CSOC 202: Pop Culture - MID-TERM (Modules 1-5)

MODULE 1: Introduction

• Socialization

• Lifelong process by which we learn the social and cultural characteristics that come to define us as we become a member of society & social beings

  • IMPACT: Fosters a recognition of self + others → social identities & roles build our personal biographies

  • WAYS WE PARTICIPATE: Communicating through gestures/language, learning + acquiring knowledge, and familiarizing with the norms, values + customs

MODULE 1: Introduction

• The Self

• A socially constructed (socialization) version of ourselves → we are active in our OWN socialization + our identity construction

SELF IS SOCIALLY SHAPED & MANAGED + IMPACTED BY:

1. Socialization

2. Interaction

3. Biological identity work

MODULE 1: Introduction

Erving Goffman → Construction of Self

• Construction of the Self

• Construction of self consists of PRESENTATION + PERFORMANCE

• We’re all actors who have worked to create a social identity that enters the public social world

The Presentation of Self In Everyday Life - Social world is a stage, recognizing this helps us understand why we do the things we do (human interaction + behaviour)

MODULE 1: Introduction

Erving Goffman → Construction of Self

• Construction of the Self

  • 2 REGIONS

Self is constantly moving between 2 distinct regions:

1. FRONTSTAGE AREA: Publicly visible → social characters perform

2. BACKSTAGE AREA: Where actors keep their “props” & “identity equipment,” they can relax out of the role

MODULE 1: Introduction

Erving Goffman → Construction of Self

• Construction of the Self

  • THE PERFORMING SELF

• Like Shakespearean plays, we play different roles (many act as masks) → we are so concerned with the perceptions of other people

• These parts we play are determined by the situations we take ourselves to be in → who we are changes how we act (EX: Being in different social circles)

MODULE 1: Introduction

Erving Goffman → Construction of Self

• Construction of the Self

  • NO “TRUE” SELF

• Goffman states that there’s NO identifying performer being the roles, the roles ARE the performer

MODULE 1: Introduction

C. Wright Mills → Sociological Imagination

• Sociological Imagination

• Enables us to grasp history + biography & the relations between the two in society → connecting our own experiences to understand societal issues

  • Understanding the link between troubles + issues helps us understand & address social problems, leading to social change

MODULE 1: Introduction

C. Wright Mills → Sociological Imagination

• Sociological Imagination

  • TROUBLES + ISSUES

• Addresses the person + their place/experiences within the social world

MODULE 1: Introduction

C. Wright Mills → Sociological Imagination

• Sociological Imagination

  • TROUBLES + ISSUES

    → TROUBLES

Personal

• Takes place on an individual level

• Have to do with “self”

• Occur inside the areas of social life that we are located within & aware of

  • EX: Eating disorders

MODULE 1: Introduction

C. Wright Mills → Sociological Imagination

• Sociological Imagination

  • TROUBLES + ISSUES

    → ISSUES

Public

• Relational to the “self” BUT extend outside our individual self

• Reflect the organizaiton of social elements within a society + its foundation (various social structures & historical past)

  • EX: Eating disorders connect to social pressures/ impact from media (pop culture)

MODULE 1: Introduction

C. Wright Mills → Sociological Imagination

• Sociological Imagination

  • PERSONAL + POLITICAL

• Personal world (“troubles”) connects to public world (“issues” → EX: Racial issues, sexist ideals)

• Society affects our decision-making processes → but this isn’t conscious, we don’t do whatever we want in the moment

• Individuality exists within a social context that compels us as “imaginative” social beings to recognize that social experiences shape how we are defined + categorized

MODULE 1: Introduction

C. Wright Mills → Sociological Imagination

• Sociological Imagination

  • EXAMPLE: Person A struggles to pay their electrical bill each month, while Person B can pay each month. Is it worth investigating this discrepancy further in terms of troubles vs. issues?

• If Person B benefits from a well-paying job, it illustrates the personal issues within a context of a public issue! → many people restricted to a minimum wage employment struggle to pay monthly expenses

MODULE 1: Introduction

C. Wright Mills → Sociological Imagination

• Sociological Imagination

  • HELPS US…

1. DRAW CONNECTIONS: Social world + how society works, our personal lives + personal lives of others

2. SEE OUR LIVES IN TERMS OF OTHERS: Our privileges, marginalization, inequality, power, shared experiences + differences

3. RECOGNIZE PERSONAL = POLITICAL: Personal issues can also be a social issue with political implications attached

4. LOOK AT PAST HISTORY: Can understand society’s history in terms of power, privilege, inequality, legacies, successes & failures

MODULE 1: Introduction

• Culture

• Reflects the social + cultural practices of specific groups/societies → EX: “Canadian Culture” (including government, politics, education, pop culture)

• Shared symbolic meaning systems that enable communication globally → EX: Mainstream entertainment, university campuses, shopping malls, and neighbourhoods (all active systems with shared elements)

MODULE 1: Introduction

• 4 ELEMENTS OF Culture

  L.C.S.W.

1. LEARNED: Culture must be learned through socialization, language, history, traditions & values

2. COMMUNICATION: Culture is rooted in communication, which can be symbolic (EX: Maple Leaf = Canada, forefinger + middle finger = Peace) → both are arbitrary, socially learned, and determined meanings rather than objectively true meanings

3. SHARED: Culture and its characteristics are shared amongst many rather than the few

4. WHOLE: Culture is whole when integrated within itself (the 3 characteristics above = a CULTURE)

MODULE 1: Introduction

Raymond Williams → Culture

• Culture…

• “One of the two or three most complicated words in the English language”

MODULE 1: Introduction

Raymond Williams → Culture

• Culture…

  • 3 PARTS OF CULTURE

1. DEVELOPMENT: A process of intellectual, spiritual & aesthetic development

2. WAY OF LIFE: For people, period, or group

3. CREATIVITY: Vital for the work, labour, & processes of intellectual + artistic creativity

MODULE 1: Introduction

Haslam → Cultural Body

• Cultural Body

• Large communities may be understood through a study of its cultural body

  • EX: Canada can be explained through dominant, normalized, & mainstream stereotypes 

  • Canadians are polite, hockey fans, love the colde, humble, democratic → but these are NOT universal for all Canadians

• Analyzing Canada’s cultural body → the truth of its identity construction is dependent on it being maintained by Canadian ideology WHICH has been maintained by Canada’s traditionally “authentic brands” (Molson Canadian, Tim Hortons, Canadian Tire)

MODULE 1: Introduction

Haslam → Cultural Body

• Study of Culture

• At its heart: Human beings are constantly shaping the world around them, and are in turn, are shaped by the world we live in, which goes beyond our basic physical needs

MODULE 1: Introduction

Haslam → Cultural Body

• Difference in TORONTO Culture

• Multiculturalism of Toronto presents itself as a separate cultural group of overall Canadian culture

• Encourages cultural groups to consider the city their “home” (Little Italy, Greektown, Chinatown, Little Jamaica, etc.)

• TORONTO = “The Most Multicultural City in the World” (BBC Article)

• History of Kensington Market (Video) → displays new immigration with compact houses, showcases importance of local-owned stores over corporations

MODULE 1: Introduction

• CANADIAN Culture

• Excludes Indigenous peoples from its definition (Molson, Tim Hortons)

• Canada carries a diverse population, but its ideology is focused on maintaining the typical identity construction (due to TV & brands)

• Pop culture representations DON’T reflect the real multiculturalism of Canada 

  • (Is that why they curated a new campaign highlighting societal issues, etc.?) → it underrepresents Indigenous communities & offers a commercialized/idealized version of Canada that slips into commodification

MODULE 1: Introduction

• CANADIAN Culture

  • MOLSON CANADIAN AD: “MADE IN CANADA”

• Presents a commercialized, stylized + seductive version of Canada

• Shaped by systems NOT just people

• Focuses on production

• Maintains dominant ideology

• Unrelatable, not like anything in everyday

• Symbolic of the romanticized Canadian ideals (stylized representation) → EX: Canada being connected to mountains, beer, hockey (a fantasy, NOT reality)

MODULE 1: Introduction

• CANADIAN Culture

  • What is true?: The Molson Canadian AD…

  a) Reflects the diversity of Canada

  b) Presents Canada as privileged, recreation-driven, and inaccessible to most

  c) Represents Canada as unwelcoming to outsiders or visitors

  d) Represents Canada as a fantasy and a theme park

  e) B and D

e) B and D

• “Land is ours” so is hockey, even though it has true roots in Indigenous communities but they never represent that in the ad?

• “We’re the only ones who dare to jump headfirst into a frozen lake” - not even true? It makes it seem like Canadians have their own secret society that people must prove they’re worthy of

MODULE 1: Introduction

• 🠛Low Culture

• Cultural production/objects that are seen as inferior, simplistic, repetitive, & uninspired → that which is popular

  CATEGORIES:

  • Network TV sitcoms (Friends, How I Met Your Mother, Modern Family)

  • Reality TV (Keeping Up with the Kardashians, Love Island, Big Brother, Love is Blind)

  • Romcoms (How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, and Love, Actually)

  • Mainstream pop (JB, Billie Elish)

  • Social Media (Tiktok, Instagram)

MODULE 1: Introduction

• 🠙High Culture

• Cultural production/objects that are seen as unique, well-wrought, meaningful in themselves, civilized, intellectual + critical → helps educate/enlighten individuals & the society they’re part of

  CATEGORIES:

  • Literature (Shakespeare, Austen, Hemingway)

  • Opera

  • Classical music

  • Visual arts (Impressionist & Expressionist painting)

  • Red carpet events (Met Gala)

  • Luxurious car brands (Rolls-Royce → think of that meme where Victoria Beckham says she’s from the working class but her husband clocks her by asking her what car he would drive her to school in)

MODULE 1: Introduction

• 🠙High Culture VS. 🠛Low Culture

• The difference between low and high culture can be seen through the Social Conflict Theory (SCT) as a very elitist approach → Pop culture separates the valuable from the invaluable

MODULE 1: Introduction

• The Squid & The Whale: “Philistine” Scene

• Philistine: Someone who is lacking in so-called “serious” interests in term of career, art, music, & literature

  • Child wants to be a tennis coach like Ivan

  • His father doesn’t like the idea of that, calls his tennis coach a “philistine” who isn’t “serous” enough

  • But the child doesn’t care, he wants to be a philistine (a rebellion against his father’s world)

  • What’s interesting is his father sees himself as “high culture” and acts elitist but he seems to struggle with money… Why does he like those who benefit from his suffering?

MODULE 1: Introduction

Pierre Bourdieu → Symbolic Meaning

• Symbolic Meaning

• Cultural texts are just visual narrative endorsements of a consumer product, WHICH only have meaning if that product is injected with a symbolic meaning that compels the consumer to complete the purchase 

  • EX: Someone might identify with the symbolism of Canadian Molson (beer represents not only the consumer but that consumer’s imagination of an ideal Canada)

• Cultural production of a text produces a symbolic meaning attached to it

MODULE 1: Introduction

Pierre Bourdieu → Symbolic Meaning

• High/Low Disruption

• Bourdieu wants to disrupt the competition between high & low culture, which is encouraged by symbolic production

• Cultural texts assigned a position in a hierarchy, either includes or excludes a text from the “high culture category

MODULE 1: Introduction

Pierre Bourdieu → Symbolic Meaning

• EX: Mona Lisa Painting

• Bourdieu compares pop culture appropriating high culture for mass consumption 

  • HIGH CULTURE: Mona Lisa by Da Vinci is more valuable → connection to high culture, will always have true meaning, creating a symbolic meaning representing its history, value, venetration (Songs in Pop Culture mentioning Mona Lisa)

  • LOW CULTURE: Paris Hilton + Marge from The Simpsons → culturally produced in a way where it produces a meaning 

MODULE 1: Introduction

• Ideology

• A group of constructed ideas/beliefs that are normalized and naturalized as objectively true by dominant institutions

  • EX: the government, capitalist entities like Nike or Apple, Hollywood)

MODULE 1: Introduction

Karl Marx → Invisible Ideology

• Ideologies can become natural enough to the point of invisibility, becoming “common sense,” reflecting a way of life

• Describes force & coercion as the key for the ruling class to maintain their powers + privileges

• Ideology persuades the less powerful to agree to this subordination → it plays a role in gaining consent to accept their position in society

  • EX: Capitalism → unquestioned in the western world as true, democratic, & open to everyone

MODULE 1: Introduction

John Storey → 5 Central Components of Ideology

• B.P.A.P.C.

1. BODY

2. PRESENTATION

3. ATTENTION

4. PRACTICE

5. CONNOTATION

MODULE 1: Introduction

John Storey → 5 Central Components of Ideology

B.P.A.P.C.

• (1) BODY

Ideology…

• Has a systematic body of ideas articulated by a particular group of people

MODULE 1: Introduction

John Storey → 5 Central Components of Ideology

• (2) PRESENTATION

Ideology…

• Can present distorted/manipulated images or representations of reality

  • EX: An AD (any cultural text)

MODULE 1: Introduction

John Storey → 5 Central Components of Ideology

• (3) ATTENTION

Ideology…

• Draws attention to the way cultural texts (TV shows, movies, pop songs) present a particular + specific image of the world

MODULE 1: Introduction

John Storey → 5 Central Components of Ideology

• (4) PRACTICE

Ideology…

• Not just a body of ideas BUT also a practice of life, we see ideology everyday

  • EX: From going out to the mall to our interactions with others

MODULE 1: Introduction

John Storey → 5 Central Components of Ideology

B.P.A.P.C.

• (5) CONNOTATION

Ideology…

• Operates at the level of connotation (semiotics!) → secondary/subjective meanings cultural texts, practices, & images carry (communicate to consumers)

  • EX: Conservative Party broadcast linking “socialism” to red prison bars to connotate unfreedom and link conservatism to freedom

  • EX: Categories like white, masculine, hetereosexual, middleclass are often seen as the “normal,” where others are deviations → “female pop singer” deviation from “universal” pop singer

MODULE 1: Introduction

John Storey → 5 Central Components of Ideology

• 6 Definitions of “Pop Culture”

(1) Quantitative Definition → Culture widely favoured/liked

(2) Residual/Inferior Category → Culture left over after high culture (Bourdieu’s concept of “taste” → a marker of “class”)

(3) Mass Culture → Mass-produced for mass consumption

(4) Culture from the People → “Authentic” as a symbolic protest within contemporary capitalism

(5) Hegemony (Antonio Gramsci) → Pop culture is where dominant groups try to win the consent of subordiant groups while they engage in resistance

(6) Postmodernism → High & Pop culture aren’t different, the boundaries have been blurred → positively, the end of elitism, negatively, the victory of commerce over culture (ex: TV commercials & pop music)

MODULE 1: Introduction

John Storey → 5 Central Components of Ideology

• Articulation

• Making temporary connections between ideas/practices

  • Raymond Williams → texts can be contradictory mixes of different cultural forces

  • John Fiske → Pop culture is what people actively make from the products provided by the culture industries (semiotic)

MODULE 1: Introduction

John Storey → 5 Central Components of Ideology

• 3 Effects of Industrialization & Urbanization

1. Changed employer/employee relations from mutual obligation to the “cash nexus”

2. Produced residential separation of classes in towns/cities

3. Fear from French Revolution led to repressive measures against radicalism, driving political & trade union activity underground, outside middle-class control

MODULE 1: Introduction

John Storey → 5 Central Components of Ideology

• Storey’s Thesis

• The term “popular culture” is not fixed or easily defined; it is a complex, empty conceptual category whose meaning is constantly contested, shaped by theoretical perspectives, historical context, and its implicit contrast with other forms of culture 

  • Storey argues against a single, simple understanding of pop culture, presenting it instead as a battleground of meanings, definitions, and political struggles

MODULE 1: Introduction

• Hegemony

• A system or process that protects & maintains ideology, ensuring they remain the norm, dominant, common sense, and the status quo

  • Helps ruling class keep their powers + privileges

  • Proves that ideology desensitizes us from unequal systems within society/culture

  • Leads to social harmony & consensus among the masses

MODULE 1: Introduction

• The 4 Characteristics of Hegemony

  THE 4 Cs

1. CONNECTION: Draws connections between culture & power while protecting/maintaining a dominant ideology

2. COERCION/CONSENT: Employs a system of coercion/consent → we end up staying passive and accepting a dominant culture + ideology

3. COMMON SENSE: Maintains ideology as something “normal,” “rational,” “common sense”

4. CULTURE: Is exercised through society, culture, and its normalizing of presumed norms + expectations

MODULE 1: Introduction

• The 3 Shapes of Hegemony

  THE 3 Cs

Hegemony uses a combination of force + normalization of dominant ideologies to gain consent of the less powerful, WHICH maintains the social order + power of the ruling class

1. …COERCION → Use force: police, military, justice system

2. …CONSENT → Normalize: dominant class produce ideologies seen as true, legitimate & unquestioned

3. …COMPROMISE → Negotiate: upper class makes concessions to lower class

MODULE 1: Introduction

• Theories

1. Structural Functionalism *SF

2. Social Conflict Theory *SCT [Mark Weber’s Dimensions of Inequality]

3. Symbolic Interaction Theory *SIT (where Charles Cooley’s LGT was born)

4. Looking Glass Theory *LGT

5. Critical Race Theory *CRT

MODULE 1: Introduction

• Theories

  [1] Structural Functionalism *SF

  • VIEW

• Society is an alive, active system of existence made up of independent but connected institutions that structure society & ensure the relative stability + harmony of society as a whole

• Identifies specific institutions and industries (including popular culture industries - Hollywood and advertising) as contributors to the maintenance of the social system and social world

MODULE 1: Introduction

• Theories

  [1] Structural Functionalism *SF

  • BELIEFS

1. Harmony of society depends on sharing general values, beliefs, & behaviours → ensures that society remains in a perpetual state of balance as the status quo

   • Some institutions foundational in Canada: democracy, multiculturalism, universal healthcare, capitalism, and education 

2. Social bonds are important, when we have a sense of culture, our society has stability. This is established through biological needs (food, procreation) and assimilationist requirements (religion, socialization, nationhood, & economy)

   • EX: Canada + USA → engaged in “culture wars” in terms of politics, religion, & culture, race, gender, sexuality intersect

   • This is because… a country might be considered unwell, divided, and in need of rehabilitation when these social bonds and shared culture are fractured

3. Capitalism & social class (e.g. Middle class) is reflective of a healthy competitive system where goals, rewards, & accomplishments reflect ambition, leadership and internal drive

MODULE 1: Introduction

• Theories

  [2] Social Conflict Theory *SCT [Max Weber’s Dimensions of Inequality]

  • VIEW

STARK CONTRAST WITH SF

• Capitalism + social class maintain a relationship of inequality

  • EX: Production of commodities (goods & objects like cars, phones, or TV) is important to the stability & profitability recognized by the marketplace - the goal of capitalism is the max of profits, its very nature is competition

• Helps us understand & examine conflicts like war, wealth, poverty, social justice, activism, discrimination, the police & crime + representations/inclusion of each in pop culture

MODULE 1: Introduction

• Theories

  [2] Social Conflict Theory *SCT [Max Weber’s Dimensions of Inequality]

  • BELIEFS

1. The decision-making powers belong to a very small amount of society → the dominant class 

2. Popular culture is produced through this system of capitalism → the social world & pop culture are arenas of inequality marked by conflict, discord and unequal access to decision-making opportunities  

3. Determining factors like race, class, gender, and sexuality contribute to the maintenance of systems of inequality

4. Thesis: society’s various social groups are engaged in a continuous struggle over power & influence

   • The dominant/capitalist class vs. the working/underclass competing for access & control of social institutions that assign power

MODULE 1: Introduction

• Theories

  [2] Social Conflict Theory *SCT [Max Weber’s Dimensions of Inequality]

  • Max Weber → Dimensions of Inequality

(1) CLASS: one’s socio-economic status/privileges determined by financial security

(2) STATUS: one’s level of social prestige (one may have low income, but still have a relatively high social status)

(3) POWER: one’s degree of social & political influence (someone can have a low income + low social status BUT also still have political power through membership in a political power, or someone else may have a modest income + power through social activism)

MODULE 1: Introduction

• Theories

  [2] Social Conflict Theory *SCT [Max Weber’s Dimensions of Inequality]

  • Commodity Culture

• A key characteristic of capitalism & is organized around it

  • Commodities (objects for exchange in the market) communicate social status + power 

  • Participates in the social identity of the person who possesses them → EX: Instagram displays specific commodities to display status

MODULE 1: Introduction

• Theories

  [3] Symbolic Interaction Theory *SIT (where Charles Cooley’s LGT was born)

  • VIEW

FOCUSES ON MICRO-LEVEL (Human action + interaction)

• Production of meaning/meaning-making in both individual & group settings with a focus on human action + interaction

• Looks at meanings & the role those meanings play in society/social roles

• There are subjective/socially constructed meanings & these meanings play a role in the interpretation + consumption of commodity objects

MODULE 1: Introduction

• Theories

  [3] Symbolic Interaction Theory *SIT (where Charles Cooley’s LGT was born)

  • BELIEFS

1. Society is made up of endless social interaction - central are the meanings shared amongst people in communication + symbols

   • EX: Activity looking at different images

MODULE 1: Introduction

• Theories

  [3] Symbolic Interaction Theory *SIT (where Charles Cooley’s LGT was born)

  • BELIEFS

    • EXAMPLES

• Image of skateboarder, nike shoes, and man with a mohawk:

  • Text Analysis: A group of youth, or a youth culture, may interact symbolically through slang, code and the meanings associated with symbols such as a pair of sneakers, a hairstyle or image on a t-shirt. This communication, through a shared understanding of those symbols, in effect connects those within the interaction through a common bond or understanding.

• Supreme shirt:

  • Text Analysis: A t-shirt may itself be objectively just that, an article of clothing, however, a t-shirt injected with status, meaning and influence indicates the subjective nature of our consumerism wherein a Supreme t-shirt is not only a t-shirt to many young people but instead is a bonafide status filled commodity that communicates one’s social status and access to a desirable commodity item

MODULE 1: Introduction

• Theories

  [4] Looking Glass Theory *LGT

  • VIEW

THEORIZED BY CHARLES COOLEY (1902): “The thing that moves us to pride or shame is not the mere mechanical reflection of ourselves, but an imputed sentiment, the imagined effect of this reflection upon another’s mind.”

• Examines social interaction in terms of identity formation & relationships to ourselves + others

• SIT explains how the process of LGT occurs → our use and interpretation of symbols and gestures in communication during social interaction (SIT) helps us gather the information (or perceived information) needed to imagine how others see and judge us (LGT)

MODULE 1: Introduction

• Theories

  [4] Looking Glass Theory *LGT

  • BELIEFS

1. We interpret our interactions within others through the use of symbols + gestures of communication & through this we create a self that we perform as social beings (more internal & reflective than Goffman’s theory!)

2. We experience 3 possibilities:

   (1) IMAGINATION: We imagine how we appear to others

   (2) JUDGMENT: We imagine the judgment of our appearance

   (3) FEELINGS: We develop our self through our feelings towards, and our response, to those perceived judgments

MODULE 1: Introduction

Laura Grindstaff → Production of Culture POV

• A view that believes producing culture means the culture is seen as a social product

  • Symbolic meanings + elements of culture are not shaped by people BUT the systems that create, produce, and distribute them

  • Less focused on interpreting meanings of culture and more on the systems + characteristics responsible for its existence

MODULE 1: Introduction

Laura Grindstaff → Production of Culture POV

• EX: MOLSON CANADIAN AD

• Shows how large systems (corporate brands) produce + maintain a specific cultural representation rather than reflecting a culture defined by the people

MODULE 1: Introduction

Laura Grindstaff → Production of Culture POV

• Shortcomings of this POV

• Doesn’t pay attention to meaning & aesthetics

• Focuses on product, not meaning

• Cultural objects contribute to culture but they’re not culture itself

• Overlooks how people take up & popularize the cultural resources provided by industries

MODULE 1: Introduction

Laura Grindstaff → Production of Culture POV

• Another POV: Consumption/Interpretation & Constructionist/Interpretivist

• More micro - uses interviews, text, & ethnography to emphasize the expressive & symbolic dimensions of pop culture

• Types of research:

  1. Textual Analysis: Studies of media genres, narrative analysis, & politics of representation (how pop culture produces ideas about thew world)

  2. Reception Studies: Focuses on the reception/practice of pop culture by individuals & groups (ex: studying fandoms, class differences, etc.)

  3. Ethnographic Research: Uses fieldwork/interviews to investigate how & why particular cultural forms/practices work in every day life (ex: Little League Basketball, talk shows, book clubs, proms, and beauty pageants)

MODULE 1: Introduction

Laura Grindstaff → Production of Culture POV

• Grindstaff’s Thesis

• Argues that despite the study of pop culture being an interdisciplinary field where cultural sociology is somewhat marginalized, it is still highly relevant and has tools to help us understand pop culture

• Cultural sociology is well-equipped to address crucial issues & fill existing gaps in the field

  1. Analyzing the implications of new media & communication technologies

  2. Examining the production sphere of pop culture

  3. Investigating cultural hierarchies being created and worked (cultural omnivores & potential cultural underclass)

  4. Connections between pop culture & populism → shift towards working-class political conservatism in U.S., media narratives contribute to symbolic boundaries

  • "Who and what determines and decides on how culture will be represented?" and "How accurate and/or relatable is the cultural product, and does it even matter?"

MODULE 1: Introduction

• Cultural Sociology

A field of study in sociology that relates to the study of pop culture

• Looks at systems, institutions, objects, & practices to be significant in their own right 

• <3 Pop Culture → Cultural sociology looks at HOW pop culture is produced & consumed, how it is read 7 understood, + intersecting with other aspects of life

MODULE 1: Introduction

• Key Approaches to Studying Pop Culture

1.     “Production of Culture” POV

2.      Consumption & Interpretation

3.      Ethnographic Research (how & why particular cultural forms/practices work as they do)

4. Historical Research (History of cultural phenome

MODULE 1: Introduction

Theodor Adorno → The Culture Industry

• HIS THESIS: Those in power determine + control the production of entertainment to appeal to audiences (all mass-produced) 

  • Argues that culture industries (like Hollywood) are driven by a capitalist ethos/philosophy 

  • This manipulates gen pop into a state of perpetual economic & ideological consumption 

  • If capitalism is accepted as “common sense” → people would constantly “need to keep up with everyone else” (success is defined by economic achievement & consuming commodities) 

MODULE 1: Introduction

Theodor Adorno → The Culture Industry

• 3 Central Components of Pop Culture

1. CAPITALISM

2. AGREEMENT (Hollywood participates in a “democratic exchange” with viewers based on what content is popular)

3. REPETITION (Hollywood continues to produce similar content like romcoms that adhere to narrow conventions for success)

MODULE 1: Introduction

Thomas Frank & Michele Lamont → Conservative Populism

• A growing form of working-class political conservatism in U.S. → even though it’s all about the “people,” it’s actually caused a lot of harm to the working class

• Pop culture is a vehicle used to wage this economic war

• Media figures help harness a worldview where conservative elites + their policies are framed as “supporting” working Americans

• These populist narratives about national identity & political/economic issues need to be “tried on” and “sold” to ordinary people, this is where POP CULTURE comes in

MODULE 1: Introduction

Thomas Frank & Michele Lamont → Conservative Populism

• Symbolic Boundaries

• A powerful analytic tool for understanding conservative populism

  • Examines how conservative narratives are taken up & understood by ordinary people

  • Working-class individuals place high value on morality & resent elites for perceived moral flaws + arrogance → making them vulnerable to narratives that brand liberalism as a threat

MODULE 2: Audience Studies, Meaning Making & Spectatorship

• Cultural Studies

• 1960s, grew from the Birmingham School with a marxist background, sees pop culture as an arena for consent & resistance in the struggle over meaning

MODULE 2: Audience Studies, Meaning Making & Spectatorship

John Storey → Cultural Studies

• Cultural Studies

• Cultural studies also draws on disciplines like communications, media theory, feminist + queer theory, & critical race theory 

• As a field, it borrows from other disciplines like sociology, anthropology & criminology

MODULE 2: Audience Studies, Meaning Making & Spectatorship

John Storey → Cultural Studies

• Cultural Studies

  • ENCOURAGES…

1. Scrutinizing cultural texts → Ads can have an image & text, the combo allows for people to interpret it differently 

2. Recognizing that we interpret cultural texts as socially + politically engaged → A viewer can oppose dominant codes/models reflected in dominant culture like Hollywood/Instagram/Nike (they have their own reasons why)

3. Challenging the “HIGH” vs. “LOW” debate → Most times cultures are subjectively considered “low” or “high” (ex: hip-hop and jazz are pitted against each other but they’re directly connected)

MODULE 2: Audience Studies, Meaning Making & Spectatorship

• Sociology + Cultural Studies

• SOCIOLOGY → Social structures (gender, race, class, sexuality) while CULTURAL STUDIES → looks at the representations of such (social groups in pop culture & the social world)

MODULE 2: Audience Studies, Meaning Making & Spectatorship

Antonio Gramsci → Hegemony

• Hegemony: A functional union of ideologies across the whole range of a given society

  • Maintains power of dominant classes through consent, using popular commodities BUT this makes hegemony vulnerable

  • They can have different meanings, sometimes oppositional

MODULE 2: Audience Studies, Meaning Making & Spectatorship

Raymond Williams → 4 Attributions to “Popular”

1. Means… It’s well-liked by many people

2. Means… It’s unworthy/inferior

3. Means… It’s wanting to win favour with people

4. Means… It’s made by people for themselves

WILLIAMS’ PERSPECTIVE

• Reveals pop culture is deviated, valued & devalued

• Its value is determined outside the actual examination of it

MODULE 2: Audience Studies, Meaning Making & Spectatorship

Stuart Hall → Encoding/Decoding Model

• Encoding/Decoding Model

• Examining the production of the cultural text AND how it is received

  • ENCODERS (Producers): Create the message within certain frameworks + codes

  • DECODERS (Recievers - The Audience): Interpret & “decode” → which is not perfectly symmetrical 

• But the space between the encoders & decoders create “distortion,” which can prevent the messages from travelling “correctly” to the encoders

MODULE 2: Audience Studies, Meaning Making & Spectatorship

Stuart Hall → Encoding/Decoding Model

• Meaning is Generated

• Decoders are actively participating in the meaning of the cultural text → Messages must be decoded to “have an effect”

• This process occurs within discourse → encoders & decoders are positioned differently in society, which influence how they interpret the world + texts (people will see the same cultural texts differently, WHICH means people are resistant to hegemonic control)

• The “slippery realm of language” (discourse) makes it impossible for the encoders to control the meaning of the text

MODULE 2: Audience Studies, Meaning Making & Spectatorship

Stuart Hall → Encoding/Decoding Model

• 3 Ways of Interpretation

1. DOMINANT (HEGEMONIC) READING

2. OPPOSITIONAL READING

3. NEGOTIATED READING

MODULE 2: Audience Studies, Meaning Making & Spectatorship

Stuart Hall → Encoding/Decoding Model

• 3 Ways of Interpretation

  • (1) DOMINANT (HEGEMONIC) READING

• Viewer accepts the intended, preferred, or dominant meaning encoded by the producer → reflects the status quo

  • EX: How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days - viewer satisfied by the “happy ending,” where the couple ends up together, even though the protagonist ends up not chasing her dreams…

MODULE 2: Audience Studies, Meaning Making & Spectatorship

Stuart Hall → Encoding/Decoding Model

• 3 Ways of Interpretation

  • (2) OPPOSITIONAL READING

• Viewer rejects the dominant message & interprets the text within an alternative framework of reference

  • EX: Viewer interpreting the debate on wage limits being for “national interest,” not actually “class interest”

  • EX: Kony 2012 Video - Western viewers (dominant) saw a noble awareness campaign while Ugandan viewers (oppositional) saw ignorance, misrepresentation, and potential harm to Uganda's image due to their radically different "frameworks of knowledge

MODULE 2: Audience Studies, Meaning Making & Spectatorship

Stuart Hall → Encoding/Decoding Model

• 3 Ways of Interpretation

  • (3) NEGOTIATED READING

• Viewer compromises, accepting the dominant meaning but modifying it based on their own personal/specific group interests

  • EX: Worker accepting the idea of wage limits for the “national interest” but still deciding to go on strike to get better pay

MODULE 2: Audience Studies, Meaning Making & Spectatorship

Stuart Hall → Encoding/Decoding Model

• Hall’s KEY POINTS

  • 1. Media representations aren’t reflections of things that already have meaning, they are the meaning makers of things that happen in reality.

• Representation is the cornerstone of media studies → media represents reality (social groups, people, events, places)

  • EX: Trump

  • You have the man & his actual meaning

  • Media’s representation (varying degrees of accuracy/distortion)

• But Hall says, no, this implies that the original subject has a fixed meaning… Media GIVES meaning…

• Representation is not an “after event” (means something, then media might change), it has NO fixed/real meaning UNTIL it is in the meaning

MODULE 2: Audience Studies, Meaning Making & Spectatorship

Stuart Hall → Encoding/Decoding Model

• Hall’s KEY POINTS

  • 2. The things we believe is usually controlled by people in power - hegemony

• Who makes this meaning though? → MASS MEDIA

  • EX: Trump - I don’t actually know him? But I have strong feelings about him. 

  • Everything we feel is controlled by something else (sometimes)

• Hall argues that much of our understanding of the world is based on meanings which have been created by media producers who are in power 

  • EX: Hegemonic organizations → usually its wealthy, straight, white men who create them…

  • Stereotypes are created because of the limited representations the hegemonic elites show us → So we feel desentized to racial streotypes/sexuality setereotypes (ex: Black people being angry/aggressive, gay men being fruity/feminine, women liking to clean) → creating a DOMINANT MEANING

• BUT the audience can reject these meanings, but the producers attempt to create a fixed meaning to maintain social supremacy & power → depends on the agenda of the encoder

• Audience members should CHALLENGE what they consume

MODULE 2: Audience Studies, Meaning Making & Spectatorship

Michel Foucault → Discourse

• Discourse

• Constitutes the world by shaping how knowledge is produced

• It contains the practices in our society (from our language and codes, which structure how we interact/interpret media)

MODULE 2: Audience Studies, Meaning Making & Spectatorship

Jason Haslam → Multifaceted Discourse

• Multifaceted Discourse

• Agrees with Foucault, but adds that discourse also too multifaceted for its meanings to be determined by the culture producer → they can’t completely control or dictate how it shapes the thinking of the audience

  • This fits with Hall’s Encoding/Decoding Model → meaning is generated by the receiver during the decoding process, which is influenced by discourse but the outcome isn’t guaranteed to follow the producer’s original direction

  • Was the one who said discourse leads to the “slippery realm of language”

MODULE 2: Audience Studies, Meaning Making & Spectatorship

• 5 Characteristics of Discourse

  A.P.A.O.P

1. ARTICULATION

2. PURPOSE

3. ASSUMPTIONS

4. ORGANIZATIONS

5. POWER

MODULE 2: Audience Studies, Meaning Making & Spectatorship

• 5 Characteristics of Discourse

  • 1. ARTICULATION

How and why was a particular text articulated?

• The origins, motivations, & context behind the creation of the discourse

MODULE 2: Audience Studies, Meaning Making & Spectatorship

• 5 Characteristics of Discourse

  A.P.A.O.P

  • 2. PURPOSE

To whom is it addressed, and for what purpose?

• Intended audience & the specific goals/objectives of the discourse

MODULE 2: Audience Studies, Meaning Making & Spectatorship

• 5 Characteristics of Discourse

  • 3. ASSUMPTIONS

What are the assumptions or surmises that are concealed in a text?

• Hidden or underlying beliefs & presuppositions embedded within the discourse

MODULE 2: Audience Studies, Meaning Making & Spectatorship

• 5 Characteristics of Discourse

  A.P.A.O.P.

  • 4. ORGANIZATION

How do texts “organize in” and “organize out” certain interests and values?

• How discourse actively includes some perspectives, interests, & values while excluding others, reflecting power dynamics

MODULE 2: Audience Studies, Meaning Making & Spectatorship

• 5 Characteristics of Discourse

  A.P.A.O.P.

  • 4. POWER

In what ways, if any, are texts complicit with dominant and oppressive power structures?

• Addresses the potential role of discourse in supporting/reinforcing existing power structures, including those that are dominant or oppressive

MODULE 2: Audience Studies, Meaning Making & Spectatorship

• Applying Hall’s Encoding/Decoding Model

Look at the picture of the two basketball players below. The image was posted to ESPN.com in February, 2012 and it shows Taiwanese-American basketball player Jeremy Lin, at the time a member of the NBA’s Hornets. Immediately beneath Lin is a headline reading “Chink in the Armour.” This image was posted to ESPN.com late in the evening, shortly before midnight, and was only up for approximately three hours. However, when scrutinized in terms of Hall’s encoding/decoding model, polysemy, and discourse’s relationship to power and language with reference to the five characteristics listed above, it was “too late,” to use common, everyday language.

With this in mind, consider how this image of Lin alongside the headline reflects each of those DISCOURSE characteristics (A.P.O.P.A.)

1. Articulation - Represented the basketball player as merely his race

2. Purpose - Addressed to people who use stereotypical and racial language in their vocabulary 

3. Assumptions - An Asian basketball player is unusual, and the fact that he’s bad? Typical…

4. Organization - Organizes out the value of diversity, equality, and honestly kindness

5. Power - Supports the narrative that those with the most “power” are white… but also highlights how most people have this mould of what a basketball player is; usually Black and tall, not Asian. This is rooted in a deeper societal issue of underestimating certain races based on stereotypical beliefs

MODULE 2: Audience Studies, Meaning Making & Spectatorship

Pierre Bourdieu → Cultural Capital & Taste

• Individual choices about cultural consumption + taste are actually intertwined with social class & power 

• They reflect & reproduce existing social hierarchies by creating distinctions between groups based on their cultural capital

MODULE 2: Audience Studies, Meaning Making & Spectatorship

Pierre Bourdieu → Cultural Capital & Taste

• Cultural Capital

• Determined by the value that an individual holds in relation to culture

• Different social groups/classes place different values on various forms of culture, creating a system of worth

MODULE 2: Audience Studies, Meaning Making & Spectatorship

Pierre Bourdieu → Cultural Capital & Taste

• Taste

• Not just a personal preference but a social marker → “taste classifies, and it classifies the classifier

• Reveals the social group of others and groups them with others who share similar tastes

• It acts as a practical affirmation of an inevitable difference (separating & harmonizing the social world)

MODULE 2: Audience Studies, Meaning Making & Spectatorship

Pierre Bourdieu → Cultural Capital & Taste

• “Quality TV” - HBO

• From a Bourdieuian POV, choosing to subscribe to HBO and watch its “original” programming is a way for viewers to increase their own cultural capital & demonstrate “good taste” in sophisticated culture

• Distinguishes themselves from those who consume repetitive mass culture

• HBO’s branding as “It’s Not TV. It’s HBO” → an effort to uphold the high/lower binary & position its shows as elite + original, appealing to those with “critical, intellectual & discriminating taste”

MODULE 2: Audience Studies, Meaning Making & Spectatorship

Pierre Bourdieu → Cultural Capital & Taste

• “Here Comes Honey Boo Boo” - TLC

• Potentially exploits a lower working-class family, presenting their lives as a source of humour for viewers who may use the family’s perceived lack of cultural capital & status to construct their own identity as socially + culturally superior

• Illustrates how pop culture can display & legitimize social differences based on economic status + social class

MODULE 2: Audience Studies, Meaning Making & Spectatorship

Pierre Bourdieu → Cultural Capital & Taste

• Elitism & Education

• His work shows a correlation between educational attainment & engaging in traditionally highly regarded cultural practices 

• Formal education plays a role in developing our habits & disposition towards cultural practice 

• Our perceived level of cultural capital is influenced by a factor like education → contributing to how we position ourselves socially & culturally relative to others

MODULE 2: Audience Studies, Meaning Making & Spectatorship

Pierre Bourdieu → Cultural Capital & Taste

• Critique on Bourdieu

• Seen and condescending & elitist for assuming the superiority of a bourgeois culture

MODULE 2: Audience Studies, Meaning Making & Spectatorship

Marshall McLuhan → The Medium is the Message

• The MEDIUM is the MESSAGE…?

Film dominates viewers through the limitations of the medium itself (2D, we only see what we can see, confined by the screen itself) 

• The form of the medium itself, and the way it structures communication + experience is more impactful than the specific information or content being conveyed through it

  • EX: Railway’s message - not just the transportation (content) but the enlargement of scale that creates new cities, work, and leisure

  • EX: Lightbulb’s message - not just the illumination (content) but the fact it gives light and is safer, transforming life after dark

  • EX: Airplane’s message - not just travel (content) but the age of globalization

MODULE 2: Audience Studies, Meaning Making & Spectatorship

Marshall McLuhan → The Medium is the Message

• Hot Media

“High Definition”

• Medium that fully engages with one or more of our senses, leading us to be passive receivers of their content (images, sounds, etc.)

  • EX: Photograph → reproduces an event with clarity & precision, we don’t have to give it much attention

• TV, targeted ads on Facebook also match this description (creates a passive reception of a capitalist message)