The ‘Circuit of Culture’

                                                                            Assignment
  
                                                                The ‘Circuit of Culture’                                                        

                                          Vanita P. Tadha

MA Sem: 2         Roll No. : 30

Year: 2014-15        Enrolment No. : pg14101029

Sub: Cultural Studies (paper: 8)

Email ID: tadhavanita90@gmail.com

Guided By: Department of English [Dilip Barad]

Introduction: 

A origins in the of academic study that finds its origins in the Birmingham Center for Contemporary Cultural Studies (UK) and the work of critics like Raymond Williams Hoggart and later by Stuart Hall, Tony Bennett and others, Cultural studies is a discipline between disciplines. In this we will introduce about a few selected definition and a short explanation of Cultural Studies.

Cultural Studies is interested in the processes by which power relations between and within groups of human beings organize cultural artifacts (such as food habits, music cinema, sports events and celebrity culture) and their meanings. Before we define ‘Cultural Studies’ we need to understand the key terms used by he discipline.

Definition of culture:-

Culture is a simple word but it is hard to define it.  It is an umbrella term, we can include as much as possible related to human life. It covers large area so we cannot reach at perfect definition.

What ‘culture’ has actual meant before:-

Ø  ‘Culture’ derives from ‘culture’ and ‘colere’, meaning ‘to cultivate’.

Ø  It also meant ‘to honour’ and ‘protect’.

Ø  By the nineteenth century in Europe it meant the habits, customs and tastes of the upper classes.

Ø  What ‘culture’ means now in Cultural Studies:

Ø  ‘Culture’ is the mode of generating meanings and ideas.

Ø  This ‘mode’ is a negotiation over which meanings are valid.

Ø  Meanings are governed by power relations.

Ø  Elite culture controls meanings because it control the terms of the debate.

Ø  Non – elite views on life and art are rejected as ‘tasteless’, ‘useless’ or even stupid by the elite.

Ø  What this implies is that certain components of culture get more visibility and significance.

What is “CULTURAL STUDIES”?

Cultural studies approaches generally share four goals.

First, cultural studies transcend the confines of a particular discipline such as literary criticism or history.

Second, cultural studies are politically engaged.

Third, cultural studies deny the separation of “high” and “low” or elite and popular culture.

Finally, cultural studies analyze not only the cultural work, but also the means of production.

FIVE TYPES OF CULTURAL STUDIES

1] British Cultural Materialism

2] New Historicism

3] American Multiculturalism

4] Postmodernism and Popular Culture

The ‘Circuit of Culture’

A sophisticated analysis of cultural artefacts requires a close examination of basic elements, which together constitute what Paul Du Gay et al have called ‘ the circuit of culture’ (1997) . These elements are:

·         Representation

·         Identity                                       

·         Production

·         Consumption

·         Regulation

What these elements present is a process through which every cultural artifact, object or event must pass. The elements work in tandem, and are closely linked with each other, a process that has been called ‘articulation’.

In order to illustrate the ‘circuit of culture’ we need to use a concrete example. Let us take a now – ubiquitous technological device: the television.

Television and Representation

What does the television represent, and how is it represented? The answers to these two related questions are basically means to discuss the centrality of representation in a culture. Television represents.

Communication, information

Entertainment

Most television ads work with these three aspects, with more features facilities.

Communication: 

Communication is an important to convey thought, ideas and view. These all are the medium of language. It transfers information from one person to other. The most important thing is that to know about the language and the skill of represent is necessary.

Entertainment:

 Entertainment is most influential source of television. Majority people are free in society or after their work the use TV as entertainment.

Television and Identity

What kind of identity does project? What is the difference between state (that is, government) television programs and say, STAR TV?

What kind of age group is targeted in particular kind of promotional material? Do car and mobile phone manufactures target youth?

What kinds of identity are given importance in television serials –Family?  Young professionals?  Youth? Business culture?

What does mean to appear on television? Is the identity of the public intellectual governed by appearance on a programme?

Think of so – called ‘serious’ programmes on contemporary affairs like Aaj Tak, health and medicine or yoga. What is their target audience?

What is the Indian identity projected on television? Does the Northeast of India come in to the picture? Or Dalits? If so, what is the tone of programmes that try to give representation and space to the marginalized?

As we can see the series of questions posed above are about cultural and public contexts where identities are linked to images on screen. Cultural Studies is interested in the ideologies that underlie these identities – projections.

Identity is necessary for anything. The TV provides identity through their action or skill. If their skill is appropriate and it popular in audience then they earn much money.

Television and production

The theme of production can be phrased as a series of pointed questions:

Look at the major television manufacturers. What are the policies in these companies? How much profit does the company make? Does the company project a democratic work culture? Does the management mix with the workers? Does the company cater to an Indian milieu specifically? Does it project itself – as state owned companies like Electronics Corporation of India Limited (ECIL) Did – as a truly ‘Indian’ firm?

Television and Consumption

Who are the major buyers of television sets, black and white and colour?  What are their income levels? Why would you buy a particular model? Is the choice of a particular kind dictated by fashion, taste, functionality? Do you upgrade models because you are an enthusiast and can afford to? To use

Now a day people like watch colour TV. People often choose material or informational source of things.

Television and Regulation

Consider the union government’s ban on Fashion TV, ostensibly because it offends Indian cultural sentiments.

What does the government do with regard to either production or consumption? What is the government do with regard to ether production or consumption? What is the role of the censor board or the Information and Broadcasting Ministry in television sales, production, programmes?

This ‘circuit of culture’ is perhaps the most thorough examination of any culture artifact. As we can see it covers a range of issues and themes – form the question of media representation to the construction of identities in a culture. The ‘circuit of culture’ includes within it several smaller components and modes of analysis. The rest of this chapter outlines some of them.

Television provides us several things but it doesn’t mean that it has no rules. If the people take bad idea from show then government often ban it.

Cultural Studies today, in most academies across the world, adopts certain key areas and methods to understand the modes of meaning – production. These are:

Language, discourse

Identity

Everyday life

Ethnography

Media studies

Reception/ audience studies

Culture intermediaries

Conclusion

Thus, this ‘circuit of culture’ is perhaps the most thorough examination of any cultural artefact. As we can see it covers a range of issues and themes – from the question of media representation to the construction of identities in culture.