Abstract: In the last few years there has been much study of ‘popular
culture’, an area in which television programmes are perceived as
a central concern. I want to look at how popular culture has been
conceived as a broad context for thinking about the ideological
meaning and pleasures of popular television programmes. So,
what is ‘popular culture’, how has it been understood and why did
cultural theorists become interested in it?
Popular culture is difficult to define because of its diversity;
football, Christmas celebrations, Space Invaders, bingo, disco
dancing, EastEnders, MacDonalds, and fish and chips might all be
included. Yet there are common defining characteristics; first, for
my purposes, popular culture refers to those activities and
pastimes which take place outside the constraints of work as a
part of leisure time, and which are perceived by consumers as
providing forms of pleasure and entertainment. Second, ‘popular’
combines two meanings: originally ‘popular’ culture referred to the
culture ‘of the people’, to folk and working-class cultural pursuits
produced for the people and by the people. From some leftwing
perspectives this has been seen as the only authentic and
politically correct form of culture.2 With the developing technology
of the twentieth century this culture has been disappearing fast,
and the second meaning of ‘popular’ refers to those cultural forms
which, through the rapid and easy dissemination of the mass
media, are consumed by large numbers of people.
Publication Year: 2005
Publication Date: 2005-07-20
Language: en
Type: book-chapter
Indexed In: ['crossref']
Access and Citation
Cited By Count: 9
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