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270 Conclusion: what is produced?

in the context of postmodernity, and Gergen’s concerns about a cultural
context that seems overwhelming and out of control. From what we’ve
seen here, it may be that Gergen is overly pessimistic. The range of sources
of cultural meaning experienced by these interviewees is, indeed, wide,
even in the less advantaged households. The proliferation of television
channels, the increasing ubiquity of the Web and Internet, and a range of
other changes in the media marketplace have put the media at the center of
this cacophony. At the same time, though, there is a certain logic and orga-
nization to what these “selves” are up to. And, the mediated “common
culture” is an important element of this. Certainly, there is a lot that these
people have to confront, contend with, and sift through. But they do make
choices and do find ways of describing themselves to themselves and to us
that make sense in their contexts, and a good deal of this is oriented
toward what the broader culture looks at and values. At the same time, for
many of these households ideas and resources out of the domain that has
interested us the most – religion and spirituality – also provide markers
and grounding. Whether this is adequate to stabilize the situation Gergen
laments is beyond the scope of this study.
We can look at this situation from a different perspective by returning
to one of our theoretical sources, pragmatism/Interactionism. I proposed
that an Interactionist approach would conceive of these “narratives of
self” as negotiations intended to make sense in certain contexts, but also
to make sense in relation to broader claims, values, idioms, and meanings
in the culture. Almost by definition, such accounts orient themselves to
things that are common to the cultural context where they reside. A
good deal of the material related to media in our narratives here is under-
standably in the category we’ve been calling “accounts of media” – that
is, claims and conceptions about the role and positioning of the media and
of media practice in the wider context of social and cultural values. At the
same time, though, our interviewees clearly contend with important
ideas that come to them through the media. The passage from Doreen
Richards at the end of Chapter 9 is an example. In spite of what might
have been a settled sense of social values concerning homosexuality, she
connects with a salient program that has helped her (along with direct
personal experience, of course) to begin to rethink some of these basic
values.
Doreen’s account could perhaps be read as an example of how the
media in late modernity are serving to undermine fundamental social and
cultural structures and values. At the same time, it seems more clearly to
be an example of the evolution of values about an important social issue,
expressed in the central location of the media, articulating with Doreen’s
own social experience and thus serving as a kind of grounding for her
evolving beliefs. This is an example of how the “common” might be built
out of the seeming “cacophony” of the culture. Doreen’s interaction with