Does popular culture change society’s values, or does popular culture reflect the values already present in society? What role does popular culture play in defining what is normal, what is cool, or what is unacceptable? How do we maintain a moral compass in collaboration with cultural expression? These questions throw some issues into stark relief and act as aftereffects of climactic events.
The Learning Resources this week focus on the ways in which popular culture in the United States responded to the events of September 2011. Similar comparisons could be made to the popular culture response in Britain after the London July 2005 bombings and in Madrid, Spain, after the 2004 train bombings. Events that provoke a public emotional reaction also shift popular culture expressions. Sometimes this includes self-censorship, support for patriotism, or a dominant ideology. Consider these ideas as you prepare your Final Project as this week’s Assignment.
Photo Credit: [MacXever]/[iStock / Getty Images Plus]/Getty Images
With Amusement for All: A History of American Popular Culture Since 1830, by Ashby, L. Copyright 2012 by University of Kentucky Press. Reprinted by permission of University of Kentucky Press via the Copyright Clearance Center.
The following websites may be helpful throughout this course by demonstrating ways of analyzing pop culture texts as artifacts.
Cultural Politics. (n.d.). Popular culture. Retrieved from
http://culturalpolitics.net/popular_culture
Pop Matters. (2015). Retrieved from
http://www.popmatters.com
USC Annenberg. (2014). Media, diversity, & social change initiative. Retrieved from
http://annenberg.usc.edu/pages/DrStacyLSmithMDSCI#…
TED2010. (2010, April 13). Jonathan Klein: Photos that changed the world [Video file]. Retrieved from
http://www.ted.com/talks/jonathan_klein_photos_tha…
Note: The approximate length of this media piece is 6 minutes.
This video presents some of the photographs that have changed the way society reacts to events.
The work you have done in Weeks 1, 2, 3, and 4 has been building blocks for your Final Project.
In Week 1, you selected one of the following social issues:
Once you selected your issue, you researched how this issue is approached in the field of popular culture.
In Week 2, you selected two popular culture artifacts from the following categories and researched the history of your artifact categories as expressed in popular culture:
In Week 3, you investigated access and distribution of your popular culture artifacts.
In Week 4, you selected an additional artifact and looked at how this new artifact defines or disrupts “normal” in relationship to your issue today.
This week you reflect on your work and construct a completed Final Project. In addition to revising your previous work into a cohesive paper, you will add one additional component.
Select a second issue that is related to at least one of your chosen artifacts and discuss how it conveys information about this second issue, synthesizing what you have learned. For example, if you are working with the issue of violence and how it relates to your chosen popular culture artifacts, select one of those artifacts and discuss how it might relate to gender.
To prepare:
Submit your Final Project, which should consist of a 1,500- to 2,000-word paper in which you do the following:
The final paper should include:
Be sure to follow APA guidelines for formatting and referencing.
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