Popular Culture Media Worksheet


Popular Culture Media:


FILM:
Film, Silent (Charlie Chaplin, etc,)
Film, "Couples" Movies (You've Got Mail, Sleepless in Seattle, etc.)
Film, "Action" Movies (Die Hard, Terminator, etc.)
Film, Drama/Historical (Contact, Saving Private Ryan, The Phantom Menace)
Film, Comedy (There's Something About Mary, Galaxy Quest)

MUSIC:
Popular Music, Rap/Hip-Hop/Soul (including videos)
Popular Music, Alternative (including videos)
Popular Music, Heavy Metal/Thrash (including videos)
Popular Music, Techno/Dance/Trance/Acid (including videos)

ARTS:
Arts, Plastic (paintings, sculpture, public art, neon, etc.)
Arts, Street (graffiti, busking, etc.)
Arts, Performance (smearing your body with chocolate and rolling on a canvas, or body arts--piercing and tattooing)
Design (housewares, toys, cars, communications technology--cell phones and beepers)

COMMUNICATIONS:
Advertising (Signage, Ads)
Internet (Websites, BBSs, Chat)
Print Media, Newspapers and Magazines
Print Media, Fiction (Michael Chrichton, Stephen King, Danielle Steele)

MASS MEDIA:
Television (Prime-Time, Networks and Cable)
Cartoons (Simpsons, South Park, Pokemon, anime)
Radio (Top 40, Oldies, etc.)
Pornography (Print, Video)

CONSUMER MEDIA:
Food (Emeril Live, Iron Chef, theme restaurants like TGIFridays, etc.)
Fashion (Tommy Hilfiger, Calvin Klein, DKNY, MUDD, etc.)
Video/Computer Games (Doom, Tomb Raider, Nintendo, etc.)
Theater, Broadway (Cats, Lion King)


Worksheet, Popular Culture Media


Who has access to this media?


What are the minimal requirements for consuming this media?


What are the optimal requirements for consuming this media?



How much does this media cost the person who consumes it?


Are these costs hidden or visible?


What is the cost of one unit of this media in hours worked, at a minimum wage of $5.00/hour?



What is the audience for this media?


Is the "target" audience different from the "actual" audience?


What is the "cultural work" which this media performs?



Prepared by Professor Catherine Lavender for AMS 241 (Popular Culture--Frontiers and Borderlands), The Program in American Studies, The College of Staten Island of The City University of New York. Send email to lavender@postbox.csi.cuny.edu
Last modified: Friday, 3 March 2000.