News Article Analysis

Effect of Popular Culture on Children’s Identity

Two articles about the popular culture and its influence on children are discussed herein.

Nixon’s article, “Popular culture’s influence on children identity”, is used here to elucidate Boden’s article, “Dedicated followers of fashion? Influence of popular culture on children’s social identities”. Nixon (2006) defines pop culture as a modern lifestyle that is generally accepted by a great populace.

Nixon (2006), just like Boden (2006), argues that media has largely played a pivotal role in influencing teenagers by popular culture. In as much as ideals and beliefs are inherited down the family tree, happenings without the homes count immensely too. Nixon emphasizes that pop culture influences the youth more than all other external influences in history. This is very evident in the interviews that Boden (2006) held with a sample of children and some parents. Many of the children Boden interviewed explicitly showed a tendency of dressing according to the popular culture. Nixon elaborates that pop culture surrounds us everywhere. Therefore, being influenced by the popular culture is almost inevitable.

From popular culture, Boden (2006) singles out two major things that influence children’s fashion; pop stars and sports stars. She focuses on the influence they have on the dressing of the teenagers. Nixon (2006) speaks on the general influence on the children, but he clearly bring it out that music has a profound influence. In the contemporary society, children are exposed to all kinds of media and for ill or good, parents will the bear responsibility. Boden (2006) noted that the kids she interviewed wanted to dress exactly as the pop and sports stars that they admired; they even wanted to walk and pose like the stars. The articles agree that popular culture, by the help of the media, has a strong influence on children and all people in general; therefore, this is a matter to reckon with. As Nixon (2006) puts it, pop culture is not necessarily evil; rather, it can be used for good. Children should be taught what is right and wrong, learn to tell apart fiction from facts, and be taught that not all popular ideas are safe and acceptable. With these, they can be capable of making right decisions since they cannot avoid encountering popular culture.

References

Boden, S. (2006). Dedicated followers of fashion? The influence of popular culture on children’s social identities. Media, Culture & Society, 28(2), 289-298

Nixon, J. (2006, June 1). Popular culture's influence on children's identity. Voicesyahoo.com. Retrieved Oct. 13, 2012 from http://voices.yahoo.com/popular-cultures-influencechildrens-identity-41255.html