American Popular Culture - Assignment Example

American Popular Culture Before the advent of movies and television, listening to radio and reading novels, magazine and newspapers were the main ways to entertain and pass information to majority of American population. Radio programs such as Buck Rodgers in 25 century of 1932 left the listeners to imagine how the future would look like after various scientific inventions. This radio program provided basis for imagination of fictional characters but lacked visual information provided by movies today.

To watch a visual act, one had to be in theater during live performance. Presentation in movies as storytelling with the advent of movies and television does not require one to imagine of environment or characters. Like in case of Star Trek (Put Locker 0:10), this fictional film gives visual as well as audio information about the story. The advent of movies and television has enabled knowing what is happening around us and in the whole world. The use of visual images in movies and television provides additional information not readily available through reading or listening to radio.

Television and movies also brought new ways to understand surrounding environment and society (Kellner 1). Visual images from movies or television are good learning tools to some scholarsReading culture in America has reduced to some extent due to influence of television ad movies. Acquiring similar information such as those in novels is now possible through watching an entertaining movie. In the movies, stars usually portray a culture that we unconsciously follow and start practicing (Media Literacy Project 2).

In music videos, a dance style by a musician such as Michael Jackson’s break dance has influenced the current dancing styles. Considering for example Jackson’s music video of Moonwalk (Slake 2:00) has been copied unconsciously by most individuals not only in US but also in other parts of the world. Listening to radio provided information about news or music but left room for imagination of how the environment and events taking place. Using visual images on television news provide the information of the scene and make one unconsciously think that they are in the same scene.

This has in turn reduces the number of people listening to radio to get informed. After watching, the conversation also differs compared to those who previously listened due to involvement of visual information about the scene and characters involved. Dressing cord and hairstyles has changed over time depending on influence of the images on television and characters that movie stars portray. This has unconsciously affected our life choices as we try to fit in the changing society culture in buying attires that are similar to musicians or movie stars.

Influencing culture and lifestyle in society is not possible to achieve fast without use of visual. In some subjects like history understanding class work using an acted movie give a better understanding of the past than just reading the books or listening to lecturers. Provision of scientific elaborations using animated movies assist in easy understanding of concepts. These educational movies are advantageous to students who prefer watching to reading.Works CitedKellner, Douglas. Critical Perspectives on Visual Imagery in Media and Cyber culture. 2015. Web.

February 21, 2015. Accessed from http://pages.gseis.ucla.edu/faculty/kellner/ed270/VISUALLITcritical.htmMedia Literacy Project. Introduction to Media Literacy. 2015.Web. February 21, 2015. Accessed from http://medialiteracyproject.org/sites/default/files/resources/Intro_to_Media_Literacy.pdfSlake. Michael Jackson Best MoonWalk Ever!!. You tube Video Clip. June 25, 2010. Web. February 21, 2015. Accessed from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6pomaq30GgPut Locker. The Future Begins. Video Clip. 2009. Web.

February 21, 2015. Accessed from http://www.putlocker.sh/watch-star-trek-online-free-2009-putlocker-hd.html