Page 93 - Communication Cultural and Media Studies The Key Concepts

DUMBING DOWN

cars in the 1920s, were both followed by horrific stock market
collapses in the US, but neither railways nor automobiles went away.
Similarly, the technological innovations developed during the rapid
expansion of the Internet will lead to a sustainable industry in the long
term, despite the crash.

DUMBING DOWN

A term used by cultural elites as an intellectual ‘KEEP OUT’ sign. It is
used when a concept, event or issue has been made available to a wider
audience by being presented differently or more simply. The film
Forrest Gump was a particularly popular target for the dumbing-
downers who saw the film as a populist, mainstream rendition of
American history.
Critics and intellectuals have a way of making their position
legitimate by using exclusive language. By declaring that using
mainstream culture to convey complex ideas is dumbing down, some
seek to maintain the division between the intellectuals and everybody
else. It is a refusal to acknowledge that learning, the production and
communication of important ideas, and creative expression can occur
in popular texts.
If Forrest Gump – a white, simple-minded, male – can walk through
events such as the civil rights movement of the 1960s or the Vietnam
War and remain unscathed, innocent and unreflective, then criticism
of the film’s rendition of American history is warranted. However,
accusations of dumbing down do little to make this point clear.
Rather, it implies that American history is better restricted to the
audiences of history books and documentaries.

E-COMMERCE

Since the 1980s at least, businesses in most industries have been
utilising some form of electronic technology in their commercial
transactions. Widespread activities such as electronic funds transfer,
automated banking facilities, tele-shopping and credit card transac-
tions, can be included in the larger field of e-commerce, totalling
trillions of dollars worth of financial activity. Economists often
acknowledge the breadth of the e-commerce realm, yet focus on the
area of e-commerce concerned with value-generating activity that

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