U.S. History Civil War-Present - Assignment Example

Contribution of cultural and social differences to American Politics Affiliation How have cultural and social differences come to shape and define American politics since the 1980s?Culture is basically the characteristics of a particular group of people by which they can be identified. A lot of factors constitute culture ranging from music, language, religion, social habits, art and cuisine amongst others. What is perceived by the human senses is what constitutes culture in terms of how people see things, feel about them.

People adopt a culture though learning, observing, being taught and sharing. Culture is symbolic and all about the meanings that a particular group of people attach or associate to something (Clarke et al, 1989).Pop cultureThis is a culture that pools together the activities and the interests that different people share. Most of the pool culture items are those that people acquire through the different means like for instance buying and enjoy then by using them during their free time. Items of the pop culture entail the activities and products that are designed to suit or rather appeal at attracting the interests of most of the people.

Hence therefore the products and activities of pop culture reflect the interests and desire that most people associate or would prefer to associate with (Arnold, 1993).Some of the example of the pop culture includes the clothes. Toys, games, TV shows, actors, singers and movies. From the examples it is evident that this culture does not only deal with the products and activities which are physical and tangible but also deals the intangible part like ideas, images, attitudes, perspectives and issues that are not necessarily physical but lead to cultural followings through beliefs.

Inevitably the term pop culture has been used interchangeably with popular culture perhaps due to the masses involved in the constitution of the pop culture (Harrison, 2005).Due to the popularity associated with the pop culture, it relies so heavily on the media which serves to attract the masses to associate with the culture. Media therefore has a very big role to play in the pop culture in terms of influencing the people’s beliefs and perception about the products, activities and beliefs.

Media creates a certain influence on the people by the way they present the elements that they advertise or channels to the people and t is how they present this that will make people adopt the attitudes and ideas about the elements which subsequently helps them decide the trend in terms of culture that they will adopt (McChesney, 2004).SubcultureThis is a group of people with a culture that is either distinctly open or hidden and makes them stand out from a larger group which they identify with.

A subculture may either be in line with or countering the larger culture which is the dominant culture of the larger group. In most cases the subculture is owned by few people who identify with it with more often than not the reason of their constitution being to fight against a vice of the larger majority culture which they do not want to identify with (Carr, 2000).Subculture is the development of the smaller culture from a larger culture due to development of a conceptualized idea (Bassnett, 1980).

Media role in subcultures is important it not only promotes a subculture but may also be the source of an idea of a new subculture that is developed. Subcultures are important as they have often acted as eye openers to the dominant culture from which they sprout especially on the issues that they advocate against (Dima, 2007).CountercultureThis is a subculture whose values, beliefs and customs are contrary to those of the dominant culture often times they are the opposite of those of the mainstream society.

Counter culture oppose the main society culture and those who follow the counter culture rebel against the culture of the main community (Brook, 1990). Some of the counter cultures that exist in our society today include the controversial gays and lesbians rights in the society who contradict the mainstream society on the sexual cultures that have been in existence for the longest period of time. ReferencesArnold, M. 1993. Culture and Anarchy and Other Writings, ed. S. Collini, Cambridge University Press.

Bassnett, S. 1980. Introduction to Theatre Semiotics, Theatre Quarterly, 10.38.Brook, P. 1990. The Empty Space, Penguin BooksDima, G. 2007. ‘Loan Words and Cultural Globalization.(Some Case Studies in Romanian Theatrical Text- Types),’ in International Colloquium “The Intellectual Discourse Within the Crossroads of History”, Galati: Editura EuroplusHarrison, Ch. 2005. ‘Seeing,’ in Block 1, Form and Reading, London: The Open UniversityMcChesney, R. 2004. “Corporate Media, Global Capitalism” in Cottle, S. (ed): Media Organization and Production, London: SageCarr, L. (2000). "Stats Speak Kindly of Napster," The Standard, (July 21), http://www.

thestandard.com.Clarke, J. Stuart H., Stuart J. & Roberts B. (1989) "Sub Cultures, Culture and Class," in Culture, Ideology And Social Process,Tony Bennet,