Mass media can reset whole societies’ expectations of a normal lifestyle nationwide.

Evidence

Face-to-face interactions tend to be the most important reference for individuals to establish these norms of spending. This explains why the neighbors of lottery winners also end up buying fancier cars. But the mass media can trigger this on a national scale by resetting expectations of what constitutes a “normal” lifestyle. In 1956 President Sukarno of Indonesia blasted Hollywood executives, complaining that the middle class in his country suffered a new dissatisfaction with their lives after they watched American films in which average households owned luxuries such as automobiles and electric appliances. — W. David Marx, Status and Culture, 161

Categorization

• XREF: Sukarno’s 1956 complaint about Hollywood raising Indonesian expectations connects to the media-effects literature on status competition and to the Hollywood global-distribution critiques in this book. — connects to: Fragmented modern life makes mass media the sole source of an imagined social whole. — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 916; Mass media transmit behavioral prescriptions rather than mirror real life — Theodor W. Adorno, The Culture Industry: Selected Essays…, 240; Mass commercial media were changing older working-class attitudes and values. — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 142 (+5 more)

Broader Connections

• Mass media now define the ordinary sense of being alive. #corroborates (0.88) — James W. Carey, Communication as Culture- Essays on…, 115
• Journalism practices both express and reshape a society’s social imaginaries. #corroborates (0.86) — Nadia Haq, ‘The National Media Just Sees Muslims…, 22
• Fragmented modern life makes mass media the sole source of an imagined social whole. #expands (0.82) — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 916
• Popular media shape values and identities amid deepening crises. #corroborates (0.80) — Andrew deWaard, Derivative Media, 27
• Mass media transmit behavioral prescriptions rather than mirror real life #expands (0.78) — Theodor W. Adorno, The Culture Industry, 240
• The rise of mass media and consumer leisure transformed American life at century’s turn. #exemplifies (0.75) — Robert D. Putnam, Bowling Alone The Collapse and Revival…, 1315
• Mass commercial media were changing older working-class attitudes and values. #exemplifies (0.74) — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 142
• Decline of the family’s countersocial role made individuals more directly socialized by mass culture #qualifies (0.72) — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination, 416