ideologia e cultura popular

Just three years separate the end of "The Flintstones" run on ABC prime time in 1966 and the debut of "Scooby-Doo" on Saturday mornings in 1969. But those three years show a remarkable shift in the culture.... They represent an evolving culture's take on family and young people.

"The Flintstones" is, excuse the pun, bedrock family-values fare. Fred is a working-class hero trying to make his way in the world. Wilma is his stay-at-home wife who spends her days shopping, cooking and chatting with a neighbor. ... Though cosmetically set in the age of cavemen, Fred and Wilma [Flintstone] were actually the quintessential suburban dream, a house crammed with the most modem gadgets; a nice yard, maybe a swimming pool and good, friendly relationships—and fierce rivalries—with the neighbors. The music of the show is jazz, and the sport of choice is bowling. Even the opening credits to the first season of "The Flintstones" show Fred peddling home on a freeway into the waiting graces of Wilma, who has a sandwich and drink waiting before he relaxes in front of the TV.

The "Scooby-Doo" gang is a 1960s hipster view of modem young people. The music of the show is bubble-gum rock in' and roll. There are no adults in sight, except for the dastardly villains who are, in essence, substituting for the proverbial establishment that keeps young folks down. "Scooby-Doo" is the late '60s "youth power" ideal realized. These kids not only stumble onto the wrongdoing of the adult world, but unravel it and make the world a better place, except, of course, for the disgraced oldster mumbling that he would've gotten away with it "if it weren't for these blasted kids and their dog." Though probably not an intentional overture to the drug culture of the era, Shaggy is the quintessential hippie stoner. He's always hungry, clad in loose-fitting, sloppy clothes and a poorly managed goatee. Fred is an ascot-wearing jock. Daphne is the dim-witted, sweet-natured rich girl whose dad bankrolls the kids' Mystery Inc. gig. Velma is a closet feminist kept down only by her bookish looks and bad vision—and apparent inability to keep her glasses on her nose or purchase contacts.

in "Genre Studies in Mass Media: A Handbook"

No post anterior escusamo-nos a debates "pós-estruturalistas semióticos" e terminámos com a nossa habitual crítica aos mass-media - u-know: o tipo de media unidirecional indiscriminado onde te cabe o papel de receptor passivo sem controlo no diálogo fora o on/off switch. Por hábito reforçamos e resumimos a nossa análise com muitos "bullshit"s a sair da TV a recordar igualmente a natureza do conteúdo dessa comunicação.

Enquanto o tópico se presta ao comentário, comentemos. O final do estado da arte em webcomics et punx está a caminho - promise!- , mas para compreenderem as conclusões deste não vos mata se compreenderem também o rationale por detrás.

Típico d'OS POSITIVOS acrescentar footnotes atrás de footnotes e complicar o que devia ser simples.

Citaremos do "Cultural Theory and Popular Culture" de John Storey: depois de nos impingirem em separado todos estes conceitos aplicados à comunicação e cultura durante anos em calhamaços sem nexo, descobrimo-los resumidos, condensados e relacionados sobre um mesmo volume este verão. U kids have it soo easy... Duas coisas: fuck y'all!, e by god!

Temos manual!

Citando, resumindo, retalhando: alguns conceitos base para início de conversa.

I

Structuralism:

• Popular culture as a sort of ideological machine which more or less effortlessly reproduces the prevailing structures of power;
• There is little space for reader activity or textual contradiction;

Esta leitura e este texto não são literais -ou literários :)- são o artefacto/objecto de trabalho. Pode ser um filme ou um jogo... Fácil?

II

Oposita sff a Post-Structuralism:

• The opening up of a critical space in which (...) questions can be addressed;

III

Falamos de ideologia. Porque falaremos de cultura popular dentro de momentos. Ideologia & cultura popular:

• Ideology is a crucial concept in the study of popular culture;
  
• Like culture, ideology has many competing meanings;
  
• An understanding of this concept is often complicated by the fact that in much cultural analysis the concept is used interchangeably with culture itself, and especially popular culture - culture and ideology do cover much the same conceptual landscape;
  
• The main difference between them is that ideology brings a political dimension to the shared terrain;

IV

Abordemos essa dimensão política. Ideologia per se:

1. Ideology can refer to a systematic body of ideas articulated by a particular group of people;
2. A second definition suggests a certain masking, distortion, or concealment. Ideology is used here to indicate how some texts and practices present distorted images of reality. They produce what is sometimes called ‘false consciousness’. Such distortions, it is argued, work in the interests of the powerful against the interests of the powerless (...) the subordinate classes do not see themselves as oppressed or exploited;
3. ‘Ideological forms’: the way in which texts (television fiction, pop songs, novels, feature films, etc.) always present a particular image of the world. This definition depends on a notion of society as conflictual rather than consensual, structured around inequality, exploitation and oppression. Texts are said to take sides, consciously or unconsciously, in this conflict. Another way of saying this would be simply to argue that all texts are ultimately political. That is, they offer competing ideological significations of the way the world is or should be;
4. Roland Barthes: ideology (or ‘myth’) operates mainly at the level of connotations, the secondary, often unconscious meanings that texts and practices carry, or can be made to carry - the attempt to make universal and legitimate what is in fact partial and particular; an attempt to pass off that which is cultural (i.e. humanly made) as something which is natural (i.e. just existing)
5. Louis Althusser: ideology not simply as a body of ideas, but as a material practice: ideology is encountered in the practices of everyday life and not simply in certain ideas about everyday life - the way in which certain rituals and customs have the effect of binding us to the social order - ideology works to reproduce the social conditions and social relations necessary for the economic conditions and economic relations of capitalism to continue;

V

We-good? Good. Damos agora um pequeno salto para fechar as bases. Cultura popular então, na pequena parte que nos importa por agora:

Antonio Gramsci, hegemony: the way in which dominant groups in society, through a process of ‘intellectual and moral leadership’, seek to win the consent of subordinate groups in society. Popular culture as a site of struggle between the ‘resistance’ of subordinate groups and the forces of ‘incorporation’ operating in the interests of dominant groups.

John Fiske’s ‘semiotic’ use of Gramsci’s concept of hegemony: popular culture is what people make from the products of the culture industries – mass culture is the repertoire, popular culture is what people actively make from it, actually do with the commodities and commodified practices they consume.

Bónus mas não relevante para hoje, ainda na cultura popular:

Postmodern culture is a culture that no longer recognizes the distinction between high and popular culture. For some this is a reason to celebrate an end to an elitism constructed on arbitrary distinctions of culture; for others it is a reason to despair at the final victory of commerce over culture

Hum, muito texto, muita teoria: já perdemos os miúdos. Próximo: exemplos para manter os teens sintonizados.

numbing our minds

teen channeling