Erika and Audrey's Chapter 9 discussion outline

Ch. 9: Popular Culture and Intercultural Communication

Popular Culture – a new name for low culture, referring to those cultural products that most people share and know about

Ex: TV, music, videos, magazines

High Culture – refers to those cultural activities that are often the domain of the elite or well-to-do

Ex: ballet, symphony, opera, literature, and fine arts

Low Culture: Refers to the activities of the non-elite

Ex: music, videos, game shows, professional wrestling, TV talk shows

*** Popular Culture falls under the “low culture” category

·      We learn about parts of the world that we have never seen or been to through popular culture.

Social Effects of Popular Culture

·      Ex: influence of violent television and music on children

·      People are concerned about the power of pop culture, yet do not consider it a serious area of academic research, making it difficult to investigate and discuss pop culture

4 Characteristics of Popular Culture

1.     It is produced by culture industries.

2.     Differs from folk culture (traditional and nonmainstream cultural activities that are not financially driven)

3.     It is everywhere.

4.     It fills a social function.

Consuming Popular Culture

·      People consume pop cultural in a variety of ways

·      Encoding – the process of creating a message for others to understand

·      Decoding – the process of interpreting a message

·      “Real meaning” is not found in either the sender or the receiver

·      Ex: Video of Native American mascots

Resisting Popular Culture

·      Ex: refusing to go to a movie that displays violence or sexuality

·      Resistance can be related to social roles – stems from concerns about the representation about various social groups

Popular Culture and Stereotyping

·      Stereotypes are connected to social values and judgments about other groups of people

·      They are powerful because they tell us how “we” value and judge these other groups

·      Depends on your intercultural competency and who you interact with

American Popular Culture

·      Much of the internationally circulated popular culture is U.S. pop culture.

·      It is widely available outside the U.S. (CNN, MTV)

·      Pop culture that is expressed in non-English languages has a difficult time on the global scene

·      Cultural imperialism – domination through the spread of cultural products

Discussion Questions

1.     How can resistance and acceptance of pop culture cause barriers in intercultural communication?

2.     What kind of an effect do common stereotypes in pop culture have on perceptions of the portrayed groups of people?

3.     What are positive outcomes from popular culture?

4.     How does American power in pop culture influence the rest of the world?