Contents
Preface for Instructors
INTRODUCTION
Popular Signs: Or, Everything You Always Knew about American Culture (but Nobody Asked)
Writing about Popular Culture
Using Active Reading Strategies
Prewriting strategies
Developing Strong Arguments about Popular Culture
Conducting a Semiotic Analysis
Reading Visual Images Actively
Reading Essays about Popular Culture
Amy Lin, Barbie: Queen of Dolls and Consumerism [student essay]
*Laurie Boloven, House Calls, and What Is It Saying? [student essay]
David Goewey, “Careful, You May Run Out of Planet”: SUVs and the Exploitation of the American Myth [student essay]
Conducting Research and Citing Sources
Scott Jaschik, A Stand against Wikipedia
Patti S. Caravello, Judging Quality on the Web
*Trip Gabriel, Plagiarism Lines Blur for Students in Digital Age
Synthesizing Sources
Chapter 1
Consuming Passions: The Culture of American Consumption
Laurence Shames, The More Factor
PAIRED READINGS: UNDERSTANDING SHOPPING
Malcolm Gladwell, The Science of Shopping
Anne Norton, The Signs of Shopping
*Mark Dery, Dawn of the Dead Mall
Credit Card Barbie [PHOTOGRAPH]
Thomas Hine, What’s in a Package
Joan Kron, The Semiotics of Home Decor
*Andrea Chang, Teen “Haulers” Become a Fashion Force
*S. Craig Watkins, Fast Entertainment and Multitasking in an Always-On World
*John Verdant, The Ables vs. The Binges
*Tammy Oler, Making Geek Chic
Thomas Frank, Commodify Your Dissent
Chapter 2
Brought to You B(u)y: The Signs of Advertising
Roland Marchand, The Parable of the Democracy of Goods
When You Come Home [ADVERTISEMENT]
PAIRED READINGS: CREATING CONSUMERS
James B. Twitchell, What We Are to Advertisers
Steve Craig, Men’s Men and Women’s Women
*Minette E. Drumright and Patrick E. Murphy, How Advertising Practitioners View Ethics: Moral Muteness, Moral Myopia, and Moral Imagination
Jennifer L. Pozner, Dove’s “Real Beauty” Backlash
Eric Schlosser, Kid Kustomers
*Julia B. Corbett, A Faint Green Sell: Advertising and the Natural World
*Alan Foliambe, Car Advertising—Dominating Nature
Portfolio of Advertisements
Chapter 3
Video Dreams: Television, Music, and Cultural Forms
Francine Prose, Voting Democracy off the Island: Reality TV and the Republican Ethos
James Harold, A Moral Never- Never Land: Identifying with Tony Soprano
Carl Matheson, The Simpsons, Hyper- Irony, and the Meaning of Life
PAIRED READINGS: DECONSTRUCTING HEROES
*Stephen Garrett, Why We Love TV's Anti-heroes
*Natasha Simmons, Mad Men and the Paradox of the Past
*Rita Koganzon, All Camped Out: How “Glee” Became a Preachy After-School Special
Andy Medhurst, Batman, Deviance, and Camp
Jaime J. Weinman, Fox News Attempts to Get Funny
*Drake Bennett, Guiding Lights: How Soap Operas Can Save the World
*Neal Gabler, The Social Networks
*Roland Laird, "The Boondocks": Carrying On the Tradition of Subversive Black Comedy
Chapter 4
The Hollywood Sign: The Culture of American Film
Robert B. Ray, The Thematic Paradigm
Linda Seger, Creating the Myth
PAIRED READINGS: STEREOTYPING OTHERS
Jessica Hagedorn, Asian Women in Film: No Joy, No Luck
*Hirsh Sawhney, An Idiot's Guide to India
*Matt Zoller Seitz, The Offensive Movie Cliché that Won't Die
*Mitu Sengupta, Race Relations Light Years from Earth
*Bob Samuels, Inception as Deception
Michael Parenti, Class and Virtue
David Denby, High- School Confidential: Notes on Teen Movies
Vivian C. Sobchack, The Postmorbid Condition
Reservoir Dogs [MOVIE POSTER]
*Umberto Eco, Casablanca, or Cliches Are Having a Ball
Chapter 5
You-Topian Dreams: Semiotics and the New Media
Henry Jenkins, Convergence Culture
PAIRED READINGS: CELEBRATING YOU
Steven Johnson, It’s All about Us
Brian Williams, Enough about You
*danah boyd, Implications of User Choice: The Cultural Logic of MySpace or Facebook?
*Ian Daly, Virtual Popularity Isn't Cool—It's Pathetic
* International Center for Media & the Public Agenda, Students Addicted to Social Media
*Zac Waggoner, Video Games, Avatars, and Identity
A.B. Harris, Average Gamers Please Step Forward
Master Chief Waits in Line [PHOTOGRAPH]
*Jonathan Rauch, How the Tea Party Is Rewriting the Rule Book for Political Organizing
Chapter 6
American Paradox: Culture, Conflict, and Contradiction in the U.S.A.
David Brooks, One Nation, Slightly Divisible
*Barbara Ehrenreich, Introduction from Bright-Sided
Jack Solomon, Masters of Desire: The Culture of American Advertising
*Phyllis M. Japp and Debra K. Japp, Purification Through Simplification: Nature, the Good Life, and Consumer Culture
“Leave Area Clean” [PHOTOGRAPH]
Mariah Burton Nelson, I Won. I’m Sorry.
Randall Kennedy, Blind Spot
Alfred Lubrano, The Shock of Education: How College Corrupts
*Daniel Mackay, The Magic of the Anti-Myth
Richard Corliss, The Gospel According to Spider- Man
*Murray Milner, Jr., Freaks, Geeks, and Cool Kids
Chapter 7
American Makeover: Constructing Identity in the Age of Entertainment
Michael Omi, In Living Color: Race and American Culture
*Stuart Buck, Acting White
Angeline F. Price, Working Class Whites
Jack Lopez, Of Cholos and Surfers
Jim Whitmer, Four Teens [PHOTOGRAPH]
Nell Bernstein, Goin’ Gangsta, Choosin’ Cholita
Melissa Algranati, Being an Other
PAIRED READINGS: PERFORMING GENDER
Aaron Devor, Gender Role Behaviors and Attitudes
Deborah Blum, The Gender Blur: Where Does Biology End and Society Take Over?
Kevin Jennings, American Dreams
*Andrew Sullivan, My Big Fat Straight Wedding
Glossary
Index of Authors and Titles