Abstract Scholarly interest in culture and theories of culture has increased remarkably in the last few years due to the influence of new ideas from several disciplines (from sociology and anthropology to biology). This article takes up some of the recent contributions and tries to integrate them on the basis of a constructivist epistemology. It is proposed that culture be modelled in terms of a (developed) program which (member of) societies use to orientate communications about the basic dichotomies contained in their world models. The advantages of such an approach are examined by means of an analysis of some problems in various theories of culture. TV commercials are then discussed with regard to their role as indicators of cultural changes in mass-media societies. In conclusion it is proposed to transform literary studies from (purely) textual studies to media studies which analyze literary phenomena in the context of other media competing for the attention of mass audiences.