90s Popular Culture and Effects on American Self Identity Formation Research Proposal

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90s American Popular Culture and Self-Identity Formation

Popular culture is the main force in America; it reaches our classrooms, cars and, even homes and influences what people think, watch, listen to, wear, and buy. Popular culture can be quite addictive, annoying, offensive, controversial, and pleasurable. It can also be difficult and almost impossible to avoid. In many cases it is challenging for us to differentiate between popular culture and the rest of our lives, because it is so entrenched in our day-to-day patterns. Given the significant role of popular culture in the American society, I propose in this paper that it should be looked at as a cultural practice, with its own power to bring about social change -- to transform social factors, and the foundations themselves of people's lives. This essay particularly discusses the manner in which popular culture can help youth to make a society more democratic, in other words to make our societies more fair, just, and equitable. It is quite difficult to avoid popular culture, because it is at the very core of the United States (U.S.) public sphere. It is true that popular culture can be quite influenced by corporate interests, which are private and driven by profit; nonetheless, popular culture is an arena where people have a stake, a voice, and an interest (Dolby, 2003).

At social occasions, at work or school, popular culture is one of the most frequently used conversation starters. It usually serves both as a social divider and glue; not being inside the currents of what is 'popular' can lead to one's social isolation, while one the other hand friendships can grow stronger around the shared love of a television show, band, or music video. Popular structure also plays a very strong role in the public arena: political pundits on late night shows and other television programs produce episodes meant to address foreign policy, terrorism, or other topical items. This popular culture cannot be dismissed as insignificant or irrelevant; on the contrary, it has the power to influence the public even on the most divisive civic issues and also has the capacity to shape public opinion (Dolby, 2003).

Contemporary societies offer more options for the youth both culturally and educationally, and with regards to lifestyle choices. The youths of today can make their own decisions and they are less bound by traditions, parental control, religion, or gender patterns of the past. This phenomenon is referred to as cultural emancipation; it offers newer and more possibilities for the youth. However, despite this phenomenon, individual choices have to be justified. Young people have a duty and a responsibility to choose their own life course; in other words they have a "choice biography" contrary to tradition. The changing gender roles, family relations, and the dissolution of tradition may somewhat imply a loosening of the social fabric. Some researchers have warned about the emergence of a 'risk' society (one example is the increase in criminal activity, and the increased use of drugs among young women in the last two decades) (Skoe & von der Lippe, 2005).

1.1. Conceptual framework

According to France (2007: 158), one of the disadvantages of the post-structuralist approach was that it overemphasized and over-read the importance of 'agency' over structure, and focused more on dress and style. This particular study gives equal emphasis to the role of institutions (the state and the media), and authorities such as parents, religion, teachers, peers, home life, and ethnic tradition, all of which are somewhat entrenched in the lives of fourth year university students. Thus this study, in its investigation of the media consumption, globalisation, and most importantly self-identity, will look at how different ethnicities identify themselves with the national culture (popular culture), via the local media compared to the international media. The study also investigates the links between national cultures, religion, ethnicity, diaspora, and globalisation, in terms of media consumption practices.

1.2. Theoretical framework

The idea of media consumption and the way it has helped users to form their own identities is demonstrated through reviewing the users' day-to-day use. A better comprehension of the users' consumption enables more understanding of the reasons behind their consumption (Karim, 2010). All these activities or studies cannot be determined through the use of questionnaires, especially if the researcher is keen to analyse the similarities and differences across different age groups and ethnicities. Unlike the many studies done on the youth's media consumption, this one does not seek to make a causal association between media consumption and moral values, because that method is considered too simplistic in theorising the youth and their media consumption (Dearn, 2013).

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Instead this study is concerned with the question of the manner in which youths of different religious and ethnic backgrounds can utilize the media to form their own identities. More crucially, the study investigates the new identities being formed as a result of the current trends of media consumption, and the manner in which these new identities vary between different age groups and ethnicities. The answers to these investigations will better explain the changes in moral values and self-identity in this new age of globalisation (Karim, 2010).

1.3. Research questions

This study looks into how young fourth year university students use the media to form their own identities. It also aims to investigate whether there are any similarities or differences between ethnicities in this trend with regards to their attitudes towards ethnic culture. The study also looks into the assumption the youth are more entertainment-oriented in terms of their media consumption. The study further investigates media consumption by seeking to determine what the media means to young university students, in addition to how their media consumption is positioned within their cultures.

1. To what extent is the media consumption of a fourth year college student leaning towards entertainment and what are the reasons?

2. Are there any differences with regards to age and ethnicity, and why?

3. What are the similarities among these youth, and why?

4. Are there any differences with regards to media consumption among the young people of different ages and ethnicities?

5. What are the limitations to their media consumption?

6. What are the ways in which different ethnicities consume local and international media content, and what are the reasons?

7. What are the differences and similarities with regards to local and foreign media content among different age and ethnic groups?

8. What are the causes of the differences? Is this due to a pattern, or is it related to globalisation?

9. To what degree are religion, culture and tradition no longer major factors in fourth-year student lives, as shown by their media consumption trends?

10. Do students use the media as a means to break away from authorities, institutions, and/or other conventional forms of constraint, such as culture and religion? Is there a common trend among all age and ethnic groups?

11. Is there any difference between the way the youth from different ethnicities use the media to negotiate between their culture, religion and ethnicity?

12. How do young people form alternative forms of self-identity through the media? And are there any differences in terms of age and ethnicity?

13. What kinds of self identities result from the use of media? Is it different between different age groups and ethnicities?

14. What are the differences in cultural values in the way they are perceived in the cultures and lives depicted in foreign in contrast to local media, and are these differences perceived differently between different ethnic groups and age groups? (Karim, 2010; France, 2007; Dearn, 2013)

2. Literature review

Scholars and researchers have first had to struggle with the challenge of defining what is 'popular culture', and thus by extension what isn't. Definitions are obviously culturally and historically bound phenomena, and the answer of "what is" with regards to popular culture has changed dramatically in the last five decades. From the year 1860 up until 1950, Mathew Arnold's idea of culture, which later helped define popular culture, was the most influential and the most significant concept. According to him culture is the best of what is not only thought but said in the world. His definition combined with his beliefs that the British middle class and aristocracy were above the working class, and were also quite a distance ahead in the evolutionary path. This led to the emergence of the term high-culture as opposed to the culture of the working class or the common. Of course, in his beliefs and concepts Arnold was declaring his own class as the bearers of what is civilized, good and right - and by extension what the common people thought of this was none of his concern. Thus Arnold played a significant role in shaping the paradigm that dominated and influenced popular culture for almost a century -- a paradigm that is accepted as commonsense and natural -- the division between low (or popular) and high culture (Dolby, 2003).

According to John Locke, in his Essay Concerning Human Understanding, there is….....

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