In Defense of Popular Taste

Film Ratings Among Professionals and Lay Audiences

Bibliographic Data

ID2207318
AuthorsJules J Wanderer (corresponding author)
Year1970
Volume76
Issue2
Pages262-272
Publication date1970-09-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueAmerican Journal of Sociology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0002-9602 • E-ISSN: 1537-5390
PublisherUniversity of Chicago Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1086/224932
OpenAlexW2078137492
LanguageEN
Citations received7
References cited2

Portions of the myths surrounding popular taste are based upon the conjectures and condemnations of professional critics of popular culture. Different pictures of the professional citic have been painted: some characterize the critic as a snob; others, along with Gans, are more likely to characterize the critic as a typocal upper-middle-class American belonging to the upper-middle taste public. This paper reports a secondary analysis of a direct measure of popular taste and contrasts in with professional evaluations of the same cultural product. The data are 5,644 motion pictures rated over a twenty-two-year period by members of a consumer organization and a group of professional movie reviewers. Rating of the two groups are compared, and the snobbism of critics is tested and refuted

Advertising · Aesthetics · Art · Business · Literature · Middle class · Mythology · Period (music) · Political science · Product (mathematics) · Sociology · Taste · Cultural Industries and Urban Development · Law · Mathematics · Psychology · Social and Cultural Dynamics · Social Psychology · Wine Industry and Tourism

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