mass-communication-theory

228 Section 3 From Limited-Effects to Critical Cultural Theories: Ferment in the Field
have on society or on individuals?” and “How do people use the media?” toward
broader examinations of how cultures become organized, how people negotiate
common meaning and are bound by it, and how media systems interact with the
culture to affect the way culture develops. This, as we’ll see in Chapter 11, allowed
cultural theories to become home for a variety of people who presumed the operation
of powerful mass media—for example, advertising and market researchers,
neo-Marxist media critics, and even sophisticated social researchers. The primary
focus was no longer on whether media have certain effects on individuals, but
rather on the kind of people we are, we have become, or we are becoming in our
mass-mediated world.
RESEARCH ON POPULAR CULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES
multiple points of
access
Idea that some
people make interpretations
at
one level of
meaning, whereas
others make their
interpretations at
others
During the 1960s and 1970s, some American literary scholars began to focus their
research on popular culture. By 1967, this group had grown large enough to have
its own division (Popular Literature Section) within the Modern Language Association
of America and to establish its own academic journal, The Journal of Popular
Culture. These scholars were influenced by British cultural studies and by Canadian
media scholar Marshall McLuhan. They adapted a variety of theories and research
methods, including hermeneutics and historical methods, to study various
forms of popular culture. Unlike British critical theorists, most have no links to social
movements. They focus much of their attention on television and, now, the Internet
as the premier media of the electronic era. Many express optimism about the
future and the positive role of electronic media, rather than subscribing to the pessimistic
vision of Williams.
Some of the best examples of popular culture research have been provided by
Horace Newcomb in TV: The Most Popular Art (1974) and in his much-respected
anthology, Television: The Critical View, which has had several updated editions
(2007). These books summarize useful insights produced by researchers in popular
culture, emphasizing that popular media content generally, and television programming
specifically, are much more complex than they appear on the surface. Multiple
levels of meaning are often present, and the content itself is frequently ambiguous.
Sophisticated content producers recognize that if they put many different or
ambiguous meanings into their content, they will have a better chance of appealing
to different audiences. If these audiences are large and loyal, the programs will
have high ratings. Though Newcomb wrote long before the advent of 24, Big
Bang Theory, and The Simpsons, and cable television series such as South Park,
Curb Your Enthusiasm, Dexter, and Weeds, these programs illustrate his argument.
They make an art of layering one level of meaning on top of another so
that fans can watch the same episode over and over to probe its meaning.
A second insight well articulated by Newcomb is that audience interpretations
of content are likely to be quite diverse. The fact that some people make interpretations
at one level of meaning, whereas others make their interpretations at other levels,
is referred to as multiple points of access. Some interpretations will be highly
idiosyncratic, and some will be very conventional. Sometimes groups of fans will
develop a common interpretation, and sometimes individuals are content to find
their own meaning without sharing it. This is similar to John Fiske’s concept of
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