So why study pop culture? After all, your favorite television show is just a show and that Reese’s ad is just an ad. But is it really just a TV show or just an ad? My answer, and hopefully everyone’s answer, is no. They are much, much more than that. Why?
Pop culture texts are complex and contradictory. They are open to many interpretations and subject to unexpected uses. People can enjoy the same television show for two totally different reasons. Pop culture’s relationship with its consumers can’t be reduced to “just a show.” According to Sellnow, there is no such thing as objectivity when it comes to pop culture. Media consumption is something we do, not something that happens to us. So why wouldn’t we want to study something that we are actively doing? (Especially because it affects us, as rhetorical critics, too.)
We construct our own personal traditions from the contents made available to use through pop culture texts. We use these media texts as ways to explore who we are, what we want, what we value and how we relate to other people (and so on). Images and symbols from these texts help us read against our perception of the world. All in all, we are greatly influenced by pop culture; therefore, we should care about it enough to know why we are so influenced.
To look at it another way - some people study the periodic table and how its elements react to other elements. If it is important to know those interactions, why wouldn’t we want to know about our interactions with pop culture and its elements?
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