ABSTRACT
Popular culture may seem like the central cause of a host of problems today based on news reports, commentary, and the publicity surrounding often questionable studies. Coupled with concerned citizens and politicians, this helps create the now taken-for-granted belief that media content is a major problem. Pop culture matters; media analysis is a great tool for exposing the complexities of issues like violence, gender and sexuality, racism, and homophobia. Our media culture provides a great text for both artistic and social criticism. Although media may reflect and remind us of troubling social conditions, media are not the central cause of violence and the other things that truly scare us. Even though media culture may not be central in creating violence or promiscuity, it is nonetheless very powerful. Media phobia challenges nothing and fails to address the central problems that do affect millions of Americans.
