The Power of Popular Culture
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Popular culture is a worthy field of study because it permeates the American lifestyle through imagery, messages, and even defines people as individuals. Mass media produces numerous images that bombard people every day. The projection of images from mass media can be seen in advertisements, television, the Internet, film, and any other mediums. Popular culture is more than just a collection of pictures, though; this is because these pictures contain messages.
Such messages can influence the behaviors and actions of people in modern society. For example, studies have been done in which children that watch violent television shows and films have a higher chance of becoming violent adults. Because popular and visual culture can directly influence the minds of people, popular culture is really an interdisciplinary field of study that can include the fields of Psychology and Sociology. Thus, messages from popular culture can help transform people based on what they see in the media.
Because popular culture and mass media can project messages that people can either accept or reject, it really helps define who they are as individuals. Whenever a person likes or dislikes a message, they express an opinion. A person’s mindset is really a collection of that person’s opinions. Thus, the opinions of that person help determine his/her personality, and more importantly, that person’s identity.
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Modern society today really is a very visual culture. This is partly because the advent of cinema helped contribute to such a shift in terms of how modern society operates. Popular culture also helps transform society because people today actually receive messages from mass media and have to decide whether or not to accept such messages. Anything that is popular, in terms of what the people in a society enjoy, directly relates to the characteristics of that society. Therefore, popular culture is ultimately a reflection of society itself.
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