Popular Culture

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Popular Culture

• Popular Culture Culture that is shared by many
  groups in Western society and increasinly around
  the world
• It includes popular music, movies, television
  shows, brand named clothing, food, activities and
  so on

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Examples of Popular Culture
Movies
Food
Music
Television
Cars
Sports
Comics
Fashion
Internet
Toys
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Popular Culture

• Popular is considered widespread and accessible
  to everyone - a mass culture
• Popular culture is spread through technology
• Primary purpose is entertainment but also provide
  avenue for people to express hopes, fears, and
  anger
• Popular culture may include sexism, racism, and
  nativism (hostility towards immigrants)

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Popular Culture
Mass Production
Mass Distribution
Mass Communication
Mass Consumption
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Popular Culture

• The internet allows Canadians a source of
  education and entertainment
• It also has become a medium for hate groups to
  disseminate racist and homophobic ideology

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Forms of Popular Culture

• Fads
• Fashions
• Leisure Activities

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Fads

• A temporary but widely copied activity followed
  enthusiastically by large numbers of people
• Fads are short lived

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Four Types of Fads

• Object fads are items people purchase despite the
  fact they have little use or intrinsic value
• Beanie Babies Harry Potter Characters
• Pokemon Games Toys Trading Cards
• Clothing cartoons snack foods

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Four Types of Fads

• Activity Fads include pursuits such as body
  piercing, surfing the internet, and raves

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Four Types of Fads

• Idea Fads are ways of thinking including new age
  ideologies

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Four Types of Fads

• Personality Fads, such as those surrounding
  celebrities

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Fashion

• A currently valued style of behaviour, thinking,
  or appearance that is longer lasting and more
  widespread than a fad
• Child rearing Education arts
  Clothing music sports

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Leisure Activities

• discretionary time spent in non-compulsory
  activities, also called 'down time activities,
  that can be participated in indoors or outdoors
• Board Games Gardening Cooking Yoga Sailing
  Theatre Television

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Cultural Imperialism

• Cultural Imperialism - The creation and
  maintenance of unequal relationships between
  civilizations favoring the more powerful
  civilization
• The extensive infusion of one nations culture
  into other nations
• Many sociologists believe the global culture is
  becoming westernized
• The most popular culture shared around the world
  comes from the United States

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Cultural Imperialism

• This theory fails to account for various cross
  cultural influences (cultural diffusion of music,
  literature, clothing, and food)
• If a global culture eventually exists, it will
  have many different component sources

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Counter-Culture

• Counter-culture A subculture whose values and
  norms of behavior differ substantially from those
  of mainstream society, often in opposition to
  mainstream cultural mores