Culture/Communication/Media Study

When discussing the topic of culture, many people have different ideas of what this word truly means. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines the word culture as "the beliefs, customs, arts, etc., of a particular society, group, or time". There are many outside factors that play into making a culture the way it is, but the most significant of these factors are definitely communication, empathy, and media. Communication, empathy, and media are three things that go hand in hand when it comes to the topic of culture, and although there are many other factors that build the characteristics of a culture, communication, empathy and media are without a doubt the strongest of these factors.

Media is basically everywhere in the world, and it surrounds everything and everyone. Probably the biggest subdivision of culture is something called popular culture, or as most people call it, pop culture. In part one of the book Culture and Communication, Pop culture scholar Ray B. Browne defines popular culture as, "the cultural world around us, that is, our attitudes, habits, and actions: how we act and why we act; what we eat and wear; our buildings, roads, and means of travel; our entertainment and sports; our politics, religion, and medical practices; our beliefs and activities and what shapes and controls them. In other words, it is to us what water is to fish; It is the world we live in." (Culture and Communication 4). Basically, the things that surround a society or make up a society are also the building blocks for the popular culture of the given society. Another aspect of media and culture that plays a massive role in making a culture the way it is, is something called mass culture. Referring to part one of Culture and Communication again, it states, "Because of the mass mediation of our popular culture, another term, mass culture, has evolved. This refers to the things in our popular culture that are mass-produced or shared through the mass media. In America today, that represents almost everything in our popular culture. It is so difficult to think of in our modern popular culture that isn't either mass produced or promoted in the mass media that terms mass culture and popular culture have come to be used almost interchangeably." (Culture and Communication 5). This section of this book does an excellent job of explaining and defining the term mass culture, and it just shows how significant this idea of mass culture really is. Even though media plays such a huge role in shaping culture, this is not always a good thing. The fact that media has so much influence in making a culture the way it is, has lead to many people in a way conforming to what other people do, and just doing things because they are told that these things are right. One example of this can be found in the speech First as Tragedy, Then as Farce when Slavoj Žižek says, "when you go to a store probably you prefer buying organic apples. Why? Look deep into yourself. I don't think you really believe that those organic apples which cost double than the good old genetically modified apples which we all like, that they are really any better. I claim we are cynics they are sceptics. But you know it makes you feel warm that I'm doing something for our mother earth, I'm doing something for our planet and so on and so on. You get all that." (Žižek). This is just one great example of how often times people will conform to what the media tells them, such as how people buy organic apples because it makes them believe that they are truly helping the earth. Obviously, for better or for worse, media plays a massive role in the building and shaping of cultures. 

Another concept that plays a massive part in making a culture the way it is, is the concept of communication. Communication allows all types media to be spread within societies and cultures, and spread to other societies and cultures. Communication has resulted in many positive things such as the spread of music, art, sports, food, fashion; in other words the spread of culture. Having said that, to many people this spread of culture is not a positive thing at all. In the film PressPausePlay, singer-songwriter, musician, DJ, and photographer, Moby, says, "In the old days, of 30 to 40 to 50 years ago, people didn't make things, you know? So people would go to photography exhibits, people would go buy records, and there were professional artists. And now everyone is a photographer, everyone is a film maker, everyone is a writer, everyone is a musician." (PressPausePlay). When Moby said this he was referring to the fact that mass communication has given ordinary people the ability to create art, and how this is a bad thing because if everyone is creating art, then none of it will be special anymore and basically the world will just be dull. The criticism of mass communication and mass culture is not a new occurrence, it is just something that has been progressively increasing ever since the ideas of mass communication and mass culture were created. In part two of Culture and Communication, it states, "This criticism of mass culture still exists today (and in fact it seems to be increasing), with a primary focus on the mass media and their influences on society in general. Some intellectuals still believe television entertainment is "low culture" and is undermining the elite arts. Critics complain that most TV programming is nothing more than a mindless pacifier with no educational or artistic value." (Culture and Communication 32). This just shows how many people truly believe that mass media and mass communication is something that is only hurting society and culture. There are many things that are affected by mass culture that people believe to be hurting society, and that people believe to be "anaesthetic". In this context, the word anaesthetic can be explained in the speech Changing Paradigms, when Sir Ken Robinson says, "The arts especially address the idea of aesthetic experience. And aesthetic experience is one in which your senses are operating at their peak, when you're present in the current moment, when you're resonating with the excitement of this thing that you're experiencing, when you're fully alive. An anaesthetic is when you shut your senses off and deaden yourself to what's happening." (Robinson). In this citation, Robinson is referring to school, and how it is "putting children asleep" when it should be "waking them up", and how this is forming, for the lack of a better term, a boring society. Clearly, the criticism of mass culture and mass communication is something that is, and always will be, a tremendous part of both society and culture. 

One more factor that plays a huge role in shaping societies and culture, is empathy. Merriam-Webster defines empathy as "the feeling that you understand and share another person's experiences and emotions: the ability to share someone else's feelings". Even though this may seem highly unlikely, technology serves as a catalyst for empathy. Technology allows people to empathize with one another in so many ways that would not be available if it weren't for technology. One example of this can be found in The Empathic Civilization when Jeremy Rifkin says, "When that earthquake hit Haiti and Chile, but especially Haiti, within the hour the twitters came out, and within two hours cell phone videos, YouTube, and within three hours the entire human race was in an empathic embrace coming to the aid of Haiti." (The Empathic Civilization). This just shows how much power both technology and empathy have, and how strong they are when they are used together. Technology is essentially a channel that can be used to spread empathy. In the film Cragslist Joe, Joseph Garner poses the question, "Are we in a place in our society, with technology, that we can take care of each other?" (Craigslist Joe). This question just emphasizes the fact that technology gives people the opportunity to empathize with others in ways that they could not previously. Technology and empathy combine to give people the opportunity to view the lives of others, and gives them a chance to feel what they are going through. In The Power of Outrospection, Roman Kzrnaric claims, "So the 21st century needs to be different. Instead of the age of introspection we need to shift to the age of outrospection. And by outrospection I mean stepping outside yourself, discovering lives of other people, other civilizations." (The Power of Outrospection). This shows how it is very possible to view the lives of others as long as one has the right mentality, and technology and empathy are two things that can help make an individual find this mentality. Undoubtedly, empathy and technology are two things that go hand in hand and combine together to create a huge influence on the shaping of a society or culture.

When it comes to culture, it is a far more in-depth topic than most people might think. From the influence that media and popular culture have on a society, to the criticism that people have on mass media and mass culture, and to the power that empathy and technology have on people; culture is pretty much a melting pot of different factors that blend together to create everything that the human race lives by. Culture is something that is always changing, and there will always be new variables and factors that will affect culture, but in the end it is obvious that the most significant of these factors are most definitely the factors of communication, media, and empathy; and this is something that will never change.