STEPPIN' UP

This blog entry by Courtney Carvalho
The story: "Paris Launches Line of Boat-Sized Shoes"

The analysis:

I will not lie I buy into all the popular media websites such as perezhilton.com and tmz.com. I find myself logging onto these websites for pure entertainment purposes when I'm bored at work or procrastinating a paper, project or even blog entry. What really caught my eye this past time I found myself on tmz.com was the main article about Paris Hilton and her new shoe line.
The article talks about how Paris Hilton is teaming up with Antebi Footwear to create some "dainty" footwear. It added a source of enlightenment and amusement on this breaking news by poking fun of how Paris Hilton has such huge feet by depicting and analyzing a picture of her un manicured feet and her heinous toes hanging off an obviously too small pair of sandals. Usually I read the little articles and then move on to the next, but this little segment on Paris really got me thinking... How is a nobody like Paris Hilton creating her OWN shoe line?
It boggles my mind how individuals such as Paris Hilton have acquired so much fame strictly because of their name and the association brought with it. What do we as society find so attractive about Paris Hilton? Why do we buy into her handed down fame? Paris Hilton is covered on a plethora of tabloids, magazines and even the news whether for quite absurd reasons, whether it be because of her two DUI's, her sex tapes, jail time, nights out clubbing, or disturbing pictures of her bare butt because she didn't put on undies that night, she is photographed and given the unneeded publicity. She already has some sort of perfume line out and now shoes! Does Paris Hilton really have the drive, determination, creativity, not to mention brain power to design her own shoes or is Antebi handing an empire of shoe designs to Paris just to have her name on them for marketing purposes.
I find it very disgruntling that numerous people actually have what it takes to make a shoe line such as Paris is doing and strive all their lives to do so and most the time don't make it, yet Paris is making it big on nothing but her last name alone, HILTON. I'm still pondering why society feels as though Paris is such a big deal, and buying into this whole philosophy that if you're parents are famous than you have a free "shoe" in to fame and the benefits.

CRANK THAT

This blog entry by Jocelle Untalan Dunn

The story: "Methamphetamine gets discovered by Hollywood"

The analysis:

I chose this article around the time we were assigned our blog entries and it just so happened to be in the newspaper. The story by Jake Coyle is about Hollywood's sudden notice of methamphetamine and the lack of glamour portrayed in television and film. In addition, I chose this article because it raised many questions from me as to why Hollywood portrays cocaine, heroin and alcohol as a sexy thing to do that only the wealthy and famous can attain. Coyle states that a movie such as Scarface represented cocaine as part of "fast times and high living". Whereas meth can be seen as a low- class, trashy drug to be using. I personally do not know anyone who has or is using these drugs but after reading the article, I believe the emergence would be good for our society because not many people are aware of the dangers of this particular drug. To un-glamorize meth in movies and television would give another perspective of drug abuse. I fairly enjoyed the movie Scarface and it's glamorization of cocaine but I also already knew the dangers of what leads to the sell and use of the drug.

In relation to pop culture, drugs have long been a fixture in the Hollywood circle. Magazine articles feature film and television stars, in particular teenaged stars going to rehab for their drug problem. The constant exposure of drugs is beyond movies and television in my opinion. I am sure the average viewer knows the consequences of the abuse of the drug just from watching a film like Scarface or Miami Vice. I think Hollywood's fascination with drugs in general will not go away. Stories about drug users and/ or drug dealers make for good storylines but then again the aftermath does not always end well..

RECENT LECTURES

Lecture on Minstrelsy
Lecture on Social Scripts
Lecture on Adorno

TWO NEW READINGS: ONE FOR CLASS, ONE OPTIONAL

1) For week 12, the reading assigned is Everett Rogers' "Elements of Diffusion."

2) That reading on changing malls is here.

SAMPLE PAPERS

As a resource, I have made three sample papers (of the Cultural/Content Analysis assignment) from last semester available: Sample Papers.

These papers should NOT be used as a fixed template for how to write your own paper - depending on your topic, your approach will differ. They can be used, however, to get a sense of what you want to think and write about and perhaps give you better ideas for how to approach your own paper.

GETTING WORK DONE

This blog entry by Angela Duncan

The story: "Plastic Surgery"

The analysis:

I chose this article because it discusses the issue of plastic surgery and teens. I know that plastic surgery is a big part of popular culture. I always hear news stories about how celebrities have some sort of procedure done. Plastic surgery is very popular in Hollywood ands Show Business and I feel that it has a lot to do with why ordinary people have it done. Plastic surgery is everywhere in the media. What drew me to this article is the fact that it talks specifically about teens having plastic surgery done. I think it is interesting because I never really realized how many teens had plastic surgery before the age of eighteen. I always thought that plastic surgery was for adults over the age of twenty.
I feel that this article sheds a very positive light on plastic surgery. It does not talk about how teens should not do it because it can be harmful to their health or self esteem. I usually find articles that point out negative opinions about plastic surgery. This article talks about why certain teens want to go through with plastic surgery to begin with. It says that teens usually want to have plastic surgery in order to be apart of the group, unlike adults who mainly want plastic surgery in order to be different.
I think that teens’ reasons for having plastic surgery are important to mention when it comes to talking about popular culture. Some of these teens have plastic surgery because they want to fit in and look like the popular kids in school. They may feel that their own look is not the “right” look, so they want to alter it. A lot of youth look up to celebrities as their role models because they are so visible in the media. When some teens see that celebrities are having plastic surgery more than ever, it makes them want to do the same thing.
I don’t necessarily agree or disagree with teens and plastic surgery, but I believe that this practice conveys a very powerful message about our society. It says that our society is too wrapped up into physical appearance. Even if a teen has plastic surgery to get rid of a scar, it is still about appearance. People want to look a certain way and they see that plastic surgery is popular so that’s the method they use to look that ways.

RAMPAGE SHOOTINGS

This blog entry by Mahmood Sultan

The story: "Availability of Guns Doesn't Explain Why so Many Individuals Use Them Today to Kill Random Strangers"

The analysis:

This story by Bob Peters explains that the availability of guns doesn’t explain why so many individuals use them today to kill random strangers. This article interested me because of the recent shooting and violence in pop culture. The article focuses on what derives people to use guns to kill others. Bob Peters explains that it is not the availability of guns that are responsible for the killing that have occurred but it is the violence that children are exposed to through television and music.
He explains that television is not clear in explaining who the good guy and the bad guy is and children are exposed to graphic violence in movies, video games and music. He claims that this is the cause of violence. Since children are continuously exposed to this they start to fantasize about killing people and use the means that are portrayed by popular culture. Bob Peters states that popular culture acclimatizes kids to the thought of killing anyone whether they are good or bad and video games are used as training.
One of the main issues that this brings up is the fact that guns still cause the violence. Although the point he makes about popular culture portraying violence as everyday life makes sense, the fact that without access to guns the murders would only be a fantasy and would not take place still exist. It is still the easy access to guns that make the mass murders possible.
A counter argument to this is that “those that want guns will find a way to acquire them” but then analyzing this particular incident and those like this one, it is safe to say that because guns are available to anyone anywhere the planning is the difficult part, not the means of accomplishing the plan. Obtaining the weapon to go through with the fantasy is the easy part.

OFFICE HOURS: PRESIDENT'S DAY

Apologies - I'm suffering from a case of food poisoning and am unable to make it down to campus today. I'll be holding office hours on Wed instead, from 9:30 to 12:30pm.

My best,

Prof. Wang

SYLLABUS CHANGES

I've made some small changes to the syllabus. Namely, I moved up the "Introduction to Social Scripts" to this Thursday instead of two weeks down the line given that you'll need a basic awareness of social scripts for your Cultural Analysis Papers. Everything else on the syllabus is the same.

--Prof. Wang

WEEK 1 LECTURE

Week 1: Intro to the Sociology Study of Popular Culture

Minstrelsy lecture to be posted after Tuesday.

STUDENT BLOG SCHEDULE

The following are the due dates that people need to upload their blog entries to Beachboard (look under "Assignments"). For format, please see here.

Feb. 17: Mahmood, Angela

Feb. 24th: Courtney, Jocelle

Mar. 2: Jacquelyn, Jocelyn

Mar. 9 Juan, Miguel

Mar. 16: Norma, Jenna

Mar. 23: Carmen, Dean

Apr. 6: Kristin, Chris

Apr. 13: Paul, Elaine

Apr. 20: Andrea, Emanuel

Apr. 27: Patricia, Barrett

May 4: Hugo, Liliana

May 11: Monique, Robert