Connecting Social Problems in Popular Culture [Paperback]

Karen Sternheimer (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0813344174 | ISBN-13: 978-0813344171 | Publication Date: August 11, 2009 | Edition: 1

Is violence on the streets caused by violence in video games? Do hip-hop lyrics increase misogynistic and homophobic behavior? Are teens promiscuous because of what they see in movies? Popular culture is an easy answer for many of society’s problems, but it is almost always the wrong answer. This innovative book goes beyond the news-grabbing headlines claiming that popular culture is public enemy number one to consider what really causes the social problems we are most concerned about. The sobering fact is that the roots of poverty, child abuse, and unequal public education are much more complicated than the media-made-them-do-it explanations. Karen Sternheimer deftly illustrates how welfare “reform,” a two-tiered health care system, and other difficult systemic issues have far more to do with our contemporary social problems than Grand Theft Auto or 50 Cent.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Sternheimer (Kids These Days) unpacks the media's penchant for sensationalizing and misdirecting public discourse about the real causes of poverty, disease, materialism, sexual license and substance abuse. She argues that news coverage engages in misleading media phobia—blaming popular culture for entrenched social problems by fingering convenient scapegoats (e.g., movies, video games, rap music) for teen pregnancy, lower educational attainment and violence. Sternheimer illustrates how reports of children's increased violence after video-game use are based almost entirely on spurious or contradictory studies, and how arguments about media phobia deflect attention away from such basic issues as unequal access to skills, education, jobs and resources: the real culprits and causal links the media ignores. Revealing how frequently—and perniciously—social research is manipulated, Sternheimer demonstrates how to hold the media accountable while addressing the more entrenched and salient problem of child poverty that she believes is to blame. (Aug.)
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Review

 

"In this well researched book, Karen Sternheimer gives lie to a full spectrum of false fears about the effects of popular culture on young people. She provides valuable correctives to innumerable myths promulgated by opportunistic politicians, advocacy groups, and journalists." —Barry Glassner, University of Southern California; author of The Gospel of Food and The Culture of Fear

 

"Sternheimer unpacks the media's penchant for sensationalizing and misdirecting public discourse about the real causes of poverty, disease, materialism, sexual license and substance abuse. … Revealing how frequently—and perniciously—social research is manipulated, Sternheimer demonstrates how to hold the media accountable while addressing the more entrenched and salient problem of child poverty that she believes is to blame." —Publishers Weekly

 

"In Connecting Social Problems and Popular Culture, Karen Sternheimer delivers a necessary synthesis, with a devastating media analysis, in response to the prevalent cottage industry of exaggeration, myth, and invention about popular culture’s impacts on youth behavior. And in layering a critique of society, class, and race over actual evidence she produces a work of great value to those working with or teaching about youth." —Anthony Bernier, San Jose State University

 

"Sternheimer delivers a scholarly, highly readable debunking of the enthroned culture-war herd's facile blaming of ‘pop culture’ and ‘the media’ for everything about today’s richly diverse young people the fear-mongers don’t like. Sternheimer articulately challenges those who care about youth to stop letting perpetual panics over fictional bogeys obscure genuine threats like poverty, abuse, inequality, and rising anxiety toward healthy social change." —Mike Males, YouthFacts.org

 

"The media and popular culture are routinely blamed for causing all the ills of the modern world. Karen Sternheimer’s book shows how blaming the media distracts attention from the real problems that affect young people today, and prevents us from understanding how they use the media in their everyday lives. Clearly written and powerfully argued, this book deserves a wide readership well beyond the academy." —David Buckingham, Institute of Education, University of London

 

“The author cautions against focusing on the media as predator and turns readers’ attention to themselves and the society they create around and conceivably ‘for’ their children and families to better grasp how people create and perpetuate social problems. Well researched, with an attention to policy details, this book helpsdebunk the notion that media is the cause of society’s ills. Highly recommended.” —Choice

 

“Focusing on … children and young adults, [Sternheimer’s] main argument is that the intersection of race, gender, and poverty makes social problems significantly complex, and as a result, we blame popular culture for societal quandaries because it is easier to convince ourselves that television and video games are the cause of social disparities… Sternheimer asks us to take another look. Her book is a well written rationale as to why we should.” –American Sociological Association  

 

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Westview Press; 1 edition (August 11, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0813344174
• ISBN-13: 978-0813344171
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #364,875 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars great original debunking, January 5, 2011

By 

Michael A. Males (Oklahoma City, OK United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Connecting Social Problems in Popular Culture (Paperback)

Call me over-analytical, but as a former sociology instructor, I check out authors' references and "facts." Sternheimer's analysis checks out. This is a fine book that combines entertaining pop-culture references with solid research to produce a theme many find distinctly unwelcome: popular culture and media are NOT the devastating influences on young people that escapists argue. Whether it's violence, sex, drugs, school failure, materialism, and so on, a youth's behavior relates far, far more to his or her poverty level and the real behaviors of nearby adults than to fictional images on the screen.

Negative comments by "LD" claiming he "knows" that "these humans" (young people)--30 million people he never met--are "not right" just by "observing" them tell me a lot more about the reviewer than about teenagers. Unfortunately, this kind of egotism is often the standard for books and reviews about youth. Those who instead take a humbler, more critical approach demand evidence beyond "what's inside my head," and Sternheimer supplies strong evidence that can be checked to back her points.

This book is clearly written and works well both for a personal read and for social scientists and teachers seeking texts for media analysis, cultural studies, sociology, social psychology, and related classes where a distinct, refreshing view challenging conventional notions is needed.