Assignment 5-1 Weekly Written Analysis 5

My weekly Written Analysis of current pop culture topic is the YouTube, this popular video hosting website, is playing an important role in defining current pop culture on a global scale. YouTube's focus has always been Broadcast Yourself “YouTube.com.” In today's popular culture, broadcasting yourself has become so main stream that those who do not post videos on the Internet are often put out of social circles.

The impact of YouTube has had both positive and negative effects on today’s popular culture. The popular video sharing website has played a crucial role in creating instant Internet celebrities, promoting musical performers, providing opportunities for political and religious speech, and creating a battleground for issues of privacy rights. All of these phenomena have been the outcome of simply giving people opportunity to post their personal creative expressions in a public forum. YouTube is an outstanding website and piece of technology that has radically transformed popular culture and the way we think about broadcasting our voices and our personalities to the world.

The use of the Internet and video sharing websites like YouTube has allowed millions of people to reach larger or more targeted audiences. Some post merely to entertain, others to inform the public about a topic, or ideas, some to debate critical viewpoints, and some to express their creativity in synthesizing materials to create a new work of art. This has created a number of Internet celebrities, given bands a place to test their popularity, allowed political supporters to promote their causes, created space for religious debate, and allowed some to discover their artistic selves. Because YouTube made it easy for people to broadcast themselves, they did. While this has sometimes led to controversy, the website continues to evolve and adapt with the culture, and YouTube is finding innovative solutions while attempting to preserve free speech. Whether one judges the impact of YouTube positively or negatively, the reality is that the video sharing website has become an influential force in today’s society and has forever transformed our options for broadcasting our voices and our personalities to the world.

Assignment 4-1 Weekly Written Analysis 4

This week my current and weekly written pop culture topic that interests is ESPN. Flashback to before September 9th, 1979, all televised sporting events were on ABC, NBC, or CBS, and fans had to wait for the 5 o'clock or 10 o'clock or the next morning's paper to see other teams' highlights and scores of. That was the pre-ESPN era. Now, sports fans have unlimited access about sports anytime they want 24/7 in today's sports world dominated by ESPN. William Rasmussen was the mastermind behind the fresh edgy network that's broadcast to over half the countries in the world.

ESPN has become a part of popular culture since its inception. Many movies with a general sports theme will include ESPN announcers and programming into their storyline  a reference to a nickname formerly used for ESPN2, In the film The Water boy, Adam Sandler's character Bobby Boucher has his college football accomplishments tracked through several fictional "Sports Center" newscasts including the "Bourbon Bowl." Also, ESPN.com Page 2 columnist Bill Simmons often jokes that he is looking forward to running a future network; Sports Center anchors appeared as themselves in music videos by Brad Paisley (I'm Gonna Miss Her The Fishin' Song and Hootie and the Blowfish Only Wanna Be With You and the 1998 TV series Sports Night was based on an ESPN-style network and its titular,

  

Blossoming into a mini-media conglomeration in its own, ESPN has conquered of the so-called "Sports Nation" does not show any signs of slowing down anytime take over.   In addition of being a subsidiary of Walt Disney Company, ESPN's colossal sweep of the United States and abroad can be attributed to its ambiguity to reach all markets in any way possible, by development focusing on the sports fan, modernizing with the times, and the booming popularity of sports in general.

After being fired from his public relations job for Hartford Whalers, William Rasmussen employed his severance pay, which he used to buy a satellite transponder, his contacts in television, and a dream for a 24-hour cable network dedicated entirely to sports.   That turned out to be all he needed to launch the network that would eventually broadcast to 87 million homes in United States alone. This initial broadcast was to only 1.4 million homes. This was only the very beginning though. At the very beginning, the sports shown on ESPN, or Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, were not the most popular sports in the world, as consisted of sports like badminton, darts, and Irish hurling. The first major sporting event televised on ESPN was the 1980 NCAA Men's basketball tournament. The NCAA Tournament, both the men's and women's, can credit a lot their success and popularity to ESPN because they would broadcast a sizeable amount of games of the tournament when other national broadcast networks do not.

Assignment 1-2 Journal Article Analysis

My article today is Popular Culture and the Economy  by DON CUSIC AND GREGORY K. FAULK

 

The purpose of this journal article is to focus on one aspect of popular culture and its impact on the economy. It also examines in detail the impact of popular culture which are broadly classified into the information sector such as the arts, entertainment and recreation sector on the US economy. The information sector contains media-based companies that has produced US$885 billion of economic output in 2010, about two-thirds of that output are tied to popular culture industries. Over half of the economic output in this sector is in films, TV, Video games and cable programming content where consumers can see and hear. Consumers still have an affinity for traditional print-based media, which comprises 15% of popular culture output in the sector. For example The National Football League is today the most profitable and valuable economic force in sports, easily eclipsing baseball, basketball, and all other competitors in the American sports or business universe. In recent seasons the NFL by far the richest sports league in the world has generated more than $6 billion a year in revenue. The league receives more than $2 billion a year from its television contracts alone and rakes in billions more from sales of tickets, advertising, and merchandise.

According to the journal article explains that The notion that we live in an information economy is indisputable, but exactly what is the information economy and why does it include some popular culture products because  New technologies like the i Pods, gaming, gadgets .Internet memes and Internet chat speak movies, TV, radio...music...comics and graphic novels...sports and pastimes...fads, fashion, and fast food are all part of pop culture that brings us together as a people and communities everywhere.

Popular culture can be thought of as a composite of all the values, ideas, symbols, material goods, processes, and understandings that arise from mass media, such as the advertising and entertainment industries, as well as from other avenues, such as games, food, music, shopping, and other daily activities and processes.

One perspective of popular culture is that it can be viewed as the

leisure time activities of consumers. Popular culture is a world in which everything is for sale one way or another—a world of commercialism. The environment is often thought of as a product to be consumed, and, as a result, pollution becomes one facet of an ever-growing concern of the American popular culture. Companies involved in the capitalization and industrialization of the United States increasingly promote their products, and themselves, as being in tune with nature.

According to the journal article explains The heavy investment by corporations in films, TV, and cable programming is based on consumer preferences. Consumers spend more money on entertainment that they can see and hear than they do on print-based media or sound recordings. Within the Information sector over half of popular culture industry output is centered on cable TV programming, which contributed about US$820 billion to the economy in 2010.

The fact that cable programming is the largest popular culture based component of the Information sector comes as no surprise because the industry has continually expanded offerings since the introduction of Home Box Office (HBO) in 1975. Because of packaged programming by cable providers, there is little variation in the number of subscribers to the top twenty programming networks. As of December 2010, they all have approximately ninety seven million subscribers paying average sixty five to one hundred twenty dollars each. National Cable & Telecommunications Association. Cable programming has created icons of popular culture: ESPN, CNN, QVC, Nickelodeon, and MTV, among others.

Transmission of entertainment over the airwaves is 73% of popular culture output in the sector. Although a cultural giant, music is a relative economic midget consisting of 64% of information sector popular culture output. The arts, entertainment, and recreation sector of the economy provides live entertainment and has contributed US$580 billion to the US economy in 2010, roughly one-third of popular culture-related economic output. Most spending in this sector occurred in amusement, gambling, and recreation, which made up 55% of the sector output. The attraction of performing artists and athletes also generated significant economic impact. Economic output in the performing arts, spectator sports, and related industries was about 41% of all economic output in the sector. Museums and historical sites had the least economic contribution,14% percent of the sector's economic impact.

In conclusion the economic impact of popular culture can be measured using definitions

and data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Cultural products are identified as those that directly express attitudes, opinions, ideas, values, and artistic creativity. They provide entertainment or offer information and analysis. In 2004, industries involved in creating and producing popular culture products, goods, and services contributed US$885 billion to the economy. That is why The attraction of performing artists and athletes also generated significant economic impact. Economic output in the performing arts, spectator sports, and related industries was about forty-one percent of all economic output in the sector. Museums and

historical sites had the least economic contribution, four percent of the sector’s economic impact.

 References:

World&, f. t. (n.d.). Economy in History of the NFL. Shmoop: Study Guides & Teacher      Resources. Retrieved March 8, 2011, from http://www.shmoop.com/nfl-    history/economy.html

the, m. (n.d.). Popular Culture - water, effects, environmental, United States, history,       industrial, toxic, world, human, power, sources, use, life, oil, Understanding   Circumstances, Chronicling the Good Life. Pollution Issues. Retrieved March 10,      2011, from http://www.pollutionissues.com/Pl-Re/Popular-Culture.html

Cusic, Don. ‘‘The Popular Culture Economy.’’ Journal of Popular Culture Retrieved March 8,  2011

Federal Communications Commission. Broadcast Stations totals as of

            Retrieved March 8, 2011 hhttp://www.fcc.gov/mb/audio/totals/

            bt060331.htmi.

Hoppenstand, Gary. ‘‘Inaugural Editorial.’’ The Journal of Popular Culture

            37.1 . Retrieved March 8, 2011: 1 – 6.

Media Owners. America’s Leading Media Companies. . Retrieved March 8, 2011

            hhttp://www.mediaowners.comi.

National Cable & Telecommunications Association. . Retrieved March 8, 2011

            hhttp://www.ncta.comi.

Assignment 3-2 Ritual Development

My understanding of the word "ritual is a set of actions, performed mainly for their symbolic value like thanksgiving day parade. It may be prescribed by a religion or by the traditions of a community like the holy month of Ramadan, or Kwanzaa . Sometimes ritual is something that is done by tradition such as a group of people, a nation, or individual, or Something that is repeated continuously in the same manner . For example, a ritual that is often done on the November the 25th in America is to eat turkey .

 A ritual may be performed on specific occasions, or at the discretion of individuals or communities. It may be performed by a single individual, by a group, or by the entire community; in arbitrary places, or in places especially reserved for it; either in public, in private, or before specific people. A ritual may be restricted to a certain subset of the community, and may enable or underscore the passage between religious or social states.

The purposes of rituals are varied; with religious obligations or ideals, satisfaction of spiritual or emotional needs of the practitioners, strengthening of social bonds, social and moral education, demonstration of respect or submission, stating one's affiliation, obtaining social acceptance or approval for some event—or, sometimes, just for the pleasure of the ritual itself.

Some of the rituals we do  observe in our society today  are Religion Sexual ritual Superstition Americans have many Customs and Traditions rooted in the cultures of our forefathers who were either Native Americans or who settled this great land after journeying long distances from other nations in search of "The American Dream". Very often the display of an object or symbol that is meaningful to a family or to society can become a Custom, Tradition or Ritual. Family Values are reflected in the Customs and Traditions practiced immigrants or not when you are American.

Ritual Habit: A behavior pattern acquired by frequent repetition or physiologic exposure that shows itself in regularity or increased facility of performance. An acquired mode of behavior that has become nearly or completely involuntary.

Ritual Custom: A usage or practice common to many or to a particular place or class, or habitual with an individual. Long established practice considered as unwritten law. Repeated practice. The whole body of usages, practices, or conventions that regulate social life.

Ritual Tradition: An inherited, established, or customary pattern of thought, action, or behavior as a religious practice or social custom. The handing down of information, beliefs, and customs by word of mouth or by example from one generation to another without written instruction. Cultural continuity in social attitudes, customs, and institutions. Characteristic manner, method, or style.

Ritual: The established form for a ceremony; the order of words prescribed for a religious ceremony. Ritual observance: system of rites, a ceremonial act or action or a customarily repeated often formal act or series of acts.

Some of the rituals we do  observe in our family today are Marriage is viewed as a bond between two families, rather than between two individuals. It is marked by a series of exchanges and ceremonies. A bride price meher of camels, cattle, sheep, or goats is given to the family of the bride. The bride's family supplies items for everyday life: the aqal a portable house, a bed, cooking utensils, mats, ropes, and skins.

Ramadan is a month-long fast during which Muslims do not eat or drink during daylight hours. Ramadan ends with the feast of Eid al-Adha . Believers are expected, at least once in their lives, to make a hajj, or pilgrimage to Mecca during the month of Ramadan. Muhammad's birthday, Mowluud, is celebrated with feasting.

Life events among the Somali are celebrated by feasting. Birth is always an important event. Sheep or goats are killed to celebrate the birth of either a boy or girl. Death is also marked by feasting. The status of the deceased dictates the type and number of animals killed a goat for a young child, one or more camels for the death of an old, wealthy male. Children younger than 16 years of age usually do not attend funeral rites. Elders participate in performing the funeral rites. In Somalia, the elders would be of the same family or tribe. Those are some of the rituals that I can identify and that are present in my family today however I would not like to develop any rituals for either in my society or my family what we have for both in enough.

Reference:

Traditions Customs Rituals. (n.d.). American Family Traditions Home Page.          Retrieved March 1, 2011, from     http://www.americanfamilytraditions.com/traditions_customs_rituals.htm