This dissertation examines how the construction of the concept of culture occurs in scientific
articles in the área of Communication Sciences published between 2017 and 2021, in
Brazilian journals. Having as specific objectives: (1) investigate which analytical categories
are mobilized with culture and how they are articulated; (2) identify if culture has been
constituted as a category of analysis and (3) point out the variability of the definition of the
concept of culture and its correlation with different theoretical strands. To this end, a
Systematic Literature Review was carried out and Content Analysis was used as a
complementary methodology in a quanti-qualitative approach. We also used the natural
language processing software KH Coder, which was used both to help visualize and create
graphical representations of the data generated by manual coding, and to generate data by
crossing variables and text mining. Thus, after analyzing the full text of 148 scientific articles
published in 30 journals, it was found that the most frequently used concepts in conjunction
with culture are identity and consumption, which, mobilized as analytical categories, are part
of a broader semantic Field on cultural issues elaborated by the human and social sciences.
Thus, the sample explained that it is not possible to talk about consumer culture without
understanding the current process of mediatization, its impact on there presentations that form
the imaginary, and how these aspects operate in the process of identity elaboration of certain
groups, taking into account concepts such as mediation, hegemony, and ideology. Regarding
the status of category of analysis attributed or not to culture, the data showed that only 25% of
articles (n=37) presented explicit elaborations for the concept, in its analytical articulation.
On the other hand, the use of culture to compose derived concepts is recurrent throughout the
sample, especially in articles that do not present na explicit conceptual description for the
term. In these, culture appears as a prefix for a certain type of practice or specific socio-
historical context. On the other hand, we noticed a limited variation among the definitions of
the concept presented in the sample, even when they trigger different theoretical currents,
they mostly focus on the ideas of integral way of life and sign/symbolic systems, considering
its dynamics and, sometimes, the conflicts and disputes within the process of social
hierarchization. It stands out, the broad reference made to the works of Raymond Williams, as
well as to other authors characteristic of cultural studies, such references have consolidated
cultural studies as hegemonic current for the conceptualization of culture in articles of
communication sciences today.
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