With reference to present day culture and society, write a detailed analysis of one non-fiction media text. Discuss its ideological positioning and the ways in which it might be perceived by its audience.
I chose to analyse the Sun newspaper because it is the biggest selling daily newspaper in Britain. Subsequently it is highly powerful and instructive. It has very concise and definite ideologies and these are socialised into the subconscious of its readers. Because the readership of the Sun is so large the paper ultimately shapes the very fabric of our society. Through applying the different theories and approaches I wanted to expose the sub-text of the paper, discover what the Sun's message really conveys, and find out the kind of effects they produce not only on the readers themselves, but on our culture and society as a whole.
The Sun is popular culture. To label it as such, a definition of popular culture must be produced.
Sun Building - 9 Bennetts Hill, Birmingham - sun s...
Sun Building - 9 Bennetts Hill, Birmingham - sun s...
English: Commemorative plaque of Antonio Gramsci i...In his study on popular culture John Storey proposed six definitions on the subject. He firstly states that popular culture is simply culture which is widely favoured or well liked by many people. This quantitative index would be ascertained by the examination of the sales of books, singles and albums, attendance levels at concerts, shows and festivals, and market-research figures for television programmes.
His second definition would entail simply counting all popular culture that is not included to be high culture.
'Mass culture' is his third definition: 'mass produced for mass consumption'. Popular culture is a commercial culture - its audience a mass of non-discriminating consumers. It is a culture consumed with brain-numbed and brain-numbing passivity.
His fourth definition claims that popular culture is the culture which originates from 'the people'. This theory disapproves of the notion that popular culture is imposed...