Fashions and fads are influential by nature. They have also been used recently as a source of data to test models of cultural dynamics. By looking at the impact of mass media on popular culture, one study considers how much of an influence it has had in the popularity of dog breeds for family pets as well as marketing tools. This interesting topic came from PLOS One in their article, “Dog Movie Stars and Dog Breed Popularity: A Case Study in Media Influence on Choice.”
The study revealed that movies’ influence on breed popularity was strongest in the early 20th century, and has declined since. Those conclusions were reached through a method to measure the cultural impact of events, capable of disentangling the event’s effect from ongoing cultural trends.
The depth of the study and the variety of subjects make for a perfect illustration of why organizations need a content management system that accommodates multiple descriptors/keywords/subject terms/whatever from a taxonomy or thesaurus.
Melody K. Smith
Sponsored by Access Innovations, the world leader in thesaurus, ontology, and taxonomy creation and metadata application.
