Ideal culture refers to the practices, values or norms to be followed or achieved by society. This applies to the ideals which a community assumes to be acceptable or beneficial. We see what we want to see and instead of what the true interpretation of society can be like, we say what we want to say. For instance, we can only see what is positive when we say that crime and violence rates are decreased. A true or true picture tells us, however, that it is actually increasing because of the progress of society and the competitiveness and complexity that has resulted from it.

This should be differentiated from the true society that currently observes traditions and norms. It may also be the same, but the perfect society seems more ecstatic, optimist and clever, distinguished from the current community that is the actual social image. There is a wide difference between the ideal and true culture. While ideal culture involves an idealized and defined value system that governs perfect behavior, true culture means an adaptable value system that functions as a collection of preferred guidelines. For e.g., while perfect partnerships are assumed to be love-based relationships and to last forever, actual partnerships sometimes lead to divorce or family combat. Ideal values are absolute with few exceptions, and real cultures do contain exceptions to overcome the inconsistencies between ideals and pragmatic realities.

In this definition of marriage may also illustrate the distinction between ideal culture and real culture. While marriage is regarded as a favorable, divine and indissoluble occasion in the Hindu society. In theory, therefore, divorces are not allowed for the ideal Hindu society, and marriage links should always be maintained. But in reality (real culture) there are many instances in contemporary society where divorces occur in the country with marriage becoming a sacramental contract. A perfect society will never be accomplished by teaching what they never do.

Culture and Mass Media

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