Understanding Popular Culture

Nature and Concepts of Popular Culture

• Popular culture encompasses practices, beliefs, and objects which embody broadly shared meanings within a social system.
• It include media objects, entertainment, leisure activities, fashion trends, and linguistic conventions.
• Popular culture often relates to mass or folk culture, distinguishing itself from high culture and institutional cultures like political, educational, and legal domains.
• Popular culture is viewed as commodities produced and sold through capitalistic processes driven by profit, when associated with mass culture.
• When associated with folk culture, popular culture becomes practices and cultural creations interpreted by audiences, both within and beyond the subcultural group.

Nature of Popular Culture

• Cultural industries produce it, for example the Disney Corporation which churns out movies, cartoons, amusement parks, and merchandise.
• It differs from folk culture as Folk culture involves traditional, not-for-profit activities.
• Popular culture is everywhere, examples of this includes TV, movies, radio, and commercials.
• It serves as a cultural forum where reaction is prompted by family or friends to new films or shows.

Patterns of How People Consume Popular Culture

• People can either seek out or avoid consuming specific forms of popular culture.
• Certain TV shows, movies, and advertisements are cultural texts because these contain messages relating to popular culture.
• Encoding is the process of creating a message for popular culture.
• Institutions form texts based on people's identities to target specific markets during encoding.
• Decoding of popular culture is interpreting a message.
• Interpretations are guided as decoders thanks to social identities.

Magazines and Cultural Identities

• Reader profiles are created by advertising offices of magazines available for advertisers.
• Included in the reader profiles are average age, gender, and incomes
• Some magazines are created for certain ethnic groups; Hispanic Magazine targets Latino audiences for example.
• People come together through cultural magazines and newspapers to affirm their relationship with their cultural identities.
• However, not every popular culture text is correlated to a particular cultural group.

Resisting Popular Culture

• Resisting can include refusing to engage with forms of popular culture like not owning a TV or refusing to watch violent movies.
• Concerns arise regarding representation of social groups thanks to the large role pop culture plays in how people think about other groups.
• Depictions like the racist portrayal of Arab culture in Disney’s Aladdin are concerning.
• Popular Culture can be targeted at profits of corporations
• Profits aren't always made for U.S. firms as demonstrated when Iraqis buy pirated DVDs of American films.

Concepts of Popular Culture

• Commercialisation: Adding value to an idea, product, or commodity to sell it for a profit, often relying on marketing and advertising for success.
• Commodification: The social process of turning an item into a commodity ready to be traded, using marketing strategies to create perceived value.
• Consumption: The process of choosing and using a product, requiring a conscious decision to engage with a commodity.
• Continuity: The persistence or consistent existence of cultural elements in a society, maintaining traditions and social structures for stability.
• Change: The alteration or modification of cultural elements in a society at micro, meso, and macro levels, often driven by modernization and technological innovation.
• Conflict: A perceived incompatibility of goals or actions that can occur at all levels of society, resolved through modification of previous states.
• Ideology: An organized collection of ideas reflecting the beliefs, values, and interests of a group, system, institution, or nation, guiding actions.
• Institutional Power: The ability of institutions to control aspects of society, maintaining continuity through interactions.

History and Evolution of Philippine Popular Culture

• Popular culture was used to promote the Spanish regime and the US government's interests in the Philippines.
• Popular culture is media with broad appeal, a term from the mid-19th century contrasting cultural traditions with the "official culture."
• American colonialism introduced popular culture through liberal policies regarding print, radio, television, and film.
• Philippine culture blends Filipino, Spanish, Catholic, American, and Asian influences.
• Philippine popular culture has an inclusionary function in society, uniting beliefs and offering shared identity across diverse groups.

Popular Culture During Pre-colonial Period

• Before Spanish colonization, the Philippines had rich cultural history with trade interactions with China, Japan, and the Middle East.
• Barter was the primary mode of trade, eventually replaced by cowry shells as a medium of exchange.
• There was indigenous feminism with female mystical healers called Babaylan, these women had political and social power.
• Pre-Hispanic belief systems included gods, spirits, and creatures that guarded natural elements.
• Bathala was the creator deity, with animism widely practiced, today only a handful of indigenous tribes continue tradition.
• Pre-colonial society's social statuses included: datu (ruling class), maginoo (noble class), maharlika (warrior class), timawa (freemen), and alipin (dependent class).
• Pre-Spanish ritual, festival, courtship, marriage, mimetic, and war dances existed.
• Religious dances were part of rites for recovery, funerals, and the afterlife.
• Festival dances were about work activities lasting days with elaborate music, chants, footwork and hand motion.
• Courtship dances involved the exchange of goods and flirtation, with gender equality.
• Indigenous Filipinos wrote on trees, leaves, and bamboo tubes with tree sap ink.
• Baybayin was the precolonial writing system and umalohokan were town criers of precolonial Philippines.
• Pre-Hispanic Filipinos had informal education at home taught by parents for their children's needs.
• Literature was based around common experiences of the community.
• Most staple food in the Philippines is rice.
• Sinangag is leftover rice fried with garlic usually served at breakfast.
• Panag-etag and panag-asin (salting), panagtapa and panagkiing (drying), panagsuob (smoking), and panagbubod (fermentation) are food preservation techniques.

Popular Culture During Spanish Colonial Period

• Developed culture, language, religion, and institutions of Europe were introduced.
• The Philippine economy became dependent on the Galleon Trade (1565) between Manila and Acapulco, Mexico.
• The economy relied on exploitation of land and Native American labor.
• Spanish settlers started the encomienda system which giving Spaniards land and ownership of villages.
• Land was seized by the Spanish and huge plantations were developed making the owners rich.
• Islam is the oldest religion, arriving in the 13th century.
• The Catholic Church and Spanish state were bonded, religion played a dominant role in administration.
• 90% of the population are Catholic, this being the majority faith in the Philippines.
• Christianity introduced by conquistadors was part of colonization, using the cross to convert barangays.
• Social statuses during the Spanish period: Indios (natives), Insulares (Spaniards born in the Philippines), Mestizos (mixed Spanish), and Peninsulares (Spaniards born in Spain).
• Skill games involved shells, seeds, pebbles, and marbles; strategy games included tubig-tubig, bulan-bulan, and luksong tinik.
• Kuratsa was a popular dance during the colonial era.
• Written works in Spanish supported powerful colonial rule through period marking the foundation of a press.
• Printing was introduced by religious orders, with the first press being at the University of Sto. Tomas.
• A colonial policy arose dictating books needed to be approved by the bishop.
• Doctrina Christiana (1593) used block printing and contained teachings from the Catholic Church.
• Education was largely run by the Church, teaching natives and converting populations to Catholicism.
• Education also emphasized religion and provided skilled manpower, socializing diverse people.
• This education consisted of reading and writing in Latin and Greek, mathematics, religion, social skills, and music.
• Most children only learned reading, religion, and some writing.
• Literary works already present even before the Spaniards arrived were in oral form , and consisted of epics, legends, songs, riddles, and proverbs.
• Legends, sayings and superstitious beliefs developed since the time before the Spaniards arrived.
• Days for patron saints involved fiestas for the locals to cook food and welcome family and strangers.
• The Noche Buena feast and Christmas meals used Spanish and local adaptations like lechon, puchero, fabada, paella, morcon, embutido, leche flan, and churros.

Popular Culture During American Period

• American rule promoted an export economy based on cash-crop agriculture and mining, as well as strong commercial relations with the U.S.
• The free trade stimulated Philippine foreign and domestic trade.
• The Catholic Church was disestablished, giving Protestant missionaries opportunities.
• There was also a backlash against Hispanic Catholicism, and Protestantism was more accepted.
• Social statuses during this period were split into upper class and lower class.
• Education trained soldiers, Americans enacted physical education programs.
• English was promoted as the language to "civilize" Filipinos, a colonizers language so that they would participate in colonial society.
• Cultural communication was about using language to achieve the goals of communities.
• The American education system had great impact, and is "greatest "contribution.
• Filipino writers wrote again and continued nationalism through stories, plays, essays, and novels.
• English was added as a literary and communication tool.
• American cuisine introduced convenience foods like canned and pre-packaged items.
• Spam was popular during World War II and is a breakfast staple.

Popular Culture During Japanese Period

• War caused great loss of life and destruction, with approximately 527,000 Filipinos dead including 72 war crimes.
• English was still the official language, and Japanese influenced dialects.
• Philippine Literature in English was stopped, writers transferred to Filipino.
• Teaching Tagalog, Philippine History, and Character Education was reserved for the locals.
• Emphasized was Love for work and dignity of labor .
• Philippine Literature in English was stopped, writers transferrred to Filipino.
• There was a movement to turn Filipinos away from Americans and rewarded the faithful.

Philippine Popular Culture in Various Media

• Throughout history, the Philippines has developed and conserved pop culture with media, from traditional to social.
• Now there is a lot of consumed media with phones, televisions, and newspapers.
• Pop culture has used mediums through the years.
• Pop culture is accessible since lots of people now use social media.

Print Media

• Philippines print media started 150 years ago, with Tomas Pinpin (from Bataan) releasing the first paper called La Esperanza in 1846.
• The first provincial newspaper, El Eco de Vigan, was published in 1884.
• The first English newspaper was the Manila Times, the Manila Bulletin came in 1900.
• Over 387 local and national newspapers exist as of 2012, and most have online versions.
• Print media: Printed material gives information using words and/or photos.
• Materials include books, magazines, or brochures, a logical sense, it is any printed material that contains valuable information about anything significant.

Types of Pop Culture Print Media

• Broadsheet newspapers contain important news and detailed coverage. , English language is used.
• Tabs promote sensationalism, Filipino language is used.
• Magazines contains collection of texts (essays, articles, stories, poems) that is produced at regular intervals, focus on one subject and all its articles revolve around it.

Broadcast Media

• Media involves electronically and simultaneously sending information containing signals, print messages, and audio or video content to a vast group of recipients through signals, newspapers, magazines, and digital media (Internet, emails, texts).
• Pop culture spreads through TV and radio from greater connection and faster transmission.
• Mainstream media is easily accessed by consumers.
• broadcast media plays key role in information, goods, services, news, and ideas in communication because of its immediacy.
• Television and terrestrial radio has a competitive edge from advertising.

Internet Media

• The Internet is a more participatory way for mass communication on a "network of networks".
• The Internet is openly accessible using packet switching, using IP (Internet Protocol).
• The Internet is made up of academic, commercial, governmental and domestic networks to send data and services.
• Created in the 1960 created for researchers.
• Known as ARPANET evolved to what we know as internet.
• ARPANET Officially was created on January 1, 1983.

Internet Media Types

• The Internet is now more used than traditional sources.
• News can now be in video, audio, and text.
• Social media/Networks - Has global user-friendliness ,allows user to have exchange, can be accessed anywhere, and interact
• Social Media - used for professional, sharing interests and news. -Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tiktok and Reddit are social media.
• Streaming sites - Watch stream music or videos where people share their content exchanging for money/revenue.
• YouTube, Twitch, Spotify, Apple Music, Netflix are streaming sites
• Podcast - audios about single topic that listeners choose from.
• Users can be on any cross-platform for example computers, phone and etc.
• Podcasts typically contain educational/informational content, also using an anchor.
• Can access audio through Spotify and services of audios.

Philippine Popular Culture and New Media: Meme-ology

• Some might think it's not a fit for their brand image, others might simply be ignorant people in the world of memes and social media.
• Memes is usually humor images w/ text, vids with slight changes to every users, rapid spread and being copied.

What Is a meme

• Digital shares contents, forms that transforms, created or edited with awareness between each that many transform.

Two Streams:

1. Cultural Studies - study internet subculture on meme
2. Visual/Textual Analysis - confront the formal meme properties

Different Types of meme

1. Reaction Images - relies initial humor to prioritize those recognizable tv characters and movies w/ twitter font (Gotham Narrow)
2. image labeling - texts with coincident properties, overlap with images and are hard to decode
3. Exploitable - used on multiple boards in wide platforms with "canonical" and comic strip with easy templates conform
4. Snowclones: use phrasal base with pop culture before, e.g. , multi-use like "X is the new Y
5. Charts & Diagrams: trend concerned as orgs with morality/affiliations

Other Miscellaneous Types:

• Are still distinct warrant though are cover with share to the shared memes
• image Macros - recognized in interned/Advice/Characters (scumbag) and family still popular (Facebook)
• Deep Fried - involved w/redundant visuals can be used towards meme over styles/properties
• Minions - share like series in the BOO, like the age in resonate much ironic critique and captioned property in the youthers. blatant is Recent using similar.
• Formarly, they are being screenshoted with twitter

Frequently Extolling

• Pop star to comment for lacking culture.

1. starter packs. 2 .originated twitter , became saline on intsa it just was 4 quad into shoes and clothing w/ roast as those.

Culture & Society

• Relation Culture is culture which is a community share. world of billion share a smaller. interact to resource
• The way societies is not society the of the.

Defining Culture

• the from that of which is all other the is society, it is those others

Aspects of Culture

1. all for which, people is a of a group of people where people worship for.
2. the is all belief it of with is are in 18th in with century, is was which high which the society, is which are is beliefs

Religion of the Philippines

• Christianity by Ferdinand Magellan ship with of what of was territory. East of what it the

Philippine Independent Church

• By Philippines who is, what by José Colonial.

Jhovah winesses

• who is it what by Charles Russell

Tampuhan painting

• by painter Filipino the the was Luna. having.

Types of the art

1. Manunggul's jar was item, The of is with as was by the.
2. was by are in in the

Binakol

• of