What and how the pop culture teaches us? The role of popular culture in the processes of socialization and learning meanings

Abstract

Argument. The thesis in this article is the assertion that the tools of communication
and semantic content of pop culture play a very important role in socialization processes:
by popular signs and symbols culture can teach the laws of social order and the
ways of functioning in it.
Discussed concepts. I am referring to John Fiske’s refl ections on how to understand
pop culture as a multidimensional plane of imaging and modeling of social life,
as well as a source of pleasure for the public. In this article I also mention R. Barthes
and Umberto Eco. They perceive and describe processes of cognition of reality by signs,
symbols and myths, showing them as dominant aspects in the creation of ideologies
and discourses in the consciousness of the audience.

Results and conclusions. The priority of my refl ections is to draw att ention to the
specifi c visual and linguistic tools of semiology and revisit their potential beyond the
interpretation and interpretation of the content layer. Refl ections on the basic relationships
of interpretation tools, signs and socialization, can show this methodological
concept in the new light. In the text, I show how the consideration of pop culture in
semiology can help to understand the processes of internalisation, fi xation, and reproduction
of symbolic patt erns. The result of my refl ections is to confi rm the relevance
and necessity of using the semiology language in a broader perspective of the sociological
considerations of socialization and social learning processes.
Originality / cognitive value of the approach. The cognitive value of my approach
is based primarily on the combination of the concept of socialization with semiology –
methodologically awkward, hermetic, based on interpretative processes and apparently
focused only on content. This article exposes and confi rms the role that pop culture
plays in the process of learning and building social identity. In addition, it proposes to
search for the socialization tools in popular culture and to use the semiology language
to describe the reality in social consciousness constructed by reception of pop culture
in the various stages of socialization.