Popular American Culture Paper University of Phoenix SOC/105 Popular American Culture Our culture is unique since it is formed of many pieces from past and present cultures. Culture is a result of a struggle of power among diverse social groups based on age, gender, religion and color as well as financial divisions. Culture is universal; every human being possesses it by asset of their natural status. Culture is the combination of attitudes, traditions, and values that separates one diverse group of people from another. From one generation to the next Culture is portrayed, through verbal communication, material objects, ritual, institutions (including schools), and art.
Gender role change Aspects of the male and feminine roles have been easily tied together under the social-constructs heading for many years. The inter-relationship of both genders is a root cause for these social-constructs. Social-constructs have been placed into a hierarchical social system and invented and/or constructed by a number of different participants, who are already part of the system. Gender roles are currently changing as women are adopting masculine traits and have joined the bandwagon of their male counterparts to work where males have shown their dominance in the past. The normal characteristics that relate to femininity are softness and tenderness, prompting society to perceive a delusional falsehood that women are weak, unable to defend themselves.
Media influence on Equality Even though many activities influence the way we view women and men, media is the most prominent and the most powerful factor influencing ideas/feelings about race and gender. People can spend more than half of their life occupied with radio, TH, newspapers, the Internet, and listening to personal music devices. Mass media and popular culture feeds people with a picture on how women and men are supposed to behave and be. This essay examines how the media and popular culture influence people’s perception on race and gender. Women have been progressing by receiving more rights to be equal.
Popular American Culture Yuliana Diaz SOC/105 Dr. Cheryl Y. Avant Popular American Culture Currently, people cannot turn to the right without being influenced by technology, it can be said that the popular American culture in 2011 is mainly leaded by technological devices and their products. Oxford University Press defines culture as “the customs, arts, social institutions, and achievements of a particular nation, people, or other social group” (“culture,” 2011) there are many factors that affect the different cultures around the world such as trends, which are elements of popular culture. Popular Culture and Trends “Popular culture encompasses the most immediate and contemporary elements in our lives.” (Petracca & Sorapure, 2007, para 8) although it does not give a specific definition, it states that popular culture is contained by the everyday elements people use, for example the Internet, which has become a powerful tool for anything thinkable in peoples’ lives. Another powerful “element” is the telephone, it became more than a useful communication tool, (the main reason it was invented for), it is used as a productivity, organizational, and recreational tool in the American popular culture. Popular culture also can be a term that refers to what other cultures look up to, from a personal experience, people who grew up in another country always say how the American culture has the most influential trends around the world.
It is obvious that media has taken over our lives in more than one way. Due to modern technology, we are all closer than ever. The media industry has taken advantage of this fact because the stakes are huge. This can mean a variety of things but one thing is for certain, media has power in society. In a society that knows that "sex sells", most fail to realize that there is a very strong connection between body-image and advertisement.
It is generally accepted that the mass media have become some of the most powerful institutional forces in society. Although everyone uses the media in different ways, the media are responsible for directing attention and shaping cultural attitudes and values. (Media Awareness Network) The media is influential, using stereotypes in many areas, such as the entertainment and news industries, to get audiences to quickly understand information. Stereotypes act like codes that give audiences a quick, common understanding of a person or group of people, usually relating to their class, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, social role or occupation. (Media Awareness Network) Stereotypes can be problematic, reducing a wide range of differences in people to simplistic categorizations.
Media and communication have the utmost control over our lives, allowing marketing ploys, advertisements, and campaigns to become our greatest influencers as a society. These influences mold our ideals, our interests, and our values. Advertising and marketing campaigns can be seen anywhere and everywhere. From interstate billboards to pop-up adds on iPhone applications. As a society we have molded ourselves into materialistic idealists, constantly demanding bigger, better and more beautiful.
Music, while such a large part of daily life around the world, is often regarded as little more than entertainment. However, what many do not realize is that music is an efficient and significant system of communication that impacts the lives of all people around the world. This essay will briefly speak of the history of music, from the debated origins of music to the evolution of music technology. Going beyond the creation however, the essay will deeply describe the impact that this medium has on society, people, and behavior. Specifically, one will read of how music is a powerful tool of rhetoric that has been used as protest, as a means of raising awareness and of uniting a group of people.
What has the power to make you get up and move? Rock, rap, pop, country, and blues are all forms of this phenomenon we call music. Music has been a part of each and every one of our lives. Both rock and pop can be considered movements in society; however, the motivations for these movements were on the opposite ends of the spectrum. Also another thing that they have in common is that once the artists are famous they may both have a tendency to fall off the deep end.
Culture can be defined in many different ways; however, culture is mainly defined as patterns of behaviors, interactions, cognitive constructions and learning through a process of socialization (Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition, 2010). Popular culture is the totality of ideas, perspectives, attitudes, images and other phenomena that are deemed preferred through an informal consensus within the mainstream of any given society (Petracca & Sorapure, 2007). Pop culture can influence millions of individuals because the culture includes all types of cultures into one big culture or living. America has by far influenced many individuals and countries through major trends. A couple of American popular cultures include digital technology, film and television, and politics.