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1. "popular": means well liked; in a market economy, that popularity is often best demonstarted through commercial success.
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2. popular culture (Gamson 1994; Gabler 2000): refers to icons or media products that are globally ubiquitous and easily recognized (if perhaps disliked or mocked) the world over
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3. popular culture (MacDonald 1957): refers to commercial madia thought to be trivial, tacky, and pitched to the lowest common denominator as amss culture intended for general consumption, like canned soup or chewing gum. ex: chicken nuggets
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4. popular culture: is associated with songs, dances and other folk expressions belonging to the peopl under the guise of democratic populism and authnticity.
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Cultural Objects: To best emphasize the three properties of culture, Wendy Griswold (1985) characterizes the sociology of culture as the study of cultural objects: shared significance embodied in form. Socially expression that is audible, visible, or tangible or that can be articulated.
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Defining culture in humanities: culture is defined by Raymond Williams (1983) as "the works and practices of intellectual and especially artistic activity" (outward forms of culture: opera and paintings) particularly those that lead toward "a general process of intellectual, spiritual and aesthetic development" (funtion towards enlightment)
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Defining culture in social sciences: refers to "a particular way of life, whether of a people, a period, a group, or a humanity in genearl" (Williams) ex: cooking and eating styles.
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Herbert Gans (1975): outlines various level of culture high, pop (distance our selves from it b/c its less authentic/ for commercial purposes), and folk culture.
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Pop culture: aesthetic products created and sold by profit-seeking firms operating in the global entertainment market. Ex: reality tv shows, hip hop music etc.
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Three Properties of Culture: -Culture is richly symbolic, invested with meaning and significance
-The meanings attributed to culture are never simply given but are the product of human invention, socially constructed and agreed upon among a demonstrably large number of a societys members
-For culture to be sensibly understood, it must be embodied in some kind of recognized form.