How TV Teaches and Distorts Popular Culture

Undoubtedly television is one of many forms of popular culture and a primary medium for which these ideals are transmitted. Television is a pervasive part of American life as it bombards us daily with images and subliminal messages that eventually impact how we spend our money, time, define ourselves, and families. Many of the messages conveyed on television promote/support popular culture artifacts, icons, fashion, etc. It is my opinion that popular culture thrives through television as well as other forms of media including advertising, magazines, and new media While many forms of popular culture exist what I believe sets these meduims apart from others like music, fashion, and toys, is its ability to stimulate the senses in a way that leads to behavior choices and change.

Television is a form of popular culture that is here to stay. As parents and educators we must teach and convey messages that foster critical awareness of images, messages, and ideas conveyed via television. I have witnessed in my work, that even by ninth grade, many young people are unable think and respond critically primarily because this is not what they are taught.

The following lesson is based on commentary I ran across regarding the President and First Lady’s recent trip to Africa, specifically the countries of Benin, Tanzania, Rwanda, Ghana, and Liberia. The name of the “article” is Africa is mine, the Diaspora is Mine by Robert Tynes. The purpose of the trip was to continue to move forward US initiatives to improve education, reduce poverty, and fight pandemic disease, or to observe how these initiatives have progressed overtime. While I believe this trip was well intended, I am concerned with a few comments made during a speech at the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art prior to leaving for the trip. The same sentiment is shared by Tynes. I also find the slide show to be a bit selective and staged an example of how television distorts popular culture. Television is a powerful tool that impacts us daily, this reality must be conveyed to young people in a way they can grapple with it and form their own choices.

Lesson title

Television and Popular Culture—Exploring Foreign Policy in Africa

Methodology: Experiential Learning Model

This lesson would be embedded in a larger unit on Foreign Policy

Do

• View the slide show from the President and First Lady’s visit to Africa and read the transcripts from the speech at the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art
• http://mediacommons.futureofthebook.org/videos/2008/04/15/africa-is-mine-the-diaspora-is-mine/
  
• Examine songs, artifacts, movies (from the African perspective) about US policy and relations

Reflect

• Convene a discussion on what the young people took from the slide show and transcripts.
• What personal perceptions do you have about Africa?
• Do your personal perceptions and what do you took from the slides math? If so, why?

Apply

• Each young person creates a rap/poem about Foreign policy in Africa.