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ABOUT


Welcome to the Media Writing Lab at DePauw University. This site features commentary and criticism written by students enrolled in Professor Kevin Howley's Media, Culture & Society course.

Throughout the semester, students organize and publish a weeklong series of thematic essays (500-600 words each) that address some aspect of media and popular culture. Modeled after the Media Commons project, In Media Res, this site promotes collaborative research, interactive learning, multi-modal writing.

The views and opinions expressed in the Media Writing Lab are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the instructor, the Department of Communication & Theater, or DePauw University.

 Instructor: Kevin Howley
Teaching Assistant: David Petrushka
Technical Assistance: Jin Kim

For more information regarding the Media Writing Lab write to us at: khowley@depauw.edu.

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Disney Princesses: A system of commodities?

Disney Princesses: A System of Commodities?  By Katharine McLean Growing up I loved all Disney Princesses, but Cinderella was my favorite by far. I envied her long blonde hair, admired her gorgeous gown, and wished for the day that my Prince Charming would show up on my doorstep with the glass slipper that would turn me into a princess. Now, at the age of nineteen, I cannot help but look back and wonder. . . have the Disney Princesses I’ve grown up with caused me harm? I argue that the stereotypical gender norms found in Disney Princess media and the capitalist nature of popular culture leads to a narrow-minded view of femininity. In Dustin Kidd’s book, Pop Culture Freaks: Identity, Mass Media and Society , he defines popular culture in a myriad of ways, but one that stuck out to me was the idea of popular culture as a system of commodities. Kidd (2014) states, “popular culture is art, transformed into commodity, working double time as advertisement” (p. 69). This d...
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PREVALENCE OF COLORISM IN BLACK AMERICAN MEDIA REPRESENTATIONS

By: Cailey Griffin     It would be extremely difficult to make the argument that the media doesn’t have power. The media has the power to foster a sense of community amongst people by bringing friends and family together to view a television show. The media has the power to regulate the emotions of individuals by creating fictional characters the average viewer will become attached to. The media also has the power to serve as a representation of the different “types” of people in society. In media platforms there’s usually a clear representation of what it means to be a man, what it means to be a woman, what it means to be a person of color, and what it means to be a person from a particular socioeconomic background. These media representations of different groups and types of people are not always incorrect or negative. In fact, I would argue that media representations are largely positive for certain people. However, the group that seems to consistently get ...
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SHAMELESS: MORE THAN ENTERTAINMENT

By Natalie Raskas Social class identification has become increasingly vague in recent years. Most Americans consider themselves middle class whether they technically qualify or not (Martin, 2018).  However, the lower class, making up around 29% of the population, is still the socio-economic minority in America (Geewax, 2015).  One could argue that most middle- and upper-class Americans have no clue about the common struggles and daily challenges members of the lower-class face. Popular culture, specifically television is one of the primary ways people are exposed to different classes, other than their own.  Sadly, such entertainment can propagate broad misconceptions about the lower class, as is evident in the wildly popular  Shameless  television series. Shameless , developed by John Wells is an American TV show based on an original produced in the U.K.  The show depicts a family, “The Gallaghers,” with six children ran...
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