Description:

What makes popular culture "popular" and who decides for us? Wrestle with the notion of whether popular culture defines society, or if society defines popular culture by studying television, music, film, and more. Themes include social construction, audience reception, and network societies.

Outcomes:

After completing this class, students should be able to:

• Demonstrate a general understanding of Popular Culture from a sociological perspective;
• Critically analyze various popular culture texts;
• Explain and discuss how the intersections of race, class, and gender are represented and maintained in popular culture texts;
• Describe the dominant representations and identity constructions of marginalized people in historical and contemporary analyses of US popular culture;
• Discuss textual analysis critically; and
• Illustrate their understanding of popular culture through an historically global lens.