THE RELATIONSHIP OF TELEVISION, CULTURE AND SOCIETY: CULTURAL STUDIES ANALYSIS OF FOREIGN DISCOURSE

Abstract

The article notes the importance of television as a unique institution, an inseparable part of the sociocultural life of modern society, as a factor in a radical turn in its functioning, as a powerful tool for the transmission of cultural values and the formation of public opinion. It is emphasized that it is cultural studies that make a decisive contribution to thinking about how culture, society and everyday practice are inextricably linked and can be problematized through the means of communication – in particular, television. The concepts of representatives of different scientific schools and directions in the study of media, television, and its relationship with culture and society as a whole are considered. In particular, R. Williams, who defines television as a phenomenon interconnected by three important processes: technological, institutional and cultural, and offers two approaches to the study of television: from the point of view of its technologies; as a form of cultural expression. Attention is drawn to the belief of E. Antunes and P. B. Vaz that concepts based on technological aspects significantly limit the study of television as one of the types of new media; in fact, television plays an important role in the mediation of cultural and ideological values thanks to such genres., like news, movies, TV series, etc. It is found that Martin-Barbero views television as a way of interpreting the world, proposing the concept of mediation, focusing on temporal aspects and the multiplicity of cultural matrices. In turn, S. Goll emphasized the importance of the social and cultural context, proposing to consider the practice of reviewing television as a process of negotiation between the viewer and the text, as a type of discursive conflict. The need to pay special attention to the connection between television consumption and cultural capital, which is an important predictor of television consumption patterns, is indicated. It is noted that the changes taking place in viewer habits are dynamically related to technology and to the television industry itself; this is a transitional moment when the industry is trying to find ways and solutions to remain profitable and attractive to the viewer. The reconfiguration of the television industry has been stated, giving way to torrents and streaming on the Internet – in fact, television has configured itself as an important agent in which the cultural practices of modern society are intertwined. Audienceconstructed practices forced the television industry to rethink itself, providing evidence of shifting hegemonic and counter-hegemonic notions of what could be considered “television.”