CAPITALISM, CONSUMERISM AND POPULAR CULTURE

Christianity and Popular Culture

Myths of Popular Culture

The aim of this article is to explore some critical moments in the formation of ‘popular’ culture studies. This objective is not exhaustive, cannot be exhaustive in the space of a single article, since popular cultural studies have grown into an academic industry which not even five live-times of academic work by any individual can exhaust! This article is therefore, a rapid but hopefully, prov...

Ideological State Apparatuses, Consumerism, and U.S. Capitalism: Lessons for the Left

Althusser’s pioneering concept of “ideological state apparatuses” is extended to the unique role of consumerism as a particular ideology enabling and supporting U.S. capitalism. It is argued that rising levels of worker consumption have functioned effectively to compensate workers for (and thereby allow) rising rates of exploitation and their negative social effects. For such compensation to su...

Journal of Criminal Justice and Popular Culture

This research examined media depiction of homicide in a large metropolitan area from the market-driven journalism perspective (McManus, 1994). From this perspective, news organization decisions are based on journalist and news editor perceptions of what type of stories resonate with the general public. Accordingly, the news production process becomes characterized as an exercise in market strat...

Journal of Criminal Justice and Popular Culture

Recent research in criminology has indicated that the media may influence people’s attitudes toward criminal justice policy. This paper examined attitudes toward gun control among a student population using both ideological (attribution styles) and instrumental perspectives (fear of crime), and then tested whether viewing the film Bowling for Columbine influenced those attitudes. The study empl...