Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Ebook of the Week - Homer Simpson Marches on Washington: Dissent through American Popular Culture

Dale, Timothy M and Joseph J. Foy. Homer Simpson Marches on Washington: Dissent through American Popular Culture. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2010


Homer Simpson Marches on Washington explores the transformative power that enables popular culture to influence political agendas, frame the consciousness of audiences, and create profound shifts in values and ideals. Examples are feminism, environmentalism, and class warfare. Some of the mediums analyzed by various scholars are, in addition to the Simpsons cartoon, the View, The Daily Show with John Stewart and the Colbert Report. These media are incredibly influential in unifying the political agendas and outlooks of the young American middle class, and this book reinforces this claim. The downside to this book is that its currency probably only has a half life of a couple years as these media become eclipsed by new "oracles" in pop culture to unify political sentiment. One example of a new medium not covered is the grassroots "occupy" protest movement which took root on Facebook and spread to the mainstream media rapidly this Fall.

Previewed by Charles Lockwood.  Click here to read the book.

No comments: