SOCIAL WORLD APPROACH TO CULTURAL STUDIES

Abstract

Cultural sociologists and those studying socialization share an interest in understanding the ways in which media are important within social life. Studies of mass media include those focusing on the production of culture, the content of cultural products, and individual interpretations of media images. However, a fourth domain in cultural studies, the social world, or the context in which media are experienced, has been disregarded. This ethnographic analysis of an adolescent microculture uses a unique method for studying media influence—a group of friends in their natural school setting spontaneously and collectively make gendered meanings based on media content. The influence of mass media on gender relations can be seen as the boys produce and reproduce meanings, based on stereotypical media messages, within their peer group. This occurs through appropriating scenes from cable television films that embody traditional male culture, identifying with the models of masculinity available through media content and imputing stereotypical notions of gender to the mass media. Integrating this important fourth realm of cultural studies—the social world of media—with an interpretive reproduction approach to socialization provides a fuller understanding of how mass media are influential within modern society.