Mass Culture

The culture of the masses, encompassing a range of information, ideas, images, and entertainment that appeal to the tastes of the majority of people. The concept arose in the early 20th century with the advent of mass media technologies. Mass culture traditionally had a negative connotation because it was associated with lower-class audiences (as distinct from high or elite culture). However, most people participate in mass culture on some level as part of their normal experience. The term is dated and objectionable as class lines have blurred since the mid-20th century. Though popular culture is devalued in some cultural arenas, it is frequently the more favorable term to use in place of mass culture when discussing mainstream culture as it does not carry the same pejorative and divisive implications.

Between the end of the 19th and the early 20th centuries, manifestations of mass culture included newspapers and magazines. This was followed later in the 20th century by the modern outlets of radio, television, film, and advertising. Mass culture is often compared with folk or traditional culture, which was produced before the existence of mass media, though critics of the modern notion of mass culture portray it as produced self-consciously as a commodity for consumption; as the result of industrialization, mass culture has been distanced from its origins of authentic cultural expression.

Fundamental to the discourse is the idea that mass media produce a homogenizing effect among audiences, which in turn creates a mass society of people who have unwittingly relinquished their individuality, personal preferences, and local culture and traditions. Corresponding to the negative connotation, such popular or mass culture is viewed as debased and is understood as a measure by which a citizenry is controlled. The mass culture itself is thought to be a result of the alienation of individuals, whose opinions and behaviors are susceptible to being managed by external forces such as advertising, television shows, movies, music, and video games.

Popular culture has become an area of study among scholars in recent decades and is increasingly perceived as a serious entity, appreciated on its own terms. Though many of the same characteristics historically described mass culture—nontraditional, mass produced, broad, mainstream, commercial, and undifferentiated—when applied to popular culture, the belief is that these aspects are worthy of study in the broad scope of cultural understanding. For further reading, see Baughman (1992) and Wilson (1995).