Did you see any other American values represented that are NOT on the list? Explain and give evidence of WHY you think these are also American Values.
INTRODUCTION
This assignment asks you to reflect on a list of dominant, long-standing US values. You may or may not identify with all of them. You may feel strongly in favor of some of the listed values and oppose others. Currently, some of these values are explicitly under attack on0line, in the media, in political debates, on the streets in protests, in classrooms, etc. Will the values endure? You will be part of the answer to that question.
As identified in the textbook chapter, through engaging with the media, we learn about US culture; thus we consider the media part of acculturation – loosely put, a process by which we come to identify with and adhere to a specific culture. Because TV is one of the most popular of mass media, its programs most often reflect dominant American values.
INSTRUCTIONS
1) Select a TV show to analyze in light of dominant mainstream values for this assignment.
- The show you choose must have commercials too! (sorry to folks paying for premium streaming services)
2) Read the attached list of dominant, mainstream US value and take notes on the ones you believe are relevant to your TV show.
3) Write up the following:
· Summary of the program’s plot
· 3 the dominant values you find in the program – Identify each value, explain how it is reflected in the show – its plot, characters, setting, etc. Also comment on how, if at all, the show challenges any of the three dominant values
· 2 other dominant values in the sponsor’s advertising. You should be able to find at least 5 dominant values between the show and the commercials. Identify each value, explain how it is reflected in the show – its plot, characters, setting, etc. Also comment on how, if at all, the show challenges each of the three dominant values
· Answer these additional questions with at least a paragraph each:
Extend: Did you see any other American values represented that are NOT on the list? Explain and give evidence of WHY you think these are also American Values.
Reflect/Analyze: Young children watch over 3 hours a day of television. How do you think the values shown on TV would influence their process of acculturation, their process of becoming an American, believing in American values etc? How do you think TV has influenced YOUR values? It might help you to think back to your favorite TV show from your childhood. Explain.
Dominant American Values
- Achievement and Success: This competitive society, stresses personal achievement, measured by accomplishments, especially economic ones. Success involves action; and failure therefore is seen as lack of individual effort. Success often corresponds with bigness and newness.
- Activity and Work: Americans value busyness, speed, bustle, and action. Work becomes an end in itself. A person’s worth is measured by performance.
- Moral Orientation: Americans think in terms of good and bad, right and wrong–not just in practical terms. Early ideas of working hard, leading an orderly life, having a reputation for integrity, avoiding reckless display, and carrying out one’s purpose still hold weight.
- Humanitarianism: Emphasis on, helpfulness, personal kindness, aid and comfort, spontaneous aid in mass disasters, as well as on impersonal philanthropy. This emphasis is related to equalitarian democracy, but often it clashes with our value of rugged individualism.
- Efficiency and Practicality: Belief in standardization, mass production, and streamlined industrialism; praising innovation, modernity, and getting things done through discipline and science. Practicality means active interest in workability.
- Progress: Americans look forward more than backward, seeking the best through change, what is new and novel. Progress is related to Darwinian idea of survival of the fittest and with the free enterprise system.
- Material Comfort: Americans enjoy passive gratification–drink this, chew that, take a vacation. US movies most often have happy endings. Common heroes before 1920 were more from social, commercial, and cultural worlds of production. After the 1920s the heroes came from the leisure-time activities of sports and entertainment. Yet Americans also enjoy do-it-yourself hobbies and vacations.
- Equality: Stresses the equality of opportunity, especially economic opportunity. Americans may feel guilt, shame, or ego deflation when inequality appears. While discrimination does exist, the US claims to believe in formal and legal rights. Equality is not a pure concept but is largely two-sided: social rights and equality of opportunity.
- Freedom: Americans also seek freedom from some restraint, having confidence in the individual. Freedom enters into free enterprise, progress, individual choice, and equality. It has not meant the absence of social control.
- External Conformity: Americans also believe in adherence to group patterns, especially for success. Economic, political, and social dependence and interdependence call for some conformity. If all people are equal, each has a right to judge the other and regulate conduct to accepted standards.
- Science: Americans GENERALLY have faith in science and its tools. Science claims to be rational, functional, and objective or morally neutral. It adds to our material comfort and progress. However, some groups are explicitly doubting the voracity and reliability of science.
- Nationalism-Patriotism: Americans feel a sense of loyalty to their country, its national symbols, and its history. This value includes honoring the national flag and anthem; and the belief that America is the greatest country in the world. Again, in the last several years society has experienced rising tension around what makes the US great and how to appropriately express alternately a love to country, and dissent
- Democracy: Americans have grown to accept majority rule, representative institutions, and to reject monarchies, aristocracies, and dictatorships. We accept law, equality, and freedom. This value is increasing being challenged, such as during the Jan 6th Insurrection in 2021.
- Individual Personality: We protect our individualism by laws and by the belief in one’s own worth.
- Racism and Group Superiority: This value takes form in the belief that some groups according to racial, religious, gender, ethnic, and sexual categories are superior to others. It conflicts directly with the values of equality and freedom, and often conflicts with anti-discrimination and anti-hate laws. Especially for members of the privileged groups, this value operates on an unconscious level.
Adapted from Robin M. Williams, Jr., American Society: A Sociological Interpretation, 3rd ed. (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1960) 396-470.
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