Portfolio: Images from the History of Popular Culture

Writing About Popular Culture

*Scott Jaschik: A Stand Against Wikipedia

*Patti S. Caravello: Judging Quality on the Internet

Citing Sources

 

Laurence Shames: The More Factor

Paired Readings: Understanding Shopping

+Malcolm Gladwell: The Science of Shopping

+Anne Norton: The Signs of Shopping

Credit Card Barbie [photograph]

Thomas Hine: What's in a Package

Joan Kron: The Semiotics of Home Decor

*Anne Galligan: Pottermania: the Marketing Behind the Magic

*Alison Schneider: Frumpy or Chic? Tweed or Kente? Sometimes the Clothes Make the Professor

David Goewey: "'Careful, You May Run Out of Planet'": SUVs and the Exploitation of the American Myth

Thomas L. Friedman: Revolution Is U. S.

*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

+*Sandra Blakeslee: If You Have a "Buy Button" in Your Brain, What Pushes It?

Steve Craig: Men’s Men and Women’s Women

*Jennifer L. Pozner: Dove's "Real Beauty" Backlash

Warren St. John: Metrosexuals Come Out

Eric Schlosser: Kid Kustomers

Gloria Steinem: Sex, Lies, and Advertising

Portfolio of Advertisements

    Jeep Compass

    Mr Rooter

    American Egg Board

    Phoenix Wealth Management

    San Diego Tourism

    Honda Pilot

    McCormick Gravy

 

Chapter 3. Video Dreams: Television, Music and Culture

Francine Prose: Voting Democracy off the Island: Reality TV and the Republican Ethos

"You’re Fired" [photograph]

James Harold: A Moral Never-Never Land: Identifying with Tony Soprano

Paired Readings: Animating Attitude

+Carl Matheson: The Simpsons, Hyper-Irony, and the Meaning of Life

+*David Valleau Curtis and Gerald J. Erion: South Park and the Open Society

*Jaime J. Weinman: Fox News Attempts to Get Funny

Susan Douglas: Signs of Intelligent Life on TV

Andre Mayer: The New Sexual Stone Age"

Marissa Connolly: Homosexuality on Television: The Heterosexualization of Will and Grace

*Kevin Powell: Dead? 'Hip-hop culture has been murdered'

 

Chapter 4. The Hollywood Sign: The Signs of American Film

Paired Readings: Inventing Heroes

+Robert B. Ray: The Thematic Paradigm

+*Virginia Postrel: Superhero Worship

Linda Seger: Creating the Myth

*Lisa Kernan: Trailer Rhetoric

Todd Boyd: So You Wanna Be a Gangsta?

Jessica Hagedorn: Asian Women in Film: No Joy, No Luck

David Denby: High-School Confidential: Notes On Teen Movies

*Tom Moore: Movie Fantasy vs. Classroom Reality

Michael Parenti: Class and Virtue

*Aeon J. Skoble: Forrest Gump: A Subversive Movie

Vivian C. Sobchack: The Postmorbid Condition

Reservoir Dogs [movie poster]

 

Chapter 5. You-Topian Dreams: MySpace, YourSpace, and the Semiotics of Web 2.0

*Henry Jenkins: Convergence Culture

Paired Readings: Celebrating You

+*Steven Johnson: It’s All About Us

+*Brian Williams: Enough About You

*Ted Friedman: From the Forest to the Trees: The Sims

*Alana Semuels: Virtual marketers Have Second Thoughts about Second Life

*Clive Thompson: Game Theories

*A.B. Harris: Average Gamers Please Step Forward

*Joann Cavanaugh Simpson: Multitasking State of Mind

* David Teten and Scott Allen: Free Speech and Censorship in Online Communities

 

Chapter 6. American Paradox: Culture and Contradiction in the USA

David Brooks: One Nation, Slightly Divisible

Paired Readings: Profiling Stereotypes

+Randall Kennedy: Blind Spot

+* Dahleen Glanton and Kayce T. Ataiyero: NAACP buries the hated N-word

*Tim Kasser: Mixed Messages

"Leave Area Clean" [photograph]

Jack Solomon: Masters of Desire: The Culture of American Advertising

*Shelley Fralic: Cheap Chic

Mariah Burton Nelson: I Won. I’m Sorry.

Alfred Lubrano: The Shock of Education: How College Corrupts

Richard Corliss: The Gospel According to Spider-Man

 

Chapter 7. We've Come a Long Way, Maybe: Gender Codes in American Culture

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

Sean Cahill: The Case for Marriage Equality

Andy Medhurst: Batman, Deviance, and Camp

*Courtney Martin: The Famine Mystique

Emily Prager: Our Barbies, Ourselves

Joan Morgan: Sex, Lies, and Videos

"Hey Bud" [photograph]

Deborah Tannen: Wears Jump Suit. Sensible Shoes. Uses Husband's Last Name.

James William Gibson: Warrior Dreams

Michael A. Messner: Power at Play

 

Chapter 8. Constructing Race: Readings in Multicultural Semiotics

Paired Readings: Mediating Race

+Michael Omi: In Living Color: Race and American Culture

+*Greg Braxton: Hollywood Loves BBFs 4-Ever

*Rebecca Traister: Class Act

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

Fan Shen: The Classroom and the Wider Culture: Identity as a Key to Learning English Composition