CHAPTER 31 Essays - Communication, News, Sociology Of Knowledge

CHAPTER 31 Essays - Communication, News, Sociology Of Knowledge CHAPTER 31 ECONOMIC, SOCIAL , AND CULTURAL CHANGE IN THE LATE 20TH CENTURY Chapter Outline I.A Changing People A.An Aging, Shifting Population B.The New Immigration C.The Metropolitan Nation II.Economic Transformation A.New Technologies B.Changes in the Structure and Operations of Business C.The Financial Sector D.The Sports-Entertainment Industry III.Culture and Media A.The Video Revolution B.Hollywood C.The Changing Media Environment for Pop Music D.New Mass Culture Debates E.The Religious Landscape Chronology 1971Starbucks Coffee opens first store 1972Congress passes Title IX (Patsy Mink Equal Opportunity in Education Act) 1973Federal Express opens for business 1977Congress passes Community Reinvestment Act 1978Supreme Court decision frees banks to relocate credit-card operations 1979ESPN joins cable-TV lineup 1981MTV and CNN debut on cable TV 1982Congress relaxes regulations of SLs 1986Congress passes Immigration Reform and Control Act 1987Prices crash on New York Stock Exchange and then rebound 1988Fox television network begins 1989Congress enacts bailout plan for SL industry 1990Congress passes another Immigration Act 1991First McDonalds opens in Moscow 1995Amazon.com begins selling books online 1996Fox News Network debut 2000Human Genome Project issues preliminary draft Lecture Outline 1.The United States has always been a changing people and its population demographics since 1980 reflect the continuation of this condition. a.Declining birth rates, rising life expectancy, and a desire for warmer climates combined to produce an aging, shifting population. b.The Sunbelt also proved attractive to a large percentage of the new immigration from Latin America and Asia. c.Continued flight of businesses and individuals to the suburbs has brought transformation and crisis to the metropolitan nation. 2.The surge in available consumer goods and new technologies would create profound economic transformations in the nation. a.The adoption of personal computers and the rise of "virtual" sources of information is perhaps the more obvious of the new technologies that spurred an information revolution in the nation. b.Computerization leads the way in massive changes in the structure and operations of business as new methods of large-scale global business operations and online companies come to dominate much of the corporate world. c.The financial sector experienced great changes as a result of the information revolution because computers allowed complex trades on an international scale to become routine. d.Enriched by new, larger media contracts and clever marketing of individual athletes and teams, the sports-entertainment industry steadily grew. This growth was furthered with advent of the all-sports network, ESPN. 3.Technological change has dramatically transformed popular culture and media. a.The video revolution, which allowed viewers the option to "record now, watch later," coupled with the explosive growth in the number of "niche" cable stations, brought a steady decline in the overall viewership of network television. b.In Hollywood, since the 1970s, the television and movie industry shifted programming priorities in an effort to attract younger viewers. A focus on big budget, "blockbuster" movies reduces the overall number of films produced, whereas the advent of DVDs created a new revenue stream of film companies outside of the theater. c.The changing media environment for pop music during the 1980s saw the rise of cable television and new technologies such as CDs for music. The ability of consumers to use blank CDs to make high-quality home recordings created a new challenge of bootlegging within the industry. d.The media revolution, with its multitude of channels competing for attention with increasing sensationalism and "sound-bites," sparked a new mass-culture debate spearheaded by those who argued for scholarly contemplation of popular culture. e.Since the 1960s, the religious landscape had undergone profound changes because the interest and diversity of faith intensified. Many immigrants arrived with strong beliefs, including the nation's first significant Islamic movement, while groups such as Protestants and Mormons grew at rates faster than the general population. Conclusion: During the past quarter-century, the United States has experienced sweeping changes in demographics, economics, culture, and society. The most prominent development in American popular culture was the proliferation of the video screen.