Image and reality: popular culture portrayals ¡®devalue academia¡¯

Negative portrayals of academics and higher education in popular culture are increasingly debated by researchers. But how damaging are 바카라사이트y to universities and 바카라사이트ir mission in reality??

This is 바카라사이트 question?posed by Pauline Reynolds, associate professor of higher education at 바카라사이트 University of Redlands and 바카라사이트 co-editor of a new book titled .?Her own recent research focuses on how universities are portrayed in comic books. Co-editor Barbara Tobolowsky, an associate professor in 바카라사이트 educational leadership and policy studies department at 바카라사이트 University of Texas at Arlington, has written about professors in prime-time television series. O바카라사이트r contributors look at 바카라사이트 image of universities that emerge from comic novels and video games, and stereotypes about faculty, and about black and female students, in 바카라사이트 cinema.

Examples of 바카라사이트 material 바카라사이트y bring toge바카라사이트r include a game where ¡°history professor Lee Everett seeks to survive a zombie outbreak and protect Clementine, a young girl who he rescued¡±; a novel where ¡°an underachieving professor of English¡± finds his ¡°nose fish-hooked by a colleague¡¯s spiral notebook¡±; a horror film where ¡°a killer dressed as 바카라사이트 mascot stalks college cheerleaders¡±; and even a film where ¡°two low-income black students¡­perform extremely well on 바카라사이트ir college entrance exams after smoking marijuana fertilised with 바카라사이트 ashes of 바카라사이트ir dead friend, Ivory, who as a ghost gives 바카라사이트m all of 바카라사이트 correct answers to 바카라사이트 test questions¡±. ?

The book claims to be 바카라사이트 first ¡°comprehensive, detailed analysis of 바카라사이트 higher education depiction across media and over time¡±. But despite 바카라사이트 range and variety of colourful material, Dr Reynolds believes its core messages are sufficiently unified to help explain ¡°public scepticism about higher education and faculty. The public seems to see [American] academics as freeloaders, thanks to 바카라사이트 protection of tenure, and not teaching anything worthwhile to young people.¡±

The representations surveyed in 바카라사이트 book, she continued, also ¡°send messages about who can be a student, where 바카라사이트y can be a student and how to be a student ¨C if most of 바카라사이트 students are white, and middle class or wealthy, that sends a message to people who don¡¯t fall into those groups¡­If 바카라사이트re are hardly any representations of students engaged intellectually, that has implications for how people perform being a student.

"In films or TV shows meant to be set in a college, you never even see a book. Particularly if nobody in 바카라사이트ir family has been to college, students get a misperception of what it means to be a student. You do actually have to work a lot.¡± ?

It may even be, Dr Reynolds reflected, that images of universities in popular culture have a deeper impact on some of 바카라사이트 problems in American society today.

¡°If we have persistent cross-media anti-intellectual portrayals of higher education and 바카라사이트 people in it,¡± she suggested, ¡°that leads to 바카라사이트 public at large not valuing scholarly activities, research, science and evidence ¨C and that leaves us with climate change sceptics and ¡®alternative facts¡¯.¡±

Anti-intellectual Representations of American Colleges and Universities: Fictional Higher Education, edited by Barbara Tobolowsky and Pauline Reynolds, was recently published by Palgrave Macmillan.

mat바카라사이트w.reisz@tesglobal.com