Key terms & definitions

The shared values, beliefs, traditions and references surrounding a media product.

The ways of living, beliefs, values and popular culture reflected in a film.

The view that some people lack the attitudes, values or cultural resources needed to succeed in education.

The destruction of a community’s traditions, art, language, memories and ways of life.

The presence of a range of languages, religions, traditions and ways of life within a population.

Differences between families in beliefs and values, including expectations about gender roles, child-rearing and obligations to relatives.

The sharing and spread of ideas, customs and cultural products between people from different places.

An explanation of social outcomes that focuses on people’s learned values, attitudes and behaviour.

A consideration arising from a community’s beliefs, traditions, values or meanings attached to materials and products.

The language, customs and memories inherited from earlier generations.

The process by which cultures become more similar, for example through the spread of the same brands, media and lifestyles.

The process through which distinctive cultures become more alike, potentially developing into a common standard culture.

A sense of who someone is in relation to cultural traditions, languages, places and communities.

A sense of belonging connected to shared customs and ways of life, including language, food, music and celebrations.

A person’s sense of belonging shaped by shared language, customs, beliefs, values and community experiences. A person can belong to more than one culture.

An effect on shared practices and forms of expression, such as fashion, design, language or religion.

The process by which one country's media dominate consumption elsewhere and influence other societies' values and beliefs.

The effect that a society’s ideas, language, lifestyles and creative products have on people within or beyond that society.

An issue involving how technology affects society’s ways of life, values, traditions and beliefs.

The presence of different cultural traditions within a population, expressed through features such as food, music, festivals and religious practices.

Behaviour that rejects officially approved cultural expectations, such as Nazi rules about music, dress or youth activities, without necessarily seeking to overthrow the government.

Defiance expressed through activities such as music, dancing or lifestyle rather than an organised attempt to overthrow a government.

The ways that identities, traditions and activities, such as languages, festivals, food and entertainment, vary between groups and places.

The political campaign launched by Mao in 1966 to attack alleged opponents and reshape Chinese society around revolutionary communist ideas.

Shared ideas about what is important, desirable or worthwhile within a culture.

A difference in how behaviour is defined or judged between societies or cultural groups.

The expression of a society’s beliefs, experiences and customs through activities such as art, literature, music and entertainment.

The ideas, customs and activities associated with a society, including its music, films and sport.

A population of microorganisms grown under controlled conditions, such as bacteria growing on agar jelly.

A population of microorganisms grown in a nutrient medium.