Mass culture and culture industry

In the first few weeks of class, we discussed the definitions of popular culture, mass culture, culture industry, and product placement. Because it is still early in the semester, I think it would be a good opportunity to make my own attempt at defining some of these terms.

Popular culture to me is a phenomenon where something or someone becomes widely accepted, often heavily influenced by the media. I believe that people choose to be part of it not only because it might appeal to them, but because they want to fit in and feel like they are a part of something.

This brings us to the definition of mass culture. Mass culture is similar to popular culture, except that the term "mass" was used to refer to commoners or the lower class. Such low-brow entertainment was looked down upon by the elite.

We also discussed two definitions that closely link video games and pop culture: culture industry and product placement. The culture industry refers to businesses who use the widely accepted appeal of something to produce and sell a product.
Product placement usually occurs in a form of media that is usually or supposed to be void of ads. For example, product placement often occurs in movies, such as for shoes in the Sex and the City movie.

Soon, I'll edit this post to include some examples of product placement