4 Characteristics of Pop Culture1. Produced by cultural industries

• Ex; Disney Corporation produces movies, cartoons, amusement park, and merchandise.

2. Differs from folk culture• Folk culture; traditional activities

that are not financially driven.

3. It’s everywhere• T.V, movies, radio, commercials.

4. Fills a social function• It serves as a cultural forum.• Ex; friends and family ask about

your reaction to a new movie or show.

Patterns of how People Consume Popular Culture

• People seek or avoid specific forms of popular culture.

• Ex; some like reality T.V. shows others avoid them.

• Cultural Texts: Popular culture messages on T.V. shows, movies, advertisements.

• Encoding: Creating a message• Institutions form text by relying on peoples

identities and then target specific markets.

• Decoding: Interpreting the message• Our social identities help guide our

interpretations as decoders.

Magazines and Cultural Identities

• Advertising offices of Magazines make their reader profiles available to potential advertisers.

• Average age, gender, incomes.

• Some Magazines serve certain ethnic groups• Ex; Hispanic Magazine targets Latino audiences.

• Cultural Texts vs. Cultural Identities• People come together through cultural magazines and newspapers

to affirm their relationship with their cultural identities. • But not all popular culture texts are correlated to particular

cultural group

Resisting Popular Culture

• Refuse to engage in them• Not owning a T.V., refuse watch movies with violence.• Ex; University of North Dakota’s fighting Sioux mascot; want

to ban Indian imagery that’s considered hostile or abusive.

• Social Roles• Pop Culture plays a big role in how we think about other

groups, so there’s concerns about the representation of various social groups.

• Ex; Disney film Aladdin racist portrayal of Arab culture.

• Targeted at profits of corporations• Ex; Iraqis buy pirated DVD’s of U.S. films, market doesn’t

earn profit for these sales.