The great grandpappy of cultural studies texts, this book focuses on the impact of mass production on working-class culture in the United Kingdom. Totally relevant today, right? What's still key, though, is the way it was researched: examining newspapers, magazines, advertising, movies, and pulp fiction, Hoggart argues that mass culture had robbed working-class communities of their individual identities.
Another ah-hah here is the way Hoggart also points out that this isn't a question of "high vs. low" culture or criticizing the "popular" —instead, it's about the values and culture of local communities being stamped on by mass culture.
Hoggart emphasizes that even though some critics see the working classes as being doped by "the authorities," some producers of mass literature are from working-class backgrounds. So the million-dollar question: why do folks from the working class produce material that seems hollow and superficial? Is it pure greed, or trying to entertain their buddies, or some deeper reason?
Though he criticizes the trash-tastic content of contemporary magazines, Hoggart doesn't just dismiss this or see it as brainwashing—he observes what he calls "a remnant of a healthier quality"—some sort of appeal to the reader's curiosity. Is that nod to curiosity meant to suggest a thirst for knowledge? How does that alter the conception of how the individual fits into mass culture?