...Popular Culture Essay CUL502MMA Over the course of the semester I have learned a lot about popular culture and how it affects society. I believe there are both positive and negative affects to pop culture. Pop culture is diverse, it affect a variety of people from different race, sex and age. It can effect these people both positively and negatively, the positive effect on pop culture is that people are now becoming more accept of someone being different or unique. Such as the reality T.V star “Whitney Thore”. She’s the star of the show “my big fat fabulous life”. A show that celebrates diversity and being comfortable in your own skin by owning who you are, regardless of your size or shape. Whiney said this on one of her shows. “Whitney, you’re not fat, you’re beautiful.” And I’m like, that’s ridiculous, I’m almost 400 pounds, I’m definitely fat! But it just shows that people cannot reconcile that you can be attractive and fat, or smart and fat.” (Escobar)...
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...Evaluate the effects of globalisation on the role of the media in society over the past thirty years or so (33 marks) Over the last 30 years’ globalisation has influenced media in many different ways, however these effects can have advantages and disadvantages. One of the effects globalisation has that is visible is that communication has become wide spread. Over the last few years, magazines, newspapers, the internet and television have spread news worldwide and helped people come together. Globalisation is the growing interdependence of the world with the spread of culture, goods and economics globally. One of the effects of globalisation is that the there are less national media outlets, as the majority are now international due to globalisation increasing over the last thirty years, the media conglomerates are now dominating as the media is dominated by only a small number of corporations, meaning the content available globally is not varied as society thinks. From globalisation media outlets have become international, and this has an effect on the role of the media, which is that it is promoting only one culture as a viable choice, the American culture, as many things that are globalised and known worldwide as from the states, for example Apple, McDonald’s and Disney are a few to name. Most of the corporations are American based, which is the reason likely why it is the American culture being the only choice as more power is set in that one country. This is restricting...
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...Culture and Identity Outline, what the term ‘Culture’ may be taken to mean and then explain the ways in which it is transmitted by the wider society and the effects that this may have for individual members of the society . Introduction: Society and Culture are interlinked, thus sociology defines society as two or more people who interact in such a manner as to share a common culture. Therefore culture is seen as a vital factor of sociology. Culture can be defined as common beliefs, behavior, objectives or characteristics formed within a group of people or society. People tend to define themselves with to a particular culture. In other words culture is a common set norms formed within a group of the society or a society to which people identify themselves to. This essay aims to explain in which ways culture is transmitted within the society and the effects this may have on individual members of a society. The essay will look at concepts of culture in terms of mass and folk culture. Furthermore it will take into consideration age, gender, social class and ethnicity, which will help to understand the interrelationship between self, identity and socialization. To understand culture in modern world better, the essay will aim to analyze the link between cultural consumption and identity in the modern society. Main body: According to Linton (1945) culture of a society is the way of life of its members; a collection of ideas and thoughts, which they learn and practiced...
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...Introduction Before going to any further about Dramas effect on our society, first of all we have to know about what drama is? Then we can easily make further research on this topic. Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance.“Drama is watching one person changed by another. If two people exchange views, but neither is changed by the interaction, you have literature. If two people have an enormous physical fight but their relationship remains unchanged, you have spectacle. But if one is altered by the other, then you have drama.” Johnston (1979). In every drama, there’s always a thing called elements of drama. The elements of drama is like an analysis of it, it tells us how the play goes on and how it will end. The elements of drama consist of four main parts and they are Plot, Character, Setting and Theme. Drama doesn’t mean vulgarity, it is a source to promote any society culture. A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots. Culture, then, is a study of perfection, and perfection which insists on becoming something rather than in having something, in an inward condition of the mind and spirit, not in an outward set of circumstances. 1.1: Culture Culture is a word for people’s way of life, meaning ...
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...Guide College of Humanities SOC/105 Version 5 Introduction to Popular American Culture | |Copyright © 2011, 2010, 2006, 2004, 2003, 2002, 2000, 1999 by University of Phoenix. All rights reserved. Course Description This is an introductory course on modern American culture. The course focuses on the interactions between social forces such as advertising, media, and lifestyle and cultural trends in modern American society. Students are asked to cast a critical eye on current trends and changes in our culture. Policies Faculty and students/learners will be held responsible for understanding and adhering to all policies contained within the following two documents: • University policies: You must be logged into the student website to view this document. • Instructor policies: This document is posted in the Course Materials forum. University policies are subject to change. Be sure to read the policies at the beginning of each class. Policies may be slightly different depending on the modality in which you attend class. If you have recently changed modalities, read the policies governing your current class modality. Course Materials Petracca, M., & Sorapure, M. (2007). Common culture: Reading and writing about American popular culture (5th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall. All electronic materials are available on the student website. |Week One: Overview of Culture ...
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...in the world. With entertainment playing such a large role in the lives of many, it is going to affect the American culture and our values. These affects have a greater impact on the younger generations. Entertainment media has influenced American culture in many ways. The effects that media has on our culture can be both positive and negative. Entertainment media has grown greatly over the years. Entertainment has grown from just being books and magazines to television and the internet. These changes have helped form our generations. Television is one of the most popular forms of entertainment media. Television exposes us to many different types of entertainment media including sports, news, television programing, and advertisements. These types of media can have both positive and negative influences on American culture. Sports games can have a positive impact on society because they encourage younger generations to exercise and to play sports. Negative influences on television include programing that sex, drugs, and violence. Musical Entertainment also plays a role in entertainment media. From rap to hip hop, country to rock, music influences society. Many people relate to the lyrics of the song. Songs of love, heartbreak, or expressing other feeling, music relates to people’s emotions. This can have both positive and negative effects on American culture. Certain genres of music including rap and hip hop have a more negative affect because they use inappropriate language...
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...on how culture has evolved in the UK society. Marxist theory was based on the writings of Karl Marx in 1818-1889. Marxists believe that we are socialized into a traditional gender, working role. This benefits the Bourgeoisie, ruling class who seek to own the means of production and impose a state of false class consciousness on the working class through ruling ideology. They believe certain cultures have negative impacts on society. Marxists believe one type of culture that has a negative impact on society is mass culture. Mass culture creates an unthinking, uncritical working class. This is shown in item A as it says "dumbing down", this suggests a lower quality of products is made as they are massed produced as they look inferior because they will have little value and are short lived compared to high culture products. This makes the working class feel content within their social positions so a lower quality of culture is created. The lower quality offers easy pleasure from its simplified types, therefore it stops people appreciating more complex forms of culture. This is shown in today's society as we have a capitalist system who creates false needs for the working class population where they produce vast profits through advertising and consumerism. However, this can be criticized as it could be what the 'masses' want to watch, dumbed down products that are appealing towards the lower class. Another culture that some Marxists believe that was similar to mass culture is popular...
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...Raymond Williams argues that ‘Culture is one of the two or three most complicated words in the English language’ (1983: 87). With reference to at least one of the key readings other than the extracts from Williams that you’ve studied in weeks 1-5, discuss (1) why Williams argues this and (2) some of the different ways in which culture has been defined. Culture is one of the most difficult words to define as there are so many modern and traditional meanings that come across as being the ‘true’ definition. Williams said that it is because ‘it is now used in important concepts in intellectual disciplines and systems of thought’, however a more modern way of putting this is that it is part of spiritual development and a way of life. Arnold describes culture as a ‘study of perfection’, which, if you look at the dictionary definition of culture, applies to it; ‘Noun: The arts and other manifestations of human intellectual achievement regarded collectively’, referring to high culture. High culture, as Leavis put it is ‘the use of such language’, meaning the appreciation of finer living. Finer living means people who visit the theatre, art galleries, drink fine wines; are socially higher than the majority of society who most of the time cannot afford to live like that, they would swap the theatre for a cinema, the art gallery for ‘Madame Tussards’ and the wine bar for a nightclub. Such definition of the word culture makes it seem like a class division; something that Shakespeare picked...
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...Trends in American Popular Culture First name, Last Name SOC 105 October 7, 2010 Instructor Trends in American Popular Culture American Popular Culture (Pop Culture) changes from generation to generation. Some of these changes become well-established trends within society and continue into future generations, while other Pop Culture, fads, seem to fade away. Changes within Pop Culture can have both positive and negative effects on society; but without these changes, America would be a bland, monochromatic society. Among the Pop Culture trends that we’ve seen over the years, technology has been a major trend that has gone through many changes over time. One facet of technology that has gone through changes is communication. Communication has evolved in different ways over thousands of years, but we will concentrate on the last hundred years or so. Some of the early forms of communication were by ship, train, and telegraph, and later, the telephone. Alexander Graham Bell’s invention of the telephone in 1876 laid the groundwork for people to talk at large distances (Constable, G. and Somerville, B, 2010). The first mobile radio was installed in police cars for the Detroit, Michigan police department in 1921. The first car phone was developed by 1956, although the equipment was big and bulky and a personal radio operator was required to switch the calls (Keith, 2004). Over time, telephones have allowed people to communicate with their neighbor across...
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...Firstly we have to identify what popular culture means in order to understand the concept of what John Fiske is talking about in his quote. ‘Culture’ is a social circulation meaning of norms and values that help contribute towards our social identities. There are a wide range of things we can consider to be culture, in fact there isn’t a lot of things in our daily lives that isn’t considered culture from reading books, playing football or even having a dinner with your family. However, ‘popular’ is a more ambiguous definition in comparison to ‘culture’. The average person may consider popular to mean what appeals to most people for example football is considered to be popular amongst males which makes it appealing. On the other hand, John Fiske states that ‘the popular’ serves ‘the interest of the people’. Looking at John Fisk’s book of ‘Understanding Popular Culture’ he also states that popular culture is the ‘art of making do’ (Fiske, 1990, p.28). What he means is that there has to be an ‘interest’ to people in order for commodities exist. Hence the reason why culture is a issue, this is because we all consume in different ways. The method of consumption relies on how we interpret products and its meaning to us, Fiske states in his book “The people make popular culture at the interface between everyday life and the consumption of the products of the cultural industries” Fiske argues that in order for commodities to exist they have to be relevant in our everyday lives. Finally...
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...presence. Social media paved the way for the evolution of social relations and of people’s interaction. Nowadays, people seem to do everything online: making friends, watch movies, and even transact businesses (admin, 2011). As part of your social media branding, the importance of social media in today’s society is nothing to be overlooked at and it should never be, it was not existed a short few years ago but yet we could not see ourselves without it. Today’s social media is much more than just a website that young teenagers and our children use to talk to their friends. Everybody from big business to independent business owners is using some form of social media marketing plan in their day to day lives. Social media is being used all over the world by many people, different age range but mostly by teenagers and young adults. Social media is being used mostly for businesses, social networking, researching, entertainment and news. The importance of social media has really made the world a smaller place; we can now do business with people from all over the world so much easier and quicker than before (Lodge, 2012). If social media was to be removed, the effects on society would obviously be negative but in a way somewhat positive. Social media being part of our daily lives and being a necessity nowadays for most people such as businesses will have complications if social media would be removed. With the development of computers in the 1950s, it was a point to point communication...
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...3750 Essay 1 Theorists such as Adorno, Williams and Dienst have multiple views on the effect, development, and influence that Television has upon our society. Its original purpose and vision has been altered towards us, as society has and is still forever developing. Television did just not begin; it was and still is a process of evolution (Dienst, 3-12 A). To many, television is just a form of entertainment, to the normal eye that is. Dienst describes television as more than that, he shows us that numerous factors are responsible for what television and communication really was, is and still may become. Using Economic, Social factors and course material, this essay will prove why these factors are important towards the development of what is now television. If we compare and contrast the definitions of what television was upon its creation compared to what television is now, we will have two completely different answers. Television in the early stages was simply the transferring and receiving of moving images through telecommunications (Dienst, 3-12 A), now television has evolved in a multiplatform medium. The word “evolve” is being used heavily, for the reason that television equipped with technology is forever changing. In (Dienst, 3-12 A) Williams says TV is hard to describe because “ it never is, its always becoming”. Which has lead to its growth in our society at such a rapid pace. Television is responsible for numerous factors in the world, if not...
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...Popular American Culture 2 According to MSN Encarta: American Culture can be defined as the customs, behavior, and way of life in the United States, which can be expressed through clothing, food, recreation and through the arts among other things. Americas Culture has a unique mixture of different backgrounds such as, European, African, Asian –which is influenced through the arts, music, dress, entertainment and food. The Pop Cultures that are most prevalent in my life are internet and music: Internet browsing: The internet has become more of a way of life, it’s a means of communication there is the email, myspace, facebook, we don’t take the time to write a letter which used to be more personal for now we are living in such a fast paced society. It also helps to past the time/entertainment, shopping, bill paying etc., almost, everything nowadays can be done on the internet. I also use the internet at work to check for guest reservations online. You can even order your prescriptions online and have them delivered in the mail or for in-store pick-up. Gone are the days when friends used to hang out face-to-face, now we are IM’ing or chatting on line in chat rooms, or leaving messages on our online pages. The internet can also be used to do research, no more long days or nights at the library, it is also used for job hunting. You can also look for friends you haven’t seen or heard from in a while...
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...Hip Hop Music Papi Jean Florida Memorial University Introduction The Growth of Hip Hop in America As hip hop continues to grow into a major aspect of the modern African American culture, the studies intend to distinguish the mass outlook of black people in America. It is incredible that this single genre of music has transformed into a vital communication mechanism for an entire race and may even become larger in future generations of African American people. The other races, in America, have gotten an idea of African Americans through the controversial rap music in which black people use to communicate with each other, and outsiders; the non-blacks. The study revolves mainly around the attitudes which have deemed as common in the black culture; rap music has always been open for interpretation which can lead to danger. The music has become so popular and influential to the youth that many crimes have been linked to the music which fuels an efficient form controversy in America. Do people receive the negative aspects of rap more than the positive aspects? If so, then why? Also, why are the positive approaches of hip hop not made commercial rather than the sex, drugs, and violence? There is belief that the music has a great influence on how the other races in America view the black culture. It is not certain whether rap music is more negative than positive, but it is obviously a notorious topic for many reasons, no matter the race. The studies propose that the behavior of...
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...programme? Firstly what is cultural studies? Cultural studies is devoted to understanding how a society creates and shares meaning. So, cultural studies searches to understand how meaning is brought about, constructed and dispersed throughout all social structures, practices, beliefs within each certain culture. It is important to remember that cultural studies is a holistic analysis, taking the social whole into consideration, including and combining every known theory from political theory, feminist theory, social theory, media theory and so on. ‘This approach analyses culture in order to understand the lives, experiences, consciousness, values and struggles of particular groups in society’[i] There are a number of important concepts when it comes to cultural studies. Society creates meaning for everything that exists. All of these meanings are constructed; therefore they are only perceptions of reality. our understanding of meaning and view of the world has been created by the society in which we are surrounded in, brought up in and bred in. who plays the major role in all of this, who makes meaning out of what we see and learn? Is it the man on the side of the road who believes god is real, because he came from a religious background? Or is it the politician that we all elected and trust will tell us what’s right and wrong, and what really means what. Culture then goes on to create social roles for each individual. Our identity becomes shaped by our culture’s...
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