Professor Jill Stein

Soc. 118: Media, Culture & SocietyCourse Basics:

Enrollment Review syllabus Class website:

www.profstein.wordpress.com

IntroductionWhat is sociology?

Study of societySociology of Culture

Study of cultural objects Significance embodied in form

Mass media and popular culture The Digital Age

Example: Did You Know? 4.0

Chapter 1

The Straight Story:

The Social Organization of Popular Culture

Chapter 1: Overview

The Social Organization of Popular CultureWhat Makes Pop Culture Popular? What is Culture?The Social Context of Pop CultureAudiences and Popular CultureProducing and Consuming Popular CultureThree Approaches to Studying Media and Popular

Culture

The Social Organization of Popular Culture

Historical cyclesRediscovery and reinventionCreators draw upon past

work The origins of “SOS (Rescue Me)”

Emerges through collective activityNetworks of creatorsNo lone artists

Produced and consumed in social contextSets of relationships

What Makes It Popular Culture? 1. Well-liked

Commercial success

2. Globally ubiquitous

Easily recognized

3. Mass culture for general consumption

Lowest common denominator

4. Folk expressions belonging to the people

Populism and authenticity

What is Culture?Defining Culture

• Humanities/Social Sciences

• Culture is: Symbolic Socially constructed Embodied

• Sociology of Culture Study of cultural objects

Significance embodied in form

Possible range Art, tools, media, symbols,

gestures

Pop culture as collective actionArt Worlds (Howard Becker)

Creative Networks Division of labor Support personnel Cooperative links

Examples from culture industries Music

Example: Stein’s Research Film, TV, print

The Social Context of Pop Culture

Big Mama Thornton

Elvis Presley

“Why 1955?: Explaining the Advent of Rock Music” (Richard Peterson)

“Hound Dog”Social forces shape

productionEconomyTechnology Suburbanization Laws

Audiences, Production and ConsumptionCultural objects are multivocal

• Different meaning and interpretation• Social background of audience

Interpretive communities• Shared identity and experience• Shapes preferences

Genres Example: Native Americans and “Westerns”

• Media gatekeepers influence choices

Collective consumption• In groups, in public, in virtual communities

Example: MMORGs

New technologies blur production and consumption• Audience as creators• Mash-ups

Example: “Grey Album”

The Searchers

World of Warcraft

Danger Mouse

Sociology of Media and Popular Culture3 Theoretical Approaches:

FunctionalistCritical Interaction

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