The Development Of American Popular Culture/Electronic Media

The Development of American Popular Culture/Electronic Media

Popular Culture is the arts, artifacts, entertainment, fads, beliefs and values that are

shared by large segments of society in America. Knowing this we can see how the electronic medias have great influences over the American pop culture. Music, television, radio and movies have all been influences, sometimes, not good and sometimes they have. Before television, radio was the big link for current events being reported fast. It reached around the world to give us world events. It was the one form of entertainment for households that could not afford the price of tickets to sporting events, theatre, and other special events that were held outside of the city or country. It actually put the people in the state of actually being there. The advertising was when they had to use their imaginations, to see themselves actually using the products. It increased the sales of certain products that were advertised on the radio commercials.

The age of television quickly turned things around for the advertisers. Television offered faulty perceptions of Native Americans held by a viewing public that grew up on The Lone Ranger and westerns that featured John Wayne. Traditional cinematic productions offered up the Native American as the enemy, a laconic or bloodthirsty impediment in the race to the frontier. As political correctness began to dominate the industry, movies like Dances With Wolves (1990) and Pow Wow Highway (1989) did their best to humanize Indians, but they were limited in scope and too few in nature. Television is directly responsible for the social and emotional malaise that affects and shapes the minds and definitions of the masses. Television is the only thing that keeps us vaguely in democracy even if it's in the hands of the corporate culture, because it can level the playing field. Not only can it level the playing field but it can also stack the deck against society. Because the media contains society's messages, it can never be forgotten or overlooked. We are discovering that the images presented to viewers in news reports or in documentaries are often manufactured truths, shaped by a government's attitude or by the bosses at Paramount, CBS, and ABC. Heroes are made to fit a definition or need, which are becoming more and more evident to us, because they fill a propagandizing void.

Now let's switch gears and take a different look at things from a different perspective. Preteens a growing target for advertisers have money, influence, and a lot of it and their very own TV. The name that is hated by them, "tweens" as identified by adult marketers are third graders through middle schoolers have a buying power estimated at between $41 billion and $260 billion, with the latter amount including the money that is spent on them and family purchases that they influence with their opinions. At the fifth annual Targeting Tweens conference in Manhattan, sponsored by the Institute for International Research, a discussion about the appropriateness of marketing directly to younger tweens, was not the place to find it. Instead, there were useful insights and practical tips about everything from "boy colors" (red, green and blue) to the latest tween slang expression for disapproval ("too burka") to how to get a tween mom, who is likely to be a Gen X "pleaser," to buy your tween-targeted product. (Assure her, "Your kid will love you for this.")