Popular Culture Analysis

In this essay, I argue that practices of everyday life cannot be truly considered ‘popular’ in cultures that are heavily integrated with digital expressions of corporate power. The actions within these highly digitized cultures cannot be considered popular in any more than a dictionary-definition sense, as they are too heavily influenced by the manipulative forces of mass culture. Firstly, I will construct a definition of ‘popular’ in the context with which to continue my argument. Secondly, I will argue that corporations control the content of the media in digitally integrated societies, and therefore, control both the actions and views of those societies. Lastly, I will argue that corporations are controlling the production and dissemination

When the word is examined within the context of popular culture, however, it takes on a different definition, far beyond that found in a dictionary. While quantitative factors must inherently play a role in defining ‘popular’, the origins from which these factors stem from must also be considered. Raymond Williams (1983, p.237) provides a concise definition of popular culture as “the culture actually made by the people for themselves”, and thus implies that the term ‘popular’ is better defined by the populace within which the cultural trends exist, rather than by a measure of how many people subscribe to those cultural trends. John Storey (2012, p.9) similarly defines popular culture as “‘authentic’ culture of ‘the people’”, providing a second and comparable view that popular culture is an organic type of culture that is produced by the population, rather than by a selection of larger powers. Working from both Williams’ and Storey’s definitions of popular culture we can deduce that the word ‘popular’, when examined under the lens of popular culture, can be defined as something created by the people for consumption by those the population who created it as a

The recent phenomenon of “fake news” is an excellent example of the control and heavily influential impact that Corporations have on societies through media, which they exercise with ease. Although various sources report false facts, statistics, and figures, large portions of the population accept them as truth with no effort made to validate them. This blatantly false media in turn plays a large part in establishing the opinions and actions of the consumers, potentially impacting large-scale decisions such as the controversial 2016 U.S. Federal Election (Allcott p.212). From this example alone, it is clear that the media has a direct impact on the way that populations construct their opinions, bringing into question the amount of free will that the population as a whole even has. If Corporations control the media that populations ingest on a daily basis, and that media is what shapes the worldviews and lifestyles of those populations, then it is Corporations who are ultimately dictating the highly digitally integrated lives of those