Weekly Written Analysis 2

The new touch screen laptop is the latest in a series of touch-oriented devices, including an upcoming line of cell phones that will become a priority of HP’s consumer strategy as it tries to differentiate itself from rivals such as Dell Inc.

HP began promoting touch screens last year with a big-screen desktop computer called the Touch Smart. The Palo Alto, Calif., company introduced a revamped Touch Smart this year, with new software and a new external design and has recently ramped up its effort to market the computer. The touch-sensitive screens allow PC users to move items around, surf the Web or open files with their fingertips, replacing functions normally performed by a mouse and keyboard.

Icon Analysis, Assignment 2-2

The Barbie doll was invented in 1959 by Ruth Handler (co-founder of Mattel), whose own daughter was called Barbara. Barbie was introduced to the world at the American Toy Fair in New York City. The doll was intended to be a teenage fashion doll. There has been some controversy over Barbie's figure when it realized that if Barbie was a real person her measurements would be an impossible 36-18-38. In her 50 years, Barbie has juggled so many jobs that the term "portfolio career" might have been invented for her. She was an astronaut and fashion editor in the 60s, a surgeon and gymnast in the 70s, and has since been a rapper, a UNICEF diplomat, a paleontologist, an African-American presidential candidate (non-partisan) and, perhaps most brilliantly, an art teacher. I chose Barbie as icon because I used to collect Barbie when I was a little girl, and I use to be inspired by Barbie’s fashion. As a girl myself, Barbie has been a big sister. The concept of this doll has changed dramatically through the generations of girls. As our lifestyle and technology changes so does the Barbie doll. Accessories, style and appearance have greatly improved. The Barby doll has been a big sister to us girls for a very long time.

Shrek is the animated story of a green ogre that lives in an enchanted world (called Far Far Away, as in any fairy tale story) but despises it and therefore shuts himself away from it. He doesn’t care about anything and has quite a bad temper, just like any other ogre, with the only difference that deep inside of him Shrek is tender and sweet being. This funny and really humorous story develops in a fantasy world where all clichés of the fairy tales appear highly satirized. One of those clichés is clearly seen in the character of the princess, who instead of being a delicate and feminine woman is a brave and fiery person who stands against many dangers and that hides a secret that has makes her have little to do with any other regular princess. I really like this animate story and Shrek’s character. Shrek has made an unforgettable impression on American pop culture and has become a popular movie, and that’s why I chose it as a popular culture icon. The movie is definitely a good choice for families since it’s innocent yet very intelligent and creative.

Oprah Winfrey came from a humble background to become one of America's most influential women. Winfrey has amassed a great fortune through her media and publishing interests and uses her fame and wealth to positively influence the lives of people in need. Oprah Winfrey's career in the media industry began as a news anchor and reporter for a television station in Nashville (although she also worked in radio during high school as a newscaster). She was the first black African American woman television news anchor to work in Nashville on the WTVF-TV station at the young age of 19. Winfrey's career really began to take off after moving to Chicago in 1984 to host "AM Chicago", an early morning talk show at WLS-TV's. It went on to become the number one ranked talk show shortly after she started and it was renamed "The Oprah Show" after one year. The Oprah Winfrey Show went on to become one of the most successful and highest ranked television talk show programs in history. The program is viewed by more than 20 million Americans every week and broadcast internationally to more than one hundred countries worldwide. I chose Oprah as popular culture icon because she is the most influential women in mediums and her influence can have impact on social, cultural and economic status on individuals.

Weekly Written Analysis Week 1

Facebook, by some measurements the most popular social network with 175 million active users worldwide, is one of the fastest-growing and best-known sites on the Internet today. The company, founded in 2004 by a Harvard sophomore, Mark Zuckerberg, began life catering first to Harvard students and then to all high school and college students. It has since evolved into a broadly popular online destination used by both teenagers and adults of all ages.
Like other social networks, the site allows its users to create a profile page and forge online links with friends and contacts. It has distinguished itself from rivals, partly by imposing a Spartan design ethos and limiting how users can change the appearance of their profile pages (Armstrong, 2006). That has cut down on visual clutter and threats like spam, which plague rival social networks. In May 2007, Facebook unveiled an initiative called Facebook Platform, inviting third-party software makers to create programs for the service and to make money on advertising alongside them (Wilber, 2008). The announcement stimulated the creation of hundreds of new features or "social applications" on Facebook, from games to new music and photo sharing tools, which had the effect of further turbo-charging activity on the site (Wilber, 2008).
As a result, estimates of Facebook's valuation soared during the summer of 2007. In October, Microsoft outbid its archrival Google to invest $240 million for a 1.6 percent stake in Facebook, which valued the company at a startlingly rich $15 billion (Armstrong, 2006).
Just like every other social network, Facebook has something called ‘groups.’ Users can create new ones or join and participate in existing ones. This is also displayed in their profile and is a good indication of hobbies and interests a person might have. There are two kinds of groups, a normal group and a secret group, which isn’t shown on the profile. A normal group is just like any other, but users can also create and invite others into secret groups. These can be used for collaborating on university projects, and provide a way to have closed discussions. According to Wilber (2008), about 80% of the groups are ‘fun-related’ and companies can even sponsor groups - as is the case with, for example, the Apple users group.

Armstrong, Z. (2006). Why people use Facebook, and how they use Facebook. Retrieved May 22, 2009 form www.findarticle.com
Wilbert, F. (2008). Facebook compared with other social networks. Retrieved May 22, 2009 from www.findarticle.com/facebook23/43

Felicity was the first doll in the American Girls Collection issued by Pleasant Company in 1991. Combining popular culture genres, Pleasant Company marketed the eighteen-inch Felicity doll along with six books targeted at girls aged seven to twelve. There were colonial costumes for the doll and for the girls who owned her. Accessories included a Felicity-sized Windsor Writing Chair; her guitar; a tilt-top tea table and matching chairs; a chocolate set with pot, cups, and napkins; a bedroom suite with tall-post bed and tester, dressing table, clothes press, and bed warmer; as well as colonial toys and other eighteenth-century accouterments. Felicity's owners could purchase appropriate garb to wear as they play with their dolls, including a Rose Garden Gown, a Colonial School Outfit, and a Felicity Night Shift and Cap. The books recount Felicity's adventures as she helps persuade a runaway apprentice to return to his job, learns about slavery, helps break a horse, and experiences firsthand the growing Revolutionary ferment of Williamsburg in the 1770s.

Popular culture is a wide range of universal things, anything that appeals to people, Music, TV, Books, Radio, Cars, Clothes, Entertainment etc. Just about everything is popular culture and if it isn't popular to someone it might be popular to another person. Just about every famous person influences popular culture, by the way they dress, the way they act, what they look like, who there dating, just about every aspect of there lives is known by people, because they read it in magazines and see it on the news or any other way they get it.
Popular culture exists today in the minds of people, it's the information that they get through the media and magazines and newspapers. If popular culture is what the masses are interested in it exists today in just about everything around us.

An example of pop culture artifacts would be Felicity Merriman, "a spunky, sprightly nine-year-old girl" living in Williamsburg on the eve of the Revolution.