The Cultural Diamond: Beyond the Mass Media Matrix

As citizens, we are held to standards set by society. Society tells us what we should do based off a stereotype. The cultural diamond includes the relationship between the social world, the cultural object, the creator, and the receiver. Culture can be referred to like the way we market products. The cultural Diamond is used to demonstrate how the social world which is society as a whole, and how it is affected by the creator, who is responsible for making the products and the receiver who ask for the products, and the cultural objects which is the way cultures demand and set guidelines. In every situation, there are “freaks” and there are “normal” people. What differentiates the two is the fact that freaks typically Identify as the minority group related to race, gender, ethnicity, and disability. Meanwhile, normal people tend to fall under the group of privilege.

What sets the groups Apart? Well first off Minority groups are represented much less in the prime time television industry. For example when characters are broadcast-ed of minority roles such as disabled characters, females, and characters of non-Caucasian ethnicity. They tend to receive less screen time compared to characters who are “normal”.

What makes Someone a good citizen? Well, a good citizen can be defined as someone who fits the following three characteristics. First of all, someone who is honest, when dealing with conflict or just stating the truth, however, many companies and individuals working for companies would not fit under this category as they commonly use false or misrepresented information to influence consumers. The next quality is respect. Individuals in society often have their own opinion, beliefs, or personal values which may not match up with others. As a consumer, you may see a movie represented to a specific target audience or it may be something that is nowhere near your interest, however, a good citizen would respect the cultural differences and hesitate from making negative remarks. Lastly, a good citizen is responsible. In this course, we learned about the different methods of ethics, despite ones individual beliefs individuals are all held responsible for their own actions and should always tell the truth regardless of the consequence based on the to Kant duty-based ethics. Individuals on all ends of the cultural diamond are held responsible for their actions.

In the pop culture Industry wether, you are interested in television, music, or other forms of entertainment there is commonly a lack of misrepresentation in the entertainment industry. For example, a disabled character tends to receive less screen time on prime time television shoes compared to a nondisabled character. Minority groups such as African Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans all tend to serve as supporting charters rather than Leads. Females are cast as supporting characters in television shows, and In shows, they tend to rely on male characters to solve issues. Lastly, the LGTBQ+ community receives a low percentage of screen time in the prime-time television industry. All the minority groups are often misrepresented compared to the proportion there is in society.

A citizen can be defined as someone who contributes to society in a positive manner. A good citizen is someone who is respectful to others, one who is able to form there own opinion but civilly disagree on a topic. As members of society, we are often tested through our daily lives. An important topic to remember is citizenship education, we are responsible as adults to educate children on what it means to be a citizen and how to enlighten them to be a positive contribution to society. A question to ask your self is how you as an individual can contribute to society?

Global Perspectives & Star Wars

Society as a whole is constantly evolving. As citizens, we are expected to be held to a specific standard that meets certain stereotypes. A common term usually referred to from an economic standpoint is globalization. Globalization can be referred to as the process by which businesses or other organizations develop international influence or start operation on an international scale. A 21st-century Global perspectives term is commonly referred to as McDonaldization. McDonaldization is referred to as a way of thinking about contemporary forms of capitalist production. Since the boom of the Star Wars Industry, the movie series is a prime example of globalization and how it can be used. Capitalist focus on four important factors when producing products for consumers, first off the efficiency, which is when products are produced in and made in the most efficient model possible. Next is calculability, this is when producers use quantitative methods to asses the profitability and the market productions of a good. Then we have predictability, which is when consumers can anticipate that the quality and content of the products because they have been held to a standard. Lastly, We have control of technology through the labor force.

Efficiency: When products are produced and made available to consumers in the most efficient way possible. For example products and companies start allowing audible downloads so customers can download books from there home on there desired devices. The Star Wars Movie series switched to being available on DVD in 2006, In order to offer convenience for customers to watch the movie out of there own homes.

Calculability: This can be described as when producers determine the market for products by tracking sales and predicting the success of future related goods. An example would be when a company releases a product and track the sales before producing a new similar product. When Star wars create a new Lightsaber or interactive prop they track the sales of the previous ones sold to guess on how much to produce and what they can do to outsell the first product they created.

Predictability: This can be described as when consumers anticipate the quality and content of the product because the products they are buying are held to a common standard. An example of this is when consumers are purchasing a new Star Wars Video game, and have heard positive reviews from friends and own a game that was released prior so they can trust that the new one is going to be held to their desired standards.

Control through the Technology Labor Force: this can be described as when corporations produce goods that humans consumer and get more and more powerful with the rate at how rapidly technology is producing products. For example, factories used to rely on humans to produce goods, which would take twice as long now they use technology and advanced machinery.

Globalization In Star Wars: The Star Wars Movie industry has done a phenomenal job of Globalizing their products. They can market almost anything as long as they label it star wars or add a photograph of a character. Star Wars has sold items such as Lego Sets, Video games, Blankets ect. The Products of been globalized and marketed to consumers fantastically.

Overall globalization is used in all aspects of the product market. Whether you are purchasing a new tooth brush or are a Marketing Executive for a company you are involved in globalization. A question to ask yourself is whether or not globalization is beneficial for the worldwide economy?

Disability In the Television Industry

In the Television Industry, there is a lack of representation among disabled characters. 1 in 5 Americans is qualified to be disabled. The term disability is a cultural term set by society, rather than a medical term. In recent years the television industry has started to incorporate disabled characters into the story plot line. However, there is a lack of representation among disabled characters in televisions genres.

Reality TV: In reality television industry there is a lack of representation of disabled character compared to non-disabled characters. The rate of disabled characters levels out to be 13.8%. Some examples of reality TV shows with disabled characters include TLC show little people which broadcast a show focused on a married midget couple. A major issue is that there are few reality TV shows focused on physical disabled individuals, and if so they tend to be more medical related rather than entertainment based.

Dramas: The drama industry has an average of 3.2% representation in the industry. Some examples of popular drama Include the show Glee, The Secret Life of An American Teenager, and Breaking Bad. In the show Glee, the main character Arnold is in a wheelchair but his wheelchair is used as a prop advantage when the performance group is on stage. An issue in this drama is how the characters who are disabled for example Arnold from the show Glee is portrayed by an actor who is physically able to walk.

Sitcoms: The sitcom industry has a percentage rate of 2.1% performers. Some examples Include Bones, The Big Bang theory. The sitcom group has the lowest rate of disabled characters out of all genres. This is a disappointing rate, humans with physical disabilities may want to see people like them represented in a humorous way rather then the typical sympathetic approach that  shows tend to follow.

Animated: The Animated genre has the second highest disability character rate with a percentage of 8.6%. Some examples of animated characters include Mater from Cars the movie, Anakin Sky walker from Star Wars, and Pearl From finding Nemo. This group has the second highest rating, and also incorporates the most television shows geared to young children.

Overall there is a lack of Disability representation among Television shows. 1/5th of Americans have some sort of disability, and this should be broadcast as a society. In recent years there has been a vast improvement among being inclusive to disabled characters and the disabled community in TV shows, however, this needs improvement.The major reason behind this is due to the fact that society as whole has labeled the term disability as physical disability due to  soci-culture standards. A question to ask your self is how society as a whole can become more accepting towards Disabled Humans.

The Television Industry is 94.9% represented by Heterosexuals… What about the rest of the spectrum.

The television industry lacks sexual diversity. Heterosexuals represent almost 94% of actors and actress leaving only five percent of the spectrum represented on TV. LGBTQ + includes gay males, Lesbians, Bisexual Males and Bisexual females. This lack of representation is due to a few things, one the lack of legal gay marriage which was not legalized until 2016. The other issue is some individuals unwelcoming towards the idea of non-heterosexuals being represented on prime time Television. Show’s such as the Ellen Show, a reality TV show featuring Ellen Degenerous who runs a comedy talk show with an opening monologue, she also interviews popular guest such as reality TV stars, Next biggest hit, trending you tube sensationalist and much more. Her fun variant personality has welcomed many into being gay, as she subtly mention her relationship with her wife during the show.

LGTBQ individuals experience not only a lack of representation of characters, but also a lack of screening hours compared to heterosexual characters. Many shows are “welcoming the idea to a gay character “. For example on the hit ABC Family television series Pretty Little Liars they welcome a gay character Emily who is interested in women, however compared to her fellow co-stars her relationship with partners are screened less compared to straight character relationship such as The “Spooby” romance between Spencer, and Toby, or the relationship between Aria, and Ezra, Or Hannah and Caleb.

The current breakdown of sexual demographics in television leads Heterosexuals at 94.4%, Gay males at 3.4%, Lesbians at 0.6%, Bisexual Females at 0.6%, and Bisexual males at 0.2%. Overall there is significant gap between sexual representation in the television industry. With the legalization of gay marriage, and the increase in openly gay individual the television industry needs to fix the gap among individuals. How long will it take until the gap related to sexual representation is closed?

Over half of the United States population is women, But women remain underrepresented on television.

Gender representation is common problem amount today’s society. Women have spent centuries advocating for equality to men. In the television industry women are still to this day unequal to men. In prime T.V. men dominate the gender representation in all the following categories Reality TV, Animation, Dramas, and  Situation Comedies. Overall men contain 60.6 percent of representation in prime T.V. leaving women at 39.4%.

Reality TV: This category of television has the greatest equality leaving women at 49%, and men at 51%. This is due to the face that in today society reality TV has become a predominately female industry. For example shows such as Keeping Up with the Kardashians, Or The Bachelor. Women are very close to closing the gender inequality gap in prime television representation in the category of reality TV.

Animation: This category of television has the highest representation gap leaving women at a representation of 26% and men at a high rate of 74%. As a female I will  admit I  personally do not have a strong interest in animation, but this is not the same for all females. A reason for this large gap could be due to the type of shows being televised. Examples of animation shows include shows such as The Simpsons, South Park, and Family Guy.

Dramas: Women are significantly below men in gender representation. Women represent 40% meanwhile men represent 60%. This surprises me due to the feminine qualities of drama shows. Some examples of popular drama shows include Grey’s Anatomy, Orange is the New Black, and Criminal Minds. My best inference on why men dominate dramas is because they fulfill the leadership roles, or are seen as “attractive” to keep women interested and engaged in the show.

Situational Comedies. Men lead this category with a representation of 64%, leaving women at 36%. This category I can understand since the humor is intended to be sexual or sarcastic. Shows such as The Office, How I Met Your Mother, Modern Family, and Friends.

Overall gender representation on Prime Time Television Needs Vast Improvement.With an overall representation gap of approximately 40% there is a large gap and need for improvement in order to represent genders equally. Which genre of television do you think will achieve equality first?

Class Themes In Pop Culture

In pop culture there are different themes and levels of class in the media we watch.  The levels of class have various meanings, and some individuals may interpret these differently. The concepts of class state a clear differentiation of the multiple groups and the hierarchy. Class is separated by the number of variables that shape our experience with social hierarchy’s.There are various levels of class ranging from The American Dream to “True Love conquers, Ethnic Division Trumps Unity to class Invisibility. Each level of class represents a  standard or expectation set by society.

The American Dream: The American Dream can be defined as the perfect or ideal family. One that is comfortable in there socioeconomic status. Married usually with two or three kids. Living in a house in a nice neighborhood, with a stable job and career. In pop culture examples of the American Dream can range from Claire’s family in modern family, or Good Luck Charlie on Disney Channel. They represent the American Dream by living with two or more kids, in a nice house in a safe neighborhood in California. Claire is a stay at home mom in the early seasons, meanwhile Phil works as a real estate agent.

True Love Conquers Class: This class can be described as a poor kid who ends up with the rich girl or vice versa. In more basic terms there is a love story and out of the two characters one character is from upper class, meanwhile the other character can be defined as working class or poor. A fantastic example of this would be Aladdin, who falls in love with the princess but is forbidden from engaging in a relationship with her due to royal standards.

Ethnic Division Trumps Class Unity: This class states that despite racial standards, there is a love story that is stronger then the racial norm. An example of this would be in the Netflix Original Series Dynasty, The main character Fallen Carrington falls in love with her African American Butler Michel Cullinhan.  Fallen Carrington Comes from a rich mega oil industry family, where money is in her blood, her driver Michel falls in love with her and the two have an  off and on love relationship which is above the social culture norm where the rich marry rich.

Overall Pop Culture has transformed to being more Class Invisible, where race gender and socioeconomic standards no longer have such a great importance.

Do you think Think society has transformed to becoming more invisible or is there a vast need for improvement?

Pop Culture & Cultural Diversity Today

Pop culture has changed overtime, in the same way as the demographics represented in movies. The first top rated movie to incorporate characters of multiple  races was not until the early 1920’s. Why is that? Whites were the dominant race to earn top paying movie roles. Another contributing factor was the historical time period. When movies were first starting to become a popular source of entertainment this occurred before or during the American Civil Rights movement in the 1960’s.

The Film Industry: In the early 1900’s until the late 90’s leading characters in popular movies were all predominantly white. Since then movies have advanced from having caucasian leads to main characters of various ethnicity. However, this change in multi race leads has lead to negative controversy. For example when the movie black punter was released there were many negative statements on how the movie was limiting towards one race, which made others feel uncomfortable. Overall the racial breakdown of movies has greatly improved, the current break down is 7.1% Asian, 4.9% hispanic, 13.2% black and 71.2% white racial representation in the film industry.

The Music Industry: The music industry is changing constantly. From the rock ages to modern pop and hip hop styles. Along with types of music changing so are the races represented in the top 100 charts. In 2010 out of the top 100 songs 45 of the artist were caucasian, 36 artist identified as black, 16 identified as mixed or as other and 2 songs identified as hispanics, while 1 artist identified as Asian. So what does this mean? Yes from the early 1900’s where almost all top performing artist were white to the late 2000’s where other races were represented in the top 100. Whites were still the highest percentage and the second highest were black. So yes, as a society we have become more culturally diverse however aside from whites and black are the other ethnicities represented equally?

The Television industry: The television industry was born in the mid 1950’s when it became a common thing to have a tv in the average american house. Shows would have predominately white male leads with supporting female leads to follow. It has been until recently where shows are starting to incorporate diverse cast. In the past decade from 2002 the to 2010 the black representation in prime tv increased by over 6.3%. Society is becoming more accepting over other races being represented in television. As for African Americans in the United states pop culture they have increased representation in the film, music, and tv industry. A question to leave your self with is  Do you think society is going to start to incorporate other races to become equally represented in pop culture compared to the Caucasian race, and how soon?

All Facts sourced from: http://web.a.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail/detail?vid=3&sid=ea5848ff-0859-4dd6-b299-6bf121578620%40sessionmgr4007&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1zaXRl#db=a9h&AN=131123668

Star Wars: The Trilogy of Adaptation

 Cultural adaptation can be defined as the process it takes a person to immerse themselves into a new culture.  For example first semester college freshman are all adapting to a new environment, such as living in a setting like a dorm. Adults face adaptation in many ways for example starting a new job or learning task required for a promotion. Adaption is a common occurrence and there are five main Types of cultural adaptations. Those types include Conformity, Innovation, ritualism , retreat-ism , and rebellion.

Conformity: Conformity can be described as agreement between an individual’s behavior or appearance and  how they portray themselves based off societies standards. In the movie Star Wars Darth Vador tries to conform his son Luke sky walker to join the dark side.

Innovation: Innovation is the new idea’s or ways to complete a task. In the latest star war’s movie the Last Jedi Poe tries to use his Innovative idea’s to save the ship in the first battle scene but fails miserably and ends up costing the rebels gas which is already limited for them.

Ritualism: Can be described as regular routine or practice. In The Last Jedi Rey and Luke established a Ritual of spending all day training to fight the dark side. Since Rey was the last Jedi she had to get into a ritual of training with the best (Luke Skywalker).

Retreatism: Is rejecting goals and dropping out of everything. Luke Skywalker did that after many years of dedicating his life fighting he decided he needed a break and some peace so he hid and disassociated himself from anything involving his past.

Rebellion: Rebellion can be described as going against social norms. The ” Rebels” were a non-conformist group which were left of good. The rest of the galaxy wanted them to conform to the “Dark side”.  The ongoing battle between the “Dark side” and the “Rebels” has been continuous throughout Star Wars history.

Whether your a Star Wars Character fighting against the dark side using every will power and light saber you own just to avoid conformity, or your a college student who is trying to adapt to a new ritual cultural adaptation is a common occurrence in the world around us. A question to ask yourself, ” Are you conforming into college and devolving a healthy ritual, or are you too entering the dark side which will lead to reatreatism?

                 What is Pop Culture?

What is the Cultural Diamond?

The cultural Diamond can be described as the relationship between the producer and the audience.  The diamond consist on four corners. Each corner represents a relationship between one another. The first being the creator and the receiver.

The creator in the pop culture world is known to be the one who creates content such as movies or telivion shows that the audience or receivers want to see.

The receiver in pop culture is the every day audience member who is viewing or purchasing products being sent out or made by the creator. The creator makes content based off the receivers interest. For example If a group of creators come out with a new toy and go to a convention and all the “receivers” love that toy then the creators will continue to produce that toy since the product shows interest.

The Cultural Object is the specific object or tangible item that is being sold or produced. For example  a Hans Solo pop socket, or White Cheddar flavored pop corn being sold at a movie theater.

The social world is the world around us or the society we live in. The world we live in can very depending on different perspectives. There are local levels such as within a common town or community. The social world can also broaden to a global or national perspective such as looking at the planet or the human population as whole.Another social world could be a common interest or group such as Marvel fans.

How does the Cultural Diamond affect You?

The cultural diamond affects not only the world around us but society as a whole but how does the Cultural diamond affect you as an individual? From my own  personal experience, the cultural diamond affects me in a way of my common interest. For example I am interested in running. There is a “social world” for runnings. Such as blogs like Runner’s Daily, or news articles and local running clubs. There is a social world for everyone no matter what your interest is the true question we all ask is what is ” Your Cultural Diamond”?

Hello Fellow Readers my name is Kristen Lambert and I am a first year here at Longwood University. I love running, drinking coffee, and lifestyle related topics. I created this blog  for my Inquiry to Citizenship class. Feel free to message me if you have any questions, or comment on my my post.