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9780132202671

Common Culture : Reading and Writing about American Popular Culture

by ;
  • ISBN13:

    9780132202671

  • ISBN10:

    0132202670

  • Edition: 5th
  • Format: Paperback
  • Copyright: 2007-01-01
  • Publisher: Prentice Hall
  • View Upgraded Edition
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List Price: $85.80

Summary

POP GOES THE READER! This composition reader calls on our daily experiences with popular culture to help you understand culture in general and to promote critical thinking, reading, and writing. Offering thought-provoking essays for the classroom, the authors of Common Culture explore our world of iPods and hip-hop, of reality TV, and blockbuster movies to help create a course that is meaningful and challenging. . .and fun. This outstanding learning tool is key to your success in class and will help you think, read, and write clearly both in college and beyond.

Table of Contents

Preface ix
1 Reading and Writing About American Popular Culture 1(46)
What Is Popular Culture?
2(2)
Why Study Popular Culture?
4(2)
Active Reading
6(16)
Strategies for Actively Reading a Text
7(1)
An Active Reading Casebook: Three Selections About Barbie
8(14)
Preparing to Read
9(1)
Reading and Annotating
9(1)
Barbie's Shoes, Hilary Tham
10(1)
Re-reading
10(1)
Reviewing
11(1)
Reading Pop Cultural Criticism
12(3)
The Indignation of Barbie, John Leo
13(2)
Reading Academic Analysis
15(12)
"Seen Through Rose-Tinted Glasses": The Barbie Doll in American Society, Marilyn Ferris Motz
16(6)
Reading Images
22(5)
Preparing to Read
22(1)
Reading and Annotating
23(2)
Re-reading
25(1)
Reviewing
26(1)
The Writing Process
27(20)
Prewriting
27(5)
Freewriting
28(1)
Clustering
29(1)
Outlining
29(3)
Drafting
32(5)
Thesis and Thesis Statement
32(1)
Opening Paragraphs
33(1)
Supporting Paragraphs
33(1)
Evidence
34(2)
Conclusions
36(1)
Distancing
37(1)
Revising
37(1)
Revision Checklist
38(1)
Writing Research on Popular Culture
39(3)
Modern Language Association Documentation Format
42(1)
American Psychological Association Documentation Format
43(1)
Sample Student Essay
44(7)
Role-Model Barbie: Now and Forever?
44(138)
Carolyn Muhlstein
2 Advertising 47(97)
Approaches to Advertising
51(54)
The Cult You're In, Kalle Lasn
51(5)
Salespeak, Roy Fox
56(17)
Advertising's Fifteen Basic Appeals, Jib Fowles
73(18)
How Advertising Informs to Our Benefit, John E. Calfee
91(14)
Images of Women in Advertising
105(35)
You're Soaking In It, Jennifer L. Pozner
105(10)
Getting Dirty, Mark Crispin Miller
115(8)
Sex, Lies, and Advertising, Gloria Steinem
123(17)
Additional Suggestions for Writing About Advertising
140(4)
3 Television 144(91)
The Cultural Influences of Television
146(36)
Spudding Out, Barbara Ehrenreich
146(3)
Television Addiction Is No Mere Metaphor, Robert Kubey and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
149(9)
Life According to TV, Harry Waters
158(11)
Watching TV Makes You Smarter, Steven Johnson
169(13)
Interpreting Television
182(49)
1. Reality TV
182(19)
The Tribe Has Spoken, Rebecca Gardyn
182(11)
Keeping It Real: Why We Like to Watch Reality Dating Television Shows, Robert Samuels
193(8)
2. The Simpsons
201(36)
The Simpsons: Atomistic Politics and the Nuclear Family, Paul A. Cantor
201(18)
The Evolution of the Seven Deadly Sins: From God to the Simpsons, Lisa Frank
219(12)
Additional Suggestions for Writing About Television
231(4)
4 Popular Music 235(102)
The Hip-Hop Generation
237(47)
Rap and Race: It's Got a Nice Beat, But What About the Message?, Rachel E. Sullivan
237(15)
The Miseducation of Hip-Hop, Evelyn Jamilah
252(9)
Pop Goes the Rapper: A Close Reading of Eminem's Genderphobia, Vincent Stephens
261(23)
Music and Contemporary Culture
284(50)
Marilyn Manson and the Apt Pupils of Littleton, Gary Burns
284(7)
The Money Note: Can the Record Business Be Saved?, John Seabrook
291(25)
I Hate Classical Music, Alex Ross
316(18)
Additional Suggestions for Writing About Popular Music
334(3)
5 Technology 337(82)
Technology, Individuals, and Communities
339(33)
Breaking Down Borders: How Technology Transforms the Private and Public Realms, Robert Samuels
339(4)
Cyberhood vs. Neighborhood, John Perry Barlow
343(8)
Our Cell Phones, Ourselves, Christine Rosen
351(21)
Applications
372(43)
1. Video Games
372(27)
Let the Games Begin: Gaming Technology and Entertainment Among College Students, Steve Jones
372(13)
Playing War: The Emerging Trend of Real Virtual Combat in Current Video Games, Brian Cowlishaw
385(14)
2. Blogging
399(22)
Weblogs: A History and Perspective, Rebecca Blood
399(8)
Borg Journalism, John Hiler
407(8)
Additional Suggestions for Writing About Technology
415(4)
6 Sports 419(102)
Sport in America, American Sports Across the Globe
421(60)
Fixing Kids' Sports, Peter Cary, Randy Dotinga, and Avery Comarow
421(11)
Baby, You're The Greatest, Tom Farrey
432(8)
Discipline and Push-Up: Female Bodies, Femininity, and Sexuality in Popular Representations of Sports Bras, Jaime Schultz
440(27)
Jack of Smarts: Why the Internet Generation Loves to Play Poker, Justin Peters
467(6)
World Games: The U.S. Tries to Colonize Sport, Tram Nguyen
473(8)
Sports, Stars, and Society
481(19)
Risk, Paul Roberts
481(10)
Life on the Edge, William Dowell and the Editors of Time Magazine
491(9)
Analyzing Sports
500(18)
Champion of the World, Maya Angelou
500(4)
Tiger Time: The Wonder of an American Hero, Jay Nordlinger
504(6)
Fields of Broken Dreams: Latinos and Baseball, Marcos Breton
510(8)
Additional Suggestions for Writing About Sports
518(3)
7 Movies 521(104)
Film and American Culture
523(67)
The Way We Are, Sydney Pollack
523(10)
The Politics of Moviemaking, Saul Austerlitz
533(10)
The Asian Invasion (of Multiculturalism) in Hollywood, Minh-Ha Pham
543(22)
Fight Club: A Ritual Cure for the Spiritual Ailment of American Masculinity, Jethro Rothe-Kushel
565(25)
Tarantino and The Passion: A Controversy Casebook
590(32)
Pulp Fiction, Alan Stone
590(8)
She'll Kill Bill While You Chill, Thomas de Zengotita
598(8)
Nailed, David Denby
606(6)
Gibson's Sublime Passion: In Defense of the Violence, William Irwin
612(10)
Additional Suggestions for Writing About Movies
622(3)
For Further Reading: A Common Culture Bibliography 625(6)
Acknowledgments 631(5)
Index by Author and Title 636(3)
Index by Academic Discipline 639(2)
Index by Rhetorical Mode 641

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Excerpts

When we started teaching composition courses that examined television, pop music, movies, and other media-generated artifacts, we looked for a text that would cover a full range of topics in the field of popular culture from a variety of theoretical perspectives. We discovered that no satisfactory text existed, and therefore we began putting together assignments and reading materials to meet our needs. From this compilation Common Culture emerged. The more we've taught writing courses based on popular culture, the more convinced we've become that such courses are especially appealing for students and effective in improving their critical thinking, reading, and writing skills. Students come into the writing classroom already immersed in the culture of Britney, Benetton, Beastie Boys, and Barry Bonds. The advantage, then, is that we don't have to sell” the subject matter of the course and can concentrate on the task at handnamely, teaching students to think critically and to write clear and effective prose. Obviously, a course that panders to the lowest common denominator of students' taste would be a mindless, unproductive enterprise for all concerned. However, the underlying philosophy of a pop culture-based writing course is this: By reading, thinking, and writing about material they find inherently interesting, students develop their critical and analytical skillsskills which are, of course, crucial to their success in college. Although students are already familiar with the many aspects of popular culture, few have directed sustained, critical thought to its influence or implicationsthat is, to what shopping malls might tell them about contemporary culture or to what they've actually learned from watching The Jerry Springer Show.” Survivor.” Because television shows, advertisements, and music videos, for example, are highly crafted artifacts, they are particularly susceptible to analysis; and because so much in contemporary culture is open to interpretation and controversy, students enjoy the opportunity to articulate and argue for their own interpretations of objects and institutions in the world around them. Although popular culture is undeniably a sexy (or, at least, lively) subject, it has also, in the past decade, become accepted as a legitimate object of academic discourse. While some may contend that it's frivolous to write a dissertation on Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” most scholars recognize the importance of studying the artifacts and institutions of contemporary life. Popular culture is a rich field of study, drawing in researchers from a variety of disciplines. Because it is also a very inviting field of study for students, a textbook that addresses this subject in a comprehensive and challenging way will be especially appealing both to them and to their writing teachers. Common Culture, fourth edition, contains an introductory chapter that walks students through one assignmentin this case, focusing on the Barbie dollwith step-by-step instruction in reading carefully and writing effectively. The chapters that follow open with a relevant and catchy cultural artifact (for example, a cartoon, an ad, an album cover) that leads into a reader-friendly, informative introduction; a selection of engaging essays on an issue of current interest in the field of pop culture; carefully constructed reading and discussion questions; and writing assignments after each reading and at the end of the chapter. This fourth edition also contains new sections on visual literacy and conducting research on popular culture, along with a selection of color and black & white images that students can analyze and enjoy. Common Culture approaches the field of popular culture by dividing it into its constituent parts. The book contains chapters on advertising, television, music, cyberculture technology, sports, and movies. Most of the chapters are divided into two parts: the first pre

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