10 years ago TV archetype was Friends
Now it’s Jersey Shore, highlights a certain ethic identity
TV & other media reflects who you think you are as a person. You can see yourself in characters on TV
Cultural taste: what are we prepared to watch when we turn on the TV
Pushing the boundaries
Industry vs. audience
Today it is very easy to find out about the audiences through comments on the internet, discussion boards, blogs, etc.
Syllabus stuff
Readings on elearning, print them out and bring to class
***Pop quizzes on the readings
3 media labs: group quizzes
1 HW assignment with 3-4 people think about which one I want to do and email him 3 or 4 preferences
Contact group members through elearning email
Final 7-10 paper
Option 1: text social context paper
Pick 1 text (movie, TV, etc.) and 1 theme from it, makes it easier or 1 theme across multiple texts
How do fairytales rework gender roles
Ex. What does 500 Days of Summer tell us about young people and love? What is Iron Man say about the government and private industry technology
Option 2: text industry context paper
Ex. Hanna Montana: corporate marketing towards the tween audience
Ex. HBO showing paying customers riskier, more profane things like Game of Thrones, Trueblood etc. as a product of the commercial industry
MASS SOCIETY THEORY
Mass Society Theory (19th century)
Conservative reaction to modernity
Perceptions of breakdown in traditional social order
Pathologization of the “masses” and mass culture
Did not want to change, people wanted to stay the same socially, fixed, lines b/t social status were not easily crossed
New middle class became the dominant class
Today social status is much more porous and blurry
More social constraints in small towns
Mass society: atomized
Cults try to recruit college kids b/c they as atomized, not so sure about social status
Mass society is corruptible (social diseases)
People were getting to close to the middle class and did not like it
Prone corruption and corrupt everything around it
Irresponsible for themselves, making choices about their own life
Mass cult panic
Why is mass culture important for dominant social groups?
Fear that bad culture will drive out good culture
Elite groups fear losing their cultural theory
It was a bad influence on the masses it corrupts & degrades film teaches you to be bad
“narcotic effect”, sexual danger
1st serial killer, kid kills kids at playground & blames it on a book he read (1870) ex. “Skins” on MTV, there was an uproar about its profanity, claimed it was going to corrupt people but it is really the fear of their values being threatened ex. Grammar is not as important as it once was & it threatens some people ex. Childhood obesity, junk food is a part of mass culture but there is shame in eating it. Obesity is a symptom of mass culture?
Institutionalization of Mass Society Theory
Communication departments in colleges
Links mass culture with social irresponsibility women getting “frisky” and “losing their honor”
Payne Fund Studies (1929-1932), wanted to know about films effects on young people
Found it had generally a negative effect on young people
Kids who watched more movies were less popular, had bad reputations and poor grades
“Magic Bullet” effect/theory
National TV Violence studies (1994-1996), study the effect of violence in movies
Effects were indirect
Political irresponsibility
WWII: social scientists work with the gov. about propaganda in support of war
Postwar: this relationship gets even tighter b/c of the cold war
CIA: MK Ultra, mind control, electro-compulsive therapy to get people to believe certain things (LSD, sleep deprivation)
Society of the Investigation of Oncology (MK Ultra, CIA) to fund there research.
MASS SOCIETY THEORY AND THE QUESTION OF VALUE
How does mass society theory value certain culture things?
Concerned about drawing lines b/t social groups
MST draws lines through
