Signs of Life in the USA: Readings on Pop Culture for Writers

[* Indicates material new to this edition]

Contents
Preface for Instructors 

INTRODUCTION
Popular Signs: Or, Everything You Always Knew about American Culture (but Nobody Asked) 
It''s the End of the World as We Know It 
From Folk to For-Profit 
Pop Culture Goes to College 
The Semiotic Method 
Abduction and Overdetermination 
Interpreting Popular Signs: The Revolution will be Reiterated 
The Classroom Connection 
Cultural Mythologies　　　
Getting Started 
Writing about Popular Culture 
Using Active Reading Strategies 
Prewriting Strategies 
Developing Strong Arguments about Popular Culture 
Conducting a Semiotic Analysis 
Reading Visual Images Actively 
Reading Essays about Popular Culture 
AMY LIN: Barbie: Queen of Dolls and Consumerism [STUDENT ESSAY]
*IRINA BODEA: Banks: Progressive or Traditional [STUDENT ESSAY]
*JEREMY CREEK: The Anglerfish in the Machine: Horror and Re-enchantment in Stranger Things [STUDENT ESSAY]　　　
Conducting Research and Citing Sources 
SCOTT JASCHIK: A Stand against Wikipedia 
PATTI S. CARAVELLO: Judging Quality on the Web 
TRIP GABRIEL: For Students in Internet Age, No Shame in Copy and Paste 

SECTION 1: FOUNDATIONS

Chapter 1. American Paradox: Culture, Conflict, and Contradiction in the U.S.A. 
BARBARA EHRENREICH: Bright-Sided 
GEORGE PACKER: Celebrating Inequality 
*MARK MANSON: The Disease of More　　　
*MARK MURPHY: The Uncivil War: How Cultural Sorting of America Divides Us　　　
ALFRED LUBRANO: The Shock of Education: How College Corrupts 
MARIAH BURTON NELSON: I Won. I''m Sorry. 
WADE GRAHAM: Are We Greening Our Cities, or Just Greenwashing Them? 　

Chapter 2. My Selfie, My Self: Identity and Ideology in the New Millennium 
MICHAEL OMI: In Living Color: Race and American Culture 
*RACHELLE HAMPTON: Which People?
*ZAHIR JANMOHAMED: Your Cultural Attire　　　
AARON DEVOR: Gender Role Behaviors and Attitudes 
DEBORAH BLUM: The Gender Blur: Where Does Biology End and Society Take Over?　　　
MICHAEL HULSHOF-SCHMIDT: What''s in an Acronym? Parsing the LGBTQQIP2SAA Community 
RACHEL LOWRY: Straddling Online and Offline Profiles, Millennials Search for Identity 
*SOPHIE GILBERT: Millennial Burnout is Being Televised　　　
*DAVE PATTERSON: Shame By a Thousand Looks　
*KWAME ANTHONY APPIAH: What Does It Mean to Look Like Me

SECTION 2: EVERYDAY LIFE

Chapter 3. Consuming Passions: The Culture of American Consumption
LAURENCE SHAMES: The More Factor 
MALCOLM GLADWELL: The Science of Shopping 
*JORDYN HOLMAN: Millennials Tried to Kill the American Mall, But Gen Z Might Save It
MICHAEL POLLAN: Supermarket Pastoral
CHRIS ARNING, What Can Semiotics Contribute to Packaging Design?
TROY PATTERSON: The Politics of the Hoodie
THOMAS FRANK: Commodify Your Dissent
JAMES A. ROBERTS: The Treadmill of Consumption 　　

Chapter 4. Brought to You B(u)y: The Signs of Advertising
JACK SOLOMON: Masters of Desire: The Culture of American Advertising 
JAMES B. TWITCHELL: What We Are to Advertisers 
STEVE CRAIG: Men''s Men and Women''s Women
JIA TOLENTINO: How "Empowerment" Became Something for Women to Buy 
*DEREK THOMPSON: The Four-Letter Code to Selling Just About Anything
JULIET B. SCHOR: Selling to Children: The Marketing of Cool
JULIA B. CORBETT: A Faint Green Sell: Advertising and the Natural World 

Portfolio of Advertisements
Spotify
Buffalo Exchange
California Walnuts
Shinola Detroit
The Shelter Pet Project
Society of Grownups

Chapter 5. The Cloud: Semiotics and the New Media
*JUDY ESTRIN: I Helped Create the Internet, and I''m Worried about What It''s Doing to Young People　*ALICIA ELER: There''s a Lot More to a Selfie than Meets the Eye
*JUDITH SHULEVITZ: "Alexa, How Will You Change Us?"　　
*JESSE SELL: Gamer Identity
*DAVID COURTWRIGHT: How "Limbic Capitalism" Preys on Our Addicted Brains
NANCY JO SALES: From the Instamatic to Instagram: Social Media and the Secret Lives of Teenagers *JACOB SILVERMAN: "Pics or It Didn''t Happen"--The Mantra of the Instagram Era
BROOKE GLADSTONE: Influencing Machines: The Echo Chambers of the Internet
JOHN HERRMAN: Inside Facebook''s (Totally Insane, Unintentionally Gigantic, Hyperpartisan) Political-Media Machine

SECTION 3: ENTERTAINMENT

Chapter 6. On the Air: Television and Cultural Forms
NEAL GABLER: The Social Networks
BRITTNEY LEVINE BECKMAN: Why We Binge-Watch Stuff We Hate
*SAMANTHA ALLEN:  How Euphoria and Model Hunter Schafer Created the Most Interesting Trans Character on TV
CLAIRE MIYE STANFORD: You''ve Got the Wrong Song: Nashville and Country Music Feminism
EMILY NUSSBAUM: The Aristocrats: The Graphic Arts of Game of Thrones
MASSIMO PIGLIUCCI, The One Paradigm to Rule Them All: Scientism and The Big Bang Theory 　 　 　 　 *BRITTANY LEVINE BECKMAN, Why We Binge-Watch Stuff We Hate

Chapter 7. The Hollywood Sign: The Culture of American Film
ROBERT B. RAY: The Thematic Paradigm
CHRISTINE FOLCH: Why the West Loves Sci-Fi and Fantasy: A Cultural Explanation
LINDA SEGER: Creating the Myth
*MAYA PHILLIPS: The Narrative Experiment That Is the Marvel Cinematic Universe　　　
ABRAHAM RIESMAN: What We Talk about When We Talk about Batman and Superman
MATT ZOLLER SEITZ: The Offensive Movie Cliché That Won''t Die
*MIKHAIL LYUBANSKY: The Racial Politics of Black Panther
JESSICA HAGEDORN: Asian Women in Film: No Joy, No Luck
MICHAEL PARENTI: Class and Virtue
DAVID DENBY: High-School Confidential: Notes on Teen Movies
*WESLEY MORRIS: Rom-Coms Were Corny and Retrograde. Why Do I Miss Them so Much? 　

Chapter 8. Tangled Roots: The Cultural Politics of Popular Music
*NOLAN GLASER: Music Is Supposed to Unify Us.　 Is the Streaming Revolution Fragmenting Us Instead?
CLARA McNULTY-FINN: The Evolution of Rap
*NADRA NITTLE: Lil Nas X Isn''t an Anomaly
*JON MEACHAM and TIM MCGRAW: How Country Music Explains America''s Divided History
*CHRISTINA NEWLAND: A Cultural History of the Diva
*DJ LOUIE XIV: Has the Pop Star been Killed?
*DANIEL PERSON: When Did Pop Culture and Nature Part Ways?
*DANI DEAHL: Monsta X and Steve Aoki: How K-Pop Took Over YouTube　　　

Glossary