Humanity

We look at the present through a rear-view mirror. We march backwards into the future.
—Marshall McLuhan

Decades before the World Wide Web was available, Marshall McLuhan predicted that the world would become a global village because communication would shift our perceptions of space and distance. McLuhan coined the phrase “the medium is the message.” His assertion was that the way the medium, popular culture, and other content and ideas are disseminated is as important as the content or ideas themselves.

In the past, a sense of community was defined primarily by geography, where people lived, and social issues like race/ethnicity, religious affiliation, and social and economic class. With technological changes, the world is made up of communities of interest that are not necessarily limited by geography. People may participate and consume popular culture in ways not imagined 30, 20, or even five years ago.

This week we look at how popular culture and societal values intersect and how different communities may evangelize specific popular culture elements to change or protect values.

Controversy over Time and Space

Earlier you looked at social issues as expressed by popular culture artifacts in historical context. This week you do the same thing, but by looking at current issues that are being addressed by popular culture. Then you hypothesize about whether the conversations about this issue will provoke or resist change, and how and why this might happen. Imagine that you are a philosopher and you have been asked to predict the future of an issue based on popular culture.

Your main post should be in the thread that corresponds to the issue you have chosen for your final project. Posting in that thread will allow you to continue testing ideas you may want to include in your Final Project. However, you should feel free to respond to colleagues in any thread that interests you. Reading about how others approach their issues and popular culture can inspire new ways to think about your own issue and popular culture elements.

For this Discussion, your Instructor will either

 

assign groups to threads or 
direct you to choose one thread from the choices listed this week. 
If you are directed to choose a thread on your own, follow these instructions: Each thread is limited to a maximum number of students based on class size. A thread will close if the limit is reached. If a thread is closed to new posters, select from the open threads.

To prepare for this Discussion:

· Review a sampling of modern popular culture artifacts. The artifacts should not be more than 5 years old. You can identify your own, or review those posted in 
Doc Sharing by your colleagues.

TED2010. (2010, March 17). 
Jane McGonigal: Gaming can make a better world [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.ted.com/talks/jane_mcgonigal_gaming_can_make_a_better_world

 

Note: The approximate length of this media piece is 20 minutes.

 

This talk presents compelling evidence on how popular culture in the form of gaming could be harnessed to solve real world problems.

Optional Resources

Guins, R. (Ed.). (2014). Themed issue: Marshall McLuhan’s 
Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man @ 50. 
Journal of Visual Culture, 
13(1).

TED2014. (2014, July 8). 
Nicholas Negroponte: A 30-year history of the future [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/talks/nicholas_negroponte_a_30_year_history_of_the_future?language=en

· Consider how your chosen issue is conveyed in the sampling you have chosen.

One Laptop Per Child. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://one.laptop.org

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

Course Outcomes 1. Define modern popular culture 2. Connect social issues to modern popular culture expressions 3. Identify the role of the audience in changing popular culture 4. Analyze how access to popular culture affects understanding of social issues 5. Identify how popular culture mirrors and projects changing social views 6. Analyze a specific social issue across popular culture Weekly Objectives Alignment Chart Week 1: What is Popular Culture? Met In (D#/A# /Other) Course Outcome(s) Program Outcome(s) University Outcome(s) Analyze the relationship of popular culture with your own sense of identity D 1 2 III, V, VI Complete the Final Project Worksheet A 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 1, 2, 3 I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VIII Week 2: Audience Met In (D#/A# /Other) Course Outcome(s) Program Outcome(s) University Outcome(s) Analyze the relationship between popular culture and its audience D