The word ‘‘popular’’ denotes ‘‘of the people,’’ ‘‘by the people,’’ and ‘‘for the people.’’ In other words, it is made up of them as subjects, whom it textualizes via drama, sport, and information; workers, who undertake that textualization through performances and recording; and audiences, who receive the ensuing texts. Three discourses determine the direction sociologists
Religion refers to a system of beliefs, rites, forms of organization, ethical norms, and feelings about the divine which help human beings to transcend and make sense of life. Popular religiosity is the equivalent of the religion of the common people, or popular piety, the way common people live their religion. It contrasts with official
Although they are often framed as “merely” fun and games, sports and the communication that surrounds them influence social norms. Many scholars recognize that the “sports– media complex,” identified as such by Jhally (1989, 77) because of the virtually inseparable relationship between high-profile sports and media, is one that entertains but also reflects and reinforces
“Television” refers to “seeing from afar.” It describes a physical device, a cultural system, and a labor process that brings the two together and embeds them in the daily experience of half the world’s population. “Popular” signifies of, by, and for the people, offering transcendence through pleasure, but doing so by referring to the everyday.
Tourism is now the largest industry in the world, and as such, it has increasingly become of interest to scholars in a number of academic disciplines, such as anthropology, sociology, psychology, semiotics, communication and arketing. It is also the subject of analyses using interdisciplinary approaches, such as leisure studies, feminist studies, and cultural studies. Tourism
Political communication is an interdisciplinary field with roots stretching back to Aristotle and Plato, who debated the meaning of democracy and society. Modern political communication research incorporates not only the field of communication, including journalism and rhetoric, but also political science, sociology, history, psychology, geography, and others. Political communication can mean many things. Put simply
During the Industrial Revolution, the English word “class” morphed from a general term for a division or group to a specific term for a position of rank within a social system based on economic wealth. Around the same time, the word “popular” began to be applied to communication and culture with meanings ranging from “liked
“Culture” is “one of the two or three most complicated words in the English language” according to Williams (1976, 87). Originally used to describe the process of tending, culture evolved as metaphor, as noun, and as a reference to a physical object. Today, culture is regarded as a unifying system, a worldview, a civilization, and
While there may be some debate over whether Russia’s or Canada’s version of “Naked News” came first, for many social observers the beginning of serious news delivered by naked women or women in the act of stripping indicates a crisis in the practice of journalism. To say that the boundary between journalism and entertainment has
Music in various functions plays an increasingly important role both as an indicator of and as a medium for changes in society. Popular music is with us constantly; it is part of our everyday environment, and increasingly part of the aural or sonic soundscape that surrounds us. Not only do we listen to music in
Myth comes from the Greek word mythos meaning “speech” or “story.” Contrary to popular parlance that says a myth is something untrue, false, or fake, mythology is in fact true stories and timeless tales passed down from generation to generation. Myths provide answers and explanations for the big questions of life, such as: where did
“Communication” derives from the Latin term communicare meaning to share or impart and to make common. “Popular communication” refers to those efforts of, by, and for the people that establish and maintain this sharing and commonality. In this sense, communication is the basic requirement for sustaining any social group. “The people” are generally understood as
Rituals and ritualization can be found in all aspects of contemporary social life: religion, education, politics, popular culture, work life, family life, friendship, consumption, and leisure. Formal ceremonies such as religious observances, weddings, funerals, or oaths of office are familiar; the rest of social life is also punctuated by small bits of ritual and ceremoniousness
Communication created and shared through the Internet has proliferated since the mid-1990s, with more people adapting to the web’s creative spaces through easy-to-use technology. Indeed, much popular communication today is likely also to be classified as computer-mediated communication. The Internet not only provides access to web spaces where people view or listen to digital video
Popular communication is an interdisciplinary, multi-theoretical, multi-methodological philosophy of media and audiences. It has evolved as a nonhierarchical perspective that emphasizes the value of objects, behaviors, attitudes, and beliefs associated with everyday life. Gunn and Brummett (2004, 705) ask provocative questions about popular communication that capture the difficulty of defining the term: “Whose child is