I'll admit I have no expereince first-hand with comic books. It may be just a fact of growing up with sisters or perhaps my parents were more cagey about censoring our reading than I knew. The most relateable resource I can come up with was "Garbage Pail Kids." These trading cards were a big deal when I was growing up in the 80's and I do vaguely remember hiding them from my parent's view. Just like the horror comics of the 40's and 50's these cards depicted kids in various disgusting portraits. Often they were vomit or snot-covered and I remember the visceral gross-ness of each character I was lucky enough to get my hands on. I think they appealed to both boys and girls and I was surprised to find them alive and well on:
http://www.garbagepailkidsworld.com/.
A new incarnation of these ghoulish kids is now in the form of Hollywood Zombies. http://www.hollywoodzombies.com/
There's a wretched Paris Hilton with her skeleton Chihuahua and a rotting corpse version of Michael Jackson...wait maybe that's just Michael Jackson. Tobey Maguire (Spiderman) is depicted as an almost decapitated upside down corpse. Maybe that's a great example of how pop culture regurgitates itself in so many ways. Spiderman started as a comic, became a blockbuster movie and is now redepicted and defaced in a new comic.
In David Hajdu's article, "The Ten-Cent Plague" he talks about the main appeal of comics to to youth being their goriness and violence. It doesn't surprise me that parents, teachers, and senators alike went after comics citing their immoral, obscene, and offensive nature. In some ways it may be hard to understand what the big deal was considering the amount of violence on television and in video games today, but then again the same parents, teachers, and senators are concerned about these mediums today. My guess is the appeal of comics or any medium intended for youth using gore and violence is only heightened by the fact that "elders" want to take them away. I think the problem with taking such issue with the gore aspect denies the creativity and real story behind most of these comics.
Hadju writes, "In New Orleans, for instance, the mayor and the city council commissioned a report on the comics controversy, which, within its forty-nine pages, noted that comics 'rank with jazz music as being one of the few truly American art forms.' In its conclusion, the report argued, 'The wholesale condemnation of all comics magazines is one of the worst mistakes of some of the critics. The fact is both side are right. The books are not all bad, as the more extreme critics say; nor all good as some of their publishers and defenders contend. Like all other creative products they must be judged individually."
The comic book panic in the 40's and 50's was a precursor to what Laura Miller says was "neither the first nor the last occasion when anxieties about children's exposure to American pop culture got out of hand."
I agree with Miller and even though I have a limited knowledge of comics, I see them not as the first issue that caused a a generation gap, but certainly one of the first pop culture objects that caused a rift between parents and children.
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Feeling Helpless: Recent Attempts to Explore War in Pop Music
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/02/arts/music/02songs.html?_r=1&pagewanted=print&oref=slogin
In the article, Pop Music and the War: The Sound of Resignation Jon Pareles of the New York Times explores how pop artists are dealing with their feelings about war today.
“The war songs of the 21st century have become sober and earnest, pragmatic rather than fanciful.”
Pareles talks about how our present time is unique in that it doesn’t have an exact parallel in history. There is no generationwide appreciable response to the war in Iraq and Pareles suggests that not having a draft is a possibility of why youth aren’t banding together. The combination of a war on terrorism and war in Iraq are causing new cultural responses from all of us and are showing up in the tone and lyrics of popular music – we are feeling exhausted.
When 9/11 happened, the responses from artists were more familiar – “The Price of Oil” by Billy Bragg considered oil profiteers, Eminem with “Mosh” and Outkast with “Bombs Over Baghdad” attacked the President outright, but by 2006 things started sounding a little different.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmY4FnxcN9E
More recently John Legend and John Mayer, both more folk-y love song artists began infusing their music with themes of war. One of the most familiar may be, “Waiting on the World to Change.” The helpless feeling of this song comes out in the lyrics:
If we had the power to bring our neighbors home from war
They would never have missed a Christmas/No more ribbons on the door
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXWXQeHCWpo
Pareles says, “The righteousness of old protest songs has been replaced by sorrow and malaise.”
Toby Keith, who penned “Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue (The Angry American)” in 2002 recently joined Merle Haggard, a skeptic of the war in Iraq for a duet which Pareles said, “…suggested a reconsideration.”
I don’t know much about Toby Keith other than his extreme support of the Iraq war, but my instinct says that cultural shifts have and are happening if he has reconsidered his position. Extreme views, pro-war and anti-war have seemed to converge closer to the middle in a hopeless space and music seems to mirror those feelings.
Pareles writes, “The 2000s are not the 1960s, culturally or ideologically, but the musical repercussions of the Vietnam War may hint at what comes next. As the war dragged on, the delirious late 1960s gave way to not only the sodden early 1970s of technique-obsessed rock and self-absorbed singer-songwriters, but also to a flowering of socially conscious, musically innovative soul, the music that John Legend and John Mayer now deliberately invoke. It’s as if this wartime era has simply skipped the giddy phase – which didn’t, in the end, turn bombers into butterflies – and gone directly to the brooding. The end of the Vietnam War in 1975 was quickly followed by the rejuvenating energy of punk and hip-hop; there’s not telling what disengagement from Iraq might spark.”
I think Pareles makes an interesting statement here, and upon reflection I think in general, he’s right. Maybe we’ve experienced too many broken or empty promises as a generation and we feel too cynical about the ideology behind flower-power. Music seems to be one of the best mirrors when put in front of society and the songs being written and played on the radio today are reflecting the hopelessness that many are feeling amidst a seemingly never-ending war…
In the article, Pop Music and the War: The Sound of Resignation Jon Pareles of the New York Times explores how pop artists are dealing with their feelings about war today.
“The war songs of the 21st century have become sober and earnest, pragmatic rather than fanciful.”
Pareles talks about how our present time is unique in that it doesn’t have an exact parallel in history. There is no generationwide appreciable response to the war in Iraq and Pareles suggests that not having a draft is a possibility of why youth aren’t banding together. The combination of a war on terrorism and war in Iraq are causing new cultural responses from all of us and are showing up in the tone and lyrics of popular music – we are feeling exhausted.
When 9/11 happened, the responses from artists were more familiar – “The Price of Oil” by Billy Bragg considered oil profiteers, Eminem with “Mosh” and Outkast with “Bombs Over Baghdad” attacked the President outright, but by 2006 things started sounding a little different.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmY4FnxcN9E
More recently John Legend and John Mayer, both more folk-y love song artists began infusing their music with themes of war. One of the most familiar may be, “Waiting on the World to Change.” The helpless feeling of this song comes out in the lyrics:
If we had the power to bring our neighbors home from war
They would never have missed a Christmas/No more ribbons on the door
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXWXQeHCWpo
Pareles says, “The righteousness of old protest songs has been replaced by sorrow and malaise.”
Toby Keith, who penned “Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue (The Angry American)” in 2002 recently joined Merle Haggard, a skeptic of the war in Iraq for a duet which Pareles said, “…suggested a reconsideration.”
I don’t know much about Toby Keith other than his extreme support of the Iraq war, but my instinct says that cultural shifts have and are happening if he has reconsidered his position. Extreme views, pro-war and anti-war have seemed to converge closer to the middle in a hopeless space and music seems to mirror those feelings.
Pareles writes, “The 2000s are not the 1960s, culturally or ideologically, but the musical repercussions of the Vietnam War may hint at what comes next. As the war dragged on, the delirious late 1960s gave way to not only the sodden early 1970s of technique-obsessed rock and self-absorbed singer-songwriters, but also to a flowering of socially conscious, musically innovative soul, the music that John Legend and John Mayer now deliberately invoke. It’s as if this wartime era has simply skipped the giddy phase – which didn’t, in the end, turn bombers into butterflies – and gone directly to the brooding. The end of the Vietnam War in 1975 was quickly followed by the rejuvenating energy of punk and hip-hop; there’s not telling what disengagement from Iraq might spark.”
I think Pareles makes an interesting statement here, and upon reflection I think in general, he’s right. Maybe we’ve experienced too many broken or empty promises as a generation and we feel too cynical about the ideology behind flower-power. Music seems to be one of the best mirrors when put in front of society and the songs being written and played on the radio today are reflecting the hopelessness that many are feeling amidst a seemingly never-ending war…
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
“I Facebooked Your Mom” Social Networks & Identity Creation on the Web
Flowtv.org is a “critical forum on television and media culture.” I found a wide range of interesting articles and subjects covered in short, thoughtful pieces. One article that caught my attention was “I Lost my Wife to Facebook, and Other Myths that Might be True.”
http://flowtv.org/?p=392
In this article, Michelle Byers confronts her own feelings about being over 35 and new to facebook. She gives a brief history of Mark Zuckerberg, founder and young Harvard dropout and goes on to creating a facebook page. “You can provide an almost unlimited amount of personal information…you can engage in an ongoing commentary about your life…-and I can’t believe how words like Facebooker and Facebooking flow out of me after just a few short weeks of interface.”
Yes folks, “facebooking” is a verb. The ability to create a persona with words and images is almost limitless. Social networking sites are fast becoming the most popular and most-used sites on the internet. These sites are more generally used by youth and are more youth-focused in their advertising, but Byers notes that increasing numbers of 30 and ups are logging on for possibly more nostalgic reasons like finding old friends from the past.
Byers also notes a phenomenon that may be even more interesting than nostalgia – narrative, particularly because narrative or creating a narrative applies to everyone that designs a facebook page. Referring to a book called, “Giving an Account of Oneself” by Judith Bulter, Byers explores the idea that we use facebook to find new ways to essentially “tell our story.” The problem is that there is always a part of us (originary) that we don’t know. Butler call this, “A piece that is beyond language and memory but that is nonetheless foundational to who we are.” This is where the versatile and exponential options of Facebook come in. Maybe we’re subconsciously using facebook as another way to describe the indescribable about ourselves. Maybe all the pictures of our Hawaiian vacation, the movie quotes or the “top friends” on our page can never truly describe us. Somehow I doubt this will keep us from trying…
LESSON PLAN:
I think using social networks as a tool to teach about relationships and identity creation has the potential to be very engaging. In the large group I would start with some basic questions about social networks-
Part 1
1. Who has created an online profile on a social network? If so which one(s)
2. Is there a difference between sites? What are the pros/cons of each site?
3. If you use social networks what do you enjoy about them? What would you change?
4. If you don’t have a profile what reasons have kept you from joining?
Part 2
Have students (on paper) create a facebook profile from scratch so that even students that don’t have online profiles can participate. Use typical facebook categories like activities, interests, favorites, etc. Then have students get into smaller groups and share their mock facebook pages. After students have shared, gather in the large group for a more in-depth discussion about how social networks intersect with identity creation.
1. What are the most important things to you on your page?
2. What do those things/people mean to you?
3. What influences your decisions about what you put on your page?
4. Do you feel like your page truly represents you?
5. Can a facebook page show who you are? Why or why not?
http://flowtv.org/?p=392
In this article, Michelle Byers confronts her own feelings about being over 35 and new to facebook. She gives a brief history of Mark Zuckerberg, founder and young Harvard dropout and goes on to creating a facebook page. “You can provide an almost unlimited amount of personal information…you can engage in an ongoing commentary about your life…-and I can’t believe how words like Facebooker and Facebooking flow out of me after just a few short weeks of interface.”
Yes folks, “facebooking” is a verb. The ability to create a persona with words and images is almost limitless. Social networking sites are fast becoming the most popular and most-used sites on the internet. These sites are more generally used by youth and are more youth-focused in their advertising, but Byers notes that increasing numbers of 30 and ups are logging on for possibly more nostalgic reasons like finding old friends from the past.
Byers also notes a phenomenon that may be even more interesting than nostalgia – narrative, particularly because narrative or creating a narrative applies to everyone that designs a facebook page. Referring to a book called, “Giving an Account of Oneself” by Judith Bulter, Byers explores the idea that we use facebook to find new ways to essentially “tell our story.” The problem is that there is always a part of us (originary) that we don’t know. Butler call this, “A piece that is beyond language and memory but that is nonetheless foundational to who we are.” This is where the versatile and exponential options of Facebook come in. Maybe we’re subconsciously using facebook as another way to describe the indescribable about ourselves. Maybe all the pictures of our Hawaiian vacation, the movie quotes or the “top friends” on our page can never truly describe us. Somehow I doubt this will keep us from trying…
LESSON PLAN:
I think using social networks as a tool to teach about relationships and identity creation has the potential to be very engaging. In the large group I would start with some basic questions about social networks-
Part 1
1. Who has created an online profile on a social network? If so which one(s)
2. Is there a difference between sites? What are the pros/cons of each site?
3. If you use social networks what do you enjoy about them? What would you change?
4. If you don’t have a profile what reasons have kept you from joining?
Part 2
Have students (on paper) create a facebook profile from scratch so that even students that don’t have online profiles can participate. Use typical facebook categories like activities, interests, favorites, etc. Then have students get into smaller groups and share their mock facebook pages. After students have shared, gather in the large group for a more in-depth discussion about how social networks intersect with identity creation.
1. What are the most important things to you on your page?
2. What do those things/people mean to you?
3. What influences your decisions about what you put on your page?
4. Do you feel like your page truly represents you?
5. Can a facebook page show who you are? Why or why not?
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Urban American & Popluar Culture
Michael Giardina and Cameron McCarthy’s The Popular Racial Order of Urban America: Sport, Identity, and the Politics of Culture is no fluffy bedtime read. The authors attempt to push ideas (hard) related to American urban culture and the films that portray this culture (especially the basketball-themed films). Giardina and McCarthy let us know towards the beginning of the article that their field needs some attention. “…we believe that as a formation, culture has and remains significantly undertheorized within both scholarly writing and popular public policy discourses such as multiculturalism.” They take on what they call “a critical cultural pedagogy of sport.” They are attempting to make sense of how oppression plays out in the world of sports and particularly professional basketball which attracts many of its players from urban environments.
However, before Giardina and McCarthy get to sports, they turn the lens on music. I wanted to draw attention to what is one of the better-worded examples of a subject I’ve thought about for a long time – the commodification of hip hop culture and rap music by white America . “However, as Watkins reminded us, it was not until hip hop became intensely commodified-for better or worse-that it began to receive any widespread attention and became an economically viable outlet for the expression of Black culture.” This theme of culture in relation to commodification seems to pop up around every corner as we navigate the American cultural landscape. It’s a frightening thought that creeps into my head – Can Americans only value culture that can be commodified? Or – when the lens of profitability is turned on a culture is it doomed into dilution? Do we wreck anything inherently good for us by trying to make a profit? (By the way, there’s nothing academic about mentioning this, and it probably changes the flow of the paper, but I’m sitting in a very crowded part of a suburban mall teeming with commodified crap. In fact, there are so many manufactured smells, sights, and sounds, I may have to pack up soon. I just had to mention the environment – it’s so beautiful and clean and fake and gross and visceral all at the same time.)
Sorry. On to the sports- I wonder is it any mistake that the men who “escape” their urban landscapes into professional basketball do so by becoming commodities themselves? Spike Lee took on urban culture and basketball in He Got Game (1998). The movie deals with three main ideas in response to the media’s attention to African American athletes.
1. The issue of high school players skipping college in favor of going right to the NBA. (aka Kevin Garnett)
2. The idea that minority athletes are criminals
3. The idea of the absent (Black) male father
Lee weaves these themes throughout the movie and uses interesting imagery (maybe too obvious at times) to tell this story. Farmlands v. fenced in courts, rolling country-sides, v. chain-links are used to make us see the urban landscape as very different from Middle America. Even the authors of this article accuse the movie of being “melodramatic” in its storyline. Giardina and McCarthy’s main point though is how a movie like this actually reinforces stereotypes rather than teaches us important lessons about urban culture.
“In enacting the realist apparatus of depicting allegedly lifelike struggles faced by coming-of-age Arfrican American urban youth, He Got Game remains deeply ingrained in a discursive formation whose stereotypical imagery actively contributes to our recognition, consumption, and understanding of inner-city America.”
I think this is where it gets tough. The authors of this article will not let Lee's work stand without deconstructing what we may not want to see. They're telling not to get to comfortable with Lee's interpretation. Using a critical lens like this makes people uncomfortable, but I think its necessary in holding everyone accountable as well. As educators, as researchers, we cannot shy away from the uncomfortable, and should continue to use the popular culture lens to examine ourselves. One last quote…
“…we must be committed to getting beyond the paradox of celebration and anxiety. Instead, we should consider the full complexity of its prevailing determinate forces by delving into its production of cosmopolitan as well as its reproduction of unequal relations and uneven developments; its expression in movement and migration as well as its reinscription of old practices of colonialism, imperialism, and asymmetrical relations of domination; and its potential to yield progressive interventions into the social arena as well as perpetuate hegemonic understandings of race, class, and gender relations. In short, we must ask how popular culture can help us create race and gender consciousness for the 21st century.”
However, before Giardina and McCarthy get to sports, they turn the lens on music. I wanted to draw attention to what is one of the better-worded examples of a subject I’ve thought about for a long time – the commodification of hip hop culture and rap music by white America . “However, as Watkins reminded us, it was not until hip hop became intensely commodified-for better or worse-that it began to receive any widespread attention and became an economically viable outlet for the expression of Black culture.” This theme of culture in relation to commodification seems to pop up around every corner as we navigate the American cultural landscape. It’s a frightening thought that creeps into my head – Can Americans only value culture that can be commodified? Or – when the lens of profitability is turned on a culture is it doomed into dilution? Do we wreck anything inherently good for us by trying to make a profit? (By the way, there’s nothing academic about mentioning this, and it probably changes the flow of the paper, but I’m sitting in a very crowded part of a suburban mall teeming with commodified crap. In fact, there are so many manufactured smells, sights, and sounds, I may have to pack up soon. I just had to mention the environment – it’s so beautiful and clean and fake and gross and visceral all at the same time.)
Sorry. On to the sports- I wonder is it any mistake that the men who “escape” their urban landscapes into professional basketball do so by becoming commodities themselves? Spike Lee took on urban culture and basketball in He Got Game (1998). The movie deals with three main ideas in response to the media’s attention to African American athletes.
1. The issue of high school players skipping college in favor of going right to the NBA. (aka Kevin Garnett)
2. The idea that minority athletes are criminals
3. The idea of the absent (Black) male father
Lee weaves these themes throughout the movie and uses interesting imagery (maybe too obvious at times) to tell this story. Farmlands v. fenced in courts, rolling country-sides, v. chain-links are used to make us see the urban landscape as very different from Middle America. Even the authors of this article accuse the movie of being “melodramatic” in its storyline. Giardina and McCarthy’s main point though is how a movie like this actually reinforces stereotypes rather than teaches us important lessons about urban culture.
“In enacting the realist apparatus of depicting allegedly lifelike struggles faced by coming-of-age Arfrican American urban youth, He Got Game remains deeply ingrained in a discursive formation whose stereotypical imagery actively contributes to our recognition, consumption, and understanding of inner-city America.”
I think this is where it gets tough. The authors of this article will not let Lee's work stand without deconstructing what we may not want to see. They're telling not to get to comfortable with Lee's interpretation. Using a critical lens like this makes people uncomfortable, but I think its necessary in holding everyone accountable as well. As educators, as researchers, we cannot shy away from the uncomfortable, and should continue to use the popular culture lens to examine ourselves. One last quote…
“…we must be committed to getting beyond the paradox of celebration and anxiety. Instead, we should consider the full complexity of its prevailing determinate forces by delving into its production of cosmopolitan as well as its reproduction of unequal relations and uneven developments; its expression in movement and migration as well as its reinscription of old practices of colonialism, imperialism, and asymmetrical relations of domination; and its potential to yield progressive interventions into the social arena as well as perpetuate hegemonic understandings of race, class, and gender relations. In short, we must ask how popular culture can help us create race and gender consciousness for the 21st century.”
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Savage Realities in Pop Music
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6Dg1Ymji-Q
The year- 1997. The Song- Truly, Madly, Deeply by Savage Garden. It was inescapable. Every station, every dorm bathroom, every radio in every window in every courtyard at Concordia College in Moorhead, MN was playing that song. At the time, this song made me feel truly, madly, deeply insane. I considered ripping the am/fm alarm clock out of the wall every time it came on to wake me up. The lead singer with his whiny, tinny voice singing “I want to stand with you on a mountain, I want to bathe with you in the sea?!?” No thanks, I’ll bathe alone thank you. Most people sang along or hummed absent-mindedly to this song and I couldn’t understand it. Ann Powers, in her article “Bread and Butter Songs: Unoriginality in Pop” writes, “The real challenge came in accepting that even music I found offensive or dull really moved people, sometimes stadiums full. The next step, even harder, was figuring out why.” Reading the lyrics of Truly, Madly, Deeply ten years later revealed that however sappy it sounded at the time, it did tackle the basic stuff of life – love, hope, meaning, even God.
“What memorable songs offer, including banal ones, is a way not just to feel but to better grasp the structure of feeling, by re-creating the sense of becoming engaged, turning on, or falling in love” (Powers, p. 241).
Aha! Maybe that’s why, even though musically annoying, the song has stuck with me. It captured feelings that at the time, were hard to face head on. It certainly makes me ponder when we say songs are “good” or “bad” if we are talking about how these songs have meaning for us or if they are “critically acclaimed.”
I have to admit, now when I hear this song I feel instantly nostalgic for those radios in courtyards my sophomore year of college. That song is, for better or worse, part of the soundtrack to an incredible year of my life filled with learning, music, friendships, and relationships. Savage Garden in many ways, in its sappy whimsical-ness represents exactly the sort of…well sappy whimsical-ness of that year of my life and looking back I have more respect for the people who sang along…out loud…
Lesson Plan:
I think there are many fun and interesting angles pop music could be used in education. My initial thought would be to do a 5 part activity over the course of a week.
Day 1
Have students bring in a song on CD or iPod that they enjoy for the class to listen to. After listening to an excerpt have students journal on these questions:
1. Write down the name of the artist & song
2. How did the music make you feel?
3. Why are the lyrics meaningful to you?
Have each student tell the class the answers for the piece of music they chose. Discuss where personal preferences come from in choosing music.
Day 2
Have students think about music they don’t like. Have students write down at least 3 songs, bands, or artists they don’t enjoy. Give time to journal and discuss answers even if it gets heated, let students discuss music they dislike (which will probably lead to students defending music they do like.) Refrain from coming to conclusions.
Day 3
Take some of the songs that were most controversial in the “I hate it” category and deconstruct the lyrics together. Have students think about the history and personal experience of the person or band who wrote the song and put it in a critical framework. Have students, as homework, take one band or artist they don’t like and research the history behind them.
Day 4
Have students share short presentations on their chosen artist/band.
Day 5
Conclude with a fun day of listening and game of “name that tune” using examples from all the “liked” and “disliked” songs chosen by students. Have students take 10 minutes to journal about the week and what they learned and if they will listen to music they liked or disliked previously in a new way.
The year- 1997. The Song- Truly, Madly, Deeply by Savage Garden. It was inescapable. Every station, every dorm bathroom, every radio in every window in every courtyard at Concordia College in Moorhead, MN was playing that song. At the time, this song made me feel truly, madly, deeply insane. I considered ripping the am/fm alarm clock out of the wall every time it came on to wake me up. The lead singer with his whiny, tinny voice singing “I want to stand with you on a mountain, I want to bathe with you in the sea?!?” No thanks, I’ll bathe alone thank you. Most people sang along or hummed absent-mindedly to this song and I couldn’t understand it. Ann Powers, in her article “Bread and Butter Songs: Unoriginality in Pop” writes, “The real challenge came in accepting that even music I found offensive or dull really moved people, sometimes stadiums full. The next step, even harder, was figuring out why.” Reading the lyrics of Truly, Madly, Deeply ten years later revealed that however sappy it sounded at the time, it did tackle the basic stuff of life – love, hope, meaning, even God.
“What memorable songs offer, including banal ones, is a way not just to feel but to better grasp the structure of feeling, by re-creating the sense of becoming engaged, turning on, or falling in love” (Powers, p. 241).
Aha! Maybe that’s why, even though musically annoying, the song has stuck with me. It captured feelings that at the time, were hard to face head on. It certainly makes me ponder when we say songs are “good” or “bad” if we are talking about how these songs have meaning for us or if they are “critically acclaimed.”
I have to admit, now when I hear this song I feel instantly nostalgic for those radios in courtyards my sophomore year of college. That song is, for better or worse, part of the soundtrack to an incredible year of my life filled with learning, music, friendships, and relationships. Savage Garden in many ways, in its sappy whimsical-ness represents exactly the sort of…well sappy whimsical-ness of that year of my life and looking back I have more respect for the people who sang along…out loud…
Lesson Plan:
I think there are many fun and interesting angles pop music could be used in education. My initial thought would be to do a 5 part activity over the course of a week.
Day 1
Have students bring in a song on CD or iPod that they enjoy for the class to listen to. After listening to an excerpt have students journal on these questions:
1. Write down the name of the artist & song
2. How did the music make you feel?
3. Why are the lyrics meaningful to you?
Have each student tell the class the answers for the piece of music they chose. Discuss where personal preferences come from in choosing music.
Day 2
Have students think about music they don’t like. Have students write down at least 3 songs, bands, or artists they don’t enjoy. Give time to journal and discuss answers even if it gets heated, let students discuss music they dislike (which will probably lead to students defending music they do like.) Refrain from coming to conclusions.
Day 3
Take some of the songs that were most controversial in the “I hate it” category and deconstruct the lyrics together. Have students think about the history and personal experience of the person or band who wrote the song and put it in a critical framework. Have students, as homework, take one band or artist they don’t like and research the history behind them.
Day 4
Have students share short presentations on their chosen artist/band.
Day 5
Conclude with a fun day of listening and game of “name that tune” using examples from all the “liked” and “disliked” songs chosen by students. Have students take 10 minutes to journal about the week and what they learned and if they will listen to music they liked or disliked previously in a new way.
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
The Beatles
Teaching Popular Music
From: mcmrbt, 9 months ago
This presentation formed part of the foundation stage of teaching High School media students about the historical development of the popular music industry.
SlideShare Link
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Immigration & Popular Culture
After reading Immigration and Popular Culture: An Introduction I have a million thoughts about how America, media, popular culture and immigrants intersect. It’s like going on wikipedia – you have one impetus or thought prompting you to look something up and it usually leads you on a wild goose chase of knowledge-seeking. It’s hard not to click on those devious little links even though you may want to finish the article you started with! I find that especially in the last few years of being in grad school and doing a lot of reading (good reading) layers start to appear. By that I mean that last week I was asked to read Thoreau and Emerson for a class on democracy, community, and learning. It just so happened that it was brought up that Thoreau was a major influence on Ghandi. Now this week I read about that same connection in a piece about eastern culture’s relationship to America. Crazy.
We can learn about a decade say-- the 60’s from the point of view of the Vietnam war, counter-culture, the economy, immigration, media, etc. and the list goes on and on. Each account would be unique and interesting, but it’s the connections, how each part of culture influences the other that I find so fascinating.
In a sort of “stream of consciousness” fashion I want to revisit 3 chapters from Immigration and Popular Culture: An Introduction. Here are the thoughts, questions, ideas that I had…
The first chapter about Jews and the masks they wore in the 1930's gangster films was something new to me. I must admit being of Scandinavian descent and living primarily in the Midwest, connections to the idea of the mob or gangsters is limited to “The Godfather.” My idea of a gangster was Italian or Sicilian. Edward G. Robinson was Edward G. Robinson not Emmanuel Goldberg. It’s one of those revelations that makes me wonder how much of my “picture” of popular culture is untrue. My guess is a lot of it! This is disappointing and daunting at the same time, because if I want to know the truth I’ll always need to dig deeper. Thoreau talked about the mind being an organ to “burrow” with so I guess this makes sense. I was struck by the idea that even then journalists were reporting on gangster-life because of America’s interest in the gangster movies. Entertainment and news were already intertwining in ways setting up the “E! Channel” long ago. Even our local news today will report on a homicide and the latest antics of Brittany Spears in the same breath.
The gangster movies proved to be a way for Jews trying to find an identity in America to play out feelings about masculinity and fitting in through performance. The gangsters always "got it" in the end even though for many they seemed to be heroic figures. I found it fascinating that when movie-goers were asked about the gangsters dying, many felt the on-screen death “ saved them from the “dangerous” parts of their own fantasy.”
The chapter on Puerto Rican migration in relationship to Bernstein’s West Side Story gave me the most pause to think. I’ve played the score for West Side Story on a number of occasions. Bernstein is one of my favorite composers and his music was brilliant in the way it blended into films. I’m glad I’ve got the music because I can’t watch the movie the same away again! It’s really unfortunate that the opportunity to do ground-breaking work regarding the relationships between Puerto Ricans, African Americans, and Whites was right there and the creators of West Side Story chose to ignore them. I admit even seeing it as a young person I thought that no one really looked Puerto Rican and I knew Natalie Wood wasn’t even close! The make-up is so exaggerated and offensive. I never thought about the fact that the Jets we’re portrayed as a “family” and had their own song while the Sharks came off menacing and unruly. LAME. I think there’s somewhat of a lamenting process because I can’t ever love watching it again. I can’t go back to the naïve version I’ve known. However, I think part of becoming a self-aware, productive, enlightened member of society means facing the injustices and untruths that are part of our cultural history. It’s sad how West Side Story almost single-handedly made Puerto Rican youth synonymous with danger. The “love can conquer all” theme really sounds like crap after understanding the real story.
Although it wasn’t quite as engaging to me as the first two chapters I enjoyed “Monterey 1967: The Hippies meet Ravi Shankar.” My father-in-law came from India (because of fleeing Pakistan earlier) in the late 60’s. He met my mother-in-law in Champagne-Urbana while she was taking an East Asian studies course. This was right after she decided not to take her final vows as a nun. I’ve seen pictures of their very 1970’s-looking wedding with him in an American suit and she in a full sari. I never thought a lot of that picture until now and what was happening in the world at the time.
Knowing what I know about the sitar, it’s funny to me that American rockers wanted to just “pick it up” as a new instrument. Not only is it an incredibly complicated instrument to learn, but the history behind ragas and how they are constructed is so important and embedded in East Indian culture. I think it’s impossible to just extract a piece of music out of thousands of years of history and religion, but America is good at trying to do that to most cultures. “The idea that you could just pick up the sitar and play it was anathema to Shankar.” Along with music, all aspects of East Indian culture were being sucked in by Americans and spit out into meaningless commercial junk. “My karma ran over your dogma” may be the best example of how much it’s possible for Americans to dumb down a culture. Gita Mehta wrote, “America has taken our most complicated philosophical concepts as part of its everyday slang.” I guess why go through the trouble to learn about and experience the beauty and mystery of Hinduism, Buddhism, and East Indian philosophy when you can wear some dumb ass t-shirt?
My only real conclusion after digging in to this material is that I want to read more. For me, books like this open up and break apart existing (often incorrect) notions I’ve held about the past. I am surprised at how well the pop culture lens allows us to look critically at history.
We can learn about a decade say-- the 60’s from the point of view of the Vietnam war, counter-culture, the economy, immigration, media, etc. and the list goes on and on. Each account would be unique and interesting, but it’s the connections, how each part of culture influences the other that I find so fascinating.
In a sort of “stream of consciousness” fashion I want to revisit 3 chapters from Immigration and Popular Culture: An Introduction. Here are the thoughts, questions, ideas that I had…
The first chapter about Jews and the masks they wore in the 1930's gangster films was something new to me. I must admit being of Scandinavian descent and living primarily in the Midwest, connections to the idea of the mob or gangsters is limited to “The Godfather.” My idea of a gangster was Italian or Sicilian. Edward G. Robinson was Edward G. Robinson not Emmanuel Goldberg. It’s one of those revelations that makes me wonder how much of my “picture” of popular culture is untrue. My guess is a lot of it! This is disappointing and daunting at the same time, because if I want to know the truth I’ll always need to dig deeper. Thoreau talked about the mind being an organ to “burrow” with so I guess this makes sense. I was struck by the idea that even then journalists were reporting on gangster-life because of America’s interest in the gangster movies. Entertainment and news were already intertwining in ways setting up the “E! Channel” long ago. Even our local news today will report on a homicide and the latest antics of Brittany Spears in the same breath.
The gangster movies proved to be a way for Jews trying to find an identity in America to play out feelings about masculinity and fitting in through performance. The gangsters always "got it" in the end even though for many they seemed to be heroic figures. I found it fascinating that when movie-goers were asked about the gangsters dying, many felt the on-screen death “ saved them from the “dangerous” parts of their own fantasy.”
The chapter on Puerto Rican migration in relationship to Bernstein’s West Side Story gave me the most pause to think. I’ve played the score for West Side Story on a number of occasions. Bernstein is one of my favorite composers and his music was brilliant in the way it blended into films. I’m glad I’ve got the music because I can’t watch the movie the same away again! It’s really unfortunate that the opportunity to do ground-breaking work regarding the relationships between Puerto Ricans, African Americans, and Whites was right there and the creators of West Side Story chose to ignore them. I admit even seeing it as a young person I thought that no one really looked Puerto Rican and I knew Natalie Wood wasn’t even close! The make-up is so exaggerated and offensive. I never thought about the fact that the Jets we’re portrayed as a “family” and had their own song while the Sharks came off menacing and unruly. LAME. I think there’s somewhat of a lamenting process because I can’t ever love watching it again. I can’t go back to the naïve version I’ve known. However, I think part of becoming a self-aware, productive, enlightened member of society means facing the injustices and untruths that are part of our cultural history. It’s sad how West Side Story almost single-handedly made Puerto Rican youth synonymous with danger. The “love can conquer all” theme really sounds like crap after understanding the real story.
Although it wasn’t quite as engaging to me as the first two chapters I enjoyed “Monterey 1967: The Hippies meet Ravi Shankar.” My father-in-law came from India (because of fleeing Pakistan earlier) in the late 60’s. He met my mother-in-law in Champagne-Urbana while she was taking an East Asian studies course. This was right after she decided not to take her final vows as a nun. I’ve seen pictures of their very 1970’s-looking wedding with him in an American suit and she in a full sari. I never thought a lot of that picture until now and what was happening in the world at the time.
Knowing what I know about the sitar, it’s funny to me that American rockers wanted to just “pick it up” as a new instrument. Not only is it an incredibly complicated instrument to learn, but the history behind ragas and how they are constructed is so important and embedded in East Indian culture. I think it’s impossible to just extract a piece of music out of thousands of years of history and religion, but America is good at trying to do that to most cultures. “The idea that you could just pick up the sitar and play it was anathema to Shankar.” Along with music, all aspects of East Indian culture were being sucked in by Americans and spit out into meaningless commercial junk. “My karma ran over your dogma” may be the best example of how much it’s possible for Americans to dumb down a culture. Gita Mehta wrote, “America has taken our most complicated philosophical concepts as part of its everyday slang.” I guess why go through the trouble to learn about and experience the beauty and mystery of Hinduism, Buddhism, and East Indian philosophy when you can wear some dumb ass t-shirt?
My only real conclusion after digging in to this material is that I want to read more. For me, books like this open up and break apart existing (often incorrect) notions I’ve held about the past. I am surprised at how well the pop culture lens allows us to look critically at history.
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Cultural Capital, Mass Culture & Opportunity
Questions about meaning and value when it comes to culture can be especially difficult to answer these days. What one may view as mass or low culture another may see as avant-garde high culture. Because we live in a world where technology has made communication so fast and knowledge so accessible, we are bombarded with new images and ideas about culture everyday.
In the past, high culture was a more universal concept. Everyone “knew” it included Shakespeare, Mozart, and Rembrandt. People that were familiar with these pieces of high culture held the cultural capital of the time. The flow of ideas about what constituted high culture was a much slower process and the “canon” of culture was constructed over time. At a certain point around the time when television was becoming increasingly popular a sort of new emerging mass-culture began. In all reality there’s probably always been a mass-culture, but sociologists started to take notice and coin some of the phrases we’re still using today to talk about culture. At the time (1950’s) for authors like Dwight Macdonald it seemed almost a moral issue. In his book, Cultural Theory and Popular Culture, Macdonald considers mass culture to be vulgar and insipid. In his mind, there are only two cultures and the high one is the one to aspire to. “Mass culture began as, and to some extent still is, a parasitic, a cancerous growth on High Culture” (Macdonald, p. 23). Macdonald tells us what makes up mass culture – comic books, television, and any cheaply-made product, to let us know what is bad. The theory seems to be that because of its “mass-ness” it is evil. He calls the people who make products in order to profit form the masses- “The Lords of kitsch.” His arguments can feel stuffy and overly dramatic at times, “There is slowly emerging a tepid, Middlebrow Culture that threatens to engulf everything in its spreading ooze”(Macdonald, p. 27), however I would argue his real fear is our loss of integrity around expectations. He is concerned with “…the passivity of the public itself, which doesn’t insist on better Mass Cultural products”(Macdonald, p. 34). He goes on to say:
The Lords of kitsch sell culture to the masses. It is a debased trivial culture that voids both the deep realities (sex, death, failure, tragedy) and also the simple, spontaneous pleasures, since realities would be too real and the pleasures to lively to induce what Mr. Seldes calls ‘the mood of consent’ i.e. a narcotized acceptance of Mass Culture and of the commodities it sells as a substitute for the unsettling and unpredictable (hence unsaleable) joy, tragedy, wit, change, originality, and beauty of real life. The masses, debauched by several generations of this sort of thing, in turn come to demand trivial and comfortable cultural products. Which came first, the chicken or the egg, the mass demand or its satisfaction (and further stimulation) is a question as academic as it is unanswerable. The engine is reciprocating and shows no signs of running down.
It would be hard to argue that his prediction has not come true, but what do we do with it?
Today we have an opportunity to look at mass-culture differently. We have the opportunity to critique each piece of popular culture as is. We can create a framework that considers “high” and “low” all in the same space without sweeping generalizations. We don’t have to box ourselves into thinking like “Shakespeare is good” and “Myspace is bad.” We can challenge ourselves to think about what might be helpful to learning and education in both.
I recognize that many people would be uncomfortable with the idea of judging Shakespeare and Myspace in the same space, but if we can create a framework with integrity why not? I would argue that we as educators have an exciting open road ahead of us because we’re in a place and time where all culture and learning is fair game.
In the past, high culture was a more universal concept. Everyone “knew” it included Shakespeare, Mozart, and Rembrandt. People that were familiar with these pieces of high culture held the cultural capital of the time. The flow of ideas about what constituted high culture was a much slower process and the “canon” of culture was constructed over time. At a certain point around the time when television was becoming increasingly popular a sort of new emerging mass-culture began. In all reality there’s probably always been a mass-culture, but sociologists started to take notice and coin some of the phrases we’re still using today to talk about culture. At the time (1950’s) for authors like Dwight Macdonald it seemed almost a moral issue. In his book, Cultural Theory and Popular Culture, Macdonald considers mass culture to be vulgar and insipid. In his mind, there are only two cultures and the high one is the one to aspire to. “Mass culture began as, and to some extent still is, a parasitic, a cancerous growth on High Culture” (Macdonald, p. 23). Macdonald tells us what makes up mass culture – comic books, television, and any cheaply-made product, to let us know what is bad. The theory seems to be that because of its “mass-ness” it is evil. He calls the people who make products in order to profit form the masses- “The Lords of kitsch.” His arguments can feel stuffy and overly dramatic at times, “There is slowly emerging a tepid, Middlebrow Culture that threatens to engulf everything in its spreading ooze”(Macdonald, p. 27), however I would argue his real fear is our loss of integrity around expectations. He is concerned with “…the passivity of the public itself, which doesn’t insist on better Mass Cultural products”(Macdonald, p. 34). He goes on to say:
The Lords of kitsch sell culture to the masses. It is a debased trivial culture that voids both the deep realities (sex, death, failure, tragedy) and also the simple, spontaneous pleasures, since realities would be too real and the pleasures to lively to induce what Mr. Seldes calls ‘the mood of consent’ i.e. a narcotized acceptance of Mass Culture and of the commodities it sells as a substitute for the unsettling and unpredictable (hence unsaleable) joy, tragedy, wit, change, originality, and beauty of real life. The masses, debauched by several generations of this sort of thing, in turn come to demand trivial and comfortable cultural products. Which came first, the chicken or the egg, the mass demand or its satisfaction (and further stimulation) is a question as academic as it is unanswerable. The engine is reciprocating and shows no signs of running down.
It would be hard to argue that his prediction has not come true, but what do we do with it?
Today we have an opportunity to look at mass-culture differently. We have the opportunity to critique each piece of popular culture as is. We can create a framework that considers “high” and “low” all in the same space without sweeping generalizations. We don’t have to box ourselves into thinking like “Shakespeare is good” and “Myspace is bad.” We can challenge ourselves to think about what might be helpful to learning and education in both.
I recognize that many people would be uncomfortable with the idea of judging Shakespeare and Myspace in the same space, but if we can create a framework with integrity why not? I would argue that we as educators have an exciting open road ahead of us because we’re in a place and time where all culture and learning is fair game.
Sunday, February 3, 2008
Barbies, Babes, Objects and Art
Reading Lynn Spiegel's "Barbies without Ken: Femininity, Feminism, and the Art-Culture System" from Welcome to the Dreamhouse challenged many notions I've held about Barbie or those who collect Barbies. Coupled with watching three videos by Fiona Apple, Avril Lavigne, and Lil' Kim my notions about femininty, feminism, and female empowerment we challenged further.
Speigel has a nice way of setting up her ideas without moralizing too much or spending time stereotyping so that she can get at the "...more interesting problems regarding the relationship between object relationships and social relationships in postmodern culture"(318). She is able to think about Barbie from feminine and feminsit points of view. Deconstructing this piece would be a long endeavor, but what I gained from a first reading is that people that collect Barbies, use Barbie's image to create art or craft clothes, houses etc. for Barbie have complex relationships to the object. Women who were "traditionally disempowered in the sphere of production" were able to have some power in the economy through their creative endeavors. If your idea of feminism is anti-housewife then housewives finding creative ways to be part of the economy through re-imagining craft might change your perception.
Barbie has an interesting combination of being "wholesome" yet sexual in nature. Her body proportions are rather unhuman yet have set a standard to which many women have compared themsleves to since her inception. Thinking about this wholesome/sexual combination leads me to the three videos I mentioned earlier. In Fiona Apple's "Criminal" she leads us on a dreamy journey through a 70's porn-esque basement with her lyrics of "being a bad bad girl" are juxtaposed with her being watched. This sort of girlish tease with sexual images is almost hard to reconcile and one almost feels dirty after watching it. Oddly, Lil' Kim's "How Many Licks?" is blatantly sexual, yet I didn't feel bad for watching it. As risque as someone might see this video you get the feeling she is in charge for better or worse. Now is she really in charge in an MTV market that plays on super sexual videos exploiting women? It would be interesting to know how much financial control Kim has over her music. Finally Lavigne's "My Happy Ending" didn't really appeal or offend on any level, but that's why I probably found it the most uninteresting piece to watch. Girl and Boy happy. Girl gets mad. Girl sad. Boy apparently didn't mean anything. No happy ending. Boo hoo. It's a typical story of love/loss coupled with a lot of black eyeliner and angst. Of the three videos it also had the least artistic vision sandwiched bewteen a stylish if dirty Fiona and a super-slick "edible doll" come to life Lil' Kim.
My guess is we'll be trying to reconcile all these images and more in the future trying to understand women and how they are portrayed...
Speigel has a nice way of setting up her ideas without moralizing too much or spending time stereotyping so that she can get at the "...more interesting problems regarding the relationship between object relationships and social relationships in postmodern culture"(318). She is able to think about Barbie from feminine and feminsit points of view. Deconstructing this piece would be a long endeavor, but what I gained from a first reading is that people that collect Barbies, use Barbie's image to create art or craft clothes, houses etc. for Barbie have complex relationships to the object. Women who were "traditionally disempowered in the sphere of production" were able to have some power in the economy through their creative endeavors. If your idea of feminism is anti-housewife then housewives finding creative ways to be part of the economy through re-imagining craft might change your perception.
Barbie has an interesting combination of being "wholesome" yet sexual in nature. Her body proportions are rather unhuman yet have set a standard to which many women have compared themsleves to since her inception. Thinking about this wholesome/sexual combination leads me to the three videos I mentioned earlier. In Fiona Apple's "Criminal" she leads us on a dreamy journey through a 70's porn-esque basement with her lyrics of "being a bad bad girl" are juxtaposed with her being watched. This sort of girlish tease with sexual images is almost hard to reconcile and one almost feels dirty after watching it. Oddly, Lil' Kim's "How Many Licks?" is blatantly sexual, yet I didn't feel bad for watching it. As risque as someone might see this video you get the feeling she is in charge for better or worse. Now is she really in charge in an MTV market that plays on super sexual videos exploiting women? It would be interesting to know how much financial control Kim has over her music. Finally Lavigne's "My Happy Ending" didn't really appeal or offend on any level, but that's why I probably found it the most uninteresting piece to watch. Girl and Boy happy. Girl gets mad. Girl sad. Boy apparently didn't mean anything. No happy ending. Boo hoo. It's a typical story of love/loss coupled with a lot of black eyeliner and angst. Of the three videos it also had the least artistic vision sandwiched bewteen a stylish if dirty Fiona and a super-slick "edible doll" come to life Lil' Kim.
My guess is we'll be trying to reconcile all these images and more in the future trying to understand women and how they are portrayed...
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Week 2 - Pop Objects, Pop Video, Gender & Teaching
Watch Fiona Apple, Lil' Kim and Avril Lavigne videos at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTpvjNn2BUM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2eUCfREAbw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrDIlVsUmK4>
Read "Barbies without Ken: Femininity, Feminism, and the Art-Culture System" from Welcome to the Dreamhouse by Lynn Spigel
Read "American Popular Culture: Should We Integrate It Into American Education?" by Thomas Fain Jr.
Create a lesson plan that deals with popculture representations of gender (men/women or both) that brings students into dialogue so they think critically, thoughtfully, not denying the pleasure of pop culture but putting it into perspectivewith other discourses in contemporary culture, social, political, etc....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTpvjNn2BUM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2eUCfREAbw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrDIlVsUmK4>
Read "Barbies without Ken: Femininity, Feminism, and the Art-Culture System" from Welcome to the Dreamhouse by Lynn Spigel
Read "American Popular Culture: Should We Integrate It Into American Education?" by Thomas Fain Jr.
Create a lesson plan that deals with popculture representations of gender (men/women or both) that brings students into dialogue so they think critically, thoughtfully, not denying the pleasure of pop culture but putting it into perspectivewith other discourses in contemporary culture, social, political, etc....
Thanks for the comments Darren
To be clear I cut and pasted comments on "Participatory Culture" from my original blog written by my fantastic pop culture friend Darren!
Participatory Culture
These are my thoughts on a study done by the MacArthur Foundation concerning the field of digital media and learning.
The New Participatory Culture: Benefits, Concerns and Questions
In “Confronting the Challenge of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century” the authors tackle the definition and possible outcomes of what they call a “participatory culture”. Many of the implications for youth learning through this culture are exciting, but the authors also caution that problems have and will arise in this emerging forum for social engagement. I’d like to take a look at a few of the positive and negative aspects of this phenomenon.Peer to peer learning can be an extremely useful and motivating tool for youth. A vast number are already online creating and learning from each other through social networks, games, etc. I would argue peer to peer learning on such a wide scale is bound to change how youth interact with each other and their teachers. Many of us grew up with a concept of learning meaning rote memorization or taking notes on long lectures. In this system the teacher possessed all the knowledge (whether they understood much about the subject being taught or not) and students were expected to dutifully except the knowledge handed down to them. Now youth can challenge and learn from each other online and have the opportunity to question what is being taught to them in school. Students can feel empowered that they can teach each other as well as learning from adults. Creative expression for youth through online participation has become almost limitless. The idea of making a video, adding music or digital effects, and editing content so that anyone could view it online is something I could not have comprehended even in high school. Now creative skills like movie making or web page creating are often second nature to youth growing up in this participatory culture. Maybe one of the most positive possibilities of this new culture is the opportunity for students to come into contact with different cultures and experience diversity. It’s amazing that today an 8th grader in small town USA can see pictures of and talk to an 8th grader in Germany or South Africa. There is no doubt that learned prejudices will play a part in these encounters, but they are also opening up a world of new understanding.There are drawbacks to this participatory culture. One of the biggest difficulties being, who can participate? If youth have no access to online opportunities where will they be left? The achievement gap is already one of the most difficult issues plaguing the American school system. Combining an achievement gap and a participatory gap could possibly become our greatest challenge in 21st century education.Along with the problem of “who” can participate is the aspect of transparency. The authors of this article define the transparency problem as “The challenges young people face in learning to see clearly the ways that media shape perceptions of the world.” Children and youth may not always be aware of the underlying commercial interests behind informational websites and therefore may often rely on faulty information. This idea of sifting through a vast array of media content to find reputable information may prove difficult for students. I think the verdict is still out on how educators and parents will guide students in this arena. Courses on navigating true and false information online may need to become part of standard Junior High and Senior High curricula. Skills in evaluating online content may be one of the most prominent skills taught in the future just like reading and writing.Overall, I find the implications about the new participatory culture to be exciting because of the engaging and creative ways in which youth are part of it. However, great attention will need to be paid to making sure all youth can participate. It will be equally important that youth have a framework of guidance in this new culture so that they can make the most out of the information provided to them. Maybe one of the biggest questions is: how will we as educators understand and participate in the culture ourselves?
The New Participatory Culture: Benefits, Concerns and Questions
In “Confronting the Challenge of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century” the authors tackle the definition and possible outcomes of what they call a “participatory culture”. Many of the implications for youth learning through this culture are exciting, but the authors also caution that problems have and will arise in this emerging forum for social engagement. I’d like to take a look at a few of the positive and negative aspects of this phenomenon.Peer to peer learning can be an extremely useful and motivating tool for youth. A vast number are already online creating and learning from each other through social networks, games, etc. I would argue peer to peer learning on such a wide scale is bound to change how youth interact with each other and their teachers. Many of us grew up with a concept of learning meaning rote memorization or taking notes on long lectures. In this system the teacher possessed all the knowledge (whether they understood much about the subject being taught or not) and students were expected to dutifully except the knowledge handed down to them. Now youth can challenge and learn from each other online and have the opportunity to question what is being taught to them in school. Students can feel empowered that they can teach each other as well as learning from adults. Creative expression for youth through online participation has become almost limitless. The idea of making a video, adding music or digital effects, and editing content so that anyone could view it online is something I could not have comprehended even in high school. Now creative skills like movie making or web page creating are often second nature to youth growing up in this participatory culture. Maybe one of the most positive possibilities of this new culture is the opportunity for students to come into contact with different cultures and experience diversity. It’s amazing that today an 8th grader in small town USA can see pictures of and talk to an 8th grader in Germany or South Africa. There is no doubt that learned prejudices will play a part in these encounters, but they are also opening up a world of new understanding.There are drawbacks to this participatory culture. One of the biggest difficulties being, who can participate? If youth have no access to online opportunities where will they be left? The achievement gap is already one of the most difficult issues plaguing the American school system. Combining an achievement gap and a participatory gap could possibly become our greatest challenge in 21st century education.Along with the problem of “who” can participate is the aspect of transparency. The authors of this article define the transparency problem as “The challenges young people face in learning to see clearly the ways that media shape perceptions of the world.” Children and youth may not always be aware of the underlying commercial interests behind informational websites and therefore may often rely on faulty information. This idea of sifting through a vast array of media content to find reputable information may prove difficult for students. I think the verdict is still out on how educators and parents will guide students in this arena. Courses on navigating true and false information online may need to become part of standard Junior High and Senior High curricula. Skills in evaluating online content may be one of the most prominent skills taught in the future just like reading and writing.Overall, I find the implications about the new participatory culture to be exciting because of the engaging and creative ways in which youth are part of it. However, great attention will need to be paid to making sure all youth can participate. It will be equally important that youth have a framework of guidance in this new culture so that they can make the most out of the information provided to them. Maybe one of the biggest questions is: how will we as educators understand and participate in the culture ourselves?
Shows I Watch When I Can...
No Reservations with Anthony Bourdain, Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmerman, Lost, 30 Rock, Grey's Anatomy, Amazing Race, Kitchen Nightmares, Top Chef, Survivor, The Soup, Best Week Ever, Daily Show, Colbert Report, Deadliest Catch, Dirty Jobs & a host of other documentaires...
Oh so you figured out I enjoy TV?
Oh so you figured out I enjoy TV?
I blog therefore I am...
This blog site is dedicated to thinking critically and constuctively about all things pop culture and their intersection with education. I believe that anything is worth examining and teaching, but a framework has to be created.
My other goal is to share these discussions and some of the assignments in my course at the U to inspire other friends who want to think critically about this subject.
Lastly, I hope to share fun bits of what I enjoy about pop culture because being immersed in many forms of media is pretty much a mainstay for me!
My other goal is to share these discussions and some of the assignments in my course at the U to inspire other friends who want to think critically about this subject.
Lastly, I hope to share fun bits of what I enjoy about pop culture because being immersed in many forms of media is pretty much a mainstay for me!
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