Preview

Popular American Culture

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
779 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Popular American Culture
America is the most diverse place in the world, on the contrary Americans insist on following the “what is in” trend. Too many factors that influence the decisions made. This paper will include a personal documentation on interactions on popular culture. In addition, this paper will cover what culture and popular culture are; three major trends in popular American culture and how does popular American culture affect personal decision making.
Culture and popular culture Merriam-Webster (2012), defines culture as the customary beliefs, social forms, and material traits of a racial, religious, or social group; also: the characteristic features of every day existence (as diversions or a way of life) shared by people in a place or time. Popular culture can be described in several ways, such as high culture or folk culture, visible, and persuasive. According to Petracca and Sorapure (2007), popular culture encompasses the most immediate and contemporary elements in our lives—elements which are often subject to rapid changes in a highly technological world in which people are brought closer and closer by the ubiquitous mass media.
Three trends
Three trends that are followed daily in popular American culture are social media, media sources, and politics. Social media uses the Internet that enables an extensive number of people the means to communicate. Examples of social media are Facebook, YouTube, Blinklist, and Digg. These different sites allow people share the latest fashion trends or fitness plan to drop 10 pounds in 10 days. These websites also lets the individual’s blog, share photos, and videos, as well as comment and vote on articles that have a significant meaning to that person. Media is the next trend similar to social media; however, dissimilar. Different types of media consist of TV, Internet, movies, press (magazines and newspapers), and the radio. We see these and hear these sources broadcasted every day at home, in the car, and at work. We see or

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    Comm 111G Study Guide

    • 1412 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Popular Culture: “popular culture refers to the beliefs and practices, and the objects through which they are organized, that are widely shared among a population. This includes folk beliefs, practices and objects generated in the political and commercial centers. It includes elite cultural forms that have been popularized as well as popular forms that have been elevated to the museum tradition.” (M&S, 3-4)…

    • 1412 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Hum/186 Syllabus

    • 3381 Words
    • 14 Pages

    The course provides an introduction to the most prominent forms of media that influence and impact social, business, political, and popular culture in contemporary America. It explores the unique aspects of each medium as well as interactions across various media that combine to create rich environments for information sharing, entertainment, business, and social interaction in the U.S. and around the world.…

    • 3381 Words
    • 14 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Last week, I wrote about what I thought about the word “culture”, what it meant to me, and how it related of coming of age. I discussed on how culture to me meant the customs and beliefs of your past generation passed on to you and creating that to your image. This week I’ve now realized there are many other factors of culture that influence our way of life. Pop culture plays a big role if not more on who we are and how we behave. I discovered that many aspects like television and social media affect culture and change it frequently. In Tim Delaney’s ‘Pop Culture: An Overview’ he mentioned “popular culture encompasses the most immediate and contemporary aspects of our lives. These aspects are often subject to rapid change, especially in a highly…

    • 288 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Hum 176 Sylabus

    • 4897 Words
    • 20 Pages

    The course provides an introduction to the most prominent forms of media that influence and impact social, business, political, and popular culture in contemporary America. It explores the unique aspects of each medium as well as interactions across various media that combine to create rich environments for information sharing, entertainment, business, and social interaction in the U.S. and around the world.…

    • 4897 Words
    • 20 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    1865 To 1900 Analysis

    • 1001 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Popular culture is defined as the ideas, interests, attitudes, etc. that are prominent among the majority of people, not just a specific group. With new developments in media and communications, such as the telephone and mass media, it was much easier for people to spread ideas across larger areas. As more people in an area began to have access to the same ideas, a popular culture began to emerge. Modernization, which was especially prominent in cities, also contributed to popular culture by allowing for the mass production of and wide-spread access to the same forms of products and entertainment.…

    • 1001 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Culture is what defines a group of people, normally by: ethnicity, religion, beliefs, food, music, art, clothing, entertainment, and sometimes-generalized characters. Popular Culture is the forever changing trends, attitudes, ideas, forms of art, types of music, foods, perspectives, fitness, fashions, technologies, and overall specific themes that take place and are main stream within a culture. Popular culture can vary within a culture, but the general culture of a group mostly remains neutral.…

    • 1478 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    unit 2 - P2+P3

    • 1647 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Culture is the characteristics of a particular group of people, defined by everything from language, religion, cuisine, social habits, music and arts. Today, in the United States as in other countries populated largely by immigrants, the culture is influenced by the many groups of people that now make up the country.…

    • 1647 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Popular culture can be defined as cultural activities or commercial products imitating, suited to, or aimed at the tastes of the general masses of people.…

    • 312 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Trends in popular American culture, what we value and idolize will influence where we go in life. Where we look in life will often determine where we go, and how we end up. From my viewpoint now and what I see in friends in the media and in the values of the groups I belong to I can see where my future is heading. These trends are setting the course.…

    • 721 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Trends Paper

    • 814 Words
    • 4 Pages

    There are many trends in the world, but they vary from country to country. Trends have a tendency to change within time, but there is always something called popular trends those are the trends that people tend to follow. This paper will observe a few trends in the American Culture, which will include social, political, religious, and personal trends.…

    • 814 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Popular culture is a set of patterns, beliefs, symbolic structures, and activities that are well liked by a group of people, as a whole. These beliefs could almost be said as being shared by everyone. This popular culture is mostly defined and determined by the mass media. This is because the mass media is most often the medium used to relay ideas, messages, and most importantly, the news of the times. As the mass media expresses its opinions, the people comprehend and adopt their own opinions based on information processed. As we start to understand popular culture, it is important that we realize the significance the mass media plays on forming what is known as the popular culture.…

    • 1032 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    According to Merriam-Webster culture is “the customary beliefs, social forms, and material traits of a racial, religious, or social group” (2011). Popular culture is “the opposite of high cultural art forms, such as the opera, historic art, classical music, traditional theater or literature; popular culture includes many forms of cultural communication including newspapers, television, advertising, comics, pop music, radio, cheap novels, movies, jazz, etc. In the beginning of the 20th Century," High art" was the realm of the wealthy and educated classes while popular culture or." Low art" was considered commercial entertainment for the lower classes. In the 1950s and 60s the gulf between high and low art closed with the rise of Pop Art” (2011).…

    • 490 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    As mentioned before, to understand Popular American culture, we need to understand what culture is and how it is defined. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary culture is defined as, “the integrated pattern of human knowledge, belief, and behavior that depends upon the capacity for learning and transmitting knowledge to succeeding generations” ("culture," 2011). Culture is also defined by Merriam-Webster as, “the customary beliefs, social forms, and material traits of a racial, religious, or social group; also: the characteristic features of everyday existence shared by people in a place or time” ("culture," 2011).…

    • 821 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    What is culture? According to Cambridge Dictionary, culture is the arts of describing, showing or performing that represent the traditions or the way of life a particular people or group; literature, art, music, dance, and theater. All humans are introduced to a culture through socialization. “What we learn depends on the culture in which we live as well as our place within that culture” (Ore. T, 5). Often times race and culture are assumed to be one in the same. Race is based on the perception of physical differences in a way to classify individuals. Culture is based on how one person is raised to believe, think, and act in their society.…

    • 361 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Modern American Culture

    • 935 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Vampires originally arose when the Austro-Hungarian Empire was expanding in the eighteenth century. They came from Slavic folklore to help with anxiety. Vampires change throughout cultures, but have been used in many top-selling or top-viewed books, movies, and television shows. (Bradshaw, Lindsay) The authors and directors portray these vampires very differently. Have you ever thought about which belief is correct?…

    • 935 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays