Read the chapter on Socialization. Answer the following questions (thoroughly and completely and in your own words), then submit. You may need to do some online research to find any answers not addressed in the chapter. remember to keep your Turnitin score under 30%.

1. Nature and Nurture: What do twin studies tell us about nature/nurture? Also, discuss the influence of heredity in explaining the process of one’s personality and intellectual development. Provide examples.
2. What is the self? According to Charles Horton Cooley, explain the “looking glass self” (discuss the three phases). George Herbert Mead also discusses the stages of the self: identify differences between I and Me. What is meant by significant others?  How are significant others related to the self? Identify Mead’s three-stage process of self-development.
3. Explain the dramaturgical approach. What occurs on front-stage? What happens in backstage? How can Erving Goffman’s idea of impression management and face-work be used to understand social behavior?
4. Identify the agents of socialization. What is the role of schools in gender role socialization? How has technology (computer, cell phone, email, & TV) influenced the socialization process?
5. What are total institutions? Identify Goffman’s four traits of total institutions. Discuss how a degradation ceremony is used to mortify one’s sense of self.
6. How does society deal with an elderly population? Discuss differences between disengagement theory and activity theory? Finally, provide solutions to ageism.

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SOCIALIZATION

Learning Outcomes
At the end of this chapter you will be able to do the following.

Define socialization.
Compare nature and nurture as socialization influences.
Identify agents and agencies of socialization.
Evaluate the study of cases of feral children in terms of their importance to our

knowledge of socialization.
Recall and define the steps in determining a self-concept.
Evaluate Dramaturgy for its application to every day life.

WHAT IS SOCIALIZATION?

Socialization is the process by which people learn characteristics of their group’s norms,
values, attitudes, and behaviors. Through socialization we learn the culture of the society
into which we have been born. In the course of this process, a personality develops. A
personality is comprised of patterns of behavior and ways of thinking and feeling that are
distinctive for each individual.

Babies are not born with the social or
emotional tools needed to contribute to
society as properly functioning social actors.
They have to learn all the nuances of proper
behavior, how to meet expectations for what
is expected of them, and everything else
needed to become members of society. As
newborns interact with family and friends
they learn the expectations of their society
(family, community, state, and nation).

From the first moments of life, children begin a process of socialization wherein parents,
family, and friends establish an infant’s social construction of reality, or what people
define as real because of their background assumptions and life experiences with others. An
average U.S. child’s social construction of reality includes knowledge that he or she belongs,
and can depend on others to meet his or her needs. It also includes the privileges and
obligations that accompany membership in his or her family and community. In a typical
set of social circumstances, children grow up through a predictable set of life stages:
infancy, preschool, K-12 school years, young adulthood, adulthood, middle adulthood, and
finally later-life adulthood. Most will leave home as young adults, find a spouse or life
partner in their mid-to late 20s and work in a job for pay.

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THREE LEVELS OF SOCIALIZATION

When discussing the average U.S. child, most agree that the most imperative socialization
takes place early in life and in identifiable levels. Primary socialization typically begins at
birth and moves forward until the beginning of the school years. Primary socialization
includes all the ways the newborn is molded into a social being capable of interacting in and
meeting the expectations of society. Most primary socialization is facilitated by the family,
friends, day care, and to a certain degree various forms of media. Children watch about
three hours of TV per day (by the time the average child attends kindergarten she has
watched about 5,000 hours of TV). They also play video games, surf the Internet, play with
friends, and read.

Children learn how to talk, interact with others, share, manage frustrations, follow the
rules, and grow up to be like older family and friends they know. When they live up to
expectations they are big boys and girls, when they don’t they are naughty. In the early
years, tremendous attention is required in the safety and nurturance of infants. As they
begin to walk and talk they learn to communicate their needs and wants and also to feed
and clothe themselves. Younger children do not have strong abstract reasoning skills until
adolescence, so they rely heavily on the judgment of their caregivers. Most importantly,
they form significant attachments to the older people who care for them.

Around age 4 to 5, pre-school and kindergarten are presented as expectations for children.
Once they begin their schooling, they begin another different level of socialization.
Secondary socialization occurs in later childhood and adolescence when children go to
school and come under the influence of non-family members. This level runs concurrently
with primary socialization. Children realize that at school that they are judged for their
performance now and are no longer accepted unconditionally. In fact, to obtain approval
from teachers and school employees a tremendous amount of conformity is required. Now,
as students, children have to learn to belong and cooperate in large groups. They learn a
new culture that extends beyond their narrow family culture. This new culture with its
complexities and challenges requires effort on their part and that creates stressors for
children. By the time of graduation from high school, the average U.S. child has attended

15,000 hours of school away from home;
they’ve also probably watched 15,000 hours
of TV, and spent 5-10,000 hours playing.

Friends, classmates, and peers become
increasingly important in the lives of
children in their secondary educational
stage of socialization. Most 0-5 year olds
yearn for their parents and family member’s
affection and approval. By the time of the
pre-teen years, the desire for family
diminishes and the yearning now becomes

for friends and peers. Parents often lament the loss of influence over their children once

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the teen years arrive. Studies show that parents preserve at least some of their influence
over their children by influencing their children’s peers. Parents who host parties,
excursions, and get-togethers find that their relationship with their children’s friends keeps
them better connected to their children.

The K-12 schooling years are brutal in terms of peer pressure. Often, people live much of
their adult lives under the labels they were given in high school. Many new high school
graduates face the strikingly harsh realities of adulthood shortly after graduation. Anomie
often follows and it takes months and even years for young adults to discover new
regulating norms which ground them back into expectable routines of life.

The third level of socialization includes college, work, marriage/significant relationships,
and a variety of adult roles and adventures. Adult socialization occurs as we assume adult
roles such as wife, husband, parent, or employee. We adapt to new roles which meet our
needs and wants throughout the adult life course. Freshmen in college, new recruits in the
military, volunteers for Peace Corps and Vista, employees, travellers, and others find
themselves following the same game plan that leads to their success during their primary
and secondary socialization years—find out what’s expected and strive to reach those
expectations.

Though most live an average life course, few life paths conform perfectly to it. People die of
disease and accidents, marry and divorce, become parents, change careers, go bankrupt,
win lotteries, or pay off their mortgages. In each change that comes into their lives, they
find themselves adapting to new roles, new expectations, and new limitations. Socialization
is an ongoing process for everyone starting at birth and ending at death.

IS IT NATURE OR NURTURE?

There has been much said and written about how important socialization is to our eventual
human adult natures. Historically, there has also been much research into the biological
influence of who we eventually become. Think about this question, “How much of our
socialization is influenced by our genetics and biology, and how much is influenced by the
social environment we are born into and in which we are raised?” Nature versus Nurture is
the debate over the influence of biological versus social influences in socialization.
Heritability is the proportion of our personality, self, and biological traits which stem from
genetic factors.

In the history of social science the Blank Slate Theory was widely accepted. Tabula Rasa is
Latin for Blank Slate. It was a theoretical claim that humans are born with no mental or
intellectual capacities and all that they learn is written upon them by those who provide their
primary and secondary socialization (this claim was for 100% nurture in how we become
human). Most social scientists reject any notion of 100% nurture, simply because the
research does not support the theory. Socialization alone does not explain adult outcomes.

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Geneticists have conducted many studies of heritability which have yielded overriding
conclusion that biological factors alone do not explain socialization outcomes. Biological
and environmental factors are both influential, yet neither are deterministic. Steven Pinker
argued that the brain is the core issue in understanding how biology and social
environment interact in the process of how we become human. He argues that current
scientific knowledge has articulated much of the biological factor and some of the
sociological factor, but fails to consider the brain’s influence in how a child becomes an
adult wherever she grows up in this world. He states in his conclusion: “The human brain
has been called the most complex object in the known universe.”1

No doubt, hypotheses that pit nature against nurture as a dichotomy or that correlate genes
or environment with behavior without looking at the intervening brain will turn out to be
simplistic or wrong. But that complexity does not mean we should fuzz up the issues by
saying that it’s all just too complicated to think about, or that some hypotheses should be
treated as obviously true, obviously false, or too dangerous to mention. As with inflation,
cancer, and global warming, we have no choice but to try to disentangle the multiple
causes.2

Musical talents, genius intelligence levels, athletic abilities, various forms of intelligence,
homosexuality, heterosexuality, conformity, and other traits have been correlated with
biological and environmental factors. Most scientists can conclude at this time that the
biological factors are only correlated to, not causally deterministic of, any adult outcomes.
From the sociological perspective, the focus is heavily on environmental factors which
account for conflict, functional, and interactionist theoretical underpinnings of nature
versus nurture studies.

As was mentioned, part of socialization is the development of self-concept. It begins at
birth and continues through the school years, with slight modifications throughout the
adult years. Your self is at the core of your personality, representing your conscious
experience of having a separate and unique identity. Your self-concept is the sum total of
your perceptions and beliefs about yourself. It is crucial to note that your self-concept is
based heavily on your social construction of reality—that means others influence your
perception of your self-worth and definition.

WILD HUMAN CHILDREN AND ANIMALS

Feral children are wild or untamed children who grow up without typical socialization
influences. They are rare because most human newborns will not typically survive if they
are not cared for by an older individual. One of the earliest documented sociological studies
of an isolated feral child was reported on by Kingsley Davis in 1940. He discussed two
similar cases of Anna and Isabelle. Anna was five years old when she was discovered. She
lived for years isolated in an attic and kept barely alive. Anna only learned a few basic life
skills before she died at age 10. Isabelle was also isolated, but in her case she had the
company of her deaf and mute mother. When Isabelle was discovered at age six she
quickly learned the basic human social skills needed and was able to eventually attend

5 | S o c i a l i z a t i o n

school. Davis attributes the difference in outcome to nutrition and the fact that Isabelle had
at least some social interaction with her mother.3

In rare cases, human feral children have survived. There are three categories of feral
children 1) Children raised in isolation, 2) children raised in confinement, and 3) children
raised by animals (much less common). To grow up feral is perhaps the cruelest version of
child abuse because the crucial primary socialization does not occur. This means that feral
children lack a sense of self-concept; a pattern of multiple attachments and significant
others; an awareness of self, others, groups, and society; and ultimately a void where
socialization and acculturation should be.

A few movies are available that portray the complications of being a feral child, especially
when he or she tries to interact with socialized members of society. Nell is based on a true
story about a girl who grew up alone in the Carolina back woods after her mother and
sister died. The Young Savage of Aveyron is a true story about a French boy discovered in
the woods and taken into the care of a physician. Tarzan and The Jungle Book are believed
to have been inspired by true accounts of feral children raised by animals. For example,
Amala (8 years old) and Kamala (1½ years old) were discovered living with wolves in
Mindapore, India in 1920. See the artist sketch in Figure 1.

Figure 1. Artist Caricature of Amala and Kamala.4

You already know that most humans can’t co-exist with wolves and other carnivorous
animals. It is rare to survive such an encounter, especially for an 18 month old child. Yet,
cross-species nurturing has been documented from time to time (e.g., dogs nurturing
kittens or pigs).

Another feral child was discovered in 1970 in a Los Angeles suburb. A neighbor reported
that a child was locked in the back of a house. Police discovered a girl that was eventually
nicknamed Genie. Genie was about 12. Nova created a documentary on her called “Secret

6 | S o c i a l i z a t i o n

of the Wild Child.” In it you see what feral really means in the deprivation of acting,
understanding, experiencing, and living without having been socialized. See Figure 2 for a
sketch of Genie.

Figure 2. Artist Caricature of Genie.5

Genie’s hair was cut short to keep her from eating it. Even though she was chained to a
potty chair her entire life, she needed to wear diapers. She spat, clawed, rubbed, and self-
groomed more like an animal than a human. She had to be taught the basics of everything,
and she did learn, but nowhere near at the capacity of an average child.

George Herbert Mead argued that the self emerged out of social interactions as a result of
countless symbolic interactions with other human beings. To Mead, play and playful
interactions laid the foundation of becoming human and gaining our sense of self. Knowing
that, how troubling must it be for children kept in isolation to play, gain experiences
through interaction, and come to know their self?

THEORIES OF DEVELOPMENT

Charles Horton Cooley believed that the self developed through the process of social
interaction with others. He used the phrase looking-glass self to describe the three-stage
process through which each of us develops a sense of ourselves. First, we imagine how our
actions might appear to others. Second, we interpret how other people judge these actions.
We do this regularly. If you act up as child your parent gives you the look, you stop what
you’re doing because you have internalized what that look means, your parent is not happy
with your behaviour. Finally, we make some sort of self-judgement based on the presumed
judgements of others. In other words, other people become our mirror, or looking-glass,
for ourselves.7 For example, 1. You imagine you are a good child and then your parent
smiles at you . 2. You interpret this smile as your parent being pleased with you because
you are a good child, and so 3. You feel good about yourself, the good child.

George Herbert Mead argued that the self becomes the sum total of our beliefs and
feelings about ourselves. The self is composed of two parts: the “I” and the “me.” The “I” is
the portion of the self which wishes to have free expression, to be active and spontaneous.

7 | S o c i a l i z a t i o n

The “I” also wishes to be free from the control of others and to take the initiative in
situations. It is also the part of the self that is unique and distinctive. The “me” portion of
the self is made up of those things learned through socialization from family, friends, peers,
and so on. The “me” regulates the “I’s” behaviors.

Mead uses the term significant others to refer to those other people whose evaluations of
the individual are important and regularly considered during interactions, such as parents
and teachers. Generalized others are the viewpoints, attitudes, and expectations of a society
as a whole, or of a community of people whom we are aware of and who are important to us.8
Significant others affect our behaviors starting from a very early age, generalized others
influence us as our world expands to school and broader society.

Erik Erikson stressed that development is a lifelong process, and that a person continues
to pass through new stages even during adulthood. He also paid greater attention to the
social and cultural forces operating on the individual at each step along the way. Human
development is completed in eight stages (Table 1) with each stage amounting to a crisis of
sorts brought on by two factors: the biological changes in the developing individual and the
social expectations and stresses. In each stage, the individual is pulled into two opposite
directions to resolve the crisis. A resolution in the positive direction positions a person
well to enter the next stage. Stages that have been resolved in a negative direction can be
revisited later in life.

LARGER SOCIAL ISSUES
Let’s shift the focus of attention away from the socialization of individuals and towards the
larger socialization picture. In every society in the world today, there are both agents and
agencies of socialization. In the U.S., our agents include parents, siblings, relatives, friends,
teachers, religious leaders, bosses, and peers. Our agencies include the family, religion,
schools, places of employment, and the media. The cultures vary dramatically between the
U.S. and Darfur, but the structure of agents and agencies is very similar. In Darfur, agents
are parents, other family, friends, farmers, military leaders, religious leaders, and tribal
leaders. The agencies also include the family, religion, clan or tribe, military, and political
structures. In general, agents are people involved in our socialization while agencies
represent the organizations involved in our socialization.

some members of society experience a total institution at some point in their lives and the
intense socialization that comes with them. A total institution is an institution that
controls almost all aspects of its members’ lives, and all aspects of the individual’s life is
controlled by those in authority in the institution. Boarding schools, orphanages, the
military, juvenile detention facilities, and prisons are examples of total institutions. To a
certain degree sororities and fraternities mimic the nature of a total institution in the strict
rules and regulations required. A core difference among these total institutions is the fact
that some are voluntary while others are mandated.

8 | S o c i a l i z a t i o n

Table 1. Erikson’s Eight Stages of Development.9

Stage Age Period Achieved Characteristic Possible Hazards

Trust vs. mistrust Birth to 1 year Sense of trust or
security

Neglect, abuse, or
deprivation

Autonomy vs. shame
and doubt

1 to 4 years Sense of autonomy Conditions making a
child feel inadequate

Initiative vs. guilt 4 to 5 years Sense of initiative Guilt produced by
overly strict
discipline interfering
with child’s
spontaneity

Industry vs.
inferiority

6 to 12 years Sense of duty and
accomplishment

Feelings of
inadequacy

Identity vs. role
confusion

Adolescence Sense of identity Role confusion
resulting from
inferior role models

Intimacy vs. isolation Young adulthood Sense of intimacy Difficulty getting
close to others

Generativity vs.
stagnation

30s to 50s Sense of productivity
and creativity

Sense of stagnation
produced by feelings
of inadequacy

Integrity vs. despair Old age Sense of ego
integrity

Feelings of despair
and dissatisfaction
with one’s role as a
senior member of
society

Erving Goffman was interested in total institutions and wrote Asylums: Essays on the Social
Situation of Mental Patients and other Inmates.10 Goffman defines total institutions as
places where “like-situated individuals are cut off from the wider society for an appreciable
period of time, together lead an enclosed, formally administered round of life…”11 He also
suggested that total institutions have a method of depriving individuals of their former life.
“The recruit comes into the establishment with a conception of himself made possible by
certain stable social arrangements in his home world. Upon entrance, he is immediately
stripped of the support provided by these arrangements. In the accurate language of some
of our oldest total institutions, he begins a series of abasements, degradations, humiliations
and profanations of self. His self systematically, if often unintentionally, mortified….”12

Do fraternity orientation rituals fit the definition of what Goffman described above? True
enough, fraternities often strip down pledges emotionally, physically, and at times sexually
to degrade and humiliate them. Many force pledges to eat and drink disgusting things,
while all the time testing their loyalty to the fraternity. But, keep in mind that few if any
fraternities incarcerate their pledges, have total control of every aspect of their lives for

9 | S o c i a l i z a t i o n

extended periods of time (rounds of life as Goffman put it), and rarely attempt to deprive
pledges of their former life. Yet, urban legends abound about how institutionalized
fraternities and their rituals have become.

Goffman’s other significant contribution to the understanding of socialization is called
Dramaturgy which comes out of symbolic interactionism. His book, The Presentation of
Self in Everyday Life outlines his assumptions about how individuals manage others’
impressions of themselves. Individuals are described as actors, and much like actors on a
stage their actions are governed by the time, the place, and the audience. The goal of a
presentation of self is to be accepted by the audience and viewed as the actor intends.13

It “…is common in many social interactions [to have a]… division between front and back
stages. The front stage is what confronts the audience—what they see. The back stage, by
contrast, is a place where all the support activities necessary for maintaining the
performance on the main stage will go on. In theater, the back stage is where actors who
are not involved in the scene going on at the moment mill about; where props that will be
used at other times are stored; and where the counterbalances, lights, and so on that make
the scenery convincing to the audience are hidden.”14 Just as in the theater, individuals use
props and costumes to help maintain their impressions. Would you feel more confident
seeing a physician who wears a white coat or scrubs, or with one who wears torn jeans and
a Grateful Dead t-shirt? How about an attorney with torn jeans and a AC/DC shirt? Most
people would be more confident being represented by an attorney wearing a nice suit.
Costumes are more important than most people think. Try shopping in a nice store in
grungy jeans and worn out shirt, then the next day go to that same store in a nice outfit; see
if you are treated differently. You may be ready to argue about how unfair that is, but
sociology is not necessarily about fairness; it’s more about how society is.

1
http://www.psychology.iastate.edu/~dgentile/Psy101_notes/nature%20or%20nurture.htm

2 Why Nature and Nurture Won’t Go Away. Dædalus, Fall 2004, 1-13.
3 See Davis, K. 1940 Extreme Social Isolation of A Child. The American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 45, No. 4 (Jan.,
1940), pp. 554-565 Published by: The University of Chicago Press and Davis, K. 1949 Human Society by
McMillan Pub. New York; and Davis, K. 1993, “Final Note on a Case of extreme Isolation. Irvington Pub. CA.
4 © 2009 Ron J. Hammond, Ph.D.
5 © 2009 Ron J. Hammond, Ph.D.
7
“Social Organizations” by Charles Cooley

8
“Mind, Self, and Society” by George Herbert Mead

9
See “Childhood and Society” by Erik Erikson

10 1961 NY Doubleday
11 Page xiii
12 Page 14
13

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dramaturgy_(sociology)#cite_note-0
14

http://www.pineforge.com/upm-data/16569_Chapter_10

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Presentation_of_Self_in_Everyday_Life

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Presentation_of_Self_in_Everyday_Life

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_actions

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CULTURE

Learning Outcomes
At the end of this chapter you will be able to do the following:

Define terminology related to the study of culture.
Classify types of norms.
Classify sanctions.
Identify subcultures and countercultures.
Analyze how cultures blend together.

Culture is the shared values, norms, symbols, language, objects, and way of life that is passed
on from one generation to the next. It is estimated by the Encyclopedia of World Cultures
that there are about 500+ unique cultures on the earth in our modern world.1 Different
cultures share unique characteristics such as historical origins, location, language, folklore,
religion, major holidays, rites of passage, interpersonal relations, living conditions, family,
clothing, food, education, heritage, work, sports, entertainment, crafts and hobbies, and
social problems. It is obvious that cultures are complex and require focused efforts to be
properly understood.

WHAT PAINTS THE CULTURAL CANVAS OF OUR WORLD TODAY?

To better understand the diversity of the world we live in, summaries from the CIA World
Factbook are presented in Tables 1-4. They show you a quick snapshot of the social
structures that underlie our very populated world and the 500+ cultures in it. In Table 1,
you can see that collectively Christians make up about one-third of the world’s population.
Muslims, at 22 percent, represent the second largest religion. The Muslim faith (Islam)
grows rapidly because Muslims are encouraged to marry and have children.23 This high
fertility rate contributes to the higher growth in the Muslim population.4 The portion of
non-religious people has also been increasing.5

Table 2 presents the percentage of people who speak Chinese, Spanish, and English, the
three most common languages in the world. Although 12.44% does not appear to be very
high, keep in mind that it’s 12.44% of over 6.9 billion.6 China has 1.3 billion inhabitants
and comprises roughly one out of five people on the planet. India has about 1.17 billion
people. Many languages are not listed because there are thousands of dialects and local
variations on these major languages. China with 1.3 billion has two forms of the Chinese
language, Mandarin and Cantonese.

The world’s population has exploded in the last century and continues to grow rapidly.
Never in the history of this world have so many people lived at the same time with so many
co-existing and equally valid cultural heritages. There are 19.5 births per year for every
1,000 people7 on the earth (Monaco is the lowest at just under 7 per 1,000 and Niger the
highest at over 50 per 1,000) and 8.12 deaths8 which equals a natural yearly increase of
about 11 people per 1,000 (net growth). The world’s population grew from only one
billion in 1820 to six billion in 2000. In eight years, the population increased another 677

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million to a grand total of over six billion people. Many scientists have predicted the
population growth to reach 9 billion worldwide by 2050.9

Table 1. Religions of the World, 2009 (Estimated by CIA).10

Religion Percent
Christians all combined 33.35
Roman Catholics 16.83
Protestants 6.08
Orthodox 4.03
Anglicans 1.26
Muslims 22.43
Hindus 13.78
Buddhists 7.13
Sikhs 0.36
Jews 0.21
Baha’is 0.11
Other 11.17
Non-religious (incl. Atheists) 1611

Table 2. Languages of the World, 2009 (Estimated by CIA).12

Language Percent
Mandarin Chinese 12.44
Spanish 4.85
English 4.83
Arabic 3.25
Hindi 2.68
Bengali 2.66
Portuguese 2.62
Russian 2.12
Japanese 1.80
Standard German 1.33

Table 3 shows that males and females are not equally distributed throughout the world’s
population. In the childhood years there are more males (about 60.7 million more). In the
working years of 15 to 64 there are 47 million more males, but in the 65 and older age
group there are far more females (almost 62 million more). In 2011, The median age was
27.7 years for males and 29 years for females.

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Table 3. The World by Age (Estimated by CIA, 2011).13

Age Percent of Total Male Female
0-14 26.3 944,987,919 884,268,378
15-64 65.9 2,234,860,865 2,187,838,153
65+ 7.9 227,164,176 289,048,221

Table 4 shows more detail of gender differences in the world by showing the sex ratio, the
number of males per 100 females. The sex ratio is highest for newborns, children, and
working ages. For example, there are 107 males born for every 100 females born and there
are 79 men aged 65+ for every 100 women aged 65+. The older the age group, the lower
the sex ratio.

Table 4. Sex Ratios (Estimated by CIA).14

Age Group Sex Ratio
At Birth 107
Under 15 years 107
15-64 102
65+ 79
All Ages 101

These tables present a global picture in terms of who lives in the world today and the
cultures they represent. In order to truly understand these varying cultures, you must first
understand the concept of one’s world-taken-for-granted, which is all of the assumptions
about how we fit into our social and physical environment. Each of us has a unique world-
taken-for-granted. Each has a myriad of interactions, experiences, and life course
progressions that are too numerous to calculate; hence, our world-taken-for-granted is
unique, even though we may grow up in a society with 313 million others.15 The
assumption is that our world-taken-for-granted works much the same way corrective
lenses work on our vision, barely noticeable unless you are not wearing them, invisible
unless your attention is focused on them, and since you’ve worn them for a while, hidden to
your conscious mind.

CAN WE LEARN TO APPRECIATE CULTURES?

What’s the last thing a fish would ever notice? Most people would say the water they swim
in. For humans the last thing we pay attention to is air. This is true for us and our world-
taken-for-granted. It is so subtle to us that it is often the last thing we notice until we travel
and find ourselves in a foreign place where we encounter diverse cultures.

Cultures are part of the human social experience. Even though cultures tend to be
universal and desirable, we often judge cultures as being good, bad, or evil, with our own
culture typically being judged as good. We have to consider our perspective when engaging
with people from different cultures. Are we ethnocentric or culturally relativistic?

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Ethnocentrism is the tendency to judge others based on our own experiences and cultural
standards. In this perspective our culture is right while cultures that differ from our own
are wrong. Consider the instance where a traveller visited a beautiful Catholic cathedral in
France. This man fell in love with this beautiful and historic monument and to the religious
devotion of generations of builders. He learned that it took about 300 years to build, that
England’s King Henry the VIII married his Italian bride there, and a few families had nine
generations of builders working on it. He left with such a deep sense of appreciation for it
all. On the bus back to his hotel, he met some American tourists who were angry about

their vacation in France, saying “These
people will eat anything that crawls under
the front porch, they never bathe, they dress
funny, and they can’t speak one *#&@ word
of English!”

Our intrepid traveller tried to redirect the
conversation back to the cathedral and the
things he really enjoyed in France. The angry
tourist was too frustrated to listen. If he had
just arrived and was transitioning to the

difference, we call it culture shock. Culture shock is the disoriented feeling which occurs in
the context of being in a new culture. It tends to leave after a few days or weeks, and the
greater the familiarity with the culture the less the shock. For example, when another
traveller went to Turkey and was very excited to get off the long plane ride and get
acquainted with the Turkish way of doing things. However, when she arrived, local Turks
almost immediately began putting their arms around her and petting her hair. She was
very uncomfortable—and somewhat frightened—as she was not used to such affection
from strangers. However, by the end of her stay in Turkey, she was quite comfortable with
strangers wanting to talk to her and touch her simply because she was a visitor in their
country. She came to understand and embrace Turkish customs—she was being a cultural
relativist. Cultural relativism is the tendency to look for the cultural context in which
differences in cultures occur. Cultural relativists respect and appreciate cultural differences
even if only from the spectators’ point of view. They tend to enjoy, or learn to enjoy, the
many varieties of the human experience. In other words, instead of judging others’ values,
norms, beliefs, or attitudes based on some alleged universal standard, this perspective
allows researchers to observe cultural variations existing within the cultural framework of
a specific people.

An ethnocentric person thinks on the level of carrot soup: peel carrots, add water, and boil.
The cultural relativist tends to think on the level of a complex stew: peel and prepare
carrots, potatoes, onions, mushrooms, broth, tofu, and 10 secret herbs and spices, and
simmer for two hours. The diversity of the human experience is what makes it rich and
flavorful. Therefore, studying human experience from only one perspective (our own in
the case of ethnocentrism) can essentially rob us from fully understanding or appreciating
others’ cultures and experiences.

5 | C u l t u r e

But, do cultural relativists have to accept all versions of morality, ethics, values, and
traditions in order to be accepting of a new culture? No, of course not. Anyone who is
planning a trip to another community, state, or country would be wise to do their cultural
homework and prepare in advance how they will immerse themselves into the parts of the
culture that fit their value system. There are a number of accessible travel guides available
online and in print at public libraries. Always do your cultural homework before you travel.

UNDERSTANDING THE NATURE OF CULTURE

Before traveling consider your own values and stereotypes. A stereotype is a broad
generalization about individuals based solely on group affiliation. Although it will be
discussed more in the Race chapter, stereotypes have to be managed, especially among
ethnocentric persons.

Culture is what we learn from our parents, family, friends, peers, schools, and media. It is
shared rather than biologically determined. Humans have biological needs, which are the
innate urges that require some action on our part if we are to survive. These include the
need to urinate, breath, eat, drink, and sleep or else we eventually collapse and die. If we
urinate in enclosed bathrooms, behind a tree, or in an open-air urinal depends as much on
our cultural traditions as it does on our biology. Likewise, we may eat ground beef, snails,
worms, fermented cabbage, fish eggs, or animal lard depending on our cultural
assumptions.

Values are defined standards of what is good, bad, desirable, or undesirable for ourselves and
others. Typical American values considered desirable for the entire nation are achievement
and success, equality, individualism, group superiority, activity and work, education,
efficiency and practicality, progress, romantic love and monogamy, science and technology,
equal opportunity, material comfort, nationalism and patriotism, humanitarianism,
external conformity, freedom and democracy, and free enterprise.16 Do these collective
values apply to your own personal values?

If the typical U.S. culture is more like your world-taken-
for-granted and you travel to an equatorial country
where they behave in a different manner, then your
enthusiastic hand shake, personal questioning, and space
intrusions might land you in hot water (see Table 5). It
is best not to assume that a polite American also makes a
polite Costa Rican, and vice versa.

6 | C u l t u r e

Table 5. A Comparison of Mainstream U.S. Cultural Traits vs. Equatorial Countries’ Cultural
Traits.17

Typical Mainstream U.S. Cultural traits Typical Equatorial Cultural Traits

Shake hands Bow, nod, or gesture

Ask personal questions about family,
friends, and health

Ask only general questions about weather
and business

Speak informally by first names Speak formally by titles and last names

Stand close to the other person Stand at a distance

Pat each other on back, shoulder, or arm No touching at all

Men and or women may speak to anyone Men speak to men and women to women

At a very personal level, you might better understand your own values if you knew that
most younger college students today share very similar values to others their age. In fact,
you may be a Generation Y or Millennial. This generation of today’s U.S. and Canadian
youth were born in the 1980s and 1990s. They are also called Screenagers as opposed to
teenagers because they grew up with cell phones, TV’s, computers, and video games.
Collectively, Millennials are much better adapted to using computer-based technology than
any generation that came before them. Odds are that your children will be much better
than you at a technology that has not yet emerged onto the market.

Millennials hold somewhat unique values in comparison to older members of our society.
They tend to seek a sense of purpose in what they have to do, desire a clear work-life
balance, have a relatively short attention span, enjoy having fun, enjoy variety, respect
others, have unlimited ambition, be more demanding and will question everything, not do
something they’re asked if they don’t see a good reason for it, want to make a difference,
quit what they committed to if some or all of their expectations are not met, and are very
loyal to family, friends, and themselves.18

One recent survey of Millennials found that 97% own a computer; 94% own a cell phone;
76% can instant message; 15% are logged on to instant messaging 24/7; 75% who are
college students have a Facebook account; and 60% have a portable music player.19

Interestingly, your parents or perhaps your grandparents are probably Baby Boomers
(born between 1946 and 1964). They represent a huge segment of the U.S. population
today. They are people 45 years and older who make up more than a third of the U.S.
population. They own 80 percent of financial assets and dispose of 50 percent of
discretionary income.20 The 50+ population is going to double in the next 35 years. The
American Association for Retired Persons (AARP) reports that the Baby Boomers love
choice. They want information; the more sources the better. They are not afraid to make
decisions, but only on their own terms. They want many things and they want them now.
The ideal for typical Baby Boomers is to have something delivered before they even knew
they wanted it. They lean more to independence than blending in with the crowd. They are

7 | C u l t u r e

usually fairly sophisticated buyers of anything and everything. They love bells and whistles
simply because they are bells and whistles.21

COMPONENTS OF CULTURE

In understanding cultures (ours and others) you must realize how crucial values are to the
overall culture. Our values are the basis of norms, which in turn are the basis for folkways
and morés, and eventually laws. It flows like this:

Values → Norms → Folkways/Morés → Laws

Norms are shared expectations or rules of behavior. Norms are what are normal in a given
social circumstance; they are rules defining appropriate and inappropriate behaviors. For
example, in France, the beaches were filled with completely naked swimmers (this is
common in many places throughout the world). In France, nude beaches are normal. In
the U.S, that would still be considered not normal. In the 1990s, a young University of
California, Berkeley student attended about half of his 4-year degree program with not
much more than a bandana around his waist.22 Even at a very liberal university like
Berkeley, a nude student was eventually ruled unacceptable because it was sconsidered not
normal.

Norms guide our countless interactions on a day-to-day basis. All the subtleties of
everyday life, what we expect for ourselves and others, are found in our commonly shared
norms. Georg Simmel claimed that outsiders appear remote to locals because they respond
differently, having different norms.23

Some norms are the basis of a folkway, which is a traditional or customary norm governing
everyday social behaviors but lack moral overtones. Folkways are the simple things in
society such as how we eat our soup (with a spoon or sipped from the edge of the bowl).
They also include our greetings, clothing, rules of politeness, and hand gestures. Norms are
also the basis for morés, which are deeply held, informal norms that are strictly enforced by
a moral code.

Morés are much more important to people than folkways. They might include a strongly
held belief against sexual exploitation of women and children, respect for religious edifices,
or abstaining from using street drugs. For example, in the cultures of millions of Muslims,
clear boundaries must be maintained between males and females. This often prohibits
average men from talking to women who are not their wives, or seeing the hands, feet, and
face of women who are not their wives. Not following folkways may lead to ridicule or
other informal sanctions while not following morés may lead to harsh punishments or
formal sanctions.

From our values, norms, folkways, and morés we derive our laws. Laws are codified norms
or written and recorded norms from which the behavior of society’s members can be
judged.24 The U.S. Legal Code is quite extensive and includes information on all the laws in

8 | C u l t u r e

the United States. State laws are not as extensive, but are also on the Internet for you to
study, if so desired. Laws are enforced by a legal system and come in two varieties.
Prescriptive laws are laws that state what must be done, and proscriptive laws are laws
which state what is prohibited. If you want to drive, set up a small business, or not be in
trouble with the IRS for failing to file taxes, then you must follow prescriptive laws. They
tell you the rules of how things must be done.

Proscriptive laws tell us what we cannot do such as murder, rape, steal, etc. Violating these
laws brings negative formal sanctions. A negative sanction is a punishment or negative
reaction toward breaking a norm (folkway, moré, or law). Jail time, criminal record, fines,
and penalties are just a few of the formal sanctions available to law breakers. A teacher
telling you to stop texting during class is an informal negative sanction. Positive sanctions,
both formal (being awarded a gold medal at the Olympics) and informal (a pat on the back
for a job well done) encourage people to continue their adherence to our social norms.

Why are city, state, and national laws so different? The answer is simply that values vary
from city to city, state to state, and country to country. Because values change over time,
laws change with them. Older laws prohibiting women from voting, driving, and owning
businesses have been changed over the last century because our values today find such
laws unreasonable, unacceptable, and oppressive. The values are socially agreed upon and
are communicated via language.25

DOES LANGUAGE SHAPE OUR CULTURAL UNDERSTANDING?

One very powerful tool used by human beings is our capacity for language. Language is a
complex set of symbols which allow us to communicate verbally, nonverbally, and in written
form. The languages listed in Table 2 comprise about 40 percent of the spoken languages in
the world. How you view the world around you, your social construction of reality, and
your world-taken-for-granted all stem in part from the language you learn to speak. The
Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis claims that when we learn a language, we also learn a framework
for understanding and interpreting our social reality and environment. That means that your
rules of conjugation, sentence structure, etc., shape your thought patterns. For example, in
English (a language which descended from German) we describe our physical condition
using the “to be” verb of “I am.” We say I am cold, hot, hungry, tired, 22 years old, or fat. In
many Latin-derived languages such as Spanish and French, they describe their physical
condition using the “to have” verb. I have cold, hot, hunger, fatigue, 22 years, or extra
weight. Given the enormous pressure felt by women to be thin and to conform to
unrealistic beauty standards, the “to have” verb is much more palatable. Since the language
is the vehicle that facilitates socialization of the culture, it becomes a crucial factor in either
the survival or eventual death of a culture—if the language disappears, so does the
culture.26

In Quebec, Canada the French language was suppressed after Napoleon agreed to the
Louisiana Purchase. The British systematically deported the Arcadian French speakers to
Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where they later became known as the Cajuns. The French

9 | C u l t u r e

speakers who remained in Quebec found themselves oppressed by the dominant English-
speaking rulers. For decades, the French struggled to keep their language alive, and
thereby keep their cultural traditions alive. In the 1960s, social conditions led to the
formation of a political terrorist group which used terror to advance the cause of the
French language and culture in Quebec. The Quebec Sovereignty Movement engaged in
efforts to formally create an independent nation-state in Quebec. A series of legislative
pieces and referendum ballots on Quebec’s secession (and therefore sovereignty of
Quebec) ultimately led to a 1995 vote in which only 50.56% voted No and a close 49.44%
voted Yes out of 94% of the 5 million registered voters who voted.27

What was the big deal? The big deal was that if a political body wants to eliminate a sub-
culture, it can effectively do so by eliminating the language spoken by members of the sub-
culture. Likewise, members of the sub-culture can unite their efforts in preserving their
heritage as the French speakers did in Quebec.

In each society you have the mainstream culture, or the culture shared by the dominant
groups, coinciding with the culture shared in the main social institutions (government,
education, religion, family, technology, media, and the economy). Then within a larger
society there are always sub- and counter-cultures. A subculture is when a subgroup has
different folkways, morés, and norms from the larger society. On the other hand, a
counterculture forms when a group’s values, norms, and beliefs are in conflict or opposition
to those of the larger society and mainstream culture.

The Amish are an example of a sub-culture while the Branch Davidians are an example of a
counterculture. The Amish are known for simple living, plain dress, and reluctance to
adopt modern convenience.28 The name Branch Davidian is most widely known for the
1993 siege on their property near Waco, Texas by the ATF and the FBI, which resulted in
the deaths of 82 of the followers of David Koresh.29 Countercultural groups often come into
conflict with authority and typically one dominates the other, but sometimes authority is
misused against subcultural groups. This was the case in Japan with the Ainu people. On
the Japanese island of Hokkaido, a group of indigenous people named the Ainu once
flourished in their traditional culture.30 The Ainu are a historical component of the early
history of Japan, but few live the traditional cultural, tribal, and religious traditions of this
formally noble civilization. Japan forced all its citizens claiming to be Japanese to attend
public schools. Tremendous pressure came to bear on the Ainu people and many continue
to hide their ethnicity to this day because of fear of racism. Even though some Ainu lived in
Russia, the average Japanese Ainu seeks invisibility among other Japanese citizens.31

It is very common for sub-cultural and mainstream cultural groups often from different
countries to coexist. Often their cultural traits and traditions spread back and forth
between one another. Cultural diffusion is when certain aspects of one culture are spread
to another culture. An example in the U.S. is the consumption of salsa. Salsa was rarely
consumed in the U.S. prior to the 1990s, but in the mid-1990s salsa consumption surpassed
ketchup consumption and remains in the lead today with over $1 billion in annual sales.32
Salsa is a food traditional to the Spanish and Portuguese speaking nations of the Americas.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simple_living

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plain_dress

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_Siege

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco,_Texas

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bureau_of_Alcohol,_Tobacco,_Firearms_and_Explosives

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FBI

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Koresh

10 | C u l t u r e

Its move northward coincided with shifts in immigration patterns including more Mexican
and Central and South American immigrants to the U.S.

Interestingly, ketchup is still consumed as much as it was in the past. Salsa was added to
the American diet, rather than adopted as a replacement to ketchup. Food is only one area
where cultural diffusion can be readily observed. Clothing, music, television shows,
movies, cars, technologies, and many other aspects of cultures spread throughout the world
today, diffusing cultures to a great extent. Cultural leveling is the process in which cultures
of the world become similar. As yet, we do not have a world-wide mainstream culture,
however, there are those who have argued that oil is one aspect of our daily lives that is
leveled throughout much of the world.

CULTURE IN THE LARGER SOCIAL CONTEXT

What happens when people have grown into adulthood in their own cultures outside of the
U.S. then later immigrate here? Can they hold onto the culture of their homeland? Before
we answer this let’s dispel one very entrenched myth that the U.S. is a melting pot of
cultures. The Melting Pot Theory is an ideology which suggests that all the diverse people
coming to the U.S. as immigrants would blend biologically and culturally in order to form a
new unique breed of Americans. The U.S. has never been a melting pot. Those who’ve
migrated here (numbering 10s of millions) have found themselves pressured to accept the
Anglo-Saxon (British) version of the mainstream culture. Acculturation is the process by
which immigrant people adjust and adapt their way of life to the host culture. Once in the
U.S., they realize that they have to make some adjustments in order to experience success
in their daily interactions with members of the mainstream society. Assimilation is the
process by which people from different cultures are acculturated and ultimately absorbed into
the mainstream culture. In much of the U.S. history of immigration throughout the 18th,
19th, and early 20th Centuries, assimilation was more or less forced toward the deeply
British-influenced mainstream culture.

Forced assimilation is where those in power in the mainstream refuse to allow immigrants
to maintain their various cultures. Since the U.S. immigration policy switched in favor of
more non-European immigrants being allowed to immigrate here, much of the assimilation
is voluntary and considered permissible. Permissible assimilation permits newcomers to
adapt to the mainstream culture naturally.

It is fascinating to observe the assimilation and acculturation of adult immigrants to the
U.S. who have children born here and who have children enrolled in the public school
systems. Many adult immigrants hold dear their homeland cultures and adapt as little as
possible to mainstream U.S. cultural norms, which commonly leads to marginalization.
Marginalization is the tendency for adult immigrants to be rendered powerless in
comparison to native-born adults because they live as half citizens not fully capable of
realizing the individual opportunities often found available to average native-born adults.
Their U.S. born children find themselves living in a culturally transitioning family
structure. Their parents are more like permanent tourists here while they become fully

11 | C u l t u r e

Americanized (for better or for worse), because public schools are tremendous
socialization agencies which effectively acculturate most children into the mainstream.
These children often serve as cultural liaisons to their parents and the mainstream culture.

Regardless of which culture a person grows up in, there are cultural universals which are
for the most part common to all cultures. Cultural universals are certain aspects of
cultures which are found among peoples of all cultures throughout the world. All societies
have universal social tasks which include the meeting of basic human needs such as
breathing, eating, sleeping, drinking, having sex, and remaining safe. How cultural groups
go about meeting these basic needs varies by their cultural norms.

In the history of sociology, there were early scientists who applied evolutionary thought to
the evaluation of cultures. Sociobiology claims that human behavior is the result of natural
selection. Recall Herbert Spencer’s notion of survival of the fittest. Suffice it to say here
that most studies do not support this approach—specifically, human agency proves to be
much more potent than genetic determinism. In addition, genes are not grouped neatly
with the various cultures in such a way as to biologically distinguish one culture’s members
from another.

One final issue for discussion is the fact that technology moves and advances so quickly
that often our values, norms, folkways, and morés evolve at a much slower pace. Cultural
lag is the process whereby one part of culture changes faster than another part to which it is
related. Thus, we find ourselves having scientifically-developed concepts such as
euthanasia, congenital birth defect detection, and surrogate mothering with no
accompanying guidelines or laws about them. As a society, our ethics and values have not
kept up with technological advances.

What might happen if a small group of people lived isolated from the rest of the world?
Seems impossible, huh? It’s not. Today there are an estimated 100 uncontacted tribes of
people living in various remote corners of the world.33 They have no cell phones, TVs,
Internet, cars, sinks, toilets, or beds as we know them, and they have no idea that such
technologies even exist. An uncontacted tribe is a native tribe, typically a small group of
people, living in a remote and isolated place, who have not yet had contact with members of a
technologically advanced society.

On May 30th, 2008, CNN News reported that an uncontacted tribe of Brazilian Indians were
photographed from a small airplane and the news story spread quickly around the world.34
The Website, Survival: The Movement of Tribal People reported that these tribal people had
to be photographed in order to deter illegal loggers from Peru and Brazil from coming into
contact with them and chasing them away in armed conflict.35

Brazil constantly monitors its 200 tribal communities and keeps track of all their tribal
people via their governmental agency FUNAI. The government has to make efforts to
protect them from opportunists looking to obtain immense national resources located near
their villages.36 Previous encounters between tribal people and mainstream civilization
has left vast numbers of tribal people dead or exploited from diseases, slave labor,

12 | C u l t u r e

prostitution, racism, and discrimination. They now have been exposed to contact with
more civilized societies and therefore not technically an uncontacted tribe.

1 Gall, T. L. 1997. Gale Publishers.
2
http://godlas.myweb.uga.edu/sexuality.html

3
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/xx.html

4
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2007/05/13/the_list_the_worlds_fastest_growing_religions

5
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claims_to_be_the_fastest-growing_religion

6
http://geography.about.com/od/obtainpopulationdata/a/worldpopulation.htm

7
http://www.globalhealthfacts.org/data/topic/map.aspx?ind=86

8
http://www.globalhealthfacts.org/data/topic/map.aspx?ind=90

9 See http://www.prb.org/pdf08/08WPDS_Eng
10 https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/xx.html
11

From http://www.adherents.com/Religions_By_Adherents.html
12 https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/xx.html
13 ibid
14 ibid. Retreived 10 January, 2012
15

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/us.html
16 See Williams, R. M. (1970). American Society: A Sociological Interpretation, 3rd Ed. NY; Knopf
17 (C) 2008 Ron J. Hammond, Ph.D.
18 Hira, N. A. May 15, 2007 Fortune
19 See Reynol Junco and Jeanna Mastrodicasa. Connecting to the Net.Generation: What higher education
professionals need to know about today’s students, NASPA; First edition, March 29, 2007.
20 The American Association for Retired Persons (AARP)
21 http://www.answer-my-health-question.info/characteristics-of-baby-boomers.html
22 Google “Berkeley Naked Guy” for more information
23 See Simmel, G. (1950). “The Stranger” in The Sociology of Georg Simmel, edited by Wolff, K. H.; NY Free
Press.
24 The U.S. Code is available on the Internet and can be downloaded free from
http://uscode.house.gov/download/download.shtml
25 Another interesting and indirect measure of cultural values, norms, folkways, and morés can be found on
http://www.google.com/trends . Go there and search the phrase “family history.” Type it then hit search
trends. Now go to the first box on the bar and select United States as a region. As of 12 March 2009, Utah was
the state with the highest search of this phrase with Salt Lake City being the highest city.
26 Google search “Dalmatian language” for an example.
27 See Wiki at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quebec_sovereignty_movement
28 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amish
29 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Branch_Davidian
30 Ainu people called themselves “Utari” which means comrade since Ainu has negative connotations for
them; see also Navajo and Diné for similar cultural rejection of dominant group imposed negative labels.
31 See http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2244.html or http://www.japanforum.com/
32 See http://www.agecon.uga.edu/~caed/SalsaIndustry , Wolfe and Ferland (2000)
33 See http://survival-international.org/home
34 See http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/americas/05/30/brazil.tribes/index.html
35 See http://www.survival-international.org/
36 See http://www.brazilsf.org/culture_indian_eng.htm

1| P o p u l a r C u l t u r e a n d M e d i a

POPULAR CULTURE AND MEDIA

Learning Outcomes
At the end of this chapter you will be able to do the following.

 Define popular culture.
 Identify the three major theoretical views on popular culture: Functionalist,

Critical and Interpretation.
 Define Interpretive Communities.
 Define Class distinction.
 Evaluate claims for Authenticity.
 Define the ‘Sleeper Curve.’
 Define mass media.
 Apply theories of media to US society.
 Describe how perpetual discontent is used by advertisers.
 Describe editorial strategies used by the media.

WHAT IS POPULAR CULTURE?

The idea of popular culture is one that is undoubtedly very familiar to you. You
probably consume lots of media content in the form of music, tv, movies and the
internet. The sociologically fascinating part about this is the ubiquity (that is, it is
everywhere) of the mass media and our popular culture. Everywhere you turn you
will find ads, billboards, clothing, screens of various sizes to rest your eyes on. But
how often have you critically analyzed this omnipresent socializing force in your
life? What meanings do people attribute to popular culture? What are the patterns
to these interpretations? What effect does this powerful institution serve? These
are some of the topics we’ll discuss below. But as we do, think about your favorite
artist or TV show or movie and see how the concepts we’ll go over help explain its
appeal to you.

So, to start, we’ll need a working definition of popular culture. Popular culture
refers to the aesthetic products created and sold by profit-seeking firms operating in
the global entertainment market.1 You’ll notice from this definition that culture itself
is designed to be sold and consumed for profit globally. This is why summer
blockbusters like Battleship or the latest Transformers movie follow predictable
formats that often involve clearly defined enemies (good versus evil; human versus
alien, etc.), minimal dialogue (for instance Arnold Schwarzenegger as the terminator
only utters 147 words in Terminator), and lots of explosions, fights and car chases.
Movies designed this way will attract the largest audiences possible because the
content has been simplified and translates easier to any language for the overseas
markets. One thing to remember when thinking about popular culture: it is
ultimately (despite how we as audiences might perceive and consume it) designed
to make money. To make the most money possible means to make the sure-fire hit,
the blockbuster film with uncontroversial content. The end result of which is a

2 | P o p u l a r C u l t u r e a n d M e d i a

predictable and standardized formulaic product (this by the way is true of most
popular culture content, not just movies).

HOW WE MAKE SENSE OF POPULAR CULTURE: THEORIES

There are usually two components to the study of any popular culture: the
perspective of the culture creators (for profit mass media companies, individual
auteurs, filmmakers and artists) and the perspective of the consumers (you and me
and other audiences). Sociologists look at this issue from both perspectives and
somewhere in between. Do musical notes, lighting schemes and articles of clothing
carry meaning embedded within them? Or do we interpret them symbolically and
derive meaning from our own experiences, backgrounds and selves? The Critical
Theorists (who take their cue from Marx and conflict theory) say that the mass
media is an industry and designed to indoctrinate and subordinate the masses
(audiences) into passivity and acceptance of the capitalist mode of consumption
through our popular culture consumption2. Why challenge the normative order
when you’ve got an iphone to pacify your discontent? Sure unemployment rate is
high and those in the middle and lower social classes are still reeling from the great
recession but at least we have youtube and the like. The critical theorists maintain
that we literally buy into our own domination through the popular culture we
consumer which ultimately supports the status quo and capitalism itself.

According to the Functionalists however, the purpose (or, function) of culture is
not so sinister and self-serving after all. Instead, they argue that popular culture
serves the same purpose culture has always served in societies; it is the social glue
that binds together members of that social group and creates feeling of solidarity and
group cohesion3. In societies characterized by what Durkheim called mechanical
solidarity this was easy; the numbers were low, the division of labor was less
complex and the focus culturally was already on the society4. Where the
functionalist’s explanation is useful, is in using this same idea to explain the way
large, diverse and heterogeneous societies like ours are held together. Think about
the way contemporary collective rituals—high school football games, parades, pep
rallies—serve to forge emotional bonds of recognition, identity, and trust within
communities and social groups5. It is through these events that we (re)establish our
connections to one another. Sharing the same popular culture allows strangers to
communicate in public with one another. Have you ever struck up a conversation
with a stranger simply because they were wearing your favorite team’s jersey? Or
you favorite band’s logo on a t-shirt? Knowing the same logos and sharing the same
norms allows us to feel connected to strangers and creating a unifying feeling
amongst those who know.

This feeling of emotional connectedness to others manifests in what sociologists call
emotional energy6. Emotional energy is that warm and fuzzy feeling you get when
hanging out with good friends or engaging in stimulating conversation with
classmates or professors. This is one of the reasons we maintain relationships with

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others, including imagined others who also enjoy the same popular culture we do.
Have you ever been to a Dodger, Lakers, or Kings game (any home team sporting
event) and felt oddly connected to the total strangers around you? Maybe after the
game-winning home run or three point at the buzzer to win the game you stood up,
simultaneously with the tens of thousands of others attendees and cheered, high-
fived and hugged those you (even the complete strangers)? Or have you been there,
singing or chanting along with hundreds of other concert attendees to your favorite
artist’s favorite song? This intense form of emotional energy can only come from
large groups of people with a shared focus (the athletes participating, the singer
singing, etc.) and it is what Durkheim called Collective Effervescence7. Collective
effervescence is the reason why we pay money to hear music we already have or
attend the game we can watch for free on tv. Like all popular culture, it is inherently
social and its meaning comes from others, not embedded magically in the celluloid
of movies or the ones and zeroes of an mp3.

Finally, the interactionists focus on the way that we use popular culture to make
sense of ourselves but also emphasize how others shape our tastes, values and
ultimately identity. Have you ever noticed that your friends tend to like similar
music, sports and tv shows as you do? Is this simply a coincidence? Interactionists
would argue that it is not and that this is indeed evidence of the interaction between
our individual tastes and our peers’. Depending on the popularity of your name
when you born you may find many others with your name or very few. But what
influenced your parents when they named you? Chances are those around your
parents shaped your parents’ attitudes towards particular names and away from
others. We call these groups of people that tend to interpret, understand and enjoy
popular culture in similar ways as interpretive communities. Therefore,
interpretive communities are consumers whose common social identities and
cultural backgrounds (whether organized on the basis of nationality, race, ethnicity,
gender, sexuality, religion, or age) inform their shared understandings of culture in
patterned and predictable ways8.

One of the most important ways interpretive communities play out in everyday life
is in determining taste and consumption. Taste can be defined as a preference for
particular fashion, movies, music etc. Though we think taste, and therefore ‘good
taste’ is universal, it is far from it. There are varied beliefs about what ‘good music’
is or isn’t, what is fashionable and what is not depending on which interpretive
community we come from (you’ll notice all black clothing in the goth subculture is
desirable but not so much in any other interpretive community). What we prefer
then determines at least in part, our consumption, how we receive and make sense
of popular culture. Do you suppose that what we prefer to consume has anything to
do with what is available to us and also what those around us consume? Think
about your favorite foods. It is likely that you grew up eating them or your friends
eat them. We are heavily influenced by those around us.

Several decades ago the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu analyzed French culture
in terms of how important distinction from other social classes was9. Since then

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sociologists have used this analysis to understand social class and popular culture in
America. In the early days of the United States there wasn’t much distinction
between people in terms of their social class. Indeed, since the U.S. was so new
there wasn’t yet an entrenched upper class and there was certainly no aristocracy
like in Europe. No, these Americans mostly immigrated with little to their names.
But it wasn’t long before entrepreneurs and robber barons began to accumulate
wealth they also sought ways to distinguish themselves from the lower social
classes. This process is called boundary maintenance and it serves as a method to
keep lower classes out and maintain the exclusivity of the upper classes. As would
come to define the U.S. in the twentieth century and beyond, the main course this
took was purchasing goods and services that those without money could simply not
afford. Buying things to show that you can afford to spend money came to be known
as conspicuous consumption (status displays that show off one’s wealth through the
flagrant consumption of goods and services, particularly those considered wasteful or
otherwise lacking in obvious utility)10. Sometimes this meant purchasing a large
mansion with a large guest house for the servants even though you had a family of
four. Whatever form it took, its purpose was not utilitarian but rather status
oriented.

Over time, these habits, tastes and values of a certain social class become
entrenched as cultural capital. Cultural capital is one’s store of knowledge and
proficiency with artistic and cultural styles that are valued by society, and confer
prestige and honor upon those associated with them. This knowledge is passed down
generational and learned through socialization. Each social class develops skills and
values that help their members survive in society. But, not all cultural capital is
created equal. Are these the droids you’re looking for? If not, you may not share
that bit of cultural capital! So, the ‘correct’ social capital is important because it can
literally be transmitted into social advantages and even financial wealth.

The interesting part about conspicuous consumption was that the upper classes
took great pains to dissociate themselves from the lower classes while the lower
classes tried desperately to emulate the wealthy through their buying patterns. For
a brief time, average Americans came close to having similar standards of living as
the upper classes. Fueled by television commercials extolling the virtues of
consumption of commodity items to indicate status this could only last so long. The
upper classes with their considerably larger bank accounts were able to afford
things the middle and working classes could not.

The financial sector had the answer to this newfound dilemma in the form of
consumer credit and credit cards. Consumerism became our way of life during the
twentieth century fueled by easy access to credit so much so that by 2011, consumer
debt had ballooned to $2.43 trillion and the average household carried an average
credit card debt of $15,79911.

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THE SEARCH FOR AN AUTHENTIC IDENTITY

By the 1960s the consumer lifestyle was in full swing. For the first time in the
nation’s history there was material comfort and infrastructure for popular culture to
flourish. It came to the point however, for America’s youth that middle class life
and consumer goods seemed boring and bland and the desire for something new
was growing stronger. Since middle class suburban existence seemed vanilla,
subcultures offered an alternative; they offered a promise of the real deal. This
drive for authenticity paradoxically helped to further fuel consumerism. For those
who didn’t like the youth culture on tv or the radio could turn to alternative sources
for youth culture that prided themselves on being authentic by their opposition to
mainstream banality. So buying the right goods could distinguish one and foster a
‘unique’ identity. How unique can your store-bought identity ever be?

The other notable paradox inherent in the search for authenticity is its elusiveness.
Authenticity can refer to a variety of desirable traits: credibility, originality,
sincerity, naturalness, genuineness, innateness, purity, or realness12. The thing
about authenticity is that it can never be truly authentic, instead must always be
performed, staged, fabricated, crafted or otherwise imagined. The performance of
authenticity always requires a close conformity to the expectations set by the
cultural context in which it is situated. Once again we see others’ perceptions as a
crucial element in popular culture.

POPULAR CULTURE IS GOOD FOR YOU?

You’ve probably hear popular culture disparaged. Maybe you yourself have
disparaged it. But is it all bad for us? Clearly popular culture comes in many
varieties and flavors and some perhaps more so than others promote values some
might find objectionable, but to what degree, if at all, is the popular culture of today
making us smarter? According to Steven Johnson, author of The Sleeper Curve,
popular culture is doing just that13. Through increased storyline complexity (more
multithreading, several storylines at once that pick up and subside for a time but
always return later), decline of flashing arrows (obvious references designed to clue
the viewer in to what’s about to happen) and video games that provide a mental
workout (not unlike a good math problem), the popular culture of today is forcing us
to become more intelligent. Of course, this says nothing about the coarse and
sometimes off-putting content of popular culture (which again, is more a matter of
taste and which interpretive community you belong to than some objective
indicator of goodness), but as sociologists we’re not trying to ascertain the essence
or ‘true meaning’ of popular culture but instead how people interpret, understand
and make sense of popular culture.

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MASS MEDIA

In other chapters we have discussed the main agents of socialization. As you recall
we discussed family, peers, schools and mass media. It is this last agent of
socialization that we’ll turn our attention to in this chapter. Traditionally the mass
media has referred to television, newspapers, magazines, films, and now the
internet and mobile devices. Unlike other agents of socialization, mass media’s
disseminators have a different motivation for influencing and socializing people.
This of course is referring to the fact that commercial media, like all other business
and corporations, seek to make profit. This is different than how we usually think of
our favorite film studio or television channel or web site and what’s more, is that
this motive affects their operation and consequently our reception and
consumption. Today, the mass media is heavily concentrated in the hands of a few
multinational corporations14. Let’s start with an example of someone you may
know (or Jill’s equivalent in your social network).

JILL, A TYPICAL COLLEGE STUDENT?

Jill’s clock radio goes off at 6:15am. She listens carefully to the traffic and weather
while she brushes her teeth. She unplugs her cell phone from the charger and text
messages an alert to Leigh who drives her carpool. Sometimes Leigh sleeps in, so Jill
sends a regular wake up text. Jill turns on the desktop computer and takes a quick
shower. Once dressed she gets about five minutes to check her e-mails and instant

messages from last night.

When Leigh honks the horn Jill grabs her heavy
backpack and forwards all her personal unanswered
e-mails to her university e-mail. She’ll get to these
during class. During the 15 minute commute she
navigates with the GPS system in the car and pays
close attention to the radio traffic and weather,
letting Leigh know if there are any problems with
breakdowns or accidents.

Jill gets out of Leigh’s car on the corner and walks
into the coffee shop where she works 5 days a week.
Her first duty is to turn on the morning news on both
of the shop’s big screen TV’s. She waves to the
manager who’s ordering supplies online while he
sets up the Latte machine. Jill puts in her earphones,
checks her cell phone for any critical texts, turns off

her phone and starts stocking the supplies for the big rush of caffeine and carb-
deprived customers that flows in and out of the coffee shop for the next 2-3 hours.
Once the stocking is finished, Jill removes one ear piece and listens to a lecture from
2 days ago which was posted to the Web by her professor. During the last hour,

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while she waits on customers, she jams to her music. When her shift ends, she puts
the music away and answers text messages while she walks the 7 blocks to campus.

In her first class Jill sits in the very back row, then she silences her phone and turns
on her notebook computer, capturing the campus-wide wireless Internet. She logs
in. While the professor lectures she types actively on her computer, stopping
occasionally to text on her cell phone. Her professor thinks she’s taking copious
notes. She’s actually chatting live with her friends. The professor mentions a
Website he heard about but can’t remember the name of it, so Jill Googles it and
raises her hand to share the URL with him. He thanks her. She smiles and watches
the professor clumsily locate and then display the Website for the entire class to see.

There are 15 notebook computers in this classroom. Only one of the students in
front of her is actually taking notes. Two have an ear piece in and are watching
YouTube. The rest basically do what Jill is doing. Jill attends her two other classes
then heads back to the coffee shop to clean up and get set up for the after work rush.

Leigh eventually picks her up later on the same corner and she finds herself at home
at about 6:15 pm. Jill turns on the TV, plugs in her cell phone, glances at the campus
newspaper headlines then reads the personals. During dinner she texts, watches her
shows, does an Internet assignment, and shops online for a half-priced textbook she
needs for class. She opens her notebook computer because it has a built in web cam
and gets Leigh online to ask her to see if her iPod fell out in the car during their
commute home. Leigh already found it.

Jill e-mails her mother. She’d rather text but her mother prefers e-mail. She finishes
her homework while watching reality TV. At 9:00 pm, Leigh honks the horn and Jill
takes a small purse for her phone and heads out to the car. Leigh and two other
friends are going dancing. Jill gets her iPod back and then texts their guy friends
who said they were going to the same club, but who knows if they’ll show up or not.
Jill, Leigh, and their friends make a short video at the club and post it to their
Facebook the next morning.

Does any of this sound familiar to you and your daily routine? Jill’s day and use of
technology and media are very common among college students. Junco and
Mastrodicasa (2007) found that in a survey of over 7,000 college and university
students 9 out of 10 owned a computer and cell phone; three out of four instant
message and already have a Facebook account; six out of ten have a portable music
player; 44% read blogs; and 34% use the Internet as their primary source for
news.15

Never in the world’s history has there been such a vast availability of media than
today. Online newspapers, satellite TV, cell phones, e-books, satellite radio, Blue
Rays, and e-zines are some newer media that people of all ages use to access news
and information. We are surrounded by and figuratively swim in mass media every
day of our lives.

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Mass media are technological modes of communication in society, especially
electronic and print media. Media can be found in artifacts from lost civilizations
thousands of years ago. Paintings on cave walls, pottery, or even field sculptures of
stones all represent some of these ancient forms. Etchings on metal plates or
writings on skin or paper scrolls were made at great expense in the past. They were
rare then and only a few are still available today.

THE BIRTH OF MASS MEDIA

In the early 1400s Johannes Gutenberg, who was a goldsmith, invented the world’s
first mechanical press. The Gutenberg Bible was the first ever mass produced book
and its introduction into society marked the beginning of printed media. Gutenberg
not only invented a printing press, he facilitated the ability of the masses to learn
how to read. He also created a logical cultural process in Western Civilization
wherein most of us learned how to read, think, store, and process information. Top
to bottom, left to right, punctuation, spelling, and grammar considerations all
became part of the mainstream culture.

Many cultures have different rules about how to read and write, yet all follow a
logical and linear pattern of reading and writing. This pattern remained in place, un-
challenged until the Internet came onto the scene. Over the last 30 years, technology
that lead up to the Internet as we know it today changed the rules of reading and
gathering information through the media. The Internet currently connects over a
billion online users worldwide. Whereas the paper form of media is bound by its
physical mass, the Internet form of media is limitless because it is based on light and
electricity, both of which travel very fast and facilitate information sharing in nearly
limitless volumes and rates of speed.

In the 20th century, students had to ask a teacher or other authority figure for
answers to questions they had. We had to pay for encyclopaedias and books that
could teach and inform us. Today, one need only turn on the computer or handheld
device and connect to the Internet. All the information in the world that is on the
Internet can be obtained free, instantly, non-linearly, and without the direct
involvement of an authority figure. It is fascinating how information for the masses
has transformed in such a short amount of time.

The media fulfills a function for society. First, it disseminates information. Not all of
that information is created equally. Some media is the focus of tremendous protest
and outcry while other forms of media are less conspicuous and controversial. The
media also mold and shape public opinion while reporting current events. Because
media corporations have rather strict control over the stories they tell, we in the U.S.
often don’t even find out about many salient international issues. These issues may
be crucial to non-U.S. citizens, but are not reported by U.S. media outlets. Often the
U.S. is criticized for its narrow world view.

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When the news media select a story, they monitor the opinions of those who
watched it and the indicators which show public interest in it. If it proves to be of
enough interest then they will provide more coverage. If not they let it go.
Competition between news shows and outlets makes the coverage of specific news
stories relevant from a business rather than an information dissemination point of
view.

TELEVISION VIEWING

We in the U.S. love media in all its forms. Nielsen Media Research regularly reports
on how much TV people in the U.S. typically watch. The average U.S. person in 2006
watched about four and a half hours per day of TV, including nearly two hours
during prime time.16 These 2006 data represent a 26 minute increase over 1995-
1996 hours of TV viewed. Nielsen based its estimates on a very carefully selected

sample of 10,000 viewers.

If they are pretty close on their
estimate and each of us watches about
four hours per day, then that’s a great
deal of TV in a lifetime. Multiply four
hours by seven days then 52 weeks,
you’ll find that we watch an estimated
1,456 hours of TV per year. If we
maintained that every year from
Kindergarten through 12th grade we’d

end up having watched about 17-19,000 hours of TV by the time we graduated high
school (give or take a few hours per week). Interestingly, K-12 typically equals
about 16-17,000 hours of at school learning by the time of graduation.17 Not only do
we watch TV shows but we also watch TV commercials-perhaps a quarter million by
the time we graduate high school. Estimates vary but we also use the Internet, radio,
cell phone, video games, and big screen movies as forms of daily media
consumption.

Television viewing is not completely without affect upon the viewer. George
Gerbner (1919-2005) was a professor of communications who founded the
Cultivation Theory which claims that the types of TV viewing we watch accumulate
within us and impact our world view. In other words, if we only watched crime,
detective, and forensic shows we would have the additive effect of these shows on
our perception of how the world really is. The types of TV we watch passively, yet
persistently shape our world view.

The Mean World Syndrome is the tendency to view society as being meaner and
more violent than it really is because of the violent and harsh TV shows one has
watched over the years.18 If someone limited his daily TV viewing to soap operas
then Gerbner would say that that person would have a world focus that

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overemphasized soap opera-melodramatic themes. The same could be said of
anyone who watches mostly police shows, pornography, sports, news, or reality TV.

Keep in mind that TV is not produced by people who simply want to entertain us. So,
what is the main purpose of media in our day? Money, Entertainment, access to
information, advertising, and or attitude shifting is at the core of most media-based
ventures. Companies pay money for the commercial time or product placement.
What they really want is for you to watch the shows and see the advertisements and
buy a product or service because you were watching. The online Television
Advertising Bureau (TAB)19 reported that US TV stations sold more than $1 billion
in interactive sales in 2008.20 This report also noted the continuing gain of TV and
website ads over printed newspaper ads as part of the explanation for the death of
the local and national newspaper that is being witnessed in today’s mass media
marketplace.

The TAB report also noted that most people pay for television, but non-cable
providers had as much as 32% of that market in 2008.21 Most importantly as we
focus on the for-profit advertising issue, in 1970, over $3.59 billion was spent on US
television advertising alone. In 2007 that was up to $70.84 billion. In total, between
1970 and 2007 there was $1.1 trillion spent on all forms of TV advertising.22

ADVERTISINGS’ NEGATIVE EFFECTS

One has to focus on the impact media can have with that level of revenue at stake.
Perpetual discontent is a two-pronged advertising theme which emphasizes 1. how
broken and flawed we are and 2. how we can buy hope in the form of a product being
sold. Women in the U.S. are bombarded daily with advertising images that point out
their flaws. They are constantly having it brought to their attention how they are
too: thin, fat, short, tall, round, wrinkled, blond, brunette, red, dark, light, pale,
freckled, etc. This trend is exceptionally cruel for teen and young adult women, but
men are not exempt from the abuse of perpetual discontent. In fact, most argue the
media has created an unrealistic feminine ideal resulting in the desire to fulfill this
impossible standard. This media-created ideal has commonly been blamed for the
skyrocketing numbers of eating disorders as well as the rising numbers of cosmetic
surgical procedures in the U.S. (especially among young women).

Many argue that this has lead not only to discontent with our body images, but also
discontent with every aspect of our spending life (products, houses, cars, computers,
clothes, etc.). One ironic note is the fact that many millions of people don’t get
enough food to eat every day while we in the United States have become so
conscious of the self we portray to others that we self-limit our food intake and
resort to drastic measures in diet, exercise, and surgery. Every year millions pay
vast sums of money to acquire surgical beauty enhancements.

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Figure 1 shows data from the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery
(ASAPS) for the 11 years between 1997 and 2007. There were nearly 12 million
clients of aesthetic plastic surgery in the U.S. in 2004 and only slightly less for 2005
through 2007. Figure 2 shows that nearly 13 billion dollars were spent for the six
years between 2002 and 2007. The ASAPS also reported that their most common
client is a White female between the ages of 20 and 50.

Figure 1. Numbers in Millions of Plastic Surgery Procedures between 1997-2007.23

Figure 2. Expenditures in Billions for Plastic Surgery Procedures between 2002-
2007.24

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The media is perhaps one of the most underestimated elements of society. At the
personal level people think of it in terms of convenience and entertainment rather
than political influence, power, and control. The media is mostly controlled by
wealthy people and at the national and world level is tightly controlled in terms of
the political ideologies of those who decide what we get to watch, hear, and read.
The owners and managers seek profits while promoting their own political agenda,
selecting and shaping advertisement, and providing exposure to political and special
interest groups they favor. This means we (the masses) are exposed to not only
what the owners want us to see, but also how we see it.

THE POWER ELITE IN THE MEDIA

Do you personally know someone who owns a TV station, radio station, newspaper,
or magazine? Most of us don’t unless we happen to fall into a wealthy income
category. C. Wright Mills recognized that wealth and power are unevenly distributed
in society and that it is the relatively wealthy privileged few (the power elite) that
control the power. The other argument (contrary to Mills’ power elite) is called
pluralism, which claims that power is diffused among many diverse interest groups
and that not all wealthy elite people unite on the same side of most issues. The
accurate description of today’s society-level power structures is that there is a large,
unconnected category of powerful people, each exerting their own wills upon
others, either against or in cooperation with other powerful people. In Figure 3 you
can see that the top ten percent of society’s members are the wealthy elite and own
or control the corporations, military, and political offices. The next 20% are also
relatively wealthy and connected to the power elite. This class runs the government,
political scene, and interest groups. They often are given coverage in the media and
are considered among our “famous” members of society.

Then there’s us. We are among the 70% of the common people who comprise the
masses. Most of us enjoy politics and other newsworthy topics but rarely
understand the reality of their day-to-day functioning and influence on our lives. We
are uneducated about the power elite’s actions that often harm us in the long-run
(take the recent mortgage and financial market schemes that have made the top two
classes very wealthy at the expense of the bottom 70% for an example). Mills also
described false consciousness, which is when members of groups which are
relatively powerless in society accept beliefs that work against their self-interests.
Typically our ignorance is played upon and erroneous information is provided in a
calculated manner by the power elite for the further gain of their goals.

You can learn a great deal about the power of media by studying societies outside of
the United States. A totalitarian government is a political system where a small
power elite controls virtually every aspect of the personal and larger social levels of
society. Some examples include Nazi Germany, North Korea, Russia in Stalin’s era,
and a few eastern European countries that were once part of the former Soviet

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union. In these systems the media was strictly controlled and some systems failed
once media control was lost.

Figure 3. C. Wright Mills’ Power Elite Model.25

The media have tremendous political power, especially in the national election
coverage they provide. The journalists who provide our media have distinct goals
and values which motivate them to typically take a more negative position towards
a candidate than the candidate would prefer. Many sources officially give or
withhold their support for a candidate while other news and media sources
continue to work in a more objective manner. In the 2008 Presidential campaign,
literally hundreds of polls were taken and reported on via TV, radio, Internet, and
printed news. The very presence of poll results can actually influence the choices
made by voters who are undecided and others who have made their choice, but
might be influenced to change their minds. Many feel that their candidates were
treated with bias by the media.

The media have editorial strategies which easily coincide with the goals of the
power elite. Framing involves placing the news story into a pre-existing frame of
reference for the public so that they understand it as journalists would have it be
understood. The protestors were freedom fighters, martyrs, or courageous. Even
though two people died, the frame changes them from terrorists to saints.
Formatting is the design and construction of the news story. One might see a story
that includes an introduction about the sacrifices made by the protesters which runs
for 45 seconds. This story might end with a 15 second summary of their protest
actions as being martyr-like.

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Sequencing is ordering news stories in such a way as to present a thematic message.
An example of this would be to run the story about the protesters right after the
story about the military occupants who were allegedly guilty of raping and torturing
inmates. Agenda setting is the process of selecting and screening topics which will be
presented to the general public. An example of this might be the omission of
successes on the battlefield and the inclusion of crimes by soldiers, losses by
civilians, and outcry by the country’s political enemies.

THE COFFEE FILTER, POWER ELITE METAPHOR

Figure 4 shows the coffee filter metaphor of the power elite as it has broken into
two semi-oppositional schools of thought often referred to as the left and right. If
you consider the power elite model over the pluralism model of power in society,
you can see how the elite who control media, military, and corporations shape
politics and laws. Mill’s model fits just as well now as it did in his day, but there is a
twist on the polarized culture between left and right wing influences in society.
Figure 4 shows how the elite form a type of filter that shapes the flow of political
and legal outcomes in the form of laws, treaties, and legal precedence. Although not
formally unified into one centralized political social movement, the left and right
shakers and movers each influence this filtering process for their own interests and
goals.

Figure 4. The Coffee Filter Metaphor of the Power Elite’s Influence over Politics and
Laws.26

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On the left side of the spectrum, feminism, sexual politics (same-sex, trans-
gendered, and bisexual), anti-natalism, environmental protection, and general
secularism share many overlapping values that prove to be mutually beneficial if
mutual support is given. For example, a protest at the United Nations building in
New York City against a less-developed country’s refusal to let their girls and
women receive formal education could also be supported by antinatalists (the
more education a woman gets the fewer the babies she has), environmentalists (the
fewer the babies the less pressure on the physical environment), and secularists
(the more education a woman gets the less religious she tends to be).

On the right hand side of the cultural continuum lobbying for a continuation of tax
breaks for parents and marrieds would serve all interest groups in multiple ways.
One of the premier social movements to illustrate this has been the battle over the
legalization of same-sex or gay marriage. It’s been on the referendum ballots of a
number of states. It’s been considered for discussion at the federal legislation level,
but returned to the state-level since states have the right to legally sanction
marriages and divorces. It’s been considered in a few state supreme courts with pre-
emptive strikes by states which went ahead and codified marriage as being
exclusively between a man and a woman. Other state supreme courts have
preemptively ruled in favor of same-sex marriages. Billions of dollars, millions of
volunteer hours, and countless and immeasurable levels of personal frustration are
involved in this social issue. What both the left and right have understood and
utilized for decades is to use their elite contacts to accomplish their goal-driven
political and legal changes. The media will continue to play a central role in this and
other heated political issues.

1

Grazian, D. 2010. Mix it Up: Mass Media, Popular Culture and Society. New York, NY: W. W. Norton

& Company.
2
See; Adorno, T. W., with Max Horkheimer. 2002. Dialectic of Enlightenment. Trans. Edmund Jephcott.

Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press.
3
Durkheim, E. 1912/1995. The Elementary Forms of Religious Life. New York: The Free Press.

4
Durkheim, E. 1893/1997. Division of Labor in Society. New York: The Free Press.

5
Grazian, D. 2010. Mix it Up: Mass Media, Popular Culture and Society. New York, NY: W. W. Norton

& Company.
6
Collins, R. 2004. Interaction Ritual Chains. Princeton, NJ. Princeton University Press

7
Durkheim, E. 1912/1995. The Elementary Forms of Religious Life. New York: The Free Press.

8
Grazian, D. 2010. Mix it Up: Mass Media, Popular Culture and Society. New York, NY: W. W. Norton

& Company.
9
Bourdieu, P. 1984. Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste. Boston, MA: Harvard

University Press.
10

Veblen, T. 1994 [1899]. The Theory of the Leisure Class. Penguin twentieth-century classics.

introduction by Robert Lekachman. New York: Penguin Books.
11

http://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/g19/
12

Grazian, D. 2010. Mix it Up: Mass Media, Popular Culture and Society. New York, NY: W. W. Norton

& Company.
13

Johnson, S. 2005. Everything Bad is Good for You. New York: Riverhead.
14

Croteau, D. and Hoynes, W. 2003. Media Society: Industries, Images, and Audiences Third Edition.

Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press.

16 | P o p u l a r C u l t u r e a n d M e d i a

15

Retrieved 16 April, 2009 from http://www.outsourcemarketing.com/articles/OM_article_gen-
y “Generation Y-Why Worry?” in Outsource Quarterly
16

Retrieved 16 April from
http://www.nielsenmedia.com/nc/portal/site/Public/menuitem.55dc65b4a7d5adff3f65936147a06
2a0/?vgnextoid=4156527aacccd010VgnVCM100000ac0a260aRCRD
17

Go to http://www.nielsenmedia.com/nc/portal/site/Public/ for much more information on
ratings and statistics
18

See George Gerbner’s (1994) “Reclaiming Our Cultural Mythology.” In The Ecology of Justice
(IC#38), Spring page 40, Context Institute retrieved 16 April 2009 from
http://www.context.org/ICLIB/IC38/Gerbner.htm
19

http://www.tvb.org/nav/build_frameset.asp?url=/docs/homepage.asp
20

Retrieved 16 April, 2009 from
http://www.tvb.org/nav/build_frameset.asp?url=/docs/homepage.asp
21

See http://www.tvb.org/nav/build_frameset.asp?url=/docs/homepage.asp
22

Retrieved 16 April 2009 from
http://www.tvb.org/nav/build_frameset.asp?url=/docs/homepage.asp
23

Data courtesy of American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery www.surgery.org Taken 1 May,
2008
24

Data courtesy of American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery www.surgery.org Taken 1 May,
2008
25

See C. Wright Mills (1956). The Power Elite. Oxford Press, NY.
26

© 2009 Ron J. Hammond, Ph.D.