Unpacking Pop Culture's Impact on Social Change: A MENA Perspective

The assignment explores the role of pop culture in bringing about social change. It highlights how popular culture, such as movies and TV shows, can be used to communicate important messages and spark action for change. The essay also examines the impact of social media on political movements, including the Arab Spring, and discusses how online platforms have been used to organize protests and spread information. Additionally, it touches on the power of pop culture in capturing attention and conveying complex issues in a way that is relatable and engaging.

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The Role of Pop Culture (Social media) in Social Change
Media is having the power of impacting the people of different ages, genders, and stereotypes.
There are many ways in which the media can influence people. In this context, social media
plays an indispensable role. The social media penetrates into our society and shape the way of
our thinking by creating new norms. All across the globe, the presence of media is seen
everywhere. Every day, every person is exposed to some sort of media. According to Steven
Johnson, a writer who center on culture, technology and computer wrote an article titled
“Games”. In this article, he explains that young children are spending too much time on playing
video games in spite of reading books and expanding their knowledge (Slyke, Tracy. "Pop
Culture For Social Change". Lightbox Collaborative, 2018). This is all due to the effect of pop
culture in which under the influence of mass media bring social and cultural changes in society.
In this context social media in connection with pop culture influence the lives of children’s and
adolescents in western countries.
Social media affect both men and boys but on the deeper side, it is seen that it affects mainly
young girls and woman. The main effects that have been seen in terms of pop culture towards a
young girl are the pressure to look perfect in terms of right clothing and in terms of seeing
attractive. This unrealistic representation of look attractive has devastating effects on the women
in our culture.

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According to the UCLA middle, east History Professor James Gelvin in his book Arab Uprisings
: What Everyone needs to know (pp. 87-116) states that Arab Spring is the democratic domino
effect that expected to spread its seeds across MENA after the elections in Iraq in the year 2005.
The term is seen as the popular one in the Arab world in March 2005 by various media
commentators by suggesting that the spin-off benefit the invasion of Iraq by flowering the Arab
democracies. In this time the electoral reforms across MENA have been conducted which
marked female enfranchisement in Kuwait and Mubarak hold the promise of conducting free
presidential elections.
In terms of target, women are seen as the main target for pop culture and media influence. They
are seen as the one who is willing to accept the trends whether it is seen as appropriate or
inappropriate one (Alfred Ironside. "Report: How Pop Culture Works For Social Change". Ford
Foundation, 2018). Along with the internet, another way of consuming media message is seen on
television. Some controversial shows have got the bad reputation for the message it sends s to
children and adults are the MTV's "Teen Mom" and the "16 and Pregnant". In the context of
these controversial serials, some believe that these shows reveal the more glamorous side of the
issue and fear of young teenagers and adults who are going in the depth of these issues.
The media target young girls by using flawless women that are having perfect skin, figure and
complexion. After seeing it girls' self-esteem go down when they realize that they are not the
same (Brown,2018). This lower self-esteem leads to media violence as after seeing these
beautiful models little girls are becoming weight conscious and approximately 80 percent of the
young girls go on diet. Also in the magazine Teen People, there was a poll in which it is reported
that 27 percent of the teen girls are facing pressure to look like the girls who are seen in

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advertisements and televisions. In this way, social media brainwash the minds of young women
by portraying women as the thin porcelain dolls.
In terms of politics and culture in the context of pop culture, as per the research of the University
of Warwick, it is examined that diversity of popular cultural texts helps in uncovering the
popular narratives of the 25 January revolution. The revolution of Egypt is having a deep impact
on the popular culture (Storey,2018 pp.159-180). In this matching headbands and wristbands are
very much in fashion in this Arab Spring by putting the whole attire in the colors of Egyptian
Flag.
The irony of Western Intervention in Arab spring is seen as the citizenry complaints of the self-
determination, by seeing the Arab region in our eyes rather theirs. What is going on in MENA is
seeing on the deeper side in terms of democratic transformation in which democracy is predicted
in terms of recognizing the right to human dignity (De Groot,2016). In terms of the role of social
media during the protest of the Arab spring, the government of different states tries to stop the
violence that occurred in Libya, Egypt, and Tunis. In this context spreading of information plays
an important role in terms of violence and riots. In these states, social networks and internet
along with mobile phones play an important role in uprisings of violence.
According to the report of Unbound Philanthropy: Riding the Waves: How Pop culture catalyzes
social change in the UK, make the progressive and integral part of the theory of change that will
not be able to compete effectively against the views of conservatives. On the other side, some
cultures or groups use pop culture as the touchstone for building off the shared experience. In
this reference moms rising turned its affection for madmen into an effective equal pay campaign
(Gerbaudo,2018). The president of US Obama addressed in 2014 that a woman deserves equal

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pay for equal work and its time to do follow the workplace policies that was showed in the "Mad
Men episode. In this way, the pop culture communicates the social messages in a very powerful
manner.
The 2014 Academy award nominated the film Selma for the civil right movement in terms of
enfranchise Black Americans which hit as much controversy as it was praise. This film has been
screened in school and community groups as it helps in raise learning about the history of voting
and civil rights. In a survey of 50 organizations, 61 percent of the surveyors use pop culture as a
part of communication strategy, which helps in providing significant opportunities for growth
and development.
Pop culture also leads to action in a change in which a TV series "Underground" tells the lesser-
known story of slavery which shows the audience the act of heroism for the freedom. In this
context, online conversations on Twitter chat successfully spark the issue by creating its
importance in participating. According to this example, groups use cultural touchstones for
providing meaning to issues which will showcase pop culture to be as a problem solver for the
social issues which brings change in society (Alaimo,2015). Pop culture is having the power of
capturing the attention of the most hardened beat writers which when used strategically in a
perfect way communicate the message about student opposition for fee hikes. In this students
protest for fee hikes by dress themselves like zombies from the mega-hit show, “The Walking
Dead”.
In June 2010 police dragged a computer programmer Khaled Said out of the cyber café and beat
him in a brutal way as it led to the death of the person. In the report police state that he resisted
arrest but his family is having a video of police dealing in drugs and forced them to upload the

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video on youtube or Facebook. In this case, Pollock writes that portrayal of Egyptian activism
displays the strategies and tools that are similar like of Tunisia. Afterwards, the Egyptian
Activists following the events of Tunisia and communicate it to the leaders over Facebook which
led to a social change as the general public are aware of the facts that were going outside. The
social media tools roll down to simple but central accomplishments (AlSayyad,2015). Firstly
Facebook is seen as the place where the horrifying videos and photographs of brutality inspire
the public to rebel secondly it is seen as the place where people found the basic logistics of the
protests. This leads to realizing of the role of social media in political change by realizing that
the role of social media in political change is not the same from place to place and also in terms
of power.
This essay on Pop culture reveals that social media is having both the positive and negative
effects in terms of pop culture. Mass media creates an image on which we base our views and
idealize ourselves. This thin approach has been penetrated into our culture in terms of thinking
and approaches. Social media make the task easy for anyone in terms of making it a resistance
movement that is composed of people who can join it on an individual basis.
Works cited
Slyke, Tracy. "Pop Culture For Social Change". Lightbox Collaborative, 2018,
https://www.lightboxcollaborative.com/pop-culture-social-change/. Accessed 2 Aug 2018.

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"The Social Change Project: Creativity And Social Change: The Role Of Popular Culture -
Sheila Mckechnie Foundation". Sheila Mckechnie Foundation, 2018, http://smk.org.uk/social-
change-project-creativity-social-change-role-popular-culture/. Accessed 2 Aug 2018.
Alfred Ironside. "Report: How Pop Culture Works For Social Change". Ford Foundation, 2018,
https://www.fordfoundation.org/ideas/equals-change-blog/posts/report-how-pop-culture-works-
for-social-change/. Accessed 2 Aug 2018.
Brown, Heather et al. "The Role Of Social Media In The Arab Uprisings". Pew Research
Center's Journalism Project, 2018, http://www.journalism.org/2012/11/28/role-social-media-
arab-uprisings/. Accessed 2 Aug 2018.
Rosen, Rebecca. "So, Was Facebook Responsible For The Arab Spring After All?". The
Atlantic, 2018, https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/09/so-was-facebook-
responsible-for-the-arab-spring-after-all/244314/. Accessed 2 Aug 2018.
Storey, John. Cultural theory and popular culture: An introduction. Routledge, 2018.
De Groot, Jerome. Consuming History: Historians and heritage in contemporary popular culture.
Routledge, 2016.
De Groot, Jerome. Consuming History: Historians and heritage in contemporary popular culture.
Routledge, 2016.
Gerbaudo, Paolo. Tweets and the streets: Social media and contemporary activism. Pluto Press,
2018.
Alaimo, Kara. "How the Facebook Arabic page “We are all Khaled Said” helped promote the
Egyptian revolution." Social Media+ Society 1.2 (2015): 2056305115604854.

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AlSayyad, Nezar, and Muna Guvenc. "Virtual uprisings: On the interaction of new social media,
traditional media coverage and urban space during the ‘Arab Spring’." Urban Studies52.11
(2015): 2018-2034.