The Civilian Consciousness Of Mass Culture

In recent years, the study of mass culture in china has obtained many achievements. People have begun to comprehend mass culture gradually. Now, we not only admit the trend that current culture develops variously, but also adopt new standards to value mass culture, and realize that mass culture has its own value and significance which are completely different from tradition. But there is no explicit conclusion of the new value and significance yet, which is a topic needed to be deepened in mass cultural studies. This thesis analyses the theoretical resources and mass cultural phenomenon in current China around this topic, and puts forward that civilian consciousness is the most essential property for the ideology of mass culture. So this thesis analyses the civilian consciousness of mass culture from various angles.This thesis discusses in three aspects.First of all, this thesis takes a total discussion of civilian consciousness. It analyses the previous theories, points out their obstruction or enlightenment to civilian consciousness of mass culture: The criticism to light literature suppressed its commercial property and mundane value in a certain extent, and made investigators can't recognize the civilian consciousness of mass culture correctly. The critical theory for mass culture which Frankfurt's school holds has its particular social and cultural background, and it doesn't adapt to the mass cultural studies in current China. In China, the main function of mass culture is not to propagate the ruling class's ideology, but to express the mundane demands of mass. British and American cultural materialism emphasizes that consumers can exercise their power in the activities of mass culture. This theory provides theoretical basis for our research to civilian consciousness of mass culture. But the connotation of civilian consciousness hi China is different from the mass rebellious reading which is advocated by western scholars. Since the 1990's, the civilian consciousness has become to spring up day by day in China. People have begun to pay attention to thematerial consumption and their daily life. Accordingly, mass culture takes civilian consciousness as its primary clue which decides its existence and direction. So, this thesis classifies mass culture to four types according to the characters of mass culture and different communities. Which are mass culture of citizen, mass culture of middleclass, teenage mass culture and mass culture of hobo. In different types, the civilian consciousness has different forms and degrees.Secondly, the thesis chooses three kinds of character of mass culture to educe the connotation and decisive action of civilian consciousness: Mass culture dispel spiritual enlightenment by daily life, and publicize the mundane humanism. It eliminates people's intensity and exhaustion by pure amusements and expresses people's real emotion in daily life. It acquires commercial profits only because its productions can provide all kinds of understandings to satisfy the mundane demands of mass.Thirdly, the thesis has a counter-thought of civilian consciousness. It analyses the middle-class mass culture, and shows that civilian consciousness of different mass culture has different forms and displays in different extent. So, this thesis analyses the different meanings of civilian consciousness and discusses the position and action (including negative influence) of civilian consciousness in the daily life of teenager, citizen and middleclass. Finally, this thesis values the positive significance, negative influence and direction of mass culture in current China by the analysis of civilian consciousness.