Cultural Sociology - The $12 Million Stuffed Shark

Cultural Sociology

1. Write a short summary of "The $12 Million Stuffed Shark" and explain how it is relevant to the material we covered in this unit.

2. Where should sociologists focus their study: high culture or popular culture? Why?

3. Apply some of the theories from cultural sociology that we have learned thus far to explain the origin, production, and reception of some new form of music or new genre of television. Who are the creators, who are the receivers, and what is their relationship to the social world? What insitutions mediate the connection between the creators/receivers and the social world?

4. Many school districts in Texas have been banning books recently. Read up on this unfolding story at https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/texas-books-race-sexuality-schools-rcna13886Links to an external site. and do some research on your own about this issue. Drawing on your knowledge of cultural sociology, explain both the pros and cons of this censorship.