Podcast 10

The story about Robin Hood’s beginnings was so interesting — I had never heard about how far it dates back. I think it is cool that something like Robin Hood can be adapted throughout 8 centuries to still make sense and retain its popularity and importance for the general public, or the “common” people. However, it also reveals how themes of class difference, elitism, and wealth inequality persist throughout history. The discussion of Robin Hood and its connection to the time period that it is adapted for reminded me of our conversation about history last week. It is impossible to separate history from its context because those things inform it. Furthermore, history is a story, and every story has its storytellers. Robin Hood has a history, but it also tells a history of pop culture.

Although Robin Hood for the most part seemed to have passed along “common” people as it adapted over time, the entertainment industry has a stronghold over popular culture. It is scary to think about how entertainment is marketed for specific audiences to instill a desired emotion. Additionally, the entertainment industry contributes to confirmation bias, or our tendencies to view content that fits into our pre-existing views. However, like we talked about previously in class, exposure to other ideas and other people is the most important way to reduce bias. The entertainment industry subconsciously aids our biases by targeting entertainment toward specific populations and neglecting others.

3 thoughts on “Podcast 10

  1. Miriam Gilman

    I also was really intrigued by the Robin Hood example. Growing up, that was one of my family’s favorite movies to watch together and it is crazy to think of its roots. Like Dr. Bezio mentioned, all things that are now considered high culture were once pop culture. While Robin Hood might not be high culture, it clearly resonates with a lot of common ideas that people shared. I also think it is interesting to see how the media will continue to shape pop culture in the next 100+ years. I think we are lucky to live in a world that exposes many different people to us so we are not just seeing the same. I think it will help in eliminating bias, but we do need to consider that our brains are slow to evolve and, sadly, I think it will take a lot more than Tik Tok to fix that.

  2. William Shapiro

    I hadn’t considered the commercialization of storytelling. Hollywood has traditionally had a stranglehold on what kind of stories the masses consume, and they have the incentive to produce what people want to see. What we don’t want to see, however, is often what we need to. On the other hand, with the rise of social media, the common person now has a voice that can be more easily amplified by others.

  3. Caitlin Doyle

    I think it’s really interesting to think about how the media industry uses common stories for economic benefits. With this, I believe that it would be an intriguing study to look at other common stories and see where they came from and where they go, along with the origins of the stories. I feel that our media industry focuses largely on stories from Euro-centric origins, and I would be interested to see how this is reflected in our media today.

Comments are closed.