After a weekend full of non-stop Bertrand Russel and Mcnae, the thought of Uni this morning was pretty off-putting. Out of all my subjects within Journalism, Key Concepts is one which i understand the most, which being honest, has got me down most weekend. Adding to this, the amount of reading for tomorrow I have to complete is pretty large and considering I am a reasonably fast and capable reader is extremeley dissapointing on my behalf. But, positive head, positive head.
Today's lecture for Key Concepts based around the idea of popular culture and the mass. Constructions of taste and quality are constructed in a series of binary oppositions (good and bad, priests and gang leaders.)
Pierre Bourdieu -I am guessing you are attempting to say his name in a French accent much like I did, or if you wern't you are now- studying the french class systems and argued that no one is born with taste, it is merely something you establish through socialising with certain people and understanding the culture put towards you. An exsample of this is if you are brought up into eating meals cooked by a chef most nights, and spending luxorious days out at the Opera or Ballet, this is the taste you will have because ultimately, it has been put infront of you and you have therefore acquired it. Consequently, if you are used to eating takeaway food infront of the TV and Big Brother is on, this does eventually become the taste you are used to.
Me for instance, I grew up with my mum listening to Aerosmith, Guns 'n' Roses and so on, at the age I was i never realised the signifance it had on me, however now I am older and my taste of music is extremeley versitile, I have discovered such music is also my taste due to the way it was opened up to me. This can also be an example of Cultural Capital. This relates to how knowledgable you are about the culture around you e.g. if you listen to classical music and visit art musuems you can be said to have a high cultural capital due to the wider variety of knowledge you know capitally.
For example from the images above, the first image is a 50cent concert which can be described by many people as having low cultural capital due to it being highly related to gang culture. However in comparison the image below this is of the Ballet, which for many people is classed as having a high cultural capital due to it being around for many years. Ultimately, it can be debated whether this is fair? Does something have to be around for many years for it to be classed as high culture? In my opinion no. Commonly, cultural capital can shift in value much like the exchange rate, it can move up and down quickly or over a long period of time. This can be related to the Theatre, which in a high culture way, it makes me think of Shakespeare and so on. However in a low culture way, it reminds me of Pantomimes and the way you don't have to have a proper education to be able to visit the theatre/broadway and so on.
Being honest, I'm using this as a way of getting out of reading my Philosophy book so I better be a good and dedicated student and get on with it!
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