Forget tabloids. These days, people take to TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat and Tumblr to learn about the newest trends, read about the latest celebrity drama and brush up on current events. When pop culture is just a swipe or a click away, how does that change the way we all interact with each other and the wider world?
A class at NAU, SOC 356 – The Sociology of Popular Culture, allows students to decode the meaning of today’s pop culture by applying social concepts and theories, helping them ease into sharing their opinions and understanding different views of the world.
Jessie Finch, chair of the Department of Sociology, said it’s much easier to learn complex concepts like conflict theory and functionalism when they’re applied to a subject everyone has an opinion about—like Beyoncé or “Bridgerton.”
“Popular culture is one of the easiest access points for students to understand sociological concepts,” Finch said. “People have a hard time talking about social concepts when they pertain to their own lives, but if you say, ‘Let’s talk about a celebrity and her boyfriends and what it means for dating and the like,’ they are more excited to explore concepts like heteronormativity. The class is a good way to analyze these social structures that impact all of us. You can make them personal while also distancing yourself so you can process the information without shutting down.”
Offered every semester, the class discusses how social interactions that happen in pop culture, like among fandoms, are similar to those occurring in, say, political parties—teaching important lessons on sociological concepts by looking at them through a more lighthearted, low-stakes lens.
Jennifer Kim, the sociology professor who teaches the class right now, said the course teaches students how to apply sociological analysis to familiar identities in American popular culture.
“Students learn that there are multiple, often conflicting, societal messages in every facet of popular culture,” Kim said. “Despite its roots in entertainment, popular culture is one of the most important transmitters of social meaning.”
Utilizing what students know about a celebrity and transferring it into a social concept helps students understand how popular culture operates on a structural level. Kim creates a space where people can judge without fear of backlash or negative social consequences.
“There are a lot of social structural processes and critique when we think about popular culture,” said Finch. “The class covers things like authenticity, what TV shows are ‘reality’ shows and how much of that is already scripted and produced behind the scenes. We deconstruct some of what we have absorbed about pop culture and focus on media literacy, where we are not just seeing what is on TV, learning it and accepting it, but critiquing it and asking ourselves what is real and what is the promoted message.”
The class engages students in several research projects throughout the semester where they apply what they are learning to their immediate environments using traditional sociological research and creatively express their findings through media like zines.
“I recommend this class to students who are looking for high levels of engagement and deep interest in documenting and studying the world around them,” Kim said. “We watch a lot of popular culture and have fun developing a deeper curiosity about how the social world is shaped by popular culture and vice versa. Students who take the class will never watch popular culture the same!”
For more information, visit the NAU course catalog.
Mariana Laas | NAU Communications
(928) 523-5050 | mariana.laas@nau.edu