Everything Bad is Good for You challenges the ‘assumption that mass culture follows a steadily declining path’ and argues that it ‘is getting more intellectually demanding, not less’. As evidence its author examines those genres that many hold to be the ‘most debased forms of mass diversion’. These include videogames and popular crime-based dramas, as well as so-called reality TV.

Johnson adopts a particular approach. Firstly, he tries to avoid judging new media, such as videogames, by the standards of the old, as this can only lead to declinist conclusions. Secondly, he applies a ‘systemic’, as opposed to a ‘symbolic’, mode of analysis. This means that he eschews questions of meaning and content, focusing instead on the ‘cognitive complexity’ of popular culture, as well as the wider determinates of this complexity.

In the terms of the argument as he frames it, Johnson submits some provocative evidence. He is no doubt right to argue that mature video games, such as the Zelda series, feature more challenging sequences than old standards such as PacMan. Equally, his comparison of Dragnet and The Sopranos clearly demonstrates that the latter has a significantly more elaborate and nuanced narrative.

Johnson suggests that there are good ‘systemic’ reasons for this. Most importantly, contemporary media texts have to withstand repeated usage. Developments in film and television serve to illustrate this point. Here secondary sales, via platforms such as DVD and cable, now account for the most significant proportion of revenues. Consequently, producers have to construct texts that are complex enough to be viewed repeatedly. At the same time, the internet plays a supporting role, with fan sites both decoding and promoting ever more Byzantine media-texts. The greater intricacy of pop culture, Johnson concludes, might even have a neurological cause and effect. Contemporary pop culture, he argues, better fits our innate cognitive wiring, which predisposes us to seek out complexity. And our exposure to the ‘cognitive workout’ it provides may even account for the rise in average IQ scores.

Everything Bad is Good for You is argued with brio and clarity. Its analysis of reality TV is particularly perceptive. According to Johnson this genre is most fruitfully compared with game shows and can be said to mobilise the pleasures of vicarious social strategising. That said, Johnson is open to the charge that his sampling technique is too ad hoc for his findings to be conclusive. Equally, his account of the neurology is as thin as the paper on which it’s printed. Most significantly, his basic approach is ultimately obtuse. It is possible to assess culture in terms of its information load, but this is hardly the point. Surely it’s quality, not the quantity, of culture that’s the issue.

Battle of Ideas
Shaping the future through debate
London, 29-30 October 2005