Popular Culture and How It Influences People in Other Areas - Annotated Bibliography Example

Your F. 18 May Annotated Bibliography For this paper, the topic is to look at popular culture and how it influences people in other areas. One question to research would be where does popular culture actually begin? What areas does popular culture effect and in what ways? While living in America, it seems that a lot of popular culture spreads to other countries from America. I wanted to look at how that is true. I want to know how pop culture is developed. One person I had in mind was Madonna. She seems to be a huge symbol of pop culture and has been for decades. While this assignment does not focus on her, she is the motivation for my questions. How does someone or something get this popular and how does it disseminate globally? What about underdeveloped cultures? I want to look at how popular culture spreads and even to define what it is. Bertonneau, Thomas. “A Counter-Curriculum For The Pop Culture Classroom.” Academic Questions 23.4 (2010): 420-434. Academic Search Elite. Web. 17 May 2012. The article by Bertonneau discusses how pop culture is spread in society through college classes. It was used in curriculum primarily in the departments of social science and humanities in the 1950s. Pop culture classes even began to be offered. Later, pop culture not only incorporated ideas of theorists but also became a part of English in a genre of pop literature where certain types of popular books were being read by students. Students enjoyed this type of literature and it appealed to instructors because of it was discovered that the literature at this level was “less rigorous” and more interesting to them. Now, pop culture is commonly used in the classroom as part of culture studies and how it is spread. Many people even use pop culture for methods of exercising criticisms. Some of the topics or themes including people, places or things that exist in pop culture are topics that are commonly heard of. Therefore, the students can relate better to them. They then can critically think about the topics that they are already exposed to in order to dissect it. This then allows students a basis for which to compare theologies and critiques. The author attempts to discuss the origin of popular culture and how it disseminates across a certain area. His explanation somewhat follows the guidelines that while some areas were becoming more populated, it was easier for information to spread. Therefore, if one person started reading a book, then they could easily pass it on to their neighbor and share it. Some of the earliest points of the emergence of pop culture can be in found when Shakespeare literature started to become popular among different societies and cultural subgroups. He also discusses how folk culture survived, being passed down through various generations and popular culture is part of anthropology of a society. This article is helpful in the way that it tries to discuss what pop culture is and how it may have originally began. However, it only discusses how pop culture was used in the classrooms. It does not discuss in detail in which universities it was commonly used as curriculum. It is difficult to determine where pop culture really originates from based on this article. However, it does provide insight that some college or school institutions may help reinforce pop culture and share it with students. The article does not help me to answer the broader question of how it is spread but it does discuss some points that are helpful in answering one area in which in might be spread. Irwin, William and Johnson, David K, eds. Introducing Philosophy through Pop Culture: from Socrates to South Park, Hume to House. Chinchester UK; Maiden, MA: Wiley- Blackwell, 2010. Print. The editors of this book look at different parts of popular culture. They then discuss how different examples of pop culture, using different influences from film, television, music and other areas, can in fact help people develop philosophies. The editors discuss that though some of these examples such as South Park, Harry Potter or Metallica have abstract and complex ideas that make philosophies easier to understand through the dissemination of pop culture. People can therefore use these examples in order to relate old ideas to new er examples in order for them to make sense. The editors main points is to somehow teach lessons of philosophy through pop culture and describe how others can see themes in various different sources. This collective anthology looks at several different authors points of views in how something like the movie, Terminator, can discuss the extinction of human race and artificial intelligence. While people may have a hard time thinking about artificial intelligence and what it means to the human race, looking at the movie can help them further grasp the concept. Though this text gives several good examples of methods of using pop culture to help people develop abstract ideas, the focus is somewhat away from what pop culture is and how it directly affects people. It does discuss, however, that there are many different philosophies and themes present in some of these pop culture series that can help people make sense of ideas. This makes pop culture a method of creating relationships with other theories. Many learn to identify more so with pop culture like South Park than they can relate to Socrates. It is a prime example of using pop culture positively and to use it as a useful source that others can easier relate to and learn from rather than just being a trend or a hype. Many of the sources are from the western civilization so it does not widely discuss other impacts that other parts of the world may be influenced by pop culture. Underdeveloped countries may have never even been exposed to the Terminator. However, these could be the same cultures that are more interested in survival and working for a living rather than using it for entertainment. From this perspective, pop culture has more of a use than that and can actually be educational. Maginnis, Robert L. “Parents Want Help Fighting Pop Cultures Influence.” Headway 8.2 (1996): 22. MasterFILE Premier. Web. 18 May 2012. In Maginnis article, the main focus is the effects that parents seem to think that popular culture influences their childrens behavior. The article discusses how that major advertiser, a company that carries numerous family brands, Proctor & Gamble, recently pulled television advertising of their products from a few different times slots during which some of the shows on TV were too sexual or graphic in nature, more suited toward adults. The article also discusses that four out of every five parents actually believes that pop culture negatively affects their children as they see violence and vulgarity as well as other adult subject matters on television. Parents stood behind Proctor & Gambles decision because of the fact that finally a major company saw what pop culture could be doing to children due to a persuasive nature and the way that it almost desensitizes children to these types of scenarios. The author used this article to inform what parents thought about popular culture and its influence on society. While it was not intended to create awareness, it evaluates pop culture as more than just a trivial subject or trend but instead as a means of depicting certain situations that children may start to think are normal and are actually negative. While this is an excellent article to look at negative influences of popular culture, it does focus primarily on just the United States. In some areas of the world, parents might have different feelings about the significant of pop culture in their society or subgroup. This article helps to look at the other side of popular culture and look at the way that it has not only spread, but also evaluates the way that it has made an impact on culture. Many of the influences of popular culture are global so this article takes it from a parents point of view to see how it can impact their children. Petracca, Michael F. and Sorapure, Madeleine. Common Culture: Reading and Writing about American Popular Culture, 5th ed. Prentice Hall, 2006. Print. The authors wrote this textbook with the purpose of using popular culture as a method of teaching students about writing compositions. Popular culture is found more interesting and can help a student learn more critical thinking skills when applying popular culture to their thoughts and emerging with more articulate interpretations. Popular culture is identified as a catchy cultural artifact and can range from a variety of different subjects. All pop culture has an underlying meaning behind it and is a reflection of a culture overall. Again, this text focuses primarily on the aspects of popular culture in the United States. However, some of the discussion is not completely about American culture but also encompasses parts of culture that has emerged from other countries. For example, the Beatles, they were a part of pop culture that emerged from the United Kingdom. They were just one band that is part of the British Invasion era in music. However, what was contained in their lyrics were much more meaningful text. While this text does not discuss how popular culture has developed, it does discuss how it helps to shape peoples different ways of thinking. By using popular culture, people can create ideas and then draw conclusions behind theories or strategies that lie within popular culture. This text discusses how pop culture can be related to any theory in ways to develop different rhetorical approaches. Pop culture can be a positive thing. This textbook looks at it from an overall perspective and looks at effective ways to teach pop culture through curriculum. It does not, however, address how popular culture spreads. It can give supporting ideas to my topic but it does not directly discuss the impact that popular culture has on society. It address it more so indirectly. Seckler, Valerie. “Asias Pop Culture Influences Keep Going West.” WWD: Womens Wear Daily 193.12 (2007): 12-13. Business Source Premier. Web. 17 May 2012. Seckler discusses how Asian influences have began to spread west. The Japanese culture is becoming more predominant in other parts of culture. Asian culture has become more marketable,, often found in video games, anime, costumes for children to dress up in or for Halloween and even in cartoons. This type of culture then evolves into t-shirts, stuffed animals, action figures and collectibles. Asian culture has spread to western countries in the areas of entertainment and sports due to the marketing and retail of these products. The authors point is to describe how Asian influences within their culture have trickled to other parts of the world because of the interest that has developed. This article is interesting in looking at the spread of contemporary pop culture. It seems as though if something was popular in Asia, then people in other societies are then new to these concepts. Since it is new to these western countries, they may become more intrigued by the unfamiliar. Through this curiosity, popularity begins and pop culture begins to spread. The spread of pop culture as indicated by this article mostly takes a look at the spread of it due to marketing and retail trades. This is a more contemporary theory as items are more becoming available more online, items are advertised globally and the spread of pop culture spreads faster and easier. With the right marketing technique, something can become a part of pop culture. This indicates that pop culture has merely a business background at the root of its growth and dissemination. This is a much different theory of the spread of pop culture than I would have originally thought would be how pop culture spread. Interpretation When looking at all of the resources, I realize that uncovering how pop culture spreads is very difficult. It seems to not be pinpointed in any certain way. These sources mostly describe using pop culture in the classroom to disseminate ideas. It makes it much easier to understand ideas when people can compare them to something that they are familiar with and the concept is then easier to grasp. While I have not learned the complete significance of popular culture, I do recognize that it does spread and that it is used in the classrooms more than I ever realized. This could be one reason that it spreads so quickly. One thing that this has all left out is the way that it effects human geography in different areas of the world. The primary focus is American pop culture. However, it seems to have spread globally as well as many people in other countries are just as familiar with American music and television shows as citizens are. Pop culture is going to exist and spread regardless of what it is. It was well put as described as a catchy artifact and in some ways is anthropological in nature. Pop culture is much like a time capsule, representing people of a certain time. Just as people are uncovering cave paintings and vases that are representative of a different era and subgroup of people, popular culture has so many different avenues to spread. Technology has created different pathways so that it can reach anyone anywhere through television, film, music, Internet or other sources. Only those cultures that are more primitive would be communities that would not be able to relate to pop culture. While one might think of African tribes as being primitive and untouched by pop culture, we can look in the backyards of American and see such subcultures as the Amish communities. They have no influence by pop culture hardly at all, living only off of the land and working hard for their keep. Their only exposure would be if someone outside of the culture were to expose them to it and since it is actually against their religion, they would almost become shocked by items in society such as Madonna, South Park or Twilight. As humans live and migrate, learn and prosper, as does the culture and society around them. Things change and they must adapt to the changes. Movements come and go as does activism. Problems in society come and go, some are created while some are natural disasters. People learn to deal with the situations that they are put in. The theory of evolution can be given just as much purpose as ever. As people are creating ideas and objects that make life easier or things change, there become new things to learn. People do not just learn the one language that they learn in their single environment but now have the capabilities to pick up on multiple languages, and this is just one example. Culture is something that spreads so quickly, popular or not. Much of it is deeply ingrained into the heritage of one area while some pieces of culture are just trends. Read More