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Is violence on the streets caused by violence in video games? Does cyber-bullying lead to an increase in suicide rates? Are teens promiscuous because of Teen Mom ? As Karen Sternheimer clearly demonstrates, popular culture is an easy scapegoat for many of society's problems, but it is almost always the wrong answer.

Now in its second edition, Connecting Social Problems and Popular Culture 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 a "media made them do it" explanation fails to illuminate the roots of social problems like poverty, violence, and environmental degradation. Sternheimer's analysis deftly illustrates how welfare "reform," a two-tiered health care system, and other difficult systemic issues have far moreto do with our contemporary social problems than Grand Theft Auto or Facebook.

The fully-revised new edition features recent moral panics--think sexting and cyberbullying--and an entirely new chapter exploring social media. Expanded discussion of how we understand society's problems as social constructions without disregarding empirical evidence, as well as the cultural and structural issues underlying those ills, allows students to stretch their sociological imaginations.

Tabla de contenidos provista por Syndetics

• Preface(p. ix)
• 1 Media Phobia: Why Blaming Pop Culture for Social Problems Is a Problem(p. 1)
• 2 Is Popular Culture Really Ruining Childhood?(p. 21)
• 3 Does Social Networking Kill? Cyberbullying, Homophobia, and Suicide(p. 47)
• 4 What's Dumbing Down America: Media Zombies or Educational Disparities?(p. 71)
• 5 From Screen to Crime Scene: Media Violence and Real Violence(p. 101)
• 6 Pop Culture Promiscuity: Sexualized Images and Reality(p. 139)
• 7 Changing Families: As Seen on TV?(p. 173)
• 8 Media Health Hazards? Beauty Image, Obesity, and Eating Disorders(p. 197)
• 9 Does Pop Culture Promote Smoking, Toking, and Drinking?(p. 219)
• 10 Consumption and Materialism: A New Generation of Greed?(p. 245)
• 11 Beyond Popular Culture: Why Inequality Is the Problem(p. 273)
• Selected Bibliography(p. 289)
• Index(p. 297)

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Publishers Weekly Review

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.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

CHOICE Review

Is there purpose in blaming the media for society's problems? "No," answers sociologist Sternheimer (Univ. of Southern California), who retorts that blaming the media is an act to distract attention from addressing society's many ills. Each chapter begins with a media phobia, e.g., "Media Violence Causes Real Violence," or "Popular Culture Promotes Teen Sex," and how this fear may have emerged. Sternheimer then tackles the distraction and refocuses attention on the policy, values, and social practices that informed and influenced the social problem in the first place. For example, in her chapter "Media Phobia #2: Popular Culture Is Ruining Childhood," Sternheimer offers possible sources for such statements, then unravels a myriad of truths about childhood--the first being that "childhood is rooted in social, economic and political realities"--and how the notion of childhood in the present changes "based on the needs of society." 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 helps debunk the notion that media is the cause of society's ills. Summing Up: Highly recommended. General, undergraduate, and graduate collections. D. E. Kelly Adelphi University

Notas de autor provistas por Syndetics

Karen Sternheimer is a sociologist at the University of Southern California where she is also a distinguished fellow at the USC Center for Excellence in Teaching. Her research has focused on issues related to popular culture and youth, particularly moral panics relating to both. She is the editor and lead writer for the Everyday Sociology blog and has appeared as a commentator on numerous networks, such as CNN, The History Channel, MSNBC, and Fox News.