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BGSU POPC 1600 Midterm Exam
Midterm Exam
109
Other
Undergraduate 2
10/05/2009

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Term
What's wrong with popular culture?
Definition
It is a threat to canonized teaching. Popular culture is seen as frivolous even though it is the largest way in which we are exposed to culture
Term
Canonized
Definition
what is generally taught, classic, considered worthy of knowing
Term
High Culture
Definition
limited resources, rare, authored, expensive,requires high education.
i.e.; ballet, broadway,caviar, escargot, champagne, polo, sailing, cricket, fencing, riding.
Term
Pop Culture
Definition
mass produced, common, egalitarian, low, determines most current value systems
i.e.; hip hop, breakdance, hamburgers, pizza, ramen, beer, redbull, coke, wine, sports, video games, tv, beer pong, corn hole
Term
Folk Culture
Definition
authored, personal, handmade, deals with community, transmitted orally.
i.e.; square dancing, corn bread, creole, deer, rabbit, vegetables, fruits, knitting, horseshoes, quilting.
Term
culture
Definition
the social production of sense, meaning, and consciousness. It is the sphere of meaning which unifies the spheres of production (economics) and social relations (politics.)
Term
Ideology/Worldviews/Beliefs
Definition
mean the same thing; process by which a set of values and beliefs that bind individuals together becomes natural.;
i.e.; capitalism, democracy, monogamy
Term
What are 3 key points about popular culture?
Definition
1. mass media includes and are influencing practices in everyday life.
2. it is concerned with the production of sense and social value.
3. power and ideology go hand in hand.
Term
Popular Culture
Definition
mass media that reflects itself economically and technologically and is measured by consumption.
Term
Culture Industry
Definition
a term first introduced by Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno to describe the new conditions of cultural production in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. In contrast to earlier periods, culture is now mostly produced and distributed in an industrial fashion and on a mass scale like any other commodity. Cultural industries include the music and film industry, advertising, television, and professional sports among others. The concept of cultural industry(in the singular) draws attention to the overall social consequences of such a cultural-commodity system, including the dominance of instrumental rationality.
Term
Marxism
Definition
A wide range of political and cultural philosophies that draw their inspiration from the work of Karl Marx. Marxist approaches to society and culture emphasize the primacy of economic relations and structures in determining all other social activity. In particular, Marxism emphasizes the exploitative foundations of capitalist systems of economics. The notion of ideology arises out of the Marxist tradition as a way to account for how the dominant economic class controls the production and distribution of ideas in society.
Term
The Frankfurt School
Definition
The name given to a group of innovative social theorists whos ideas remain important decades after the school was formally dissolved. It is used to describe approaches that emphasize the production of popular culture and insist on its ideological constraints. Members included Horkheimer, adorno, Herbert Marcuse, Erich Fromm, and Leo Lowenthal.
Term
Intstruemental Rationality
Definition
the use or rationality or reason in an instrumentalfashion suggests the use of the most efficient means to achieve the desired end.
Term
Why was the Frankfurt School critical of Instrumental Rationality?
Definition
it eliminated the critical use of reason.
Term
Base/Superstructure Model
Definition
The base or bourgeios which is the economic institutions regulates what is produced in the superstructure or social institutions and affects what we think.
Term
Karl Marx
Definition
german philosopher and political theorist who co-wrote the communist manifesto and founded communism.
Term
Communism
Definition
egalitarian, classless, and stateless society basedon the common ownership of production and property.
Term
Bourgeios
Definition
The social class which obtains income from ownership or trade. uptop, rich.
Term
Proletariat
Definition
the "lower" or "working" class
Term
Where does the power rest in america?
Definition
Military-Industrial-Entertainment Complex
Term
Media Oligopolies
Definition
90 % of all media is owned by 10 companies
Term
How does the base excercise control over the populace?
Definition
creating and environment of constant desire promoting ocnsumerism and promoting false needs
Term
capitalist production
Definition
a system that fosters insatiable consumer needs by creating demand where there may be none
Term
Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno
Definition
post marxist, tried to critique capitalist based on pop culture. central thesis is that amusements generated from the culture industry "impedes" the masses from reflecting on the realities of social and political realities. believed that people take passive satisfaction and buy what is not truly neededand that cultural products are being produced solely to make a profit
Term
3 Characteristics of Popular Culture
Definition
1. Standardization
2. Culture industry serves to reinforce the status quo
3. Opposition and dissent is factored into the culture
Term
Standardization
Definition
culture comes packaged in a small number of predictable forms and genres and is produced increasingly limited number of giant corporations for consumption by a global audience
Term
Pseudo-individualization
Definition
gives a product the appearance of novelty.It enables the functioning of standardization; gives the illusion of choie, makes you want whatyou already have in a new version.
Term
How does the culture industry serve to reinforce and maintain the power of the status quo?
Definition
it encourages conformity because it's products are uniform, and encourages distractions from reality by drawing attention away from the contradictions and problems of contemporary society.
Term
How does popular culture factor in opposition and dissent?
Definition
all the opposition structures keep the capitalism structure in place. Sub-cultures and counter-cultures offset the need to introduce "newness" into the system. Rebelion keeps the system alive and kicking.
Term
Political Economy and Popular Cultuer
Definition
all materials are produced to serve a political and economic ends. Business is not just about business, it is about ideology, power, and close interests.
Term
Capitalism
Definition
an economic system of "private enterprise whose primary aim is the production of profit." rather than being owned by the public or by the state, the means of production are privately owned
Term
Military-Industrial-Entertainment Complex
Definition
A conglomeration of three powerful groups that exercise the most influence and control over American society
Term
Louis Althusser
Definition
french post marxist theorist and philosopher cho criticizes that the marxist political economy model by saying it is too grounded in economic determinism because economics alone cannot explain all cultural variations because many movies and music fail.Believes you need to take into account economic, political, legal, and ideological processes
Term
Which 3 superstructures does Althusser say are as importint in maintaining the capitalist system as the economic means pf production?
Definition
1. Ideoligical Systems
2. Political and Legal Systems
3. Economic Base
Term
What 2 parts did Althusser divide the state into?
Definition
1. Repressive State Apparatus (RSA)
2. Ideological State Apparatus (ISA)
Term
Repressive State Apparatus (RSA)
Definition
army, police, prisons, control through force/violence
Term
Ideological State Apparatus (ISA)
Definition
institutions that shape cultural conformity through persuasion i.e.; school, religion, family, legal systems, politics, arts, sports, ect.
Term
Hegemony
Definition
Created by Antonio Gramsci in jail. explains how ideoligical state apparatuses are formed. The powers that reproduce their control over a consenting populace. The key element in this concept is that the population gives full consent to their domination by the ruling class. Attaches common sense and naturalization as views.
Term
Semiotics
Definition
Way to interpret literal and cultural meanings
Term
Texts (semiotics)
Definition
any unitof analysis. All texts are signs.
Term
Signs (semiotics)
Definition
all texts, utterances, and things that carry meanings.They are sometimes literal and sometimes symbolic. Basic units of meaning.
Term
Reading (semiotics)
Definition
interpreting
Term
Ferdinand de Saussure
Definition
father of linguistics, concerned with how we communicate and how language functions, after his death his methods were taken up and adopted by cultural studies.
Term
Signifier
Definition
the word as it is written. the literal form.
Term
signified
Definition
what the signifier means. the cultural form.
Term
polysemic
Definition
signs may carry multiple/disparate meanings. signs are aribitrary; these words that are so associated with their cultural meanings that are unable to translate them.
Term
Roland Barther
Definition
french semiotician. Adoptedlinguistic methodologies to cultural studies.
Term
Sign = Signifier + Signified
Definition
semiotics
Term
1st level of signification
Definition
denotative form. sign or what the sign denotes. (1 word)
Term
2nd level signification
Definition
connotative. The wider culural or symbolic meaning of the sign.
Term
commodity fetishism
Definition
why we value certain items at different prices
Term
commodities
Definition
objects and services produced by consumption or exchange by the application of human labor
Term
fetish
Definition
from anthropology the primitive belief that objects have mystical or religious qualities or powers.
Term
use value
Definition
the human needs that a commodity fulfills through it's actual use
Term
exchange value
Definition
the value of exchange that the objects will fetch on the market (price)
Term
what happens when we fetishize a product?
Definition
it's exchange value supercedes it's use value
Term
globalization
Definition
a process that indicates the flow of people, goods, and products, media, capital, and technology between the nations of the world.
Term
how is globalization evolution more than revolution?
Definition
while the media emphasizes major change there has been a long history of interaction between nations of the world
Term
what does international monetary funds do?
Definition
determines the exchange rate
Term
what are the 3 engines of globalization?
Definition
1. International trade
2. international investment
3. information technology
Term
can things be good or bad about globalization?
Definition
no. however things can be good or bad about the consequences.
Term
what is the impact of unequal power relations on cultural exchange?
Definition
larger, more powerful countries will not recieve as much information from other countries as they send out and it enforces the more powerful countries values on the less powerful country
Term
colonialism
Definition
the historic process through which dominant groups (usually nations) have assimilated, dominated, and subjugated less powerful ones.
Term
imperialism
Definition
the extension of rule over different countries, territories of peoples, usually by force for the purpose of economic gain
Term
cultural imperialism
Definition
the ideological infiltration of the cultural products of dominant groups into less globally powerful ones at the expense of some aspects of their indigenous culture
Term
americanization
Definition
used to reer to the process by which immigrants assimilated into american culture, nowadays it is used to talk about the way american cultural products seem to be conquering the globe
Term
ethnocentrism
Definition
the belief that one's nation/culture is the best. cultural products convey cultural messages.
Term
Identity
Definition
an individual's unique personality or sense of self rather than inhabiting a single identity. We all assume multiple identities that are defined by particular circumstances and relationships.
Term
interpellation
Definition
a term coined by Althusser to describe the process by which an individual is addressed or "called on" ideology to assume a certain identity.
Term
what is critical to interpellation?
Definition
the degree to which an individual recognizes and identifies with the roles he or she is assigned by the dominant culture
Term
multiculturalism
Definition
the co-existance of different cultures and the recognition that there is no universal definition of a national culture
Term
assimilation
Definition
the sometimes forced integration of an immigrant group in the percieved "dominant" culture of the host community through the absorption of the host's cultural practices and history
Term
what do war genres do?
Definition
impact the cultural imagination of war, allow audiences to live vicariously and experience the danger and excitement of the front lines, they use propaganda to manufacture consent
Term
what are common elements of war genre?
Definition
explosions, bombings, uniforms with helmets, fighting, guns, march music, trumets, fear, browery, red cross, helicopters, airplanes, jeeps, tells a depressing patriotic story, as time goes on storyline gets better and becomes realistic
Term
harlequin
Definition
generic, serial romances. short and released on a month to month basis
Term
stepback
Definition
the picture on the inside. 1/2 naked people looking at each other
Term
stereotypes of romance novels
Definition
bodice rippers, reinforces patriarchy, fantasies, bored housewives read them, they are unintelligent, something must be wrong with the reader's love life
Term
what is the reality about romance novels?
Definition
large and extremely varied genre of literature
Term
what are the 2 things common to romance novels?
Definition
1. a central love story
2. an emotionally satisfying and optomistic ending
Term
what are the 2 formats of romance novels?
Definition
1. serials
2. single titles
Term
single title romance novels
Definition
longer and released individually by a publishing company
Term
what are 5 subgenres of romance novels?
Definition
1. historical romances
2. inspirational romances
3. paranormal romances
4. romantic suspense
5. contemporary romances
Term
what are thematic elements of romance novels?
Definition
feminism, humor, clothing, love, womanhood, food, power
Term
what are cultual ideals that tie into romance?
Definition
heterosexuallity, marriage, nuclear family, femininity. however many are changing
Term
when did the shift from studying production to studying how products are consumed occur?
Definition
1970's
Term
what is the goal of marketing?
Definition
to homogenize the audience
Term
audience is made up of what?
Definition
producers + text
Term
audience reception studies created a shift from ________ methodology to ________ methodology
Definition
quantitative, qualitative
Term
what did quantitative methods use?
Definition
statistics and demographics such as ratings ect.
Term
what did qualitative methods borrow from?
Definition
anthropology. it shows how to question for qualitative answers.
Term
ethnography
Definition
a research method that analyzes and examines audience behavior through long term studies using participation and observation. the fieldwork techniques include unstructured interviews and first hand observation
Term
Stuart Hall
Definition
described the process of meaning-making in terms of 2 key operations, encoding and decoding
Term
encoding
Definition
the process by which a text is constructed by it's producers
Term
decoding
Definition
the process by which the audience reads, understands, and interprets a text
Term
what happens when a text is decoded?
Definition
it is either accepted, negotiated (omitting part), or opposed (rejecting the entire pretext of the encoding)
Term
Point of the Audience Reception Theory
Definition
make it clear that the audience is not passive sheeps. The viewer can interpret the text however they choose.
Term
polysemic decoding
Definition
signs carry different meanings for different people
Term
misreading a text
Definition
where an intentionally encoded meaning is misread
Term
ignoring the text
Definition
periods of inattention for example superbowl viewers pay more attention to socializing than to the game
Term
personal interpretation
Definition
where readers found a personal escape from the act of reading instead of the encoded
Term
reading against the grain
Definition
recognizing the encoded message and choosing to interpret it differently
Term
why is there so much homosocial interpretation in batman?
Definition
gays are very underrepresented in popular culture
Term
sub-culture
Definition
a smaller group or community that exists within a given culture. These are typically made up of people into share particular intersts, ideas, professions, and pursuits. They don't tend to align with dominant cultural values
Term
counter culture
Definition
groups or subcultures that express antagonism towards existing social and political order and propose alternative ways of organizing society
Term
fandom
Definition
a subculture of individuals who share a devotion to a particular aspect of popular culture
Term
how are fans stereotyped?
Definition
fanatics that demonstrate their devotion in a manner that goes beyond the casual consumption of the text
Term
poaching
Definition
(illegal) appropriating an element of the text to use in another text. A re-working of parts of a text that results in a new derivative text i.e: mashup
Term
Bricolage
Definition
re-organizing parts of the text to create a new or implied meaning (ex. disney lawyers constantly patrol internet to find copyright infringement)
Term
Slash
Definition
named for its orgin in k/s fan fiction. In general it refers to a fan created art, fiction video or photo. Manipulations which explore the unspoken sexual tenions between fictional characters in ways that the original text never intended. It is an example of both poaching and bricolage.
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