Transcript Popular Culture PowerPoint

Popular Culture
• Popular Culture – Culture that is shared by
many groups in Western society and increasinly
around the world
• It includes popular music, movies, television
shows, brand named clothing, food, activities
and so on
Examples of Popular Culture
Food
Movies
Music
Television
Cars
Sports
Toys
Comics
Fashion
Internet
Popular Culture
• Popular is considered widespread and accessible to everyone - a
mass culture
• Popular culture is spread through technology
• Primary purpose is entertainment but also provide avenue for
people to express hopes, fears, and anger
• Popular culture may include sexism, racism, and nativism
(hostility towards immigrants)
Popular Culture
Mass Production
Mass Consumption
Mass Distribution
Mass Communication
Popular Culture
The internet allows Canadians a source of education and
entertainment
It also has become a medium for hate groups to
disseminate racist and homophobic ideology
Forms of Popular Culture
Fads
Fashions
Leisure Activities
Fads
 A temporary but widely copied activity followed
enthusiastically by large numbers of people
 Fads are short lived
Four Types of Fads
Object fads are items people purchase despite the
fact they have little use or intrinsic value
Beanie Babies
Pokemon Games
Clothing
Harry Potter Characters
Toys
cartoons
Trading Cards
snack foods
Four Types of Fads
Activity Fads include pursuits
such as body piercing, surfing
the internet, and raves
Four Types of Fads
Idea Fads are ways of thinking
including new age ideologies
Four Types of Fads
Personality Fads, such as those
surrounding celebrities
Fashion
 A currently valued style of behaviour, thinking,
or appearance that is longer lasting and more
widespread than a fad
Child rearing Education arts Clothing music
sports
Leisure Activities
 discretionary time spent in non-compulsory
activities, also called 'down time activities,’ that
can be participated in indoors or outdoors
Board Games Gardening Cooking Yoga Sailing Theatre Television
Cultural Imperialism
• Cultural Imperialism - The creation and
maintenance of unequal relationships
between civilizations favoring the more
powerful civilization
• The extensive infusion of one nation’s culture into
other nations
• Many sociologists believe the global culture is
becoming westernized
• The most popular culture shared around the world
comes from the United States
Cultural Imperialism
• This theory fails to account for various cross cultural
influences (cultural diffusion of music, literature, clothing,
and food)
• If a global culture eventually exists, it will have many different
component sources
Counter-Culture
• Counter-culture – A subculture whose values
and norms of behavior differ substantially from
those of mainstream society, often in opposition
to mainstream cultural mores