Humanities

To prepare:

• Reflect on your Assignments from this course that culminated in your Final Project due in Week 5.
• Consider the Instructor feedback you received on Assignments throughout this course.
• Reflect on the Discussions you have had with your colleagues.
• Reflect on the Learning Resources you have used throughout this course.

By Day 7

Submit a 700-word reflection paper in which you:

• explore the ways in which you consume, react to, and engage with popular culture.
• reflect on how studying popular culture has changed or reinforced your beliefs and values and whether or not your choices about popular culture will change.
• discuss the extent to which your consumption of and attitude about popular culture may or may not change.
• analyze how you might affect social change through popular culture creation, consumption, and critical analysis.

Support your assertions by making at least two references to the Learning Resources, using proper APA form

Sources:

Required Readings

Friedman, T. (1992). The world of The World of Coca Cola. Communication Research, 19(5), October 1992, 642–662.
This story from leading economist Thomas Friedman, describes his visit to the World of Coca-Cola museum in Atlanta, Georgia, in the United States. He examines the subtle ways that the Coca-Cola corporation positions their product as both local and international, while at the same time emphasizing the message that their trademarked product belongs to the public.

The World of The World of Coca Cola by Friedman, T., in Communication Research, Vol. 19/Issue 5. Copyright 1992 by Sage Publications, Inc. – Journals. Reprinted by permission of Sage Publications, Inc. – Journals via the Copyright Clearance Center.

Paglia, C. (2012). George Lucas’s force. In Glittering images: A journey through art from Egypt to Star Wars (pp. 181–190). London: Vintage. Retrieved from http://chronicle.com/article/Why-George-Lucas-Is-the/134942
Camille Paglia is a cultural and social critic. In this excerpt from her book Glittering Images, Paglia discusses the role of art in society. She asserts that George Lucas is one of the greatest artists of today. The reading discusses how Lucas’s storytelling gave rise to technological developments that extended far beyond the limits of movie making and ultimately were adopted by other industries. Using a specific scene from Revenge of the Sith, Paglia analyzes the use of color, music, technology, and storytelling and classifies the scene as great art.

The following websites may be helpful throughout this course by demonstrating ways of analyzing pop culture texts as artifacts.

Cultural Politics. (n.d.). Popular culture. Retrieved from http://culturalpolitics.net/popular_culture

Pop Matters. (2015). Retrieved from http://www.popmatters.com

USC Annenberg. (2014). Media, diversity, & social change initiative. Retrieved from http://annenberg.usc.edu/pages/DrStacyLSmithMDSCI#previousresearch

Required Media

TED2015. (2015, March 20). Monica Lewinsky: The price of shame [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.ted.com/talks/monica_lewinsky_the_price_of_shame

Note: The approximate length of this media piece is 13 minutes.

In this video, Philippe talks about the universality and importance of pop culture to society.