Sociology 306I: Prof. Mark Schneider

Popular Culture in Society Faner 3424 Ph3-7627

Spring 2006 masch@siu.edu

Course Description: This course analyzes the production, distribution and reception of popular culture in the United States. Popular culture is a commercial commodity, produced by a variety of industries and marketed by a variety of techniques. Consumption of different form of popular culture is integral to the identities of different groups in American society and around the world. Thus popular culture, both in production and consumption, can be used to illustrate fundamental sociological principles. At the same time, understanding how popular culture is produced and received necessarily involves inquiry into its meaning, and this calls for interpretive approaches similar to those practiced in the humanities. Thus this course is interdisciplinary between the humanities and social sciences.

Course Objectives: Students completing this course should be able to:

1. Demonstrate an understanding of the basic sociological terms, concepts and theories for analyzing popular culture.

2. Apply an organizational approach to analyzing the production, distribution and consumption of popular culture.

3. Understand the role of conventions in the constitution of genres and in the production of popular culture artifacts or performances.

4. Understand why determining the meaning(s) of popular culture is both sociologically problematic and helpful in understanding its reception.

Assigned Texts: Victoria Alexander, Sociology of the Arts: Exploring Fine and Popular Forms (Blackwell Publishing 2003). Numerous additional readings will be available on the course WebCT site.

Requirements: Two exams and a modular group project that will serve as the basis of a class presentation. Since students routinely have a familiarity with popular culture that is far superior to what I possess, they are expected to contribute routinely to discussion and analysis. The presentation of group projects will constitute a significant part of the course. The group projects will be divided into sections (modules) over which individual students will have primary responsibility, but will be integrated into an in-class presentation. You are encouraged to make this a multi-media event.

Attendance: Students are allowed three unexcused absences. Thereafter, an absence will cause a 2% reduction in your final grade. Except in the case of emergencies, all absences should be approved in advance via email or by means of the standard SIUC form when you have competing obligations.

Grading: Exams will count 60% and the group project, which will be both individually and collectively graded, 40%.

Dishonesty?: Evidence of academic dishonesty (plagiarism or cheating) will merit failure of the course and a charge under the Student Conduct Code. Plagiarism means any unacknowledged borrowing of the ideas or language of others.The last time I tought this course, I found that three students were cutting and pasting material from websites and then presenting this work as their own. This is one of the forms of plagiarism, and you should be aware that it is a significant violation of the Student Conduct Code and merits failure of the course. You must inform yourself about plagiarism and can do so at http://www.siu.edu/departments/cac/plagiarism.htm

Course Schedule: The first half of the course is generally devoted to understanding how popular culture is produced, while the second half is devoted to understanding how it is consumed. Interpretive issue arise primarily in the second half of the course.

T/Jan. 17: Introduction: Bonaroo as an entry point into popular culture

Th/Jan. 19: Defining popular culture

Alexander, Chapter 1: What is Art? (pp. 1-6)

T/Jan. 24: Making culture: art worlds

Alexander, Chapter 5 (pp. 67-88)

Th/Jan. 26: Making culture: conventions

Howard Becker, AArt as collective action@ ASR 39 (1974) 767-776*

T/Jan. 31: Making culture: business and industry

Alexander, Chapter 6 (pp. 89-111)

Th/Feb. 2: Craft and Bureaucratic Modes of Production

W. Bielby and D. Bielby, A>All Hits are Flukes=: Institutionalized Decision Making and the Rhetoric of Network Prime-Time Program Development,@ AJS 99 (1994) 1287-1313*

T/Feb. 7: Organization of group presentations

No reading

Th/Feb. 9: Organizational responses to uncertainty

Paul Hirsch, Processing Fads and Fashions: An Organization-Set Analysis of Cultural Industry Systems, AJS 77 (1972) 639-659*

T/Feb. 14: Networks and nonprofits

Alexander, Chapter 7 (pp. 112-130

Th/Feb. 16: Artists

Alexander, Chapter 8 (pp. 131-156)

T/Feb. 21: Globalization

Alexander, Chapter 9 (pp. 157-177)

Th/Feb. 23: Review

T/Feb. 28: First Half Exam

Th/Mar. 2: Does popular culture reflect society?

Alexander, Chapter 2: Reflection Approaches (pp. 21-40)

O=Hagan, Imitation of Life NYRB 6 November 2003* (on Eminem)

Assignment: interview a fan of Eminem

T/Mar. 7: Continued reflections on interpreting Eminem

Kathryn Fox, AReal Punks and Pretenders: the Social Organization of a Counterculture,@ JCE 16 (1987) 344-370*

Reports on interviews

Th/Mar. 9: Does popular culture shape society?

Alexander, Chapters 3 and 4 (pp. 41- 63)

Spring Break: March 11-19

T/Mar. 21: Critiques of popular culture

Hughes, Why Watch It, Anyway? NYRB 16 Feb 1995*

Ratiliff, Young Jazz Great Loses Record Contract*

Th/Mar. 23: Approaches to the meaning of cultural items: reception studies

Alexander, Chapter 10 (pp. 181-204), Chapter 14 (pp. 278-303)

T/Mar. 28: Approaches to the meaning of cultural items: audience studies

Alexander, Chapter 11 (pp. 205- 224)

J. Shively, ACowboys and Indians: Perceptions of Western Films among American Indians and Anglos,@ ASR 57 (1992) 725-734*

Th/Mar. 30: Interpreting: Icons

Jack Katz, AWays of the Badass,@ Chapter 3 of Seductions of Crime*

Alexander, Chapter 13 (pp. 251-277)

T/Apr. 4: Social Functions of popular culture

Alexander, Chapter 12 (pp. 225-248)

B. Bryson, AAnything But Heavy Metal: Symbolic Exclusion and Musical Dislikes,@ ASR 61 (1996) 884-899*

Th/Apr. 6: Moral and aesthetic issues in the marketplace

Frontline, Pornography in America

(Video in class)

T/Apr. 11: Moral and aesthetic issues in the marketplace, continued

Panel discussion on Pornography in America WSIU-TV

(Video in class)

Th/Apr. 13 Class Presentations

T/Apr. 18: Class Presentations

Th/Apr. 20: Class Presentations

T/Apr. 25: Class Presentations

Th/Apr 27: Class Presentations

T/May 2: Review

Th/May 4: Second-Half Exam

*Readings marked with an asterisk will be available on the course WebCT site.

____________________

Presentations: Your presentations will form a significant part of the course. Each group will consist of 5 students and be responsible for a presentation of 25-30 minutes in class as well as a 15-20 page written report.

Each presentation/paper will examine a particular genre* or subgenre of popular culture. It will involve five parts: (1) an analysis of the genre=s conventions; (2) a history of the genre focusing on the developments of the conventions described in part 1; (3) a description of production and distribution of instances of the genre, framed in terms of the discussion in the text; and (4) an interpretation of the appeal of the genre to audiences, also framed in terms of the discussion n the text; (5) a bibliography on the genre. Within groups, individuals will have primary responsibilities for one of these sections. The bibliographer will be the team leader and will have additional responsibilities for organizing the group=s presentation and ensuring that no plagiarism is committed..

I will provide detailed guidance on this assignment and will allot class time, across the semester, to group organization and to communication. The date of your presentation will be determined by lot.

While I know that students normally have more knowledge about popular music than about other forms of popular culture, let me encourage you to explore varied media for your presentations...and within these to consider genres that have already been subject to some analysis by critics or scholars. Examples: beauty pageants, Afreak shows@ on TV, newspaper poetry of the 19^th century, rock festivals, daytime soaps, bowl games, romantic comedies, right-wing talk shows, Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew novels, video games, art from motel auctions, NASCAR races, Japanese creature movies, dog shows, magazines about exotic fish breeding (though I doubt this has been much written about), and so on.

You may include material in your presentation (videos, etc.) that cannot be reproduced in your written report. All topics have to be okayed by me. Part of your assignment will be to write multiple choice questions that will be on the final exam.

*A genre is a type of cultural product whose instances are characterized by similar conventions (see Becker reading in list above). In music, for instance, jazz is a genre that is split into many subgenres such as Dixieland, swing, bebop, progressive, pop, free, and so on. (Subgenres may themselves be further divided.) Conventions are the regularities in the creation and distribution of cultural items that allow individuals to cooperate. They provide the Agivens@ of a cultural product that allow creators to concentrate on specific achievements. Most musicians, for instance, use the same, twelve-tone, scale and the same mass-produced instruments in their performances. Both are conventions. In classical music, it is a convention that a Atrio@ is composed of piano, violin and cello. Agreement on this makes it easier for composers to write music that will be performed. Conventions extend to subjects such as the clothing performers wear.

WebCT login instructions

This course will make extensive use of the University=s WebCT facility. Exam grades will be posted there as well as course readings and copies of assignment materials. You need to log in to WebCT and establish your (free) account.

On your first visit if you do not have a WebCT account:

1. Go to: http://webct.lib.siu.edu

2. Click on Create myWebCT

3. The WebCT ID and Password entered here are of your own choosing. Don=t forget them!

4. Fill out form completely.

5. Click Continue

You will now be required to logon to the server.

6. You will be prompted for the User Name and password.

Enter the Username and Password you created in step 3.

You will now be on the myWebCT page.

7. Click Add Course

8. Select name of college from drop down category list.

9. Click Update

10. Select course title.

11. Enter User Name (first initial and last name as one, lower case, word) and password assigned by instructor (your student ID). See notes below.

The username is generally your first initial and last name, the password is your SIU ID number. If this does not allow you to add the course, try adding your middle initial to your username. If problems persist, send an email message to: webct@lib.siu.edu with your name, the course you are trying to add, and the instructor=s name.

12. Click on Return to my WebCT Homearea

13. Click course title listed under Courses

On your first visit if you do have a WebCT account

1. Go to: http://webct.lib.siu.edu

2. Click on Log on to myWebCT

3. Enter your WebCT ID and password.

4. Click Add Course

5. Select name of college from category list.

6. Select course title.

7. Enter User Name and password assigned by instructor.

The username is generally your first initial and last name; the password is your SIU ID number. If this does not allow you to add the course, try adding your middle initial to your username. If problems persist, send an email message to: webct@lib.siu.edu with your name, the course you are trying to add, and the instructor=s name.

8. Click on Return to my WebCT Homearea

9. Click course title listed under Courses

On your subsequent visits:

1. Go to: http://webct.lib.siu.edu

2. Click: Logon to my WebCT.

3. Enter WebCT ID and Password.

4. Select course title link on your my WebCT page.

Notes: The usernames are case sensitive and are entered in the system in lower case. If your last name has a space the space will be eliminated: example: John Van Meter = jvanmeter. If your last name is hyphenated the name to the left of the hyphen is used: example: Mary Smith‑Jones = msmith.