Legal Perspective of "Semiotic Democracy"

"Cultural populists," . . . generally view popular culture as contested terrain in which individuals and groups (racial, ethnic, gender, class, etc.) struggle, albeit on unequal terms, to make and establish their own meanings and identities. As the populists see things, the consumers of cultural commodities (movies, songs, fashions, television programs, etc.) neither uniformly receive nor uncritically accept the "preferred meanings" that are generated and circulated by the culture industry. To varying degrees, depending on their social location and sophistication, consumers "resist" or even subvert these meanings. They "recode" cultural and even industrial commodities in ways that better serve their particular needs and interests, and "rework" them to express meanings different from the ones intended or preferred by their producers.

Notes:

Also a way of saying "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder," in that entertainers have no control over how the viewer reinterprets their work.

Folksonomies: art perception humanities interpretation

Taxonomies:
/law, govt and politics/politics (0.218705)
/business and industrial (0.211024)
/art and entertainment/visual art and design/design (0.210767)

Keywords:
Cultural populists (0.986820 (negative:-0.218658)), meanings (0.962494 (negative:-0.052919)), Semiotic Democracy (0.953760 (neutral:0.000000)), unequal terms (0.899333 (negative:-0.555497)), Legal Perspective (0.896413 (neutral:0.000000)), industrial commodities (0.846794 (neutral:0.000000)), cultural commodities (0.836491 (neutral:0.000000)), popular culture (0.826626 (neutral:0.000000)), television programs (0.822837 (neutral:0.000000)), particular needs (0.808103 (neutral:0.000000)), social location (0.804651 (neutral:0.000000)), culture industry (0.796098 (neutral:0.000000)), consumers (0.584072 (neutral:0.000000)), beholder (0.543629 (positive:0.466608)), recode (0.537935 (neutral:0.000000)), sophistication (0.524348 (neutral:0.000000)), rework (0.518144 (neutral:0.000000)), entertainers (0.513236 (neutral:0.000000)), identities (0.502271 (neutral:0.000000)), fashions (0.496715 (positive:0.281515)), struggle (0.493995 (negative:-0.475441)), terrain (0.492275 (neutral:0.000000)), way (0.488692 (neutral:0.000000)), Beauty (0.488464 (positive:0.466608)), eye (0.488235 (positive:0.466608)), control (0.487606 (neutral:0.000000)), viewer (0.487377 (neutral:0.000000)), work (0.487206 (neutral:0.000000)), gender (0.486965 (negative:-0.385137)), individuals (0.480177 (neutral:0.000000))

Private Ownership of Public Image: Popular Culture and Publicity Rights

Periodicals>Journal Article: Madow, Michael (1993), Private Ownership of Public Image: Popular Culture and Publicity Rights, California Law Review, Volume 81, p. 125 (1993), Retrieved on 2013-08-01

Source Material [www.law.harvard.edu]

Folksonomies: law intellectual property