Mass Culture as a Symbolic Environment of the Younger Generation Political Socialization

Abstract

Nowadays mass culture is becoming a significant tool for influencing the consciousness and behavior of the masses, especially young people. The commercialization of mass culture leads to a noticeable decrease in the quality of its content, as well as to the loss of any regulatory control in this area. This fact requires a serious study of what images and content of mass culture dominate in the minds of the Russian youth, how the mechanism of worldview creation and how the formation of their own social identity work. Within the framework of this article, the main approaches to determining the role of mass culture in the process of political socialization of youth in Russia are highlighted starting with studies emphasizing the purely targeted nature of the impact of cultural orientations on young people, to works stating the comprehensive nature of mass culture. It is concluded that modern approaches to the study of mass culture are largely focused on conceptualization and the search for universal explanations of the principles of its functioning (commercialization, contextuality, accessibility, the formation of conventions in the framework of communication, etc.). At the same time, the work records the main intergenerational differences in leisure activities and the choice of its specific forms, different for the generation of “fathers” and the generation of “children”. This fact also significantly affects the information and cultural consumption of representatives of different generations. At the same time, for young people, the consumption of certain cultural samples is mainly determined by the availability of relevant artifacts and social influence (fashion, environment, social contacts, etc.).

Keywords

• mass culture
• youth
• socialization of youth
• cultural artifacts