Chapter 3

Copyright ©2013 W.W. Norton, Inc.

YouMay Ask YourselfCore Third EditionDalton Conley

YouMay Ask YourselfThird EditionDalton Conley

Chapter 3

Culture and Media

2Copyright ©2013 W.W. Norton, Inc.

Paradox


What Is Culture?

• Culture can be loosely defined as a set of beliefs, traditions, and practices.


What Is Culture?• The concept of culture has evolved and

expanded throughout history.• The oldest understandings of culture focus

on the distinction between: – natural environment and– what is modified or created by humans.


What Is Culture?• As Europeans came into contact with non-

Westerners, culture evolved in terms of differences between peoples, which could be viewed positively or negatively.

• In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, a new dimension was added to the concept of culture – the idea that culture involved the pursuit of intellectual refinement.


Material vs. Nonmaterial Culture• Material culture is everything that is a part of

our constructed environment, such as books, fashion, and monuments.

• Nonmaterial culture encompasses values, beliefs, behaviors, and social norms.


Cultural Relativism

• Coined by Ruth Benedict in the 1930s, this is the idea that we should recognize differences across cultures without passing judgment on or assigning value to those differences.


Cultural Scripts• Cultural scripts are modes of behavior and

understanding that are not universal or natural, but that may strongly shape beliefs or concepts held by a society.


Subcultures• A subculture is a group united by sets of

concepts, values, traits, and/or behavioral patterns that distinguish it from others within the same culture or society.


Values and Norms

• Values are moral beliefs. • Norms are how values tell us to act.• Socialization is the process by which a

person internalizes the values, beliefs, and norms of society and learns to function as a member of that society.


Reflection Theory• Reflection theory states that culture is a

projection of social structures and relationships into the public sphere.

• A Marxist version of reflection theory argues that cultural objects reflect the material labor and production relationships that went into making them.


What Is Media?• Media are any formats or vehicles that carry,

present, or communicate information – books, posters, Web pages, clay tablets, and radio.

• Mass media refers to any form of media that reaches the mass of the people.


Media• Hegemony refers to the impact of media on

culture and how people and societies shape, and are shaped by, the dominant culture.


The Media Life Cycle• Media studies open paths of investigation,

including:– textual analysis and audience studies– how people create media and the biases

involved in that creation– how media reflect the culture in which

they exist– how individuals and groups use the media

to change culture


Media Effects• Media effects can be placed into four

categories according to their duration and intention:– short-term and deliberate– long-term and deliberate – short-term and unintentional– long-term and unintentional


Where Do Stereotypes Come From?• Intentionally or unintentionally, subtly or

overtly, the media can create or reinforce ethnic, racial, gender, religious, and other stereotypes.


Political Economy of the Media• Media ownership in the United

States is in the hands of six companies.

• Those companies affect the information and messages communicated to the public.


Political Economy of the Media• The media, especially

advertisements, play a large role in the maintenance of consumerism: the belief that happiness and fulfillment can be achieved through acquisition of material possessions.


Interview

Allison Pugh


Political Economy of the Media• The globalization of the media has

spread American culture around the world. This has effects on culture, values, and ideas on others' behavior, and it has experienced a drop in popularity recently because of some American foreign policies.


Political Economy of the Media• Culture jamming

is one example of subverting the power of media


Concept Quiz1. Which of the following is an example of

material culture?a) Buddhist templeb) music Web sitec) English gardend) all of the above


Concept Quiz2. Ideology can be described as _____.

a) an aspect of material cultureb) a system of concepts and relationships that guides

an individual or large groupc) an extreme point of view on a given topicd) none of the above


Concept Quiz3. Cultural scripts are _____.

a) modes of behavior and understanding that are not universal or natural

b) a type of role-playing that helps people learn about different cultures

c) a type of study developed by sociologists to catalog cultural differences

d) patterns of behavior that can be found in almost all cultures


Concept Quiz4. Examples of media include _____.

a) television, websites, and radiob) books, magazines, and ancient scrollsc) records, cave paintings, and streaming videod) all of the above


Concept Quiz5. True or false? The globalization of the media

has spread American culture around the world.

a) trueb) false


Discussion Questions1. Have you traveled to another country?

a) yesb) no


Discussion Questions2. In your opinion, how does the media impact

culture?a) The media creates culture (we do what we see on

TV).b) The media simply shows us culture (we don’t

mimic TV – TV mimics us).c) Both of the above: TV shows us our culture, and

then we mimic what we see.d) None of the above: the media has no impact on

culture.

You May Ask Yourself: An Introduction to Thinking Like a Sociologist, 3rd Edition Copyright ©2013 W.W. Norton, Inc. 29

Chapter opener


Jill and Kevin head down the aisle to Chris Brown’s “Forever.”


A sixteenth-century Aztec’s drawing of the conquistador Hernán Cortés. Why did Westerndefinitions of culture change during the age of exploration?


U.S. Capitol, Washington, D.C.


Lincoln Memorial, Washington, D.C.


Toltec columns, Tula, Mexico


Blue Mosque, Istanbul, Turkey


Ingres’ La Grande Odalisque (1814)


Table 3.1 Emotions


There are no inherent meanings behind a red light; its symbolism varies depending on context.


A page from the satirical newspaper The Onion that appeared after Jonathan Franzen criticizedOprah Winfrey’s book club as middlebrow.


Margaret Mead with two Samoan women, 1926.


A cockfight in Bali, Indonesia. How are roosters central to Bali’s symbolic culture?


Kim Novak and James Stewart in Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo.


Figure 3.1 Popularity of the Name Kim


Cary Grant


Goths in Germany (left) and Japan. What characteristics of Goth culture make it a subculture?


Why might performers like Lil’ Wayne use reflection theory to defend their lyrics? What are someof the limitations to this theory?


How has the cultural significance of Shakespeare’s plays changed over the last 400 years?Compare the poster for an 1884 performance of Macbeth (left) with a 1944 photo ofLaurence Olivier as Henry V.


Innovations in mass media include the invention of the printing press and movable type in thefifteenth century, the creation of moving pictures at the turn of the twentieth century, and theadoption of the scrolling ticker by today’s 24-hour news channels.


In 1963, for the first time televisions beamed images such as this photo of police officers attackinga student in Birmingham, Alabama. How did television influence the reaction to eventssuch as the civil rights movement?


In studying newsrooms, Herbert Gans found that many players influenced news production andanalyzed how journalists internalized those unspoken rules.


“When I’m good, I’m very good, but when I’m bad, I’m better.” —ACTRESS MAE WEST


Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz in the 1950s hit television comedy I Love Lucy. Even though theircharacters were married, they still did not share a bed.


Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Eric Stonestreet play gay parents Mitchell and Cameron on ABC’sModern Family.


Figure 3.2 Media Effects


The controversial O.J. Simpson arrest photo. Time magazine was accused of darkening hisfeatures for their cover.


The photo above, published by the Associated Press, showed a young African American wadingthrough chest-high water toting groceries; the caption proclaimed that the man had just been“looting a grocery store.” The second, which pictured a Caucasian couple doing the same thingstated that the two were photographed “after finding bread and soda at a local grocery store.”


How did studying lottery winners help sociologists understand the relationship betweenwealth and health?


A 2005 billboard from Dove soap’s advertising campaign featuring women who are notprofessional models.


Two satirical ads from Adbusters magazine. How do these ads critique or subvert the tobaccoand fashion industries?


As anti-American sentiments increase in the Middle East, new regional brands such asMecca-Cola are replacing American commercial products like Coca-Cola or Pepsi.

This concludes the Lecture PowerPoint presentation for:

YouMay Ask YourselfCore Third EditionDalton Conley

YouMay Ask YourselfThird EditionDalton Conley

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Chapter 3 Culture and Media

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Chapter 3

Education

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