Module 4 Readings
As a sociology student I was pretty familiar with culture and what it was all about going into the video series of Terry Dugan. I did enjoy in his first video of the Impact of Media on Culture, when he explains how we have different cultures as an individual. We apply these different cultures around different people that we surround ourselves with. We may have one culture around our families which is a different culture than the ones we have around our friends, or in our work place (Dugan, 2010). As he says we feel uncomfortable in different cultures. I think we can all relate to this when we go on vacation or somewhere outside of our comfort zones. One time I had gone to Hawaii and felt this uncomfortable feeling when I went to a place that all of the ‘locals’ go. As being who I am, I do not look anything like a local and had many things that I was confused about, I think this is what he means when he talks about attention in uncommon places to you.
I think we have become more familiar with other cultures however than ever before. With mass communication, we can see that people are able to see other cultures through the mass media. Dugan tells us just how this became popular through the radio. I believe that we still learn about common culture through mass media. Dugan uses the example of “have we learned to be fathers through from watching Adam Sandler movies” (Dugan, 2011). When I heard that question I automatically thought to myself that people do still learn these things through the mass media. Maybe the Adam Sandler movies are a bad example but maybe people around the world watch that movie and learn a little bit about our culture.
The new channels of communication are a big target for misunderstandings. I found this to be extremely true when I was watching his video because I have seen it happen so many times through social media. When one person says something in a way that may seem rude to another person and then they end up getting in a fight about it and being mad at one another. Or we see how things can get passes along very quickly through each other on social media causing there to be many unintended viewers (Dugan, 2013). We see this happening constantly with different dance moves, or the new coolest thing to own, or even how to wear your clothes differently than everyone else. This is how we get new trends every week and the kids seem to stay cool with one another.
I really enjoyed these videos by Dugan and felt as though I had learned a lot from them. Although I have learned a lot about culture in the past I felt as though there was information in these that I had no idea about. He explains it well with his references and using big company names such as Disney and McDonalds to explain these theories, which helps a lot when trying to understand a concept.
Moving onto chapter 6 of our assigned reading in our book, Sternheimer talks about some major points with popular culture. I had taken a popular culture class this past semester which made me really interested in this reading of promiscuity in popular culture. One thing that I find to be very true is that there are a lot of sexual innuendoes and sexual scenes in movies, shows and even on live television. Every where we look today in popular culture is about something sexual and I think this does have a big effect on teens. They find sex to be just another thing to say they have done, and to look at it as it is no big deal since they see it on television all the time. Miley Cyrus is a prime example of this as Sternheimer brings up. First seen as a disney television star, she quickly became the girl to be posing half naked and dancing sexually on stage at award shows (Sternheimer, 2013, p.139). Teens at this time were looking to her as a role model so when they saw her doing these sexual acts they felt as though they needed to do them as well to stay cool. I feel as though this happens all the time, not just with Miley, but every young star who becomes to get older and more comfortable with their bodies. Teens always look to their favorite stars to see how they should act in our society so when they see these girls acting this way they find it to be normal.
Just like stars can make girls feel as though they need to be over sexualized, the mass media can also make people feel as though they are not skinny or pretty enough. We see this many times when we see different advertisements or different stars who look absolutely perfect. People see these things and think to themselves that they are perfect. That girl on the billboard that is selling you a product is just so pretty and so skinny that we want to be just like them. I think this hurts a lot of people and their health. We look at these people and think that we need to lose weight in order to be perfect just like them so they go on crazy diets or just stop eating in general. In reality the girl on that billboard has been overly photoshopped and actually looks like a completely different person in general. I think this is a big problem in our society today because it makes us have false hope that one day we can all look that pretty, when it is an unobtainable goal. We need to start using real people and stop photoshopping them to look skinnier and prettier. I think this will help people feel better with themselves and actually view themselves as beautiful just the way that they are.
