 Before we just dive headfirst into the pool of cultural analysis in critical media studies, I want to take a step back and look at what do we mean by culture and ideology and lay that foundation for the elements that we're going to be using in cultural analysis. So let's do just that. Starting with culture. What is culture? Culture is the learned and shared set of symbols, language values, and norms used to distinguish one group of people from another. So two important distinctions here. First of all, culture is learned and shared. It's not genetic. It's not physiologically handed down genetically from one generation to the next or from one person to the next. It's something that we learn and we share. So and what do we learn and share? We learn and share these different symbols, language, values, and norms. Those are the elements that consist of or that make up culture. Culture consists of those four elements. The culture will have symbols, language, values, and norms that are associated with it and that are important in defining that culture. And again, that's what we use to separate one group of people from another. So that's what we mean by culture. Some of the unique characteristics of culture that we need to be aware of, first of all, culture is collective. It is something that is shared. As we mentioned, between a group of people, whether that's five people or it's five million people, that is less significant than that it is collective. People to buy into these things, in other words, a group of people to buy into and accept and associate with these symbols, language, values, and norms that make up this culture. So culture is collective. It is rhetorical. It is based in symbols, largely based in symbols, and that's an important element of that. So that makes it rhetorical that these symbols have meaning and that they are specific to that particular group and may be more or less meaningful or valuable to that group. But it's going to be rhetorical. It's all based on these symbols for that particular group. It is historical. Culture is bound to a specific kind of time and place in history. Culture will evolve and culture remains in culture, but it's not the same. The culture that you have in the 1980s, for example, the culture was very different than it is today. If we look at the symbols, language, values, and norms, we use different language, like gag me with the spoon and grody and things like that in the 80s that we don't use today. So there's different language that we use and there's different symbols, things that are important, ways that we dress. So culture is historical as well and that it's bound to that specific time and place in history. It's also ideological. So what does that mean? We're going to take a specific look at ideology next, but it's an important element of culture as well. So let's just dig into that. What is ideology? Ideology is a system of ideas that unconsciously shapes and constrains both our beliefs and our values. So this happens at a subconscious level. It happens below the level of consciousness that we develop these ideologies, and it's just a system of ideas that develops, that constrains our beliefs and our behaviors and structures those things. So what are then the structuring functions of ideology? What does it do for us in terms of structure? Again, this could be positive or negative, but it has the structuring functions. First of all, it has the structure of limitation. One of the structuring functions of ideology is that it limits our perceptions, our belief systems, our behaviors. So if we look at the example of marriage, marriage. And so what is marriage based on? Well, in the United States, we would say that marriage is grounded in love. That's what marriage consists of two people who fall in love and then they decide to make that official, so to speak, and really to use modern terminology, make it official and get married. And that's, you know, our Western understanding of love is limited by that perception, that ideology that marriage is, in fact, based on love, whereas in other societies, we see things like arranged marriages, people being placed in marriages. Maybe they've never met this other person. Maybe they've, but love really is a factor in this. And as Americans, we just think, what? That's nuts. The whole thing of marriage is love, right? Well, yeah, for our ideology and our culture, that's true. But that's not the only view of marriage and the only purpose of marriage. In fact, that's a fairly recent use of marriage or foundation for marriage. In fact, arranged marriages or marriages based on different things other than love have existed for a long, long time. And they make a lot of sense in many ways, depending on that culture and depending on the values that they have in that place in those things. So there's a lot to be said for, you know, the arranged marriages at times. But it's hard for us to understand because that ideology that we have of marriage is very limiting. It's limiting in regards to if the two people aren't in love, then they shouldn't be getting married, right? So we have that limiting ideology. That's an example, though, of how ideology limits our perception and our understanding of what's right and wrong and good and bad and what should be happening. I also see a sense of normalization. Ideology creates normalization for us, right? So for much of the world, for example, the norm is the metric unit of measurement. And in fact, it makes a lot of sense. Everything is based in 10s and the names are all based in 10s. And at the different, you know, so when you get different 10 of something or less of something, then it changes the name of it, right? So but we can look at that metric system. And it's just so bizarre to us, but for most of the world, that's what they use. That's what the norm is. But we use the standard measurement unit, which makes no sense, to be honest. This is the standard measurement in standard units of measurement. They don't make any sense. They don't they don't really correlate to anything. You know, there's, you know, how many, how long is a yard? Well, it's three feet. Well, how big is a foot? Well, a foot is 12 inches, 12 inches. What, you know, how, where does this come from? So 12 into one into, into three then. So a yard is, I got to first convert, okay, three feet. So 36 inches is one yard. What in the world? If we just had the metric system, we can just do this based on 10s and everything is based on 10s. It does somebody for me, somebody who's like a mildly OCD, that makes a lot more sense to, that's very satisfying to have everything in the even number. It's just a nice round 10 there, right? What we do is anything, tablespoons and cups and everything. Nothing, nothing makes sense. It's all just kind of, but it's what's normal for us. I'm going to try and switch to the metric system. Now would be really, really difficult. That's why it hasn't happened because this is what we're used to. This is what's normal here. So we see it as the, the right way. Our ideology is limited by base or based on what is normal for us. Uh, which side of the road should we be driving on? Well, obviously we should be driving on the right side of the road. I had a place to do it on the left, but that's not the norm here. And our ideology is based on the norm. So we'd look and find comfort in that norm, in that, in that, that range of the norm in the middle there, the nice juicy middle, uh, where most people live in that norm, that's how our ideology then is shaped and everything outside of that norm then is hard to imagine because it's outside of our personal ideology or cultural ideology. Another function of, of ideology is this sense of privileging ideology established as privileging and, uh, and is responsible for privileging. And then that just kind of pervades every aspect of our thinking and our approach to things. So, um, for example, privilege right now is we, as we've been discussing a lot in our culture, risk and has for a long time rested in, uh, white heterosexual males, right? That's the privilege. We, you know, if you're white heterosexual male, then you have, um, just kind of built in privileges that other people don't have. I mean, you have this, these advantages that, uh, that other people don't have just by virtue of those things, the heat really control, right? But, but they bring that, that privilege. So, I mean, white heterosexual men have an advantage in a lot of ways. We see that in our culture. Um, another way we see it is in, um, the, you know, the role of technology in our culture is becoming more and more pronounced. Uh, we know that technology is such an important part of our personal lives. It's an important part of our professional lives. And it just is, uh, people who can use and understand and, and are good with technology have this significant advantage. So if you were in a school that really emphasizes technology and you have that opportunity, which means you're in an area that can afford that in their schools and make that a priority in their schools. Um, then you have a significant advantage over students who are not going to have access to that kind of technology. So when they enter the workforce, when they come up against this technology, it's going to look very foreign to them and not be as comfortable to them. It's what we call the digital divide, right? The, the, the, you know, people who are access to this and become comfortable with it, have an advantage over people who do not. So there's this type of privileging that is happening as well. If you're, if you're in a situation, a privileged situation where you have access to this technology that, um, affects your, your ideology in the way that you use it and the opportunities that you have. Then we have interpolation. Interpolation is another structuring function of ideology. Um, we see this through interpretation and just the way that we view different things. So, uh, interpolation of, of the Bible, for example, and what it represents and the, the, the way that it's read and the way that we use, um, and frankly, in some ways, pick and choose aspects of the Bible to, to highlight and to use and to, to make our case for those things. We do the same thing, um, with the flag in the United States. We, we, you know, put different meanings into it, you know, and then the way that we identify and, and look at, uh, look at different, different types of leadership and leadership around the world, um, that we, that mean, um, assign, you know, value to these things. And I get, I'm not disagreeing with these, but you know, who's good, who's bad, what it just depends on your perspective, right? So we see these, these people as, as bad, our interpretation or interpolation of that says that too. At this point, you may be saying to yourself, Professor Rocky, obviously this is fascinating information and good for us to know. And it's really critical stuff, right? I mean, I get that, but what's the point? Where's all this going? Why is this significant to our examination of, of, uh, cultural media studies and cultural analysis that we're going to look at, uh, momentarily, um, well, this is a lot like an iceberg, right? We see what's at the top. We, it's beautiful. It's huge. We know it's dangerous. We know it's there, but it's, it's gorgeous. But we also know that 75 to 80% of that iceberg is down below. And that's the really huge part. Okay. And so we're just seeing the, the very part, the top part that's exposed above the water. The same is true for us and for others. Um, in terms of, you know, we have our observable behaviors and practices, the things that people hear us say and see us do. And that we, the way that we live our lives out loud and all that kind of stuff. Um, but the truth is most of what we are and what makes us tick and makes us who we are is beneath the surface. It's made up of our culture and ideology. And those are things that people can't see and don't necessarily won't know about us. Won't ever really be visible to them in a, in the traditional sense, they're going to see those observable behaviors and practices that stem from that culture and ideology, but most of the actual culture and ideologies beneath the surface. We need to understand that about ourselves, about other people and about the artifacts and things that we experience in the world as well. If you have questions about any of this, about culture and ideology or how it relates to, um, critical media studies, as we're going to take a look at cultural analysis, please feel free to email me. I'd love to hear from you there. In the meantime, I hope that this provides an adequate foundation for our discussion of cultural analysis as we use this information then to dive deeper into that critical framework and lens of critical media studies.