Does Pop Culture Have and Impact?
From Star Wars to Hunger Games and Tetris to Flappy Bird, pop culture infiltrates the day to day lives of most everyone. While the portrayals of torture in the tv show 24 may be extreme, they may be leading towards more accurate portrayals and less problematic ways to get information in real life that is important to the United States of America intelligence agencies.
In the CNN segment about the torture scenes by the character Jack Bauer in the tv show 24, they talk about how it has impacted people who are actually in the military. The depictions of Baur have brought about the torture of actual people in similar ways to the tv show character. With these forms of torture becoming more prevalent, military and government officials were hoping to get into contact with the creators of the show in order to more accurately portray the legal ways in which they actually can obtain information by. This means that 24 and other aspects of pop culture can impact the actions of people in similar situations. In the event of the show changing its narrative, it could lead to a more ethical way of gathering information. This shows that when pop culture is studied it allows for more informed decisions to be made by people in power.
In the Esquire article, “Death by Harry Potter,” by Chuck Klosterman, it discusses the extent of which pop culture references are used in other forms of media and how that leads to a certain level of confusion. Klosterman included his three categories of information including the following: “information that you know you know,” “information that you know you don’t know,” and “information that you don’t know you don’t know.” This more or less means that there is knowledge you have, knowledge you know of while not knowing specifics (i.e. accounting, astrophysics, etc.), and the last one is basically complete ignorance on a topic or even the existence of the topic in general.
Pop culture is important to study so that you can understand both the people and the media around you. It also provides valuable context about how other people may view the world. The media that surrounds us influences what we think about and how we choose to take action in similar situations. While pop culture may seem pointless at times, but it is also a mirror of what a large majority of people are thinking about, even if just in subtext.
PS I don't know why the first two paragraphs are running on like that, I'll try to fix that later.
Great topic. As your post points out, mediated popular culture’s impact on society seems obvious and I would agree.
ReplyDelete24 seems a great example of what Brummett would call a complex artifact that’s been charged with widely shared meaning and therefore, influence. I also saw that same segment on CNN about the enactment of torture in the TV show 24 and its influence on the behavior of real military personnel. It didn’t surprise me. It seems reasonable to conclude that continued exposure to the lifelike torture scenarios played out in 24 may have a direct influence on those individuals where it has real meaningful value.
My job and lifestyle don’t require I specialize in ways to physically harm someone, so the majority of content in 24 is either interesting, disturbing, or cautionary. But if my job did require it, the show could very well be considered a viable resource for ideas. I like how you put it, mediated popular culture “influences what we think about and how we choose to take action in similar situations”.
That said, I came across an article in my research/brainstorming efforts recently that you may find interesting. Fortune magazine recently published an article about a research project that debunks there is a causal link between video game violence and gun violence in the US. I have not formed a solid opinion on it myself, but it’s an interesting read I thought worth sharing. Here's the link: https://fortune.com/2023/05/02/stanford-researchers-scoured-every-reputable-study-link-between-video-games-gun-violence-politics-mental-health-dupee-thvar-vasan/amp/