Pop Culture Participation

I find myself at times both agreeing and disagreeing with Fiske's arguments. I think he is right to call pop cultural items as incomplete texts that live within a nexus of supplementary texts. The image of pop stars, fashion items, etc. are meaningless within themselves. When we use or interpret these texts we give them meaning.

However, I think Fiske overemphasizes the creative role of consumers of popular culture. I have to disagree with him when he says culture "cannot be imposed from within or above" (23). How many times have we heard people complain about the popularity of this or that cultural item, or get tired of hearing about Miley Cyrus or somebody? What I often see are popular culture items foisted on unwilling participants. Maybe I just run in different circles, but in my mind what most distinguishes pop culture from "high" culture or "cult" culture is the minimal effort to be aware of or participate in said culture. I'm not saying that there aren't enthusiastic participants in pop culture texts, and I certainly don't see anything inherently wrong with eager consumers who inevitably give back to that culture. I also think popular cultural texts are often edifying and beneficial. But the chief characteristic of popular culture texts is the ubiquitous dissemination of them, regardless of how they'll be used by tertiary texts.

I'm looking forward to any thoughts or disagreements on this topic in class or on this blog.

Thanks Everybody!