Pop Culture Expert Examines Influence of Media in Daily Life

Newswise — The Scott Peterson case, democratic presidential candidates, the handling of the conflict in Iraq—all are part of a news cycle that saturates daily life with a constant barrage of images and messages. University of South Florida professor Elizabeth Bird explores how people incorporate the influences and lessons of the media into their everyday lives. In her recently published book "The Audience in Everyday Life," the anthropologist analyzes a variety of ways in which people both use and are influenced by fan culture, media scandals and runaway media hoaxes.

"With the ever-growing emphasis on the effects of media on society, we should investigate the symbiotic relationship between audiences and media," Bird said.

"Audiences are not passive users of media; they choose messages and images that reinforce already established perspectives, which permeate all facets of daily life." Bird applies a cultural anthropology and folklore perspective to analyses of media case studies, including how people discuss media scandals, how TV fans create virtual communities, and how media representations of race and gender are internalized.

Among three books and 50 other published works, Bird is also the author of "For Enquiring Minds: A Cultural Study of Supermarket Tabloids." She is the editor of another notable book, "Dressing in Feathers: The Construction of the Indian in American Popular Culture," which was named the 1997 Outstanding Book on the subject of human rights by the Gustavus Myers Center for the Study of Human Rights in America. The issues raised in each book--supermarket tabloids and the representation of Native Americans in media, respectively--are revisited in the seven-chapter volume, along with other topics, such as creating community in e-mail fan groups and understanding the audience of scandal.