The Labyrinth that is Popular Culture

It's hard not to fall victim to the love for Jim and Pam's relationship. The infamous couple who work at Dunder Mifflin, the paper company in the show The Office, represent two coworkers who become best friends while both avoiding the fact that they obviously have feelings for each other. This changes when Pam's fiance, Roy, finally picks a wedding date and the engagement between the two becomes incredibly more real. Jim finally finds the nerve to tell Pam how he feels but it all feels too late. Jim leaves to work at a new office and Pam calls off the wedding. Eventually Jim's office is merged together with his old one, where Pam works and the two start to rekindle their friendship. Although Jim has a girlfriend at this point, he clearly still has feelings for Pam. Long story short after a long and painful wait the two finally get together and eventually get married. Although it's a story of fake love it's a bit more realistic than what is normally portrayed bet

Brand Identity refers to the ideals and aesthetics that certain companies aim to obtain. One of my favorite stores, Urban Outfitters embodies the care-free lifestyle of stylish teens. They want to express a hippy lifstyle through their items. They do this through their ads and the way their stores are set up. One of my least favorite stores, Aeropostal, tries to make their brand famous by putting their name across all their clothes. They're seen as basic and boring which is unappealing to me.

A Duke student named Lauren was caught in a scandal that outed her for her decision to perform in porn. In the clip we watched from a news channel called The Young Turks they discussed how she should've known she'd eventually be recognized but they're defending her against the bullying and death threats brought upon her by her peers. They don't understand why she's upset about being "outed" but they also think, if you don't agree with it fine but don't harrass her. In another clip on a student news channel called Take Part the students discuss how if you work in porn people are bound to recognize you but say she's a grown woman and can make her own decisions. The difference between the two reports is that Take Part doesn't understand why it's even a story, it shouldn't be considered news while The Young Turks recognize it as a story because of the bullying aspect of it. In this instance I think people would be a lot happier if they

Justin Bieber did a photoshoot for Calvin Klein a little while back and after the finished photos were released, another one surfaced that was claimed to be the photo before it had been photoshopped. In the finished photos Justin looked more muscular and bigger. They even increased the size of his penis drastically compared to the unphotoshopped image. This became a somewhat big deal in the media becuase Justin's PR team immediately claimed the images were not photoshopped and the person who leaked the photo retracted his statement claiming, "If Justin says photoshop had not taken place then I believe him." In both of the videos we watched there was a common underlying cause as to why Justin didn't want people to think photoshop had taken place. That underlying cause is that 'masculinity' is incredibly hard to achieve because of the unrealistic expectations for men and their bodies. These expectations then cause men to become self conscious over things that sh

In the video we watched about the cultivation theory, the theory is described as the phenomenon where people who watch TV begin to align the plots of the shows with the reality of their lives. For example, when someone watches a lot of violent shows or movies they expect that crime rates in the real world are going up. John Oliver begins to slightly touch on this when he discusses the use of torture in shows. These shows make torture seem effective which in turn makes the general public believe that torture tactics are, in fact, effective when it's been proven that they're not. People are majorly influenced by television programs, whether they'd like to admit it or not, and in turn it effects the way they make decisions and live their lives. That is the cultivation theory.

People are drawn to sports. Some like to play them, and others simply like to watch them. We often see spectators develop relationships with specific teams that they consider to be superior to the rest. There have even been a couple terms coined about these people who enjoy watching sports. The first is BIRGing. BIRGing stands for 'basking in reflected glory.' This is when people associate themselves with the success of a team to make themselves seem or feel more successful or accomplished. They do this by doing things like wearing shirts and hats with team logos on them or celebrating and bragging to people about the 'big win.' We sort of see this in Stephen Colbert's Comedy Central clip where he talks about the bet between the governor of California and the governor of New York. While they are betting on their team, a considered part of 'BIRGing,' what they're betting makes it seem like they don't have too much faith in them, but still enough to ma