Leashing the dawgs

Abstract

Society is an ever-changing compilation of cultural forms and civic relations that shape who we are and what we do. The study of popular culture enables a deeper understanding of the often overlooked elements at work in this fundamental communal process. This study uses ideological analysis to reveal key structures within media coverage of the tailgating debate and to explore their significance within a broader social context. The analysis uncovers two key structures used in these media texts that make tailgating meaningful: while the contest structure used to organize the debate produces oppositional sides constantly at war with one another, the consensus structure produces paradoxically a unified social whole among the entire readership. This study discusses the implications of this seeming contradiction and how the construction of tailgating as a social problem provides a better understanding of the deeper ways in which the social order is produced and enforced.