Cultural Studies

This week we will offer a methodological comparison between McLuhan's media studies (from week 2) and cultural studies. Before we do, it's good to take a brief look a the history of the term "culture" (CC).

In Doing Cultural Studies: the Story of the Sony Walkman, the authors offer a very brief history of the term "culture" from the 18th century to the present (11-13). For the authors, the term "culture" was used in the 18^th century in opposition to "nature," which was anything that was not human created, that is, create by God. However, when referring to this very same "culture," Enlightenment authors used the term to describe "European civilization” versus other more "rude, crude, and savage" people.

In the 19^th century, specifically in relation to romantics and Matthew Arnold, one sees a shift in how the term "culture" is used through a recognition of diverse patterns of all human social groups. Through globalization and encounters with the “other," we can see a shift from singular “culture” to many different “cultures”. We can also see distinction developing within the monolithic European cultures between high culture, low culture, and mass culture.

Through a study of society and social spheres (the introduction of sociology, or the study of how people interact), a new definition appears that emphasizes “patterns of life that allow for creation and interpretation of meanings.” By the early twentieth century, culture as become an analytic concept to define "collective social representation," or the meanings and values implicit in different ways of life.

This definition remains with us through the 20^th century, with an added emphasis on the form (vs. content) of cultures (1960s). In addition, the “Cultural Turn” in critical theory began to look at power in relation to the form of the creation and circulation of meanings. The creation of "cultural studies" in the 1960s added a new emphasis on signification and began to employ semiotics (CC) as a means to move away from an emphasis only on language and ritual. Semiotics allows critics and theorists to engage all signifying practices, not just those that create the binary between "high" and "low" cultures.

Stuart Hall, “The Origin of Cultural Studies.”

Reading Cultural Objects: The Television

Watch the clip below and think about how the television shapes not only the form of representation (electronic sound and image), but also what Du Gay and Hall describe in their "Doing Cultural Studies" as 1) the network of signs, 2) social practices, 3) groups of people (identity), 4) geography or space (11-12). As you watch, reflect on how your own viewing experience (computer or mobile device) follows these same patterns.