Popular Culture Studies Lab
What is Popular Culture?:
Popular culture though fairly young as an academic field of scholarship has been recognized for centuries. Plato warned of the dangers for rational thought in relation to the seductive power of music and poetry (Street, Inthorn, & Scott, 2013). Though popular culture still receives skepticism as a worthy focus of scholarly attention, continued developments and examination in various academic disciplines including communication, history, economic, politics, and anthropology – among others has given steady legitimacy to the study of popular culture (Mukerji & Schudson, 1986).
The idea of popular culture can be defined as communicative practices that are shared among many members of a society (Szeman, 2017, p. 25). Popular culture represents mass-produced and/or mass-consumed cultural artifacts including but not limited to: theatrical films, television programs, musical recordings, video games, news programming, social media. Popular culture is a sphere of meaning that encapsulates the production and politics of social existence (O'Sullivan et al., 1994: Szeman, 2017), scholars continue to examine how popular culture plays a crucial role in mobilizing political action (Mukerji & Schudson, 1986). Thus, avenues of everyday life that provide content and information for consumers/citizens to make sense of themselves and the world around them embody popular culture.
References:
Mukerji, C., & Schudson, M. (1986). Popular Culture. Annual Review of Sociology, 12, 47-66.
O'Sullivan, T., Hartley, J., Saunders, D., Montgomery, M., & Fiske, J. (1994). Key Concepts in Communication and Cultural Studies. London: Routledge.
Street, J., Inthorn, S., & Scott, M. (2013). From Entertainment to Citizenship: Politics and Popular Culture. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Szeman, I. (2017). Popular Culture: A User's Guide. New York: John Wiley & Sons.
Popular culture studies:
Popular culture studies is the study of popular culture combining communication and cultural studies.
Mission Statement:
Pop Culture studies recognizes the influence of the “cultural industry” producing cultural goods. Pop Culture studies center our scholarship around the influence and impact of popular culture in a variety of matters. The mainstream influence of pop culture has consequences for communities in society, to this extent Pop Culture studies aims to examine and explore: 1) how communities respond to/produce popular culture content, 2) the influence of popular culture content on development of identity, 3) mainstream depictions/perceptions of communities present in popular culture, and 4) the political economic impacts of popular culture on communities.
Who We Are:
Pop Culture studies aspires to consist of scholars (researchers, teachers, producers) from multiple disciplines including the fields of communication, cultural studies, sociology, psychology, economics, gaming, religious studies.