Signs of life in the USA: readings on popular culture for writers, 8th ed

Cover......Page 1 Inside Cover......Page 2 Title Page......Page 5 Copyright Page......Page 6 Preface for Instructors......Page 7 Contents......Page 17 Dawn of the Living Droid......Page 31 From Folk to Fab......Page 32 Pop Culture Goes to College......Page 37 The Semiotic Method......Page 38 Interpreting Popular Signs: Androids and Zombies and Vampires, Oh My!......Page 42 The Classroom Connection......Page 46 Of Myths and Men......Page 47 Getting Started......Page 49 Writing About Popular Culture......Page 51 Using Active Reading Strategies......Page 52 Prewriting Strategies......Page 54 Developing Strong Arguments about Popular Culture......Page 56 Conducting a Semiotic Analysis......Page 58 Reading Visual Images Actively......Page 61 Essay 1......Page 64 Essay 2......Page 71 Essay 3......Page 79 Conducting Research and Citing Sources......Page 86 Scott Jaschik: A Stand against Wikipedia......Page 87 Patti S. Caravello: Judging Quality on the Web......Page 90 Trip Gabriel: For Students in Internet Age, No Shame in Copy and Paste......Page 92 1. Consuming Passions: The Culture of American Consumption......Page 101 Laurence Shames: The More Factor......Page 110 Anne Norton: The Signs of Shopping......Page 117 Malcolm Gladwell: The Science of Shopping......Page 123 JON Mooallem: The Self-Storage Self......Page 132 Stephanie Clifford and Quentin Hardy: Attention, Shoppers: Store is Tracking Your Cell......Page 140 Thomas Hine: What’s in a Package......Page 143 James A. Roberts: The Treadmill of Consumption......Page 153 Phyllis M. Japp and Debra K. Japp: Purification through Simplification: Nature, the Good Life, and Consumer Culture......Page 158 Steve Mckevitt: Everything Now......Page 173 Thomas Frank: Commodify Your Dissent......Page 180 2. Brought to You B(u)y: The Signs of Advertising......Page 187 Jack Solomon: Masters of Desire: The Culture of American Advertising......Page 196 James B. Twitchell: What We Are to Advertisers......Page 207 Steve Craig: Men’s Men and Women’s Women......Page 212 Jennifer L. Pozner: Dove’s “Real Beauty” Backlash......Page 224 Gloria Steinem: Sex, Lies, and Advertising......Page 227 Juliet B. Schor: Selling to Children: The Marketing of Cool......Page 248 Joseph Turow: The Daily You: How the New Advertising Industry IsDefi ning Your Identity and Your Worth......Page 258 Julia B. Corbett: A Faint Green Sell: Advertising and the Natural World......Page 265 3. Video Dreams: Television and Cultural Forms......Page 293 Nick Serpe: Reality Pawns: The New Money TV......Page 306 Claire Miye Stanford: You’ve Got the Wrong Song: Nashville and Country Music Feminism......Page 314 Michelle Dean: Here Comes the Hillbilly, Again......Page 321 Carl Matheson: The Simpsons, Hyper-Irony, and the Meaning of Life......Page 325 Natasha Simons: Mad Men and the Paradox of the Past......Page 338 Jane Hu: Reality Hunger: On Lena Dunham’s Girls......Page 342 Willa Paskin: Devious Maids Skewers the One Percent......Page 350 Neal Gabler: The Social Networks......Page 353 4. The Hollywood Sign: The Culture of American Film......Page 359 Linda Seger: Creating the Myth......Page 372 Jessica Hagedorn: Asian Women in Film: No Joy, No Luck......Page 381 Helena Andrews: The Butler versus The Help : Gender Matters......Page 390 Matt Zoller Seitz: The Offensive Movie Cliché That Won’t Die......Page 394 Michael Parenti: Class and Virtue......Page 399 David Denby: High-School Confidential: Notes on Teen Movies......Page 404 Michael Agresta: How the Western Was Lost — and Why It Matters......Page 410 Christine Folch: Why the West Loves Sci-Fi and Fantasy: A Cultural Explanation......Page 416 5. The Cloud: Semiotics and the New Media......Page 421 S. Craig Watkins: Fast Entertainment and Multitasking in an Always-On World......Page 431 International Center for Media and the Public Agenda: Students Addicted to Social Media......Page 441 Simon Dumenco: If We’re All So Sick of You, Facebook, Why Can’t We Quit You?......Page 445 Danah Boyd: Implications of User Choice: The Cultural Logic of “MySpace or Facebook?”......Page 448 Salvador Rodriguez: In the Digital Age, Breaking Up Is Hard to Do......Page 453 Richard Rushfield: Toward a Unifi ed Theory of How the Internet Makes Everything Terrible......Page 456 Daniel D’Addario: Everything Is “Trolling” Now......Page 458 Henry Jenkins: Convergence Culture......Page 461 6. Heroes and Villains: Encoding Our Conflicts: Encoding Our Conflicts......Page 479 Robert B. Ray: The Thematic Paradigm......Page 488 Stevie St. John: Out of Character: Wonder Woman’s Strength Is Her Compassion — What Happened?......Page 497 Heather Havrilesky: No Sympathy for the Devil......Page 503 Laura Bennett: Against Antiheroes......Page 509 George Packer: Celebrating Inequality......Page 512 Noah Gittell: The Lone Ranger Seals It: America’s New Favorite Villain Is a Rich Guy......Page 515 Tim Layden: A Patriot’s Tale......Page 518 Lorraine Devon Wilke: Snowden’s a Hero, Obama’s a Villain......Page 523 7. My Selfie, My Self: Ma(s)king Identity in the New Millennium......Page 529 Rachel Lowry: Straddling Online and Offline Profiles, Millennials Search for Identity......Page 538 Aaron Devor: Gender Role Behaviors and Attitudes......Page 542 Deborah Blum: The Gender Blur: Where Does Biology End and Society Take Over?......Page 549 Kevin Jennings: American Dreams......Page 557 Mariah Burton Nelson: I Won. I’m Sorry.......Page 562 Alfred Lubrano: The Shock of Education: How College Corrupts......Page 569 Michael Omi: In Living Color: Race and American Culture......Page 576 Dani Mcclain: Being “Masculine of Center” While Black......Page 588 Theresa Celebran Jones: Sanjay and Craig: Nickelodeon’s Hilarious New Mixed-Race Heroes......Page 592 Aymar Jean Christian: The End of Post-Identity Television......Page 594 Glossary......Page 599 Acknowledgments......Page 603 Index of Authors and Titles......Page 607 Inside Back Cover......Page 611 Back Cover......Page 612 "How has niche advertising been used to develop a highly detailed profile of your consumer habits? Why are Americans so transfixed by ‘bad guys’? Signs of Life in the USA helps you master the expectations of college by providing you with an academic framework to talk about our common cultural experiences. Extensively updated to account for the rapid evolution of contemporary trends, the text’s themes feature provocative and current reading selections that ask you to think analytically about America’s impressive popular culture." -- Back cover