In this entirely sophisticated and scholarly account of political
culture, Arthur Asa Berger shows how the variety of cultural
preferences creates the foundations of communication theory. Using
the work of Aaron Wildavsky, the author shows how individualism,
egalitarianism, collectivism, and fatalism form the basis of
culture in complex societies. But more importantly, Berger breaks
down the mechanical distinction between mass culture and elite
culture, showing how they interpenetrate and crossover at the level
of competitive and hierarchical frames. Agitpop, now in paperback,
suggests that there is an ideological content to our popular
culture, even though the creators no less than the consumers of
that culture are either unaware or dimly aware that they are
creating works with an ideological bent. The work takes up in quick
order two examples from different areas of the hierarchical,
individualist, egalitarian, and fatalist cultures. From football
games to the Iran-Contra Hearings, from MTV to the Human Potential
Movement, from Max Headroom to humor on the Jews, and from
wrestling to The Terminator, Berger takes up his master themes with
a deft touch of his own. Weaving in the work of scholars from Emile
Durkheim to Aaron Wildavsky he manages to make each of the chapters
very much his own. For those who know the earlier work of this
author, the reader will be very much at home; for those new to
Berger, the volume will be a joyous revelation. The final three
chapters reveal a deeper aspect of Berger's work. His
interpretation of the earlier materials in terms of the semiotics
of power, of textual analysis, or deconstruction of the media, and
finally, an analysis and self-analysis of the larger research
agenda of which this work is pivotal, should make this book central
to the theoretical construction of popular and political culture.
For people working in communications theory, political culture, and
the sociology of knowledge, this book is a must; for everyone else,
it is a joy.
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