Media Defining and Reflecting Culture

Waisbord’s “Media and the Reinvention of the Nation” drew the interesting parallel of media as a set of institutions involved in “the creation, maintenance, and transformation of cultural membership.” Whether nations were formed form centralized political power or a series of decentralized factors at certain historical junctures, media has had a distinct role to play in both reflecting and defining nationalism through culture.

I wanted to share some of my favorite American culture-shaping media, hoping it will instill a bit of nostalgia as much as inform those who were not a part of my generation.

Media Marking/Informing my Child and Teen Year Culture, Semblance of Nationalism:

1. Nintendo
2. Barbie
3. Disney
4. Walter Kronkite? Andy Rooney?
5. Presidencies: George Bush Sr, Bill Clinton
6. MTV: TRL, ABC (TGI Fridays!)
7. Quality Films: Life is Beautiful; Shawshank Redemption; 10 Things I Hate About You
8. Terrible, but cultural: Dude, Where’s my Car? Clerks
9. Country, Pop, Rap Music
10. Church of God
11. Seinfeld, Boy Meets World
12. Guess

Media Marking/Informing my Adult Years:

1. Angry Birds, Wii
2. Canon Rebel T2i
3. Pixar, Foxlight Pictures
4. Internet News: Daily Show, Colbert Report, Drudge, CNN, NYT, Etc
5. Presidents: George W Bush, Barack Obama
6. Bravo, Fox, NBC: SNL
7. Quality Films: King’s Speech, Lord of the Rings, Anchorman
8. Terrible, but Cultural: Superbad
9. Pop, Indie, Country Music
10. Emerging Church
11. Glee, Law & Order SVU, Community
12. Anthropologie