mass culture
3
3.9
- noun
- /mæs ˈkʌltʃər/
:
cultura de masas
- The influence of mass culture can be seen in the music and television shows that dominate today's mainstream media.
- American mass culture
- contempt for mass culture
- mass culture products
The modern age of science, technology, mass culture, and more all promises a great deal, but it also brings dangers never before seen.
- The modern age of science, technology, mass culture, and more all promises a great deal, but it also brings dangers never before seen.
Examples
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High art must be seen as an oppositional retreat from mass culture.
Academic text (1993) -
In sum, it is time to rediscover the mass culture of the United States through a comparative perspective.
Academic text (1994) -
Only a media perspective, and in particular the "mass culture," has received much attention.
Academic text (1992) -
In terms of mass culture, no industry had a greater impact in Europe than Hollywood.
Academic text (1994) -
In this context, we have to distinguish between various forms of American mass culture.
Academic text (1994) -
The modern age of science, technology, mass culture, and more all promises a great deal, but it also brings dangers never before seen.
-
The mass market came before mass culture, overwhelming regional styles and ethnic traditions.
Academic text (1994) -
Unlike art history, cinema studies are comfortable with low or mass culture, and with everyday, vernacular images and visual practices.
Academic text (1995) -
In this attack, a negative view of mass culture is seen as defining modernist elitism.
Academic text (1998) -
Capitalism and mass culture can coexist with garrison or totalitarian states.
Academic text (1996)
Antonyms
How Widespread
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'the culture of the general populace shared through mass media' is directly derivable from combining 'mass' (the general populace) with 'culture' (shared ideas and practices). This is a regular noun–noun modifier pattern (mass + culture) and has clear cross-linguistic equivalents (e.g., Spanish 'cultura de masas'), so a B1 learner who knows both constituents will readily infer the MWE meaning.
Etymology
The term mass culture comes from the words mass (a large group of people) and culture (the music, stories and ideas people share). When newspapers, radio and TV sent the same songs, shows and ideas to lots of people, those things became common across the public, so mass culture now means culture 'shared by many people' through television, radio and the internet.