culture (technology and science). A system of proven techniques is created, designed for the simplest unconditional reactions, attraction, increased eventfulness, and shock moments are used.

Mass culture is emphatically focused on entertainment, quite cheerful, and in many ways exploits such areas of the human psyche as the subconscious and instincts.

Let's consider the influence of television on popular culture.

Television is a very young cultural phenomenon, which, when it arose, had to be integrated into the already existing “system of things” and into the corresponding system of ideas. For comparison: when the first car was created (1895), its shape resembled the shape of a carriage and, we emphasize, could not be different: in the minds of both the creators of the car and all other people, the idea of a carriage as the most comfortable means of transportation dominated. Let's call the carriage a model-prototype of a car in order to briefly characterize the phenomenon itself. The entry of television into culture demonstrates the same approach and, very importantly, something completely new.

When radio appeared (A.S. Popov, 1895), the prototype model was sounding human speech, and later sounding music, that is, phenomena dating back to the beginning of human culture. When cinema arose (the Lumière brothers, 1895, J. Méliès), its prototype models were theater (the European tradition dates back to the ancient theater of the 5th century BC) and photography (the founders were inventors L. J. M. Daguerre, 1839 , J. N. Niepce in France; W. G. F. Talbot, 1840-1841, in England), which, in turn, had painting as its prototype (origin - about 40,000 BC. ). Thanks to photography, cinema has already come closer to the “television effect” that interests us.

When television emerged, it did not rely on ancient prototype models; they were represented by radio and cinema, that is, new phenomena that themselves had not yet been sufficiently mastered by humanity (additionally: newspaper, an older model). Subsequently, the same effect was repeated with the emergence of computer culture (in particular, the Internet), where among the prototype models it is necessary to name, first of all, television. Behind the latest models ancient and even new models are viewed only historically, outside of current awareness, and this is something new that was formed in culture with the advent of television.

It is the renewal of prototype models that occurs in the culture of the twentieth century that can explain why the essence of television remains insufficiently identified.

The newest models themselves have not yet been fully mastered, which leads to a desire to rely on a more solid foundation (that is, a more familiar one).

Hence the concept of television as a new art form. There was an extensive discussion on this matter. From the stated point of view, its hidden meaning is in drawing an analogy between television (new in culture) with art (old, mastered, understandable in culture) or in criticizing this analogy.

One can provide a large amount of evidence confirming that television is a special form of art (or more broadly, artistic culture).

Then, having accepted the general thesis, it is necessary to take the next step - to compare television with various types art (artistic culture). No matter how the specifics of the artistic possibilities of television are revealed, its tendency to be secondary and focused on a multimillion-dollar audience, that is, the features of mass artistic culture, will inevitably come to the fore. This, it seems, led to the now traditional idea of television as a form of mass culture (which acted as an explanatory model-prototype of television). The concept of “mass culture” is painted in negative tones, hence it is quite logical to transfer this emotional shade to the conceptual interpretation of television.

Meanwhile, television, despite all its external similarities to mass media artistic culture, plays a different role, obviously so new that it cannot be easily defined through analogy and requires special research.

A unique property of television as a communicative subsystem of culture is the transmission of images over a distance. It fulfilled mankind’s long-standing dream of a kind of “all-vision”, the ability to look beyond the horizon of visible living space. Thanks to this, television spread so quickly and widely and turned out to be so in demand by people.

“Television messages - especially now, with the presence of communication satellites - come from all over the world, which means that the great gift of television is that through it the whole world has gained visibility. And since TV does not “remove” the viewer from his everyday environment, on the contrary, it itself strives there, then together with television the whole world bursts into the home of an individual... In the era of television, it is not a person who travels around the world, but images from all over the world - from all countries and continents - rush towards the TV viewer and, having lost materiality, swarm around him - as if then to obediently fall into his “total social experience“and “model of the world,” wrote the famous television researcher V. I. Mikhalkovich.

Television expands the boundaries of the real world, accessible to human vision and comprehension, completes and complements the sociocultural space available to the individual, that is, it contributes to the formation of an individual image of reality. This means that a particular person’s requests for television as a source of information about the surrounding reality are, in general, the same as for reality itself.

The French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu makes a very accurate observation: “For some of our philosophers (and writers) “to be” means to be shown on television, that is, to eventually be noticed by journalists or, as they say, to be in good standing with journalists (which is impossible without compromises and self-compromise). And indeed, since they cannot rely only on their works to continue to exist for the public, they have no other choice but to appear on the screen as often as possible, and therefore write at regular and as short intervals as possible works, the main the function of which, according to Gilles Deleuze, is to provide their authors with an invitation to television.”

Personality, constantly navigating in a world of changing social conditions, can impose a wide variety of requirements on television content. Life orientation is one of the most important functions of television in relation to the viewer, along with recreational and compensatory ones. For example, a person does not understand the sphere of self-realization. He lacks human interaction. He needs some kind of life alternative if the directly accessible social reality is not valuable and desirable enough. In search of answers to these requests, people also turn to TV.

Television programs, in turn, reflecting this or that part of social reality, organizing it, carry certain meanings of this reality that can influence a person, acting as sources of value alternatives for sociocultural guidelines in relations with the world. Therefore, special attention should be paid to such a feature of television programs as the formation of these alternatives for the viewer, and their specific content should be considered in the context of the three defining processes of human life: activity, behavior and communication. By perceiving certain meanings of television programs, forming new sociocultural guidelines on their basis, a person can form a personal value attitude towards them, and these new guidelines can, in the words of B.M. Sapunov, “to determine his life attitudes and behavior.” .

The role of television is characterized by multifunctionality. However, in the multiplicity of specific functions, two fundamental functions stand out, which allows us to talk about the bipolar functionality of television. The first function is informational. The second function is leisure.

The information function is a basic feature of television as a cultural phenomenon. To clarify this idea, let us compare the showing of a feature film in a cinema and on television.

In a cinema, no matter how poorly technically equipped it may be, we encounter the work of art itself, this is the form of its existence.

On the contrary, a film shown on television, even the most advanced one, is only information about a work of art (just as “La Gioconda” by Leonardo da Vinci, which we see in an illustrated magazine or book, is only information about a painting located in Louvre).

In a narrower and more familiar sense, information on television acts as a collection of information about events and news.

At a new stage in the development of television broadcasting (in our country since perestroika, in the West much earlier) information function television has fundamentally changed in content (and, as a consequence, in forms), because the very idea of television information has changed.

The domestic viewer, brought up on the programs of informational and educational (with a clearly expressed ideological attitude) Soviet television, was amazed by the appearance on television commercial advertising. At first inept, imitating Western models, then more and more qualitative, even talented, she persistently interfered with the broadcast network.

Information-advertising permeates the entire sphere of television broadcasting. It is both open in nature (commercials) and hidden (mentions of advertising objects in the speech of presenters and participants in programs, clothes, hairstyles, other surroundings of characters that are authoritative for the audience, what they hold in their hands, what they touch, what they look at what they listen to, what surrounds them, etc.). Information about events, turning into advertising information, changes its structure.

Thus, the sequence of news programs of the Soviet period (official block - working life of the country - foreign news block - cultural news - sports - weather) is replaced by another sequence: the most sensational news (disaster, murder, etc.) - less sensational news (which includes, for example, the official block). If a major scientific discovery is made, this is the material at the end of the issue, but if a scientist received the Nobel Prize, this is the beginning.

In Soviet times, a certain percentage of negative news in the information program was established: no more than 40%.

An analysis of modern news shows that negative news prevails even on official channels. On some (for example, on “RenTV” with Romanova) their number reaches 90% and sometimes even more.

The news is interrupted by advertisements. A stable tandem emerges: the real news of the day is terrible (contract killings, corruption, wars, terrorism), catastrophic (hurricanes, tsunamis, mass epidemics), terrible for the common man (fires, leaks, failures in energy systems, water supply, sewerage, poor living conditions , low salaries, bribes of low-level officials, unfair trials, deprivation of benefits, rising prices for food, gasoline, increased housing costs, negligence in schools and hospitals, fraud, hooliganism, drunkenness, poverty), while in commercials the viewer is presented with an ideal, happy life(wonderful things - from tights to refrigerators, all washing powders, medicines for any disease according to the latest scientific developments, almost free loans for almost any amount, allowing you to dance even on critical days, pads, shampoos that add volume to your hair and mascara to your eyelashes, saving you from caries toothpastes and chewing gums, luxury cars and latest model computers, exciting films, grandiose concerts, political parties guarding the interests of the people).

These two blocks constantly alternate, collectively awakening the polar emotions of viewers, through which television culture essentially has a suggestive influence on the consciousness and subconscious of millions.

Sensationalism as a principle of presenting information on modern television turns out to be a connecting bridge in the bipolarity of the main functions of television - informational and leisure.

Television, reflecting new realities, has developed its own new forms that implement the leisure function. In the spectrum of these actual television forms, two television genres emerged that found themselves at different poles: the video clip (the brevity of which reflected the option of minimizing leisure) and the television series (the duration of which, reaching several thousand episodes, reflected the option of maximizing leisure). Between these poles, the talk show took an intermediate place, combining information and leisure as television functions, but not through sensationalism, but through the illusion of interactivity.

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