In the last post I stated the differences between perceived high and low culture as a divide between consumers along the lines of familiarity with the media and their ability to appreciate the subtlety. However the axis is not one dimensional; its not as simple as media for the refined and media for the masses.
When I stated that it is high culture, the informed and refined media consumers that both create and consume the media they respect I purposefully neglected another element. different people, even different refined media consumers (ie high culture) have different values on what is culturally significant.
Lets go back to highschool and remember that there are distinct crowds. The preppy kids, the dorks, the counter-culture, and even further divisions by interest or hobby. The preppy kids are generally considered ‘popular’ because the media generated and valued in their group has a sort of minimal acceptance among all groups. In reality the preppy kids form a cultural hegemony and impose their culture on other groups. Now assume the preppy kids decide a particular song is ‘cool’ and play it at their parties, use it in their playlists, ect. The may have cultural significance in the values of the preppy kids and may permeate into other groups by the virtue that the preppy kids like it (it likely however will not, but it will be seen by many just not accepted). However something from the counter-culture may be particularly resonate with themselves and also the dorks and become ‘popular’. This is because it resonates with the values of two different cliques. The people who decide if a media is acceptable by in large gave approval. Now it could also be a fact that a traditional dork creates media that is accepted in the dork culture and preppy culture; and this has the possibility of changing the persons status from dork to preppy.
Simply, put there is a cultural hegemony that is universally recognized by all cultures (the preppy kids are recognized by the counter culture and dorks). Media from recognized cultures will get exposure to cultures that recognize their cultural authority. In the instance that the counter culture creates media that is valued by dorks and it becomes popular (by means of being valued by multiple groups) its going to have detractors among the cultural hegemony of preppy kids. It could also instead create a shift in the cultural groups, changing the values of groups who are exposed to the media to accept the media.
Well where do videogames fall in this? Are they Preppy or Counter Culture or Dorks? Well, truth be told they are not really in either of them. Video Games are not inherently valued (like dork culture or counter-culture), but pervade multiple subcultures. In a way they are currently a form of ‘disruptive culture’. Understanding games in this contexts helps to explain why games are treated the way they are. Games are ‘not taken seriously’ because of their status as disruptive to the normal cultural hegemony.
* note the description I give seems to pain that the ‘dork’ culture values the media of all other cultures and may imply that they are on the ‘lowest rung’ of this cultural structure. This is not true. Each culture has its own values and judges all media accordingly, however based on the values of another group (and how it views another group) the time it takes for a media to enter another cultural group may be prohibitively long. Also note the inclusion of only three cultural groups is for the sake of simplicity. In reality there are many more cultures and subcultures at play.
