Mass Culture 4206-FK104z
Topics: creation of mass society (urbanization, democratization, technological development), mass man, 'spoiled child syndrome', homogenization and dedistancing, elitary culture (folk, alternative) vs mass culture, heroes of mass culture, consumerism as a basic pattern of using mass culture products, criticism of mass culture vs its defence, mass culture - produced, standardized, mass culture vs globalization, scraps and leftovers of mass culture and globalization, myths of mass culture: contemporary visions of happiness and paradise, infantilization of the vision of the world, mass media and Internet - as a new medium - vs social communication (propaganda, advertisement, persuasion), attitudes towards mass culture (researcher, consumer, producer), leisure time and its management, entertainment as a value in itself, models of participating in mass culture.
Plan of the classes:
1. Introduction to mass culture (range, research, contexts). Mass culture vs elitary, folk, alternative culture (similarities and differences).
2. Birth of mass culture (social, cultural and economic effects). Reproduction of work of art; cultural industry.
3. Mass media (big circulation press, photography, radio, film, television and Internet - new face of mass culture. History and contemporaneity, functions (persuasion, propaganda, need production).
4. Leisure time, entertainment, consumptionism of pleasures. Heroes of collective imagination and their significance to mass society.
5. Ways of deciphering mass culture. Popular mythologies, myths of mass culture. Contemporary mass culture as interpersonal communication (sender, receiver, codes).
6. Image of mass culture. Criticism vs appraisal of mass culture. Common participation in culture vs superficial participation. Cultural contradictions of capitalism.
7. New dimensions of mass culture: globalization and its effects. Globalists vs alterglobalists (and other alternative attitudes towards mass culture).
Type of course
Bibliography
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Antonina Kłoskowska, 'Kultura masowa', (whole book), PWN, Warsaw 2005,
Zygmunt Bauman, 'Kultura odpadów', [in:] 'Życie na przemiał', Wydawnictwo Literackie, Cracow 2005,
Zygmunt Bauman, 'Globalizacja', (chosen fragments), PIW, Warsaw 2000,
Geogr Ritzer, 'Makdonaldyzacja społeczeństwa', (chosen fragments), ed. II corrected, Muza, Warsaw 2005,
Manuel Castells, 'Kultura Internetu', [in:] 'Galaktyka Internetu. refleksje nad Internetem, biznesem i spoleczeństwem', Rebis, Poznan 2003,
Elliot Aronson, 'Konformizm', 'Środki masowego przekazu, propaganda, przekonywanie', 'Uprzedzenia', [in:] 'Czlowiek - istota spoleczna', PWN, Warsaw 1997,
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Daniel Bell, 'Kulturowe sprzeczności kapitalizmu', (chosen fragments), PWN, Warsaw 1998,
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Naomi Klein, 'No logo', Świat Literacki, Warsaw 2004,
Alvin Toeffler, 'Trzecia fala', (chosen fragments), PIW, Warsaw 1986,
Neil Postman, 'Od technokracji do technopolu', [in:] 'Technopol. Triumf techniki nad kulturą', PIW, Warsaw 1995,
Piotr Sztompka, 'Globalizacja', [in:] 'Socjologia', Znak, Cracow 2002.
Additional information
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