Tkachenko N. Mass culture in Ukraine: trends and patterns of development

The thesis examines popular culture as one of the three (elite, mass, folk) beds, culture sections that formed in the second half of the twentieth century. Popular culture is an universal world culture that breaks down national boundaries, although there are certain national peculiarities of its functioning. In modern society, mass culture carries unique t specific social functions and it is therefore indispensable. The theoretical judgements are supported with empirical facts taking as an example the most common forms of mass culture's phenomenon which fully realize its functions: film, television and the Internet to more fully realize the function of popular culture. Special attention is paid to the separation of specific features (common and distinctive) in Ukrainian mass culture comparing with the foreign one and analysis of trends in Ukraine's mass culture.