Popular Culture

Steven Johnson – “Why Games Are Good for You”
Neil Postman – “Television as Teacher”
Carmen D. Siering – “Taking a Bite out of Twilight”

The authors in our final unit discuss a variety of media, and each author offers insight into the often complex relationships between learning and popular entertainment. Choose any three of the texts listed above and write an essay in response to the following prompt:

The editors of our textbook note that, according to many scholars, “popular culture, far from being too ‘lite’ to take seriously, is the very ground we should be exploring carefully if we wish to make sense of our lives today” (419). Craft an original argument in response to this statement, drawing on your three chosen texts to support your claims. Your argument may support, refute, or otherwise complicate the claim, or it may do a combination of these.