Popular Culture and Shaping Reality
Edition: 2
Copyright: 2026
Pages: 304
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$90.00 USD
Theory historically has portrayed popular culture as a means of blinding and distracting the masses to the real problems occurring in the world today, thereby making them passive regarding change. Popular Culture and Shaping Reality provides a different explanation of popular culture and its impact on people. Throughout the text, whether discussing fandom, music, cartoons, or several other genres of popular culture, faculty are provided a framework from which to build a case of the value of popular culture in the 21st century.
Welcome
Introduction
Chapter 1 What is the Big Deal about Popular Culture?
Chapter 2 Social Theory and Why Popular Culture is Bad
Chapter 3 I was a Teenage Zombie, or How Zombies Became Cool
Chapter 4 Vampires and Empowerment
Chapter 5 Young Adult Dystopian Literature and How Gen Z’ers are Learning to Fix the World
Chapter 6 My Body the Canvas
Chapter 7 Hip-Hop, Music, and Becoming More Socially Aware
Chapter 8 Social Media as Popular Culture
Chapter 9 Video Games
Chapter 10 Cartoons, Graphic Novels, and Comics
Chapter 11 Fandom and Cosplay
Chapter 12 The Conclusion: Maybe Adorno and Horkheimer were Wrong
David G. LoConto is a Professor of Sociology at New Mexico State University, specializing in early American sociological thought, identity, authenticity, and Star Trek fandom. LoConto is author of several articles addressing a diverse selection of topics from race, ethnicity, disability, pragmatism, as well as early American sociological thought. He has also written several books including Social Movements and the Collective Identity of the Star Trek Fandom: Boldly Going Where No Fans Have Gone Before (Lexington Books, 2020).