Cultural studies
It is difficult to difine this term. But some poststructuralism like Raymond William who would love to define it as everyday life as really lived by one and all including common men. It is a wide area for study cultural studies it it's scope of study. As it aims to transcend all disciplines and breaks the difference between the high and law the elite and the popular culture it encompasses almost everything under its umbrella.
If we discussing about the cultural studies than we should definitely talk about the power and media.
Power
Definition of power
Power is the ability of its holder to make other individuals obedient on whatever basis in some social relationship
In foucualts theories power is granted through knowledge and therefore constructs truth
Now we will see that how power operate for that there are three laws of power :-
1) power is never static 2) power is like water :- power like a water that it's flow anywhere and spread in everywhere. It's seems that policy is power Frozen 3) power compound
We talk about power so in that context I would like to talk about the one French post modernist Foucault and his theory on the power and knowledge.
Foucault argued that intimately bound up so much so that that he coined the term power / knowledge to point out that one is not separate from the other ....In his most important works this included an analysis of texts images and buildings to map how forms of knowledge change according to Foucault that power is wielded by people or groups by way of episodic or sovereign acts of domination or coercion seeing it instead as disperses and pervasive Power is everywhere and comes from everywhere so in this sense is neither an agency not a structure. Foucault is one of the few writers on power who recognise that power is not just a negative carecive or repressive things that forces us to do things against our wishes but can also be a necessary productive and positive force in society. A key point about Foucault it's approach to power is that it transcends politics and sees power as an everyday socialised and embodied phenomenon. This is why State centric power struggle including revolutions do not always lead to change in the social order. For some Foucualts concepts of power is so elusive and removed from agency or structure that there seems to be little scope for practical action . But he has been hugely influential in pointing to the ways that horms can be so embedded as to be beyond our perception causing us to discipline ourselves without any wilful coercion from others.
Media
Why media studies is so important in our digital culture?
The media and cultural studies (MCs) program emphasize the study of media in thair historical economic, social and political context we examine the cultural from created and disseminated by media industries and the ways in which they resonate in everyday life on the individual national and global level. Focusing primarily on sound and screen media film popular music radio video games but reaching out across boundaries MCs encourage interdisciplinary and teansmedia research.
Noam Chomsky has to say about Mass media . He gives five filters
1)Media ownership :-
Mass media firms are big corporations often they are part of even bigger conglomerates. Their end game ? Profit and so it's in their interests to push for whatever guarantees that profit . Naturally critical journalism must take second place to the needs and interests of the corporation.
2) Advertising
The second filter exposes the real role of advertising media costs a lot more than consumers will ever pay so who fills the gap advertiser's
3) Media Elite
The establishment manages the media through the third filters. Journalism cannot be a check on power because the very system encourages complicity . Government's corporation big institutions know how to play the media game.
4) Flack
If you want to challenge power you 'll be pushed to the margin when the media journalist whistleblowers sources stray away from the consensus they get flack. This is the fourth filter when the story is inconvenient for the powers that be you'll see the flak machine in action discrediting sources trashing stories and diverting the conversation
5) The common Enemy
To manufacture consent you need an enemy a target that common Enemy is the fifth filters communism Terrorists Immigrants a common enemy a bogeyman fear helps corral public opinion.
Who can be considered as truly educated person?
Now we all very well aware about the education and it's impact a true education opens a door to human intellectual freedom and creative autonomy. It not important what we cover in the class it's important what you discover. A true education opens a door to human intellectual freedom and creative autonomy it's not important what we cover in the class it's important what you discover . To be truly educated means to be resourceful to able to formulate serious questions and questions standard doctrine if that's appropriate it means to find your own way truly people try to come out from their knowledge to other people if he develops his Knowledge and skills in such a way which ultimately results into his positive contribution in community life acquiring Knowledge and using it for the happiness and goodness of the society really makes a person educated. Education person is always be a regional and reasonable.
Conclusion :-
In conclusion power and culture are the foundation of the society. The cultural orientation of the people within a society or group determines thier definition of power and how they react towards those in authority power complement culture in the sense that it enforce cultural values and norms
Thank you
