State of Popular Culture - Essay Example

Other positive effects of popular culture include the ability to create positive role models, draw the line between good and bad and deliver this understandable message to wide masses without a doubt that the majority will get everything rights. Popular culture is controlled by authorities who serve as censors; they label content, ban it or ask to modify it if needed. There are legal definitions for obscenity, indecency and profanity that create certain legal frames for content creators (Obscenity, Indecency and Profanity: It's Against the Law). In some sense, popular culture controls society telling what to like and what to do. Also, it unifies people who come from different backgrounds and makes it easier for them to live together. Even though there are still many ongoing discussions about gender portrayals in art (Onstad, 2008) and racist messages (Vedantam, 2008), they depict a great progression in liberal thought compared to what was popular 20 or even 10 years ago.

Since popular culture is created by people, it is obvious that society has a great influence on it. Culture is the reflection of the society of its creators; attitudes, moods, events, trends, roles and even political situations serve as factors of influence. Culture influences people in response to popularizing certain ideas, spreading information, depicting changes and introducing new ideas to all. In this way, society and culture influence each other; they co-exist in complex relationships and change together. Read More