Name:

Life expectancy for Americans has suffered a historic drop in the last couple of years, according to new estimates from the CDC and a June preprint study. While every demographic’s life expectancy dropped in 2020 and 2021, Black, Latinx, and Indigenous communities were hit the hardest.

Life expectancy at birth — or how long a person is expected to live if nothing in the world changes — is usually calculated by using death rate data within each age group. Although life expectancy isn’t a prediction of how long a baby born today will live, the drop reveals the scale of untimely deaths during Covid-19.

The CDC report and other recent life expectancy research show that the pandemic’s impact has been massive, and its effects may well persist for years. The average life expectancy for all groups has gone down since 2019, from 79 years to about 76.

The estimates for 2021 are based on provisional death rates, while data for 2019 and 2020 are final. Because every estimate takes different factors into account, it’s normal that their conclusions slightly vary.

In the United States, Covid-19 has affected some communities worse than others. Even pre-pandemic, life expectancies for different demographic groups were highly disparate due to structural factors, such as lack of access to health care. In 2019, the average life expectancy for Black men was 10 years lower than for white women.

Covid-19 only made this gap worse.

Men also experienced greater loss of life expectancy than women across every race/ethnicity group. As with other demographics, this was likely due to a number of factors, including men being more likely to have jobs that would expose them to the disease, behavioral differences in hand-washing, vaccination rates, and biological factors.

Adapted from Why are American lives getting shorter? By Siobhan McDonough (2022)

https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2022/9/7/23339734/life-expectancy-shorter-united-states-covid

Dfi8$

Edflh

ja Lauzon started frcshman year of high school as a boy, went home sterbreak, and came back as a girl. Other students did not understand— fiullied Lauzon almost every day. Recalling her high school experience in

düo posted to YouTube, she said, “More often than not I went home

… I think it might have been easier knowing l wasn’t the only one @öng at home in my bedroom crfüng.” Lauzon is a transgender activist Q’ her thirties not There was no gay—straight alliance or LGBT desbian, jy, bisexual, transgender) support group at her school. There wasn’t even

;9ouTube, Twitter, or an online community she could join as a teen, back before the Internet was widely available.

She posted a video about het own crappy high school esperience as part of the It Gets Better Project. The thousands of It Gets Better videos tar- get LGBT teens for whom suïcide tisk is twice as high as for snaight teens (Russell 4r Joyner, 200t). The message is slmple: For many LGBT people, high school is the worst part of a life that will get better. Lauzon’s message to young people stniggling with depression and bultying is supportive but blunc “Ending your life now is nevec the answer. If I would have done it when I was 13 yeacs old, when 1 was bullied in school, l would have never gotten to expe- rience the amazing life that 1 have now.” Anthropologist Mary Gray has found that online communities are particularly important for LGBT young people fiving in niral areas, for whom local role models might be lacLing (2009).

But if online support is so critical for LGBT youth, why did the It Gcts Better campaign take so long to emerge? Some might argue that the delzy—and clearly Lauzon’s high school experience decades ago shows that

Go Online

Out There Feds Like You

Find Community

The It bets Better project overs IC BT teen s rote moans and

support that IN+ey m ght not otherwise have zn rea1 life at see

I GBT bullying has been a problem £or a long cme—is evidence that media are merely a reflec- tion of larger cultural trends. Before it wouid have been possible to get gay, lesbian, uacsgender, and straight people to feel safe enough to publicly pro- claim their support for LGBT youth, broader social changes had to occur. Since Lauzon’s high school

} ears, prohibitions against homosexuals in the mili- tary, against gay marriage, and against adoption of children by homosexual parents have beeti struck do’wn in many places. But wait a second. Weren’t some of these legal challenges successful in part because there have been more positive depictions of gays and lesbians in the medial If Lauzon watched the television shows Martin E future or Roszar» when she was young, she would have seen the firs (fictional) gay marriages. The movie Bye Doy’i C. garnered an Oscar win for Hilary Swam who plnyec Brandon Teena, a transgender character based o

a man whose murder motivated lawmakers to pa hate crime legislation.

What Lsuzon’s participation in the It Gets Bet0 campaign demonstrates is the porou sometime leading, sometimes following—relationship betwe culture and media, Media and culture have al been closely related, drawing on one another

meaning in contexts where there are shifting power differences between ducers and consumers. In this chapter, we will explore iheit relationship. producers, consumers, advertisers, or some complicated Gz rute of a[l t determine what we read, heat, and see in the media-saturated environ In this chapter we first take a look at culmre to explain whar this som slipper} term has meant for social scientists. Then we look at how c and the media Intersect to shape values, behefs, and practices in contem

Definitions of Culture

Culnire is a vague term that we use to rationalize many behaviors and all sorts of peoples and patterns. We talk about a cutture of pover Uruted States (see Cha9ter 10). We hear about corporate cultures cultures, culture wars, the clash of cultures, culture shock, and even

Cftagte¥ 3: Culture and Nedia

obal scal Culmre is casually used as shorthand for many meanin@ÜfolTi innate biological tendencies to social institu-

ing in between.

Human-Naure

iy that cultute is the sum of the social categories and concepte we addition to our órliefs, behaviors (except the instinctual ones), and other words, culture is everything but nature.

: sentence captures exactly how culture has been defined through in opposition to nature. The word w/lars derives from the LaÓn verb culiivate or iill’3, suggesting the refinement of crops to meet human le still use r«ú«re as a verb in a similar sense, as when we culture bacte- ietri dish.) The more comrnon meaning of mfú‹re as a noun developed e same kirid of human control and domination over natute. We could

t culture began when humans started nc 8 •’ the architects of nature üng crops rather than hunting and gathering, hence the terms ‹r@r»Are iú»rr (gtowing fish and other aquadc organisms for human consump- ‘ating back centuries, the term Herr has referred to the distincàon i what is natural—what comes dírectíy from the earth and follows the

›f physicwand that is modified or created by humans and follows (or

) the laws of the state. Thar said, culture is both the technology by which s have come to dorrünate namre and the belie£ systems, ideologies, and

bolic representacions that constitute human existence.

In the fifteenth century, when European nations organized expeditions to

nd commerce and establish colonies in North America, Afzica, and Asta, Western peoples confronted nou-Western natives. The beliefs and behaviors of these peoples served as a foil to European cultura. Today, we recognize that cujtcte is aÏways éÍaúve. de cannot taÏk sbour cu]Mre Trhout Yeference to the global world, but the defiiutions, practices, and concept that we use in this chapter largely emanate £rom a Western viewpoint. It may also be easier to identify cultural elements when they are different from our own. The challenge in this chapter will be to take what we see as natural and view it as a product of culture. We’ll also explore the media and the role they play in the birth and dissem icâon of culmce.

Culture = (Superior} Man — (Inferior) Man

A8 coloniali6m led to increased interaction with non-Westerners, Europeans came to recognize that much of what they took for granted as natural was not. Alternative ways of living existed, as manifested in a variety of living

Definitions ot Culture

Cuttuze a set o/ belieJs, tiad›ttons. and practices; the sum of the soc al categories and concegts we emb ace iv aóditíon to beïiefs, behaviors ’excep‘ ”–*”–“ “’ ‘

an4 pract ces, everythtng but the natural enyiionment

the real world. Plato argues that God is the ideal form of anything. A carpenter, for example, tries to construct a material embodiment of that ideal form. H starts with a vision, the divine vision of what a chair or table should look like and he works his hardest to bting that vision to friiiöon. Of course, it ca new ct óe perfect; it can never approximate the platonic ideal.

The artist’s job, in contrast, is to re9reieiit the ideal within the realm of real. In fact, there’s a long history’ of artists attempting to represent the İd female in sculpture and painting, bi4t in reality no woman could ever exist flawless object, content to be gazed upon. jean Auguste Dominique Ingres’. Grande Odaüsgue has an unreahstically long spine, allowing her to ap smooth, supple, and gracefully elegant as she shows us her backside but her face to meet the viewer’s gaze with a hint of a smile. In this concepsoi art—and this understanding of cultur there is a single, best example of element in the world, from the ideal woman to the ìdeal form of governn to the ideal ciózen, which humanity ought to emulate. Furthermore, we see the ideal woman (and meal and family and governmental structure) is a nod on, chariging from one place to another and across time periods, Ca ideal be discovered, as Plato believed, or is it constructed*

Material versus Nonmaterial Cultur

Wonmateziat cuïłare va’u< , betîe/s, behaviors, ąîtd *ociêt

Today, we tend to think that everything ìs a component of culture. is a way of ljfe created by humans, whatever is not natural, Jg can culture into norunaterial culture, which includes values, behefs, beha?

78 Ghaptei $: Culture and Media

inguage, Meaning, and Concepts

no one says “Io»ñ” when a stranger sneezes in the grocery store. In meeting someone for the first time, but holding packages in your right hand, have you instead extended your left in greeting* In Saudi Arabia, this action would be

construed as highly disrespectful. Have you ever taken public transpormtion during rush hour? Do the passengers waiting to board generally rriose aside to let people off the train first? In Moscow, nobod}• steps aside; in Japan, people matt so long that they pre.ctically miss the train! In England, pants are called “trousers,” women’s underwear “pants,” suspenders “braces,” and garter belts

“suspenders.” You can imagine the confusion that would ensue if an American businessman told his English client he needed to find a shop where he could bu)’ new pants and suspenders because his luggage had been lost. The English- man would either assume the American was a cross-dresser or send him to a lingerie shop to buy something special for his wife. Even your sociology class ’ probably has a different culture—language, meanings, symbols—from a biol- ogy or dance class.

Another way to thjnk about culture is that it is a may of organizing our experience. Take our symbols, foc example. What does n red light mean? It could mean that an alarm is sounding. tt could mean that sociething is X-rated (the “red-light” district in Amsterdam, for instance). It could mean “stop.” There is nothing inherent about the meaning of the red hght. It is embedded within our larger culture and therefore is part of a web of meanings. You can- not change one without affecting the others.

Culture even includes our language. According to the Sapir-Whorf thesis in linguistics, the language we speak direcdy influences (and reflects) the way we think about and experience the world. On a more concrete level, if you speak another language, you understand how certain meanings can become lost in uanslation—you can’i always say ezacdy what you want. Many English words here been adopted ot}tez languages, often ąs s[sng, such os óeufi artd /e we nd in French. Some stsunch tzadióonałists ze opposed to such bq -‘ rowing because they regard ir as a threat to their culture. How many word do we have for college* How central does that make higher education to o society? Many words describe the srate of b’eing intoxicated. What does tha say about our culture?

Concepts such as race, gender, class, and inequality are part of our cu1 as well. If you try to explain the American undersmnding of racial differed’ to someone from another country, you might feel frustrated, because it

not resonate with him or her. That’s because meanings are etribed’ ded. ,

wider sense of cuiturai understanding; you cannot just estract concepts f ” theit c‹intext and assume that their meanings will retain a like of their of some cases, when oppostng concepts come into contact, one will neckń usurp the othet. Por example, when Europeans first encountered them, N( Americans believed that owning land was similar to the way Americans . feel about owning air—a resource that was very difficult to put a price on‘

80 CŁaptet 3: Culiure and Media

‘el

ited

understood as a collective responsibility. From a real-estate perspective, Europeans must have been very excited. (“All this land and »oboVy owns 3 The issue was not a language barrier: Native Americans had a social er that had nothing to do with assigning ownership to pieces of the earth.

:nng on their concepts of: ownership, Europeans thus began the process of isplacing native peoples from their homelands and attacking them when

ded

esis

Ash

rds hat

lay

Ideology

Nonmaterial culture, in its most abstract guise, takes the form of ideology. Ideology is a system of concepts and relationships, an understanding of cause and effect. For example, generally on airplanes you’re not allowed to use the

. toilets in the first-class cabin if you have a coach-class ticket. Why no t? tt’s not as if the lavatories in first class are thar much better. What’s the big deal? We subscribe to an ideology that the purchase of an airline ticket at the coach, business, or first-class fare brings with it certain service expectations-that an expensive £irst-class ticket entitles a passenger to priority access to the lava- tory, more leg room, and greater amenities, such as warm face towels. The ideology is embedded within an entire sedes of suppositions, and if you cast aside some of them, they will no longer hold together as a whole. IN everyone flying coach started to hang out in first class, chatting with the flight atten- dants and using the first-class toilets, the system of class strati£cation (in air planes at least) would break down. People would not be willing to pay extra for a iirst-class ticket; more airlines might go bankrupt, and the industry itself would erode.

Even science and religion, which may seem like polar opposites, are both ideological frameworks. People once believed that the sun circled acound the earth, and then, in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, along came Copernicus, Kepler, and Galileo, and this system of beliefs was turned inside

Material versus Nonmaterial Culture

ideology a system o£ concepts and relationships, an understandir+g of cause and effect.

r •-••<- – . •.-

Cutura1 zealirism takirtg into account the d*fferences

across cututes without gassfng judgmezl or assigritng vąlue.

out. The earth no longer lay at the center of the universe but orbited the sun. This undeistanding represented a major shift in ideology, and it was not an easy one to make. In a geocentric universe, humans living on earth stand at its center, and this idea corresponds to Christian notions that humans are the lords of the eatth and the chosen children of God. However, when we view the eaith as a rock orbiting the sun, just like seven other plancts and countless subpłanetary bodies, we may feel sigriificantly less special and have to adjust our notion of humanity’s special role in the uińvetse. People invest a lot in their belief systemu, and those wiio go against the status quo and qucstion the prevailing ideology may be severely puriished, as was Galileo.

More receritly, the 2000 presidential clecdon had the potential to shatter the ideology of democracy—that is, the behcf that the candidate who zeceives the most votes ascends to power. The winner of the popular vote, Al Gors was in fact defeated by George W Bush, wŁo accumulated the requisite num- ber of Electoral College votes after the Supreme Court interceded on the mat- : ter of voter irregulaóties in Florida, the tie-breaker state. The concept of the: Electoral College ęoon becarrie a hot topic od debate, but the final electioit iesult did not prompt riots in die streec. As it turned out, the eritire ideology of Amencan democracy did not crurnble.

Of course, on occasion ideologies do shatter. The fall of the former Sovi Union, for example, marlred not just s tnnsition in government but the sha tering of a particular brand of Commurfist ideology. Similaily, when aparthei was abolished in South Afiica, more than just a few laws changed; a total reo ganization of ideas, beliefs, and social telations followed. Often, ideologi change comes more slowly. The fight ton women’s rights, including equal pa ” oogolng even todar but womcn won the right to vote way bac/c in 1920.

SudyngCuhue

The scholarly smdy of culture began in the £eld of anthropology in the U States. Franz Boas founded ilie first PhD program in anthropology •t Cop bra University in the early i 930s and developed the concept of cultural r ity. Ruth Benedict, following Boas, hef teacher and mentor, coined thd”‘ literal relati in her book Pattie of Gore (1534). Cultural relativism.’ taifing into account the differences across cultures without passing jod, or assigriing value. For example, in the United States you are expected someone in the eye when you talk to him or her, but in China this is con rude, and you generally divert your gaze as a sign of respect. Neither ’

is iriherendy right or wrong. By employing the concept of culniral rna we can understand difference for the sake of increasing our knowledg the world. Cultural relativism is also impormnt for businesses th’ at ci

a global scale. •

82 Oliaptet 3: Culture and Media

alic meanings they attach ro it, just as Geertz learned such things Jnese by using cockfiglits as the center of his analysis. jyprprelation of CulMrei (1973), perhaps his most famous book, te, “Culture is a system of inherited conceptions expressed in sym

» by means of which people communicate, perpetuate, and develop pledge about and attr tudes toward life” (p. 89). He was trying to get a monolithic detuition of culture. So for some, culture is watching

jjt small, hard ball into a field and run around a diamond; for others,

.wn in the dust beside a ring and watching Evo roosters brawl. stime isn’t inherently better than the other. They’re both interesting in o’ri right, and by understanding the sigriificance of these events for the people, we can better understand their lives.

iculture

;tSf

e culture, subculture as a concept can be a moving target: It’s hard ro lock i one specific deTuition of the term. Historically, s ubcultures have been ned as groups united by sets of concepts, values, symbols, and shared eaning specific to the members of that 6’oup. Accordingly, they frequentl} e seen as vulgar or deviant and are often marginalized. Part of the original ipetus behind subculture studies was to gain a deeper understanding of indi- duals and groups who traditionally have been dismissed as weirdos at best nd deviants at worst.

For example, man} music genres have affiliated subcultures: hip-hop, hard core, punk, Christian rock. High-school cliques may verge on subcultures—the jocks, the band kids, the geeks—although these groups don’t really go against the dominant society, because ath1eticisrr+, musical talent, and intelligence are fairly conventional values. But what about the group of kids who dress in black

ear heavy eyeliner? Maybe teachers simply see them as moody teenagers with a penchant for dark fashion and extreme makeup just seeking to annoy the adults in their life, but perhaps their style of self-presentation means more to them.

Goth culture has its roots in the United Kingdom of the 1980s. It emerged as an offshoot of post-punk music. Typified by a distinctive style of dress— namely, black clothing with a Victorian flair—and a general affinity for gothic and death rock, goth culture has evolved over the last three decades, Cth many internal subdivisions. Some goths are more clrawn to magical or religious aspects of the subculture, whereas others focus mainly on the music. Even the term goth has different meanings to people within the subculture: Some see it as derogatory; some appropriate it for their own personal mearñng. An internal struggle has grown over who has the right to claim and define tHe label.

What makes today’s goths a subculture? They are not just a random group of people in black lis herring to music (classical musicians usually wear black

Mate ri a1 versus Norrmate rial Culture

Subculture the clistinct cultural values and behavioral patterns of a particular group in society, a group united

by sets o1 concepts, values, symbols, and shared meaning specific to the members of that 9iou9 distinctive enough to d stir gal ish it from otfitezs within the same cub lure or

Cultural Effects: Give and Take

Reflection Theory

äl1 by the

choices we make? No. Most people now understand that an interactive process exists between culnire and social structure. Most would agree that culture has an impact on society and is not just a unidirectional phenomenon.

Ztedia

Me‹tia any formats. platforms, or vehicles tfiat carry present.

. ..« … « > ‹»

Among the most pervasive and visible forms of culture in modern societies are those produced by the mass media. We might define media as any formats or vehicles that carry, present, or communicate information. This definition would, of course, include newspapers, periodicals, magazines, books, pam- phlets, and posters. But it would also include wax tablets, sky writing, web pages, and the children’s game of telephone. We’li flisr discuss the history of the media and then tackle theory and empirical studies.

From the Town drier to the Facebook Wall: A Brief History

When we talk about the media, we’re generally talking about the mass media. The first form of mass media was the book. Before the invention of the print- ing press, the media did exist—the town crier brought news, and royal mes- sengezz uavHeb by horseback, every now and then hopping off to read a scroll—but they did not exacdy reach the masses. People passed along most information by word of mouth. After the 1440s, when Johannes Gutenbei developed movable type for the printing press, text could be printed mu more easily Books and periodicals were produced and circulated at m greater rates and began to reach mass audiences. Since that time the t media arid uoiJ medls have become virtually synonymous.

90 Chagte¥ 3: Culture aztd Media

he innovations didn’t stop there, however. In the t 880s along came mother invention: the moving picture or silent film. Its quality was not the best

.r fitst, but it improved over time. In the 1920s sound was added to films. For many, this represented an irrrprovement over the radio, which had come along out the same time as the silent film. Television was invented in the i930s, though this technolog}’ didn’t make its way into most American homes Wti1 after U’oild War II. During the postwar period, new forms of media tech- nolog’ quickly hit the market, and the demand for media exploded: glossy magazines; color televisions; blockbuster movies; Betarriax videos, then VHS videos, then DVDsi vinyl records, then eight-track tapes, then cassette tapes, then CDs—and once the Internet came along, the sky was the limit! In 2013, 70 percent of the American population had broadband at home, with access flustered among the younger, wealthier, and better educated (Zickuhr &

Smith, 2013).

You’re well aw’are of all the forms the media come in, but let’s stop for a minute and contemplate the impact certain forms, such as television, have had on society. Again, televisions didn’t become household items in the United States until after World War II. From 1950, the year President Harry S. Truman ftrst sent military advisors to South Viemarri, to t 964, when Congress approved the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution calling for isctory by any means nec essary, the share of American households with television sets increased from

Media 91

9 to 92 percen r. During the Vietnam Uar, the American public witnessed mili tary conflict in a way they netter had before, and these images helped fuel the antiwar movement. Likewise, television played a large role in the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. I t was one thing to hear of discrimination secondhand, but quire another to sit ‘ith your family in the living room and watch images of police setting attack dogs on peaceful protesters and turning fire hoses on little African American girls dressed up in their Sunday best,

Hegemony: The Mother of All Media Terms

£feqemony a condi iron by which a dominant group uses its power to elicit the volunitary ‘consent’ of ttie masses

I l

All of us might be willing to agree that, on some level, the media both reflect culture and wr›rk to produce the ver} culture they represent. How does tlus dynamic work? Antonio Gramsci, an Italian political theorist and activist, came up Cth the concept of hegemony to describe just that. Gramsci, a Marxist, was imprisoned by the Fascists in the 1920s and 1 930s; while in jail, he attempted to explain u hy the working-class revolution Marx had predicted never came to pass. He published his findings in his “prison notebooks” of 1929—55 (Gramsci, 1971). In this vein, then, hegemony “refers to a historical process in which a dominant group exercises ‘moral and intellectual leadership’ through- out socie9• by winning the voluntary ‘consent’ of popular masses” (Kim, 200t). This concept of hegemony stands in contrast to another of Gramsci’s ideas, domination. If domination means getting people to do what you want through the use of force, hegemony means getting them to go along with the sta- tus quo because it seems like the best course or the natural order of things, Although dorriinadon generally involves an action by the state (such as the fascist leaders who imprisoned those who disagreed with them), “hegemony takes place in the rea1tn of private institutions . . . such as families, churchs trade unions, and the media” (Kim, 2001). For example, if free-market capiJ- ism is the hegemonic economic ideology of a given socie 9, then the state d

not have to explicidy work to inculcate that set of principles into its citize Rather, private institutions, such as families, do most of the heavy lifting in regard. Ever wonder why children receive an allowance for taking out the m and doing other household chores? Gramsci might argue that djs is the . capitalist free-market ideology is insulled in the individual within the pti realm of the family.

The concept of hegemony is important for understanding the impact the media. It also raises questions about the tension between struck agency. Are people molded by the culture in which they live, or do they 8C participate in shaping the world around them? As we discussed earli6t chapter, it’s not an either/or question. Below v e’ll talk about some of* debates between structure and agency with regard to the media, look at S examples of hegemony in practice, and discuss the possibilities for coUtlt tural resistance.

9Z Chap ter 3: Culture and Meaia

dia Life Cycle

iø ø yødia-satura red society, but one of the most exciting aspects of the media İS that it allows us ro explore the tensions and contradic- ated when large social forces conflict with individual idenuty and free ïe see how people create media, how the media shape the culture in people ńve, how the media reflect the culture in which they exist, and ividuals and gto’aps use the media as their own means to shape, rede-

, and change culture.

do the adventures in a dairy tale o£ten begin once a mother dies? Are

:ks more often portrayed as professionals or criminals in television sitcoms? ow often ate Asians the lead characters in mainstream fìlmsP Who generally uates conversańon, men ot women, in U.S. (or Mexican) soap operas? These quesńons are all examples of textual analysis, analysis of the content of media its various forms, one of the important strands of study to materialize in the

ke of Gramsci’s work.

DurÍng the 1960s and 1970s, academic z nsãies focused almost solely on texts—television talk shows, newspapers, magazine pages. Finally, scholars reef ognizeö the importance of finding out how people read and interpret, and are affected by bese texts: Audience studies wete born. The held of psychology has expended a lot of time investigating clsims about the effects of televi- sion on children, and the debate continues. Sociologists have explored the way women read romance novels or how teenage girls interpret images of super- thin models in magazines. For example, in Reedïżg /ée Romatice: Women, P‹itriarcłzf,

«d fØ»ñr U/ermo (1987), Janice Radway argues that women exhibit a great deaÎ of individual agency when reading romance novels, which helps them cope with their daily hves in a patriarchal society by providing both escapes fr rri the drudgery of everyday life and alternative scripts to their readers. We are not just passive receptors of media; as readers or viewers, we es9erìence texts through the lens of our own critical, interpteove, and analytical processes.

Back to the Beginning: Cultural Production

The media don’t just spontaneously spring into being. They aren’t orgarùc; they’re produced, You may have heard the expression “History is written by the winners.” Well before something becomes history, it has to happen in the pres- ent. Who decides what’s news? How are decisions made xbout the content of television shows? To write his classic Deciding What s I•fews (l 979a), Herbert

Media Effects

LON ß—T E II’t

THE BACE AND sENDEP9OL!TlCá

’when not required by the plot or for proper chatactenzation.’

Meta+ads of crime (e.g.. safe-cracking,

” arson, smuggling) were not to be exglfcitly

presented.

References to ’sex perversion’ (such as tromosexualityl and venereal disease were forbtdden, as were depictions of

“ fien /’m“good, /’m ve/ good. ” ” ” ” ” ”” bul wAen T”m óad 7in óerTw.“ —ACTRE SS DE WEST

‘’: ‘ The moyie inQustry’s Production Gode enu-

merateü th ee “general pnncip1es“’

* ’ ‘* 2. No p›cture stall be produced that will

– lowe the moral standards of those wbo

see it. Hence the sympathy of the audience should never be thTown to the side of exime, wrongóotng. evii, or sin.

Colect stanaatds of subject only to the

reputiements of drama and entertainment.

sball be presented.

Law, natura] or humarL stall not be

nar shalt sympathy be created for its violation.

Specific zestzictions were spelted out as

‘particular appltcations” of these p inciples:

Nudity and suggestive dances were

Tne language section banned various words and phrases considered to be
Rur6er scenes bud to be fitrned in a way that would not inspire imitation in real and brutal killings could riot be shown in detail. . ’Revenge in modern times‘ was not to be justified.
the sanctity of maYriage and the home

had to be upheld. “Pictures sfall not infer -”* tl at low forms of sex relationship are the , accepted or common thing.” Adulte gnd illicit sex, altoough recognized as sometim necessary to the plot, could not be explicit justified; they were never to be presented an attractive optton. ‘’

PortzayaTs of intermciat relationships were *

forbidden.

“Scenes of passion” were not to be introduced when not essential lo the plót “Excessive and tustful kissing” was to be avoided, along with any otbe physical

interaction that might “stimJ late the low,

and baser element.” “. ‘

The flag of the United States was to bé ‘ treated as were the peop! ‘’ history’ of other nations. ‘‘

, , . . .. .., , ’””’ ”’ ’

r v”

. ‘ .’ ’ ‘ ” – ‘ ” *“ “!’* ” -* ‘•‹

” ”” ” .” : ’’” ””. . ” :’ *

comrriit violent crimes*” And the response wilt be, “That is not my intention at all. I use violence as a metaphor.” Scientific research hasn’t yet ruled dehrñtlvelj’ one way or the other or this conuoversial subject, bur man)’ beheve that the media occasionally have short-term, unintended effects.

Finally, section D of die illustration represents the long-term, unintended effects of the media. many people, not just cultural conservatives, argue that we have been desensitized to violence, sexuai imager j, and oder content that some people consider inappropriate for mass audiences. In the film industry; for example, the Production Code, also known as the Harm Code, was a set of standards created in 1930 (although it wasn’r officiallj enforced until 1934) to protect the moral fabric of society. The guidelines were fairly strict, and they were a testament to the mainstream ideologies of the time (see the box on pages 96-97). Slow.ly, however, the power of the code began to erode because of the ›minence of telemsion, foreign films, arid the fact that being condemned as immoral didn’t prevent a Um from becorriing a success. In ] 9G7 thy 5c›d2 was abandoned for the movie rating system. Over time, we have grown accus- tomed to seeing sexually explicit material In films, on television, and on the Internet. Those who lament this desensi6zation seek to reinstimte controls over media content.

Mommy, Where Do te e pes

home From?

Racism in the Media

On December 22, 1941, two weeks efter the ]apanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Time magazine ran an article titled “How to Tell Your Friends from the Japs.” There were annotated photographs to help readers idenñfy characteristics thai would distinguish, for instance, friendly Chinese from the ]apanese, American enemies during World War II. The magazine offered the following rules or iliumb, although it admitted that they mere “not always reliable”:

Some Chinese are tall (average: S 5 in.), Virtually all ]apanese are short (a erage: 5 ft. 2-’Zz in.).
japanese are likely to be stockier and broadet-hipped than short Chines

japanese xcept for wrestlers—are seldom fat; they often dry up and * grow lean as they the Chinese often put on weight, particulñl/ „ if they are prosperous (in China, with its frequent famines, being fit iS esteemed as a sign of being a solid citizen). ›i
Chinese, not as hairy as japanese, seldom grow an impressive mull

98 Chapter $’ Culture and Media

Sexism in the Media

lid

torizing and perpetuating unrealistic ideals of feminine beauty. Some rat repetitive bombardment by these images decreases girls’ sell-esreem tributes to eating disorders. Women’s magazines have been heavily crit- although some researchers (such as Angela McRobbie from the United pm) have taken care to show that women who are active, critical readers ijoy reading women’s magazines. However, as the Canadian sociologist Currie points out 1999), although girls can choose which magazines, if read and iIOw rO Critically read them, they can’t control the images avail- them in those and other texts.

other focus of feminist media critiques has been images of violence nst women. jean IObourne has become one of the most popular lecturers ollege arid university campuses across America. In 1979 she released a film ed U/log Ui lofty: Ndrrm/i»g i Image o/ Pomsn, in which she examines the

/s in which women are maimed, sliced, raped, and otheruñse deformed in vertising images. One classic example is a photo that shows the image of a

.man’s body in a garbage can, with only her legs and a fantastic pair of high els on her feet visible. The message is clear: These shoes are, literally, to die

Kilbourne’s point is clear, too: Such images help sustain a kind of symbolic olence against women. In this critique, advertising does not just reflect the derlying culture that produced it but also creates desires and narratives that

enter women’s (and mens) hves with causal force.

Of course, there’s always room for innovation. Some girls (with the help of their parents) have responded by creating their owri magazines that focus on topics other than makeup, clothing, and boys, as mainstream teenage maga- zines do. for example, New doo» G/r/i is written and edited by girls aged 8 to 13 and contains no advertisements. Likewise, magazines exist for adult women that have more pro-woman messages; Mr. magazine was founded in 1971 dur-

Because such magazines don’t accept advertising from huge makeup compa- nies and designer fashion houses, however, they are often less economically viable rhan mainstream worr+en s magaxines, which carry ads on as many as 50 percent of their pages. Brick magazine (“Its a noun; it‘s a ver t’s a maga- zine’3, which has been around since t 996, is a self-declared feminist response to pop culture. It is supported by advertisers but is a not-for-profit publication.

Some advertisers have responded to feminist critiques of the media Cth new approaches. In 2005 Dove. a manufacmrer of skin-care products, launched a new seties of ads backed by a social awareness program called rhe Campaign for Real Beauty. Instead of models, the ads featured “real” women complete with freckles, frizz}• hair, wrinkles, and cellulite. The images were intentionally meant to offer a contrast to the images we’re accustomed to seeing. And, as Dover advertisers have said, “firming the thighs of a size 2 supermodel is no challenge” (Triester, 2005). The latest version of Dove’s Real Beauty campaign shows side by-side sketches of tire same woman as drawn by a sketch artist. The first image is drawn based on the woman’s description of herself and

Mom my. Wher e Do Stereotypes Come From? 101

oł the Media

iple, Apple’s iTunes app store is the dominant player in the sales of

S Apple demands to review every app to ensure that the is not something that they “believe is over the line,” which they go on in is something developers i• >osv when they cross it. This type e policy tends to promote a “chilling effect” whereby developers—

j g where this mystical “liae” is—choose to avoid and content they tnight be at all objectionable. Receiving Apples approval is important use once developers have made an app for Apples iOS platform, they ot sell it .nywhere but the iTunes store. Is Apple protecting its shoppers ir+g the app developers through a combination of monopoly power and owy threats? As corporate control of the media becomes more and more ized (owned by fewer and fewer groups), the concern is that the range opinions available will decrease and that corporate censorship (the act of

9pressing information that may reflect negatively on certain companies and/or ir affiliates) will further compromise the already-tarnished integrity of the

tream media.

The Internet, to some extent, has balanced out communications monopo- as s. It’s much easier to put up a website expressing alternative views than it is to ‘roadcasr a television or radic› program suggesting the same, The MIT Center

or Fumre Civic media, led by Ethan Zuckerman, works to leverage the Inter- net fot the promotion of local acfivism. One of the MIT projects—VGAZA or Virtual Gaza—allowed Palestinians in the Gaza Strip to document crises and share local stories glohally while under embargo. But not even the Internet is beyond the realm of pohtical economy. Srrialler sites, for example, cannot afford ro have sponsored links on Google’s search pages.

Consumer Culture

America is often described as a consumer culture, and rightly so. In my inter- her’ with sociologist Allison rugh, she pointed out that “corporate marketing to cluldren is a 22 billion dollar industry.” She then added, “Children 8 to 11 ask for beoveen W’o and four toys [for Christmas], and they receive eleven on aver- age!” (Conley, 2011a). Sales on mxjor patriotic holidays (Veterans Day, Memo- rial Day, Presidents’ Day) thrive as a tesult of the notion that it is our duty as American citizens to be good shoppers. As Sharon Zukin points out in her book on shopping culture, Point of Pyrcñai•.- How’ Xboppi’ng Changed American Cul- ture (2003), 24 hours after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, h4ayot Rudy Giuliani urged New Yorkers to take the day off and go shopping. It’s the tie that binds our society; everyones got to shop. iialls are our modern day marketplaces—they are where teenagers hang out, where elderly suburbanites get their exercise, and where Europeans come as tourists to see what Ameri- can culture is all about. The term ru»rrrrfm, however, refers to more than

Political Economy ot the Media

Coneumezism fhe steady acqois t on of material possessions. o/ten with fhe belief that happiness

aod MU\ment can tints be achieved

just buying merchandise; it refers to the belief thxt happiness and fulfilment can be achieved through the acquisidon of matenA possessions. Versace, j. Crew, and realtors in certain hip neighborhoods are not just peddling shoes, jeans, and apart- ments. They are also selling a self-image,

a lifestyle, and a sense of belonging and i*? self-wonh. The media, and advertising in particular, play a large role in the creation

and maintenance of consumerism.

Advertising and Children

The rise of the consumer-citizen has met with increasing criticism, but how doe our society produce these consumer

citizens* The Canadian author and activi ‘

Naomi Klein published No Logo.- TaN»g km at the Brand Bellies N 2000; in thi book Klein analyzes the growth of advertising in schools. Pepsi and Co Cola now bargain for exclusive rights to sell their products witkin schools, brand-name fast foods are often sold in cafeterias The logos of compani that sponsor athletic fields are displayed prominendy. This has been commo place in many colleges and universities for some time now, but the increas’ presence of advertising in middle and high schools should also be noted. .

One striking example is Channel One, which has been airing in sch around the United States since 1990 (Rhode Island was the only state to re Channel One funding). In exchange for television sets, video equipment, satellite dishes, schools are required to show 12 minutes of prepackaged -‘ granuning every day. Although Channel One provides news and public af informañon, its programming also includes to minutes of commerciâi 12-minute segment. One analysis found that only 20 percent of air devoted to “recent political, economic, social, and cultural stories”; the r ing 80 percent of the prepackaged programming includes sports, weath other topics, as well as advertisements for Channel One itself. Studie found that Channel One cosr taxpayers JI.8 billion a year in lost schoo;t

of that amount, $300 million was lost to commercials alone (Molnar & S 1998). Meanwhile, Channel One charges advertisers almost $200,000 I 30-second segment. Channel One is disproportionately found in lowei-

schod disnicts that struggle with funding for books and technologji rti

disadvantaged students in these schools are exposed to more adver ’ and fewer academic lessons than their peers in systems that can afford this kind of sponsorship. ‘

104 Chagte¥ 3• Cuttu¥e auld Media -‘

Jo”

Culture Jams: Hey Calvin, How ’Bout Giving That Girl a Sandwich?

What’s in a Name?

iy kids E and Yo Xing Heyno Augustus Eisner Alexander Weiser so forgive me if I didn’t see what all the fuss was about when Kan}e Kim Kardashian named their daughter North (West). Afrer all, she

ies such as France or]apan, there is no U.S. law that constrains what oe our offspring; only names that would be considered abusive can ed. Names present a unique measure of culture: There are few rules, stitutions attempt to directly influence our choices, unlike almost her aspect of culture from food to firm to fashion. Thus, trends in

:e as close to a pure, unmediated, reflective mirror of societal culture

that light, one could say it was almost inevitable that West and Kar- n chose a unique name for their child. On the one hand, there’s a long

ced

elm)

Remember Moon Unit Zappa? Born in 1967, she was perhaps one rst notable celebrity offspring given a “weird” moniker. The 1960s was

ge of Aquarius, after all. Besides her own siblings, she was followed by

.italized “america,” the child of Abbie Hoffman; and Free, the span of ara Hershey and David Carradine, just to mention a few. Fast toward «o ieth Paltrow’s daughter, Apple Martin, and it should come as no surprise

The more interesting sociological phenomenon that North West embodies,

fler

black man, is the rise of unique black names, Atound the

e time celebrities started thinking up names that otherwise served as nouns, rbs, or adjectives, African Americans began to abandon long-standing nam- ag patterns. Until the civil rights movement, a typical black name might have ‘ecu Franklin or florence. But then black power happened. Blacks wanted to assert their individuality and break ties frotn the dominant society, so the proportion of unique names—those chat appear in birth records only once for

Until about 1960, the proportion of unique names for white Americans hovered around 20 percent for girls. For blacks ir had always been higher— around 30 percent. During the 1960s, the number of white girls with unique names started to inch up to about 25 percent, but for blacks, it literally sky- docketed, peaking around i 9T at more than 50 percent for girls and reaching almost 40 percent for boys in 1975 (hased on Illinois data). Harvard sociolo- gists Stanie} Lieberson and Kelly S. Mikelson, who examined this trend in a

107

1995 pap followed it only through the 1980s. But 1’d be * tp guess that the practice has contin- ned Tt a similar rate (Ligberson & Milrelson, 1995). p ght think Chat all this name coinage

would lead to gender COflfusion in kindergartens. rough I M pt advocating gender rigidity, there

is some evidence that gender-ambiguous names :’ c•» cause problems fOr boys. EconOmiSt David’ pÍgJio hound /áÜ “ /* nam4•d Sub” tend to get.

i•‹o gore trouble at SchOOl dfottfld sixtli grade,’

when QUb€f/ tS (2007)

got ¡t sms o»i thet even unique names are

band

ers o

’.’. them

’ %d ‹

gendedred.en Lieberson

and Milrelson gave

{¡$t ique names they found in time Illinois ‘ . ,

database to re•@Jdents, the vast majority idend-

fied the gender of the acnial child—for excl ‘

experienc° fO s this. Nobody mistaires Yo for

1’, nt_e. M•whilc, three other Es, who he

,host ay daughter’s name from my public’

rñü

Ags, nte to me. (SO ml3ch for uriique .. . ) T

of them were female, bringing the total to 75

Cert female. I ° 2 Sk I had 25 other kids:so,

test the gender of every letter in the .alp

could

bet. If you ink I’m crazy, move to Paris. :. ‘

N0u 0f

fl Chapter opened

th a descriptioÇ Of how sevez£ suicidas gave üs

” +’°nzy of YouTube videos and may have eben made it easier for Pre

follar ugh on his campaign prornise to dó

tell segre tjon policy in the U.S. military. Nós’

áP› yoll can see why )át uito s story is part of a discussion of cultur

medio. Bat the fact Mat YOuTube’s parent company, Google, ís making’

°ir all of the trafíic •’sociate^ “* “’ Ir G”s

Better Project speaks to th

dWentalnature Of media and M in our society. Remember that. Ó

the sociologist is to «ee as

psiructed What iS usually taken for gran:

8 *’ay, It Gets Bgtt« asruptedthe mesa gow; the campzign makes me ’

dtjcers out of pyple who are ty2lC 7 corisumers of the largely gay-*’

tepJeySi

and even vicóms of the thug-like beM

pe ,he ca crs just getting on the ceIebri@

consume6sm, it’s based on the notion that advertisements are basically props ganda. Culture jamming differs from appropriating advertisements for the say of art and sheer vandalism (where the sole goal is destrucdon of propertj§ although advertisers probably don’t care too much about this latter distinctiof Numerous anticonsumerist activist groups have sprung up, such s Adjvits,fi Cwadian magazine that specializes in spools of popular advecâsing can paigns. For example, it parodied a real Calvin Klein campaign (which advance the careerof Kate Moss and ushered in an age of ultra-thin, wniftike model with a presumably bulimia woman vomiting into a toilet. AdbusM also spc’ sore an annual Buy Nothing Day (held, with great irony, or the day aft, Thanksgiving, known in xetail as “Black Friday,” the busiest shopping days the year), which encounges people to do just that—buy nothing on this s cific day of the year, encouraging them to reclaim their buying power and fci

on the noncommercial aspects of the holiday, such as spending time Tt

Another Adbuiters spoof caricatured the legendary joe Camel the an cnorphi advertising icon of Camel cigarettes from t987 until 19.

when R. j. Reynolds, the tobacco firm that conjured up the character, vol tartly stopped using his image after receiving complaints from Congress various public-interest groups that its ads primarily targeted cMdren. (In l§ a Jc«rwe/ «J th in Medical Assuoati’nn smdy found that more five- six-year-old kids recognized joe Camel than Mickey Mouse or Fred F’lin

[P. M. Fischer ct al., 1991].) In the Xdhusiers zpoo¥,“]oe Chemo” is w down a hospital hallway with an IV, presumably dying of cancer caused smoking.

106 Chapter 3: Culture ana Medta

increase their own reputations? Or are they rneaningful ptoduc-

, reihaping and rerrüxing the messages and rrraterials available to

uce their new, noncommercial message?

ipter has presented some new ways of looking at culture: how we how it affects us, and what this means for understanding ourselves Id in hich we hve. Do you non have a new understanding of you now see your own culture through a critical lens? What have

ously taken for granted that you can now view as a product of our Can you now look at the media in a different ray? Don your critical cnp and put some of the stuff you’vc just learned into practice.

to 75

the atp

gave tlSC t Presid’ e to d° ^

pt g$gnted ées rneÔà Q y gay iHVïS?’

‹e behavi°’

109