CITATION AND COPYRIGHT INFORMATION:
Cite as: Foreman-Wernet, L. (2002). Transcending discourse stereotypes: Audience sense-making of elite and mass culture. Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University. Advisor, Brenda Dervin.
© Lois Foreman-Wernet (2002).
You may be able to order a full copy of this dissertation through the author, or through ProQuest Dissertation Express.

ADVISOR:
Brenda Dervin

ABSTRACT:
This study focuses on the disjuncture between the elite and mass culture discourses and the possibility of a methodology that will allow us to talk about both at the same time. In order to begin to consider the full continuum of mass to elite culture, however, it is necessary to address two very fundamental concerns. The first concern has to do with distinctions between elite and mass culture and their relative moral values. More specifically, this relates to the historical critique of mass culture, the over-simplified assumptions that mass culture is bad and elite culture is good; or alternatively that elite culture is bad and mass culture is good. The second issue is the fact that the discourses of elite and mass culture have highly polarized conceptualizations of the audience and of the roles of structure and agency. The question here is how to tap into and mediate both the perspective that individuals have the capacity to act freely as rational agents and the view that every action is in some way constrained by the structural elements of the society into which the individual is socialized or acculturated. This study employed the Sense-Making Methodology as a means of transcending the oppositions in the current literature. In keeping with the theoretical framework of the Sense-Making Methodology, analyses were guided by attention to general issues of structure, agency, and mediation. The informant pool consisted of more than 150 upperclassmen at a large public university who conducted self-interviews regarding their experiences with both elite and mass culture. The resulting 1700 interviews were then analyzed using a modified grounded theory approach. The study found that some of the literature of the elite and mass discourses matched up some of the time with the way respondents in this study made sense of their elite and mass culture experiences. However, overall, the highly polarized nature of the literature remains inadequate to account for the complexity and contradiction found in the data of this study. The findings revealed that an extraordinary play of forces; structure and agency as well as the hypothesized positive and negative values found in the elite and mass discourse literatures; were present together as individuals made sense of their cultural experiences.

OTHER MATERIALS BY THIS AUTHOR ON THIS WEB SITE:
See: http://communication.sbs.ohio-state.edu/sense-making/AAauthors/authorlistforemanwernet.html