Category: Pop Culture

How Swifties Will Bring Back Media Literacy

4/1/2025

by Sophia Nigro

Nowadays, misinformation and conspiracy theories run rampant, especially online. More and more people take what they’re reading at face value, not realizing they’re being deceived. This is due to the fact that media literacy is at an all time low. According to The National Association for Media Literacy Education (NAMLE), media literacy is “the ability to access, analyze, evaluate, create, and act using all forms of communication.”

Taylor Swift at the Eras Tour. Photo by: Paolo V via Wikimedia Commons

Basically, instead of only analyzing works in school, like in an English course, we take those skills we learned and apply them to any content we consume on a daily basis. Studies have shown that many people are not learning these skills, and therefore can be more susceptible to conspiracy theories and fake news. It seems that teens are the ones mainly affected by this misinformation, as multiple studies revealed they are more likely to fall for these things compared to adults. It’s incredibly concerning that so many people, especially the younger generation who is our future, cannot correctly analyze information and tell what is real and fake. This is only made worse by the introduction of AI, as now we also have to worry about the spread of fake images and videos. So, how exactly can we combat this media literacy drought? In our desperate time of need, I think we should look to possibly the largest and most influential fanbase in history: the Swifties.

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Booktok: A Community of Readers Rekindling My Love For Literature

1/1/2025

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by BriAnna Sankey

When you read a good book, one that leaves you absolutely stunned--all you want to do is share it with someone! Preferably someone who has already read it, and understands your emotion behind the most specific scenes. Most times though, we find ourselves calling up a friend and forcing them to stay on the phone for an hour as we explain the whole plot of the book, and continue to give a thirty minute analysis breaking down the book in its entirety. Now I don’t know about you, but my friends would probably hang up after 10 minutes of word vomit because they aren’t readers. Since I’ve joined BookTok, I’ve seen how it brings readers together in a world where they can share their excitement over popular books and new, emerging titles. This sense of community is influential to the public because everyone wants to be “in” on the conversation. FOMO is no joke.

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Verse Couture: Fast Poetry in Unfashionable Times

6/1/2024

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by Sean Wolff

Did you know there’s a correlation between the state of the economy and fashion trends? During the economic crash in the 2000s, sales in lipstick soared significantly. While this correlation may seem arbitrary at first, this trend becomes clearer when observing the simultaneous decline in sales of women’s clothing during that period. Many women opted for buying lipstick and other cosmetics as a cost-effective means of accessorizing, rather than investing in new, expensive clothing.

This correlation signifies that certain trends can serve as symptoms of larger societal issues. Over the past five years, poetry has experienced a resurgence. Similar to the rapid rise of fast fashion, there has been a surge in what I've dubbed "fast poetry" – or poetry that lacks depth (think Atticus or Rupi Kaur). Celebrities have joined this trend, releasing their own collections of (not so great) poetry.

Stacks of books with various colorful covers. A large white sign with black writing says poetry.

Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash

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Are We in the Golden Age of Celebrity Memoirs?

8/1/2023

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by Courtney R. Hall

Celebrity memoirs and autobiographies are nothing new. They act as a fruitful branch of a celebrity’s branding arsenal and are a cash cow for publishers. Spanning decades, it’s been a commonly held belief that many, if not all, of these memoirs were written by an unnamed third party, a ghostwriter. These publications would be seen as a piece of PR material created for super fans, full of fluff like a celebrity's go-to salad that they would consume daily on the set of the television program that made them famous. However, there is a shift occurring in the world of celebrity memoirs and those with fame taking control of their own narrative. Some celebrities have raised the bar for what constitutes a great celebrity memoir in an era where social media blurs the distinction between privacy and publicity and shortens the gap between stardom and the unfamous. In a post #FreeBritney culture, the public is aware of how destructive and misleading both the paparazzi and media are towards celebrities, especially those that are women. Fans are tired of being spoon fed fluff. What they now crave is authenticity.

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On Promoting Contemporary Literature

7/1/2023

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by Lesley George

Photo by Shelby Miller on Unsplash

I’ll admit—I have spent hours skimming through fanfiction, picking the perfect tag to fit into the hyper-specific story I wanted to read: friends to lovers, fluff, slice of life, alternate universe (AU). There is something euphoric about being able to find a story so acutely tailored to my tastes; the only thing that could ruin the experience for me would be a misuse of a story tag [“Please use story tags correctly!” I cried]. Tropes and tags are a staple within the fandom realm and exist to satisfy the fans desire for curated content, made by other fans, involving their favorite characters. But can these markers exist outside fandom culture?

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Photos from RomitaGirl67, andreavallejos, wuestenigel, brizzle born and bred, educators.co.uk, kevinmarsh, steevithak

How Swifties Will Bring Back Media Literacy

Booktok: A Community of Readers Rekindling My Love For Literature

Verse Couture: Fast Poetry in Unfashionable Times

Are We in the Golden Age of Celebrity Memoirs?

On Promoting Contemporary Literature

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