Investigation of the American Culture - Report Example

Study of the American Culture Maasik and Solomon developed means for studying culture. Upon developing on semiotics, they considered a number of a variety of issues that relates to why understanding popular cultures is essential. Their argument is however based on the fact that understanding the past cultural practices is essential in informing practices related to today’s world. (Sonia and Solomon 200). Their primary focus was based the process of semiotic in understanding modern cultures. Whenever a researcher intends to write a concept relating to a certain culture effectively, the researcher must employ a particular method. Where there lacks a methodology that interprets signs, whenever a researcher writes about them is just giving a descriptive opinion as opposed to giving the basic concepts behind such signs. Semiotics, as a result, encompasses a method that is essential when analyzing a popular culture. Solomon and Maasik describe semiotics as the study of signs through explaining what everything means before forming conclusions irrespective of prior knowledge towards something. Cultural semiotics thus focuses on extending the meaning beyond what a sign signifies to explain its meaning through employing power and ideology (Sonia and Solomon 200). The method, as a result, uses a skeptical approach whenever studying modern cultures as opposed to believing what particular signs represent in a given culture. For example, if researcher considers the pop culture among the Americans, semiotics will enhance in understanding the culture towards the exact group of interest for pop culture. As a result, all cultural aspects present a political form in that they serve some individuals vision and reality. American mythologies and archetypes remain a significant discussion in the American history and what majority attributes as the grass roots of American culture. An American myth represents a traditional story that frequently focuses on supernatural achievements or individual heroes that accomplished something unique that serves a fundamental aspect in the view of American people. American myths, therefore, serve as accounts for something origin and explain the aspects related to the natural world while they may also delineate ideas of the society. An archetype, on the other hand, refers to the modern of flow or depicts an original pattern that individuals and everything of that particular kind are copied or for a basis. It may also involve a form of collectively unconscious ideas that human beings inherit and they become universally held across the nation. An example of an American myth refers to the civil war that Americans hold as a moral imperative that aimed at putting an end to slavery while on the contrary an archetype is represented by The Genteel Patriarch (Sonia and Solomon 200). While the American myth of civil war is still upheld to date, it is different from The Genteel Patriarch archetype. The archetype dominated the way of life of the American culture based on the idea of masculinity that formed the basis of success in the era of industrial revolution. However with the introduction of industrial revolution, the archetype faded and was replaced with the self-made man. The important relationship between the two relates to the fact that the myth of civil war occurred with a result of two archetypes that fought to replace each other from the dominant north and less influential south. An archetype, as a result, may cease to exist and influence the culture of Americans through replacements during a myth once made lasts among the Americans. James Twitchell, an observer of culture and advertising, presents his views on the advertising industry through a diagram he refers to at VALS2 paradigm. In his work, Twitchell addresses the view possessed by marketing companies when carrying out marketing and advertising projects to the public. He explains that, the general consumers end up becoming victims of advertising traps that various organizations use in different forms. To Twitchell, advertisers are far much beyond introducing a product through the right channels of looking for demographic measures. The advertisers do the reverse through picking a demographic that the advertisement is to take place, and the action amounts to an opposite approach of what ad needs to entail that he refers to positioning. With Dove soap as the leading example, Twitchell categorizes consumers in VALS2 paradigm that separates different customers into categories and further sub-categories of lifestyles that represent consumer personalities. He is successful in developing precise cuts of consumer segmentations that advertisers will aim to target depending on the product they intend to offer (Sonia and Solomon 200). The class differences in the United States (US) are clearly evidenced by Twitchell’s presentation because marketers selectively purpose advertising for different category of people. For example, an advertiser opting to sell high-class vehicles with directs his focus on the prestigious class that ranks top at the VALS2 paradigm. The tone of the advertisement and qualities associated with the product will be made to match with the lifestyle enjoyed by those customers. The advertisement of such a product will at no instance focus on those consumers who earn little, and the market will also stay out of their reach. The commercial conditions that relate to the use of the product clearly cuts out those that advertiser does not require. Focusing on research that is based on the use of semiotics formula, understating such assumptions is achievable. The questioning will base the facts on the reasons that led to the origin of these classes’ related assumptions, as opposed to the reasons for such advertisement strategies. In his introduction to gender identity idea, Aaron Devour makes it sure that identifying roles and everything else in life is a lifelong process. Through a cross-examination of the American culture that relates to gender and that of other nations representing different cultures from the Americans, Devour is convinced on his take on the American culture. He consistently stresses that human beings always shape their identity in relation to their surroundings. He develops his arguments based on a focus of different age developments of the person’s life, and how these various age events learn different parts of their gender. He argues that an adults understanding of sex differs significantly with that of a kid. He establishes that children are taught boys remain boys while the same occurs for girls, and the sense of different between them comes from those around. Through the use of three keywords I, Me and Myself, Devour actually portrays how individuals end up developing their identity (Sonia and Solomon 200). The concept of gender results from I while the rest two leads to identity. He, however, argues that the identity within a society is developed through focusing on particular individuals that people believe are right. Role reversals and subversions are thus not encouraged by the American society based on those around the new generations. Considering that identity and roles are learned from those around, achievement of role changes is unlikely as new generations will copy what is existing within the society. Since the American popular culture representation has thrived with inequality, the society came to believe the approach as the right system and others keep learning the same approach. Michael Omni’s observation and his idea of a popular culture in relation to racism are based on the American cultural development and racial ideologies. Through his statement, Omni is persuading the audience to perceive racism as continuous and still exit with signs indicating it is not wiped out. Omni, however, believes the usefulness of modern culture in the daily life of Americans in ensuring that individuals cope with all forms of racism that the encounter on daily basis (Sonia and Solomon 200). These forms of racism arise through advertisements among other forums making Americans stick to racism subconsciously. Through under-representation of the black Americans in the business fields and white color jobs, it serves as a clear sign of how the cultural aspect of racism continues in America today. He attributes the continuation of racism through these forms of media and underrepresentation as a measure of how culture is inherited from one generation to another. Through the example, that he suggests that the central themes in America has always relied on race as the popular culture of the Americans, Omni intends to portray how every decision is based on racism in America. Despite the efforts of fighting racism within the country, the vice is still rampant in all sectors of the economy as every aspect results in a racism directed outcome or action. From media representations of workplace nothing has changed. A good example is implicated in advertisements where the whites take the greatest part of an advertisement and those that encompasses blacks only does it at the back of whites. Work Cited Sonia, M. & Solomon, J. Signs of Life in the USA: Readings on Popular Culture for Writers. 3rd ed. Ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2000. Read More