Leyte Normal

University
Tacloban
City

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This module is EXCLUSIVELY for educational purposes
only for LEYTE NORMAL UNIVERSITY students enrolled in
this subject
Philippine Popular Culture
Module II

Methods and Theories in

Interpreting Popular Culture

Description:
 Chapter Outline:
To help us understand popular
 methods in
interpreting
culture, let us try to discover the popular culture
different theories AND methods cultural
employed in interpreting theories
POPULAR CULTURE.
 other theories:
In this chapter we will uncover Feminism,
gender
how popular culture is seen and Performativity,
understood by people. Power, Body and

Name: Section:

Activity Sheet 1:

methods in interpreting popular

culture
Activity 1: Define Me
Instruction: Define the following terms and their role in interpreting popular
culture.
Activity 2: How it works?!
Instruction: Explain what the illustration below is trying to show. Provide a
detailed description / explanation.
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*Note: Add more lines if needed be to accommodate your answer.

Processing Questions:
1. what thing/s should the artist bear in mind his construction of an artifact?
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2. Is the role of the audience significant in this processes? Support your answer.
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3. What does McLuhan mean when he said, “the medium is the message?”
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Activity Sheet 2:

different cultural theories

Activity 1: Who Am I?
Instruction: Identify the following prominent individual and try to determine,
what theoretical perspective have they contributed / contributed with?

Name: _________________ Name: _________________

Theory/ Contribution: _____ Theory/ Contribution: _____
_______________________ _______________________

Name: _________________
Theory/ Contribution: _____
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Activity 2: Fill me up
Instruction: Complete the catalogue below by providing the information being
asked. Answer this activity concisely.

Theory:
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Proponent/s:__________________________________________________
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Scope:________________________________________________________
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Description/ Significant
tenets:____________________________________
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Theory:
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Proponent/s:__________________________________________________
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Scope:________________________________________________________
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Description/ Significant tenets:____________________________________

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Theory:
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Proponent/s:__________________________________________________
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Scope:________________________________________________________
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Description/ Significant tenets:____________________________________

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Processing Questions:
1. What were the social institutions that Emile Durkheim refers to in the
Functionalism theory?
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2. Marx argue that the world is surrounded with various conflicts and inequalities,

provide an example to prove Marx’ point in the conflict theory.

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3. In differentiating manifest and latent function, provide an example illustrating

their differences.
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Activity Sheet 3:

other theories: feminism; gender

& performativity
Activity 1: The VENN DIAGRAM
Instruction: Compare and contrast; feminism, gender performativity and
cultural materialism.
Activity 2: Fill Me Up
Instruction: Complete the card catalogue below by providing the information being
asked.
Processing Questions:
1 What inequalities does feminism fight against?
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2. How do you think multimedia / popular culture in general supports gender as
performative?
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3. Are women empowered today? How do you think Philippine popular culture
supports women empowerment?
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Assignment
Instruction: Identify an example or material/s in the Philippine popular culture
that illustrates any of the aforementioned theories (theories of popular culture
and cultural theories). Be able to iterate how do you think the material you have
provided illustrates any of the identified theories. Follow the format given
below.

*note: your material may be from any of the identified sources of popular culture, e.g. music,
movie, TV show and etc.

EXAMPLE:

TITLE: Buy Bust

PLOT: This movie is about a PDEA agent who was on a mission to buy bust a
huge cartel syndicate in one of the slum areas in the Philippines until an
unexpected event happened.

RELATED THEORY: FEMINISM

SUPPORTING EXPLANATION: The movie deviates the norm of having the

women in the peripheral. This time, the movie places women in the center
especially in a male-dominated genre of action movies. This illustrates that
women, like men are more than capable to handle dangerous profession and
action-packed movie.
*Note: this is a sample only, duplication of this example is strictly prohibited.