What part does media play in creating, defining, and perpetuating popular culture? High schoolers chart their encounters with fads, trends, and icons and reflect on the media's influence on popular culture.

Concepts

popular culture, cross-media analysis, media coverage

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Additional Tags

social studies

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Instructional Ideas

• Preview Frontline's powerful documentary on the same subject, "Merchants of Cool" to determine if appropriate for your classroom

Classroom Considerations

• Encourage your librarian or media specialist to purchase a copy of "Scanning Television: Seeing Ourselves" for teacher use

Pros

• The lesson encourages class members to consider how media influences their perceptions of popular culture

Cons

• Either the Frontline documentary or the referenced scanning television video are necessary for kids to understand how significant media is in the creation of the concept of popular culture