Convergence: the bringing together of previously distinct industries, for example computing,
telecommunications and television; the merging of media (e.g. internet radio, streaming
video on your mobile phone) and the convergence of content such as music, digital images
and games on the iPod. ((Mackay, 2001, p. 8)
Capitalism: an economic system in which people are driven to produce goods and services
for a profit.
Marxism: a political-economic theory that presents a materialist conception of history, a
non-capitalist vision of capitalism and other types of society, and a non-religious view of
human liberation. At its core, Marxism holds a critical analysis of capitalism and a theory of
social change.
‘Culture Industries’: culture industries like Music, Television, Advertising and Publishing
create cultural products and in doing so disseminate culture. Some would argue that they
do this with ideological intent.
False consciousness: the Marxist thesis that material and institutional processes in
capitalist society are misleading to the proletariat and to other classes. These processes
betray the true relations of forces between those classes and prevent workers from seeing
their true or material interests.
Hegemony: process by which, rather than relying on physical force (for example the police
or the army), dominant groups exercise control by persuading the proletariat that the form of
social organisation and power distribution under capitalism is actually in everybody’s best
interests.
Patriarchy: a social system in which men dominate. Women are systematically
disadvantaged.
Semiotics: the study of signs in their contexts.
Cultural Implosion: the tendency for the old cultural hierarchies to break down, for
example, distinctions between high and popular culture in favour of a more dynamic cultural
‘fusion’.
Metanarratives: all encompassing theories that can be applied in any situation at any time.
Nostalgia: the term nostalgia describes a longing for the past, often in idealized form. It was described as a medical condition, a form of
melancholy, in the Early Modern period, and came to be an important topic in Romanticism.
The postmodernist Jameson claims nostalgia has replaced History in contemporary life.
Masterplot: the stories that recur in numerous forms, connecting to our deepest cultural
values as well as our hopes and fears: Cinderella, Romeo and Juliet, ‘things that go bump in
the night’, ‘rags to riches’ are all examples of masterplots.
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