Common Culture, 6th Edition

From Barbie to the Internet, the Simpsons to the malls,  Common Culture, an engaging pop culture  reader, can help readers develop writing skills while reading and thinking about subjects they find inherently interesting. It contains essays addressing pop culture topics along with suggestions for further reading. Topics covered in the essays include advertising, television, popular music, cyberculture, sports, and movies.

Common Culture 6/e 

Table of Contents

 

Chapter 1. Reading and Writing About American Popular Culture

What Is Popular Culture?

Why Study Popular Culture?

Active Reading

    Strategies for Actively Reading a Text

    An Active Reading Casebook: Three Selections About Barbie

    Preparing to Read

    Reading and Annotating

        Barbie’s Shoes, Hilary Tham

    Re-reading

    Reviewing

    Reading Pop Cultural Criticism

        The Indignation of Barbie, John Leo

    Reading Academic Analysis

        Seen Through Rose-Tinted Glasses”: The Barbie Doll in American Society, Marilyn Ferris Motz                                        

Reading Images

    Preparing to Read

    Reading and Annotating

    Re-reading

    Reviewing

The Writing Process

    Prewriting

    Freewriting

    Clustering

    Outlining

    Drafting

    Thesis and Thesis Statement

    Opening Paragraphs

    Supporting Paragraphs

    Evidence

    Conclusions

    Distancing

    Revising

    Revision Checklist

    Writing Research on Popular Culture

    Modern Language Association Documentation Format

    American Psychological Association Documentation Format

    Sample Student Essay

        Role-Model Barbie: Now and Forever?, Carolyn Muhlstein

 

  Approaches to Advertising 

 

“The Cult You’re In,” Kalle Lasn.

 

“Salespeak,” Roy Fox.

 

“Advertising’s Fifteen Basic Appeals,” Jib Fowles.

 

“How Advertising Informs to Our Benefit,” John E. Calfee.

 

Gender in Advertising 

 

“You’re Soaking In It,” Jennifer L. Pozner

 

“Beefcake and Cheesecake: Insights for Advertisers,” Marilyn Y. Jones, Andrea J.S. Stanaland, and Betsy D. Gelb.

 

 

 

  The Cultural Influences of Television 

 

“Life According to TV,” Harry Waters.

 

“Television Addiction Is No Mere Metaphor,” Robert Kubey and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.

 

“Watching TV Makes You Smarter,” Steven Johnson.

 

“Gin, Television, and Social Surplus,” Clay Shirkey.

 

Infotainment

 

"Losing Our Religion," Russell Peterson.

 

"Amusing Ourselves to Death with Television News: Jon Stewart, Neil Postman, and the Huxleyan Warning," Gerald J. Erion.

 

“’Fake’ News versus ‘Real’ News as Sources of Political Information: The Daily Show and Postmodern Political Reality,” Jeffrey P. Jones.

 

 

  

 

Is Hip-Hop Dead?

 

“Rap and Race:  It’s Got a Nice Beat, But What About the Message?” Rachel E. Sullivan.

 

“The Miseducation of Hip-Hop,” Evelyn Jamilah. 

 

“5 Things that Killed Hip-Hop,” J-Zone.

 

Music and Contemporary Culture

 

"The Money Note: Can the Record Business Be Saved?" John Seabrook.

 

“Take those old records off the shelf: youth and music consumption in the postmodern age,” David Hayes.

 

"Sex and Drugs and Rock 'n' Roll: Urban Legends and Popular Music, Ian Inglis.

 

“In Perfect Harmony: Popular Music and Cola Advertising,” Bethany Klein.

 

 

 

  Technology, Individuals, and Communities

 

“Beyond Borders,” Robert Samuels.

 

“The Judgment of Thamus,” Neil Postman. Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology. (New York: Vintage, 1993): pp. 4-20.

 

 

Applications

 

1.  Gaming

 

"The Labor of Fun: How Video Games Blur the Boundaries of Work and Play," Nick Yee.

 

"Good Video Games, the Human Mind, and Good Learning," James Paul Gee.

 

2. Facebook, MySpace, and Social Networking

 

“You have been poked: Exploring the uses and gratifications of Facebook among emerging adults,” Brett A. Bumgarner.

 

“Why Youth (Heart) Social Network Sites: The Role of Networked Publics in Teenage Social Life,” danah boyd.

 

  

 

 

Sport, Stars, and Society

 

“Life on the Edge,” William Dowell and the Editors of Time Magazine.

 

“Champion of the World,” Maya Angelou. 

 

“The Unbeautiful Game,” Adam Gopnik.

 

“Discipline and Push-Up: Female Bodies, Femininity and Sexuality in Popular Representations of Sports Bras,” Jaime Schultz.

 

“Fields of Broken Dreams,” Marcos Breton. 

 

 

Games We Play

 

“Jack of Smarts: Why the Internet Generation Loves to Play Poker,” Justin Peters.

 

McPhee, John.  “The Search for Marvin Gardens.” 

 

“The Meaning of Life.”  Jill Lepore.

 

“Fixing Kids’ Sports,” Peter Cary, Randy Dotinga, and Avery Comarow.

 

 

 

Film and American Culture

 

“The Way We Are,” Sydney Pollack.

 

“The Politics of Moviemaking,” Saul Austerlitz.

 

“Fight Club: A Ritual Cure for the Spiritual Ailment of American Masculinity,” Jethro Rothe-Kushel. 

 

“Raising the Dead,” Kyle Bishop.

 

 

Apatow and Tarantino:  Two Contemporary Filmmakers

 

“A Fine Romance,” David Denby.

 

“Freaks, Geeks, and Mensches,” Alex Wainer.

 

“Pulp Fiction,” Alan Stone. 

 

“She’ll Kill Bill While You Chill,” Thomas de Zengotita.