1. MYTHS, BELIEFS, VALUES
IN POPULAR CULTURE

2. POPULAR BELIEFS AND VALUES
• Unseen convictions about the world
• Form a society’s mindset
• Mold and shape the way members of the society
see and interpret reality

3. POPULAR BELIEFS AND VALUES
Popular beliefs and values are the
meanings which lie behind the artifacts
and events which are their visible
expression --they are the truths which
explain the facts and thus weave
existence into a pattern which we can all
recognize and share
--Nachbar & Lause, 82

4. POPULAR BELIEFS AND VALUES
• Stable
• Significant
• Often based on history and/or necessity
• “Assumed” to be “true”

5. MYTH
• The MOST stable and significant of a society’s
popular beliefs and values
• “Bedrock” cultural beliefs

6. MYTH
A belief or value that is “significant and
long lasting—vital the to mindset of the
culture which holds it—and that it is
widely accepted as being true. . . The
myth is believed and people make
choices and take action based upon
belief in the myth.”
--Nachbar & Lause, 84

7. POPULAR BELIEFS AND VALUES
• Assume the “truth” of the belief/value
• Tests
• Stability
• Significance

8. WHY ARE MYTHS IMPORTANT?
“…a society’s way of
understanding, expressing, and
communicating to itself concepts
that are important to its self-
identity as a culture.”
---John Fiske, Key Concepts in
Communication and Cultural Studies

10. MYTH-NARRATIVE
• stories that express those deep-seated cultural
values and beliefs
• Myth narratives often exist as story formulas which
achieve popularity because they tap some of the
vital myths
• NOTE that myths and myth-narratives while related
are NOT the same

11. “A society is possible in the last analysis
because the individuals in it carry around in
their heads some sort of picture of that
society.”
--- Karl Mannheim, Utopia and Society (1964)

12. MYTH
• “romantic love”

13. For instance, what do programs such as The Bachelor, or The
Bachelorette “tell” us about the consistency of myths over time?

14. COMPLEXITY OF MYTHS
• Natural complexity (in the myths, beliefs themselves)
• myths have a number of associated beliefs and values
• myths are inter-related
• Popular myths often contradict each other
• Beliefs change over time

15. COMPLEXITY OF MYTHS
• Expressive complexity (the way popular artifacts
express myths)
• Artifact may “question the myth”
• Same artifact may express one or more myths
• Artifacts occasionally function to reveal the contradictions
• Artifacts express the beliefs of the time of their production

16. COMPLEXITY OF MYTHS
Natural (Myths...) Expressive (Artifacts...)
• …have many • … may question myth
associated beliefs &
values • ...may express many
• …are inter-related myths
• ...often contradict • ...may reveal
• …beliefs change over contradictions
time • ...express beliefs of the
time of their production

17. “MORALITY TALES”
• Myth-narratives are the basic fundamental
narrative expression of American
myths, beliefs, values
• The emphasis and meanings of the tales change
over time and with historical circumstance

18. RURAL SIMPLICITY
A MYTHIC FORMATION
• Myth :: “True American virtue and happiness
are to be found by living close to nature on
a farm or in a small town” [p 96]
• Beliefs/values
• Icons
• Heroes/Celebrities
• Stereotypes
• Rituals
• Popular Arts

19. “MORALITY TALES”
• Myth-narratives are the basic fundamental
narrative expression of American
myths, beliefs, values
• The emphasis and meanings of the tales change
over time and with historical circumstance
• Myth-narratives are believed to be true and so
have a powerful impact on choices and actions
• Myth-narratives are often in conflict with each other
as they reflect contradictions at the heart of the
American mindset

20. “SUCCESS”
??? Changing Definitions???
Do you think that the definitions of some of the cultural
myths are changing in contemporary times? Does
Marsden suggest that there may be “New” definitions of
“success” for instance?

21. MYTHS: THE BASIS OF POPULAR
CULTURE
Studying popular culture artifacts and the
beliefs and values they reflect is a survival
tactic…we are most susceptible to the
dangers in popular beliefs when we are
unaware of the beliefs themselves and the
fact that they are determining the
conduct of our daily lives. [Nachbar &
Lause, 109]