Analysis of Space Jam

Popular culture is the artistic and creative expression in entertainment and style that appeals to society as whole. It includes music, film, sports, painting, sculpture, and even photography. It can be diffused in many ways, but one of the most powerful and effective ways to address society is through film and television. Broadcasting, radio and television are the primary means by which information and entertainment are delivered to the public in virtually every nation around the world, and they have become a crucial instrument of modern social and political organization. Most of today’s television programming genres are derived from earlier media such as stage, cinema and radio. In the area of comedy, sitcoms have proven

For this week’s reading, it addresses popular culture through the critical approach. Unlike the functionalist approach, the critical approval focuses on the darker factors of popular culture. For this particular article, it will examine the effects of mass media on popular culture and how it shapes the way the audience perceives particular situations. In the David Grazian’s Mix It Up Chapter 3, “Welcome to the Machine: A Critical Approach to Popular Culture” will examine popular culture from the critical approach. It will address the foundation of the critical approach (49). It introduces Karl Marx’s idea about the ruling class and how they are basically the ruling material force of society (49). This reveals that the ideas of the ruling class are just the same as the ruling ideas that are created.

The 1950s and 1960s were times of unprecedented change, and Australian society was influenced greatly by American popular culture, through various mediums, such as: music, film, television and fashion. This especially affected teenagers. It will be explained how Australian society was impacted by American popular culture, and also why American popular culture had such an affect. Australian developed its own responses to these influences, and the extent of this will also be explored.

The course provides an introduction to the most prominent forms of media that influence and impact social, business, political, and popular culture in contemporary America. It explores the unique aspects of each medium as well as interactions across various media that combine to create rich environments for information sharing, entertainment, business, and social interaction in the U.S. and around the world.

“The average American home has more TV sets than people, and our TV sets are turned on an average of nearly 7 hours per day and we see about 20,000 TV commercials per year (Herr, 2007).” (Sellnow 7). This sentence alone just shows us that we are around popular culture more than we may think. In the first seven pages of “What is Popular Culture and why study it?” Deanna Sellnow talks about how popular culture influences everyone in the world. The whole passage is to explain how popular culture persuades all the people in the world. There are different ways that Sellnow explains in the passage, that popular culture shapes people from how you should act and how you should not act, to what you should believe and what you should not believe. For

Space Jam is an American comedy film in an action/animated format in which a basketball player, Michael Jordan, and the cartoon characters from the old famous cartoon show “Looney Tunes” are featured. The movie presents an alternative scope of history of Michael Jordan’s initial retirement and his comeback. In the movie, the owner of an amusement park in outer space, Mr. Swackhammer, becomes desperate to find a new attraction to increase the popularity of his amusement park, Moron Mountain, which then he gets the idea to bring the characters from the Looney Tunes. Therefore, he sends his minions, the Nerdlucks, to bring them to him from the animated world “Looney Tunes Land”. When they reach there, Bugs Bunny, a character in the Looney Tunes, tricks them into a competition for the freedom of the Looney Tunes characters, in which Bugs Bunny took the advantage of their small size and limited mobility skills to challenge them into a basketball match, where if they won they can take them to Moron Mountain. The Nerdlucks as a result found a way to win, by stealing the talents from famous NBA players, then Bugs Bunny knew that it’s too hard for them to win, therefore he thought of getting some help from one of the best basketball players, Michael Jordan. He then goes and gets Michael Jordan, who was in a golf match with his friends, and explains the situation they are in and Michael agrees to help them regaining their freedom. Through various training and

MTV, formally known as Music Television, is one of the most viewed networks on television today. Roughly thirty-three years old, it has changed the American culture drastically in more than just one way. Specifically targeting teens and young adults, the MTV network provides all of the most up to date gossip on celebrities, highlights the latest fashion trends, promotes versified lifestyles, and defines the music industry of our generation. However, this so-called “idolized network” has not always been this way. The American culture has been affected by MTV through the creation of the network, the transformation from simply just music television to inappropriate reality shows, and the promotion of inappropriate content.

Pop culture, what does this term even mean? It seems to be a word that contains subjects of media, social structure, and society as a whole. According to the dictionary, pop culture is defined as “cultural activities or commercial products reflecting, suited to, or aimed at the tastes of the general masses of people”. In the society we live in today, we are constantly surrounded by pop culture, either that is with television, magazines, different sources of social media and/or exposure to others. Due to pop culture being such a dominant contribution into our world today, it has effected many parts of society. The domination of social media has created idealistic views that are stressed upon female adolescents in particular. Upon media’s influence, traditional tactics and work have been modified in order to keep up with our technology oriented society. This alters the schools and education systems. Through the use of television, social media and other means of pop culture, serious study is necessary due to the negative effects it has on the younger generation and the effects it has for their futures.

As America headed into the 1980s, two decades of social and political upheaval have left the nation rattled and the economy weakened. The Iran hostage crisis shook America's confidence and many looked for a new kind of leader to steer the country into the new decade. Ronald Reagan led America into a new era of prosperity leaving the soul-searching of the 60s and 70s behind. The nation was ready to enjoy itself and with plenty of new toys to play like VCRs and video games, Americans spent more time at home and soon something called cable TV would make it even harder to leave the living room. With the new innovation of the TV, one of the ideas for a channel was a marriage between music and television. This new idea for a channel devoted to something called music videos would end up revolutionizing and often scandalizing an industry that had no choice but to embrace the fact that music in the 1980s had to have a face with videos. By having these music videos, they would change the way we look at music and the way we look at the world. This cutting- edge idea was a new medium perfectly suited to a new generation and that idea was called, MTV. This leads to the question: How did MTV influence pop culture of the 1980’s? This topic is worthy of investigation because the coming of MTV has had a significant impact on the way people see pop culture. Before researching the topic, the writer had limited knowledge on MTV and only knew about the music itself. In the paper, the writer was

Popular culture is consumed through interaction in the social media that includes television programs, movie theaters and virtual social networks. From the media, interests lie in the political developments and discussion concerning governance. These media satisfy appetite for political information while guiding an understanding on the national issues and choices made.

The exporting of American pop culture has been going on ever since America has become a big world power along with other countries. Sometimes we don’t know how westernized we are since it’s all around us. There are some positives to this export to other countries, but there is also negatives. Some negatives to the exportation of American pop culture are the misrepresentation of other societies, teachings of extreme beliefs, and the erasing of other cultures around us.

Popular culture can be defined as “The knowledge of current or up-to-date events. It can refer to music, television, film, sports, and anything in the public domain.” (reference.com.n.d.). MTV operates globally and one may argue that MTV shapes their audience tastes however in present times the public has vast options and therefore can easily dictate by choosing the channel that best suits their tastes and wants. MTV’s power to adapt to change has worked to their advantage as they have been able to capture their target audience throughout their existence.

Jenkins argues that American popular culture will be redefined by the struggles over convergence and media. With the idea of profit in mind,

In ours’, it’s everything from MTV hits, to Breaking Bad to Miley Cyrus. But historically, pop culture derived from the lower classes and the “low” culture, the exiled counterpart to “high” culture. High culture was considered to compose of art, literature, and classical music created by and for the most prestige. Over time “pop culture” slowly began to replace the phrase “ low culture,” pop culture or low culture was defined by what it wasn’t; elegant, refined, high culture, than rather by what it was. Mass culture. The masses looked for entertainment and distraction, soon enough it was assumed for pop culture to simply just amuse. However, pop culture can never be dismissed as being “just” entertainment or for “only” amusement.

What pops into your mind first when you think of popular culture in today’s day and age? The latest dirt on celebrities or the latest iPhone release? The latest controversial issue or the latest iTunes hit? Regardless, pop culture encompasses all four of these concepts and many more, which consume the world we live in each and every day. Think about education. At first thought, your mind may not make the connection between the newest Taylor Swift song and the highest ACT score, but the linkage between the two becomes undeniable when you dive deeper. Ponder this: each day millions of kids walk into school buildings across the United States, each of them glued to a little slice of pop culture, a.k.a. their phone. And each day these millions