Date of Award

2016

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Education

Abstract

This qualitative research design explored how high school students ascribe meaning to occult media in pop culture, and it explore possible effects of occult consumption impacting their life aspirations. The research conducted at a high school located on the west side of Chicago, Illinois with a sample size of 10 students from the eleventh grade. First, an exploratory assessment will show how youth ascribe meaning to occult media consumption, and in turn, qualitative interviews presented whether it imposed any effects on life aspirations. The qualitative methods included a qualitative interview, where the researcher asked each participant to explore the meaning ascribed to occult media. The results show that youth ascribe meaning to occult symbols based upon differentiated factors including previous experiences with the symbol, the ability to associate the symbol with various celebrities, as well as their familiarity with occult symbols found in movies, television, or videos. Participants’ familiarity to occult symbolism had no correlation relationship with life aspirations, as a result provided a null response where there was no great impact on positive life aspirations such as the desire to attend college or pursue a career post-graduation.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.

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