COMMODIFICATION OF CULTURE

Media and culture share a relationship which is both positive and negative. Certain negative effects of media on culture are impact on violence, racial stereotypes, economic exploitation, and mindless consumption of commodities. 

On the other hand, media has helped in providing education opportunities, creating awareness about different and unique cultures, etc

One of the most intriguing and challenging perspectives emerging from critical cultural studies is the commodification of culture – the study of what happens when culture is mass produced and distributed in direct competition with locally based cultures.

Media are industries specializing in the producing and distribution of cultural commodities. As with other modern industries, they have also grown at the expense of small, local producers and the consequences of this displacement have been, and continue to be, disruptive to people’s life.

Some important consequences of lifting bits of everyday life culture out of their context, repackaging and then marketing them back to the people:

·        When elements of everyday culture are selected for repackaging, only a very limited range is chosen and thus important elements are overlooked or are consciously ignored.

·        The repackaging process involves dramatization of these elements of culture which have been selected.

·        The marketing of cultural commodities is done in a way which maximizes the likelihood that they will successfully intrude into and ultimately disrupt everyday life.

·        The elites who operate the cultural industries generally are ignorant of the consequences of their work.

·        Disruption of everyday life takes many forms – some are obviously linked to consumption of especially deleterious (negative impact)  content, but other forms of disruption are very subtle and occur over long periods of time.

In modern capitalist societies, ‘commodification’ points to the relationship between large economic systems and hegemonic cultural ideologies and is mainly concerned with generating profit rather than enriching human feelings or experience. Commodification of culture has had an intense impact on the lifestyle of people.

Critical cultural studies researchers have directed their most devasting criticism towards advertising which is viewed as the ultimate cultural commodity.