Why PopMechanica

The world of pop culture and the automotive have little to no similarities, except for the fact that both of them exist within the realm of media. And as someone who can name every Kylie Minogue track, yet has studied automotive history and journalism for years. It is hard to understand how these worlds can mix within me, but fail to do so in the world of media and journalism. I want my queer friends to understand my car jokes, and I want my cars friends to understand my jokes relating queer and pop culture. So why do we lack the coexistence of pop culture and the automotive industry within journalism, or in general? Some have said that this is the question no one has bothered to ask, but in reality, it is a question no one dares to answer.

As an aspiring journalist, I have been told that I must choose between pop culture or the automotive industry, that these areas of journalism “are just too different.” People who work in car sales and manufacturing must feel passionate about certain songs or movies, in the same way, there are people out there who understand the cultural impact of both Cardi B and Jeremy Clarkson. If both of these areas of interest are everywhere, just like media, why do we not associate them? Why are they “too different”? Perhaps it is because we are excluding an ideology that separates them, the name of this ideology, societal gender norms. Societal gender norms make no sense, they are based on archaic and obsolete ideas. They are the patriarchal basis of today’s society in which straight men are more mechanically and scientifically inclined consumers, while women and others are meant to be more artistically inclined and an emotion-driven consumer. This allows us to make sense of how media cannot have a place where pop culture and automotive, as well as other areas of STEM, coexist.

This seemed like the kind of question that can be solved through the power of the internet. However, putting this question on Google, JSTOR, or our library database, produced zero results, so we had to take a few steps back from out issue at hand, and think in a broader sense. 

We looked at overall diversity in journalism first. Through the story of journalism and the basic capturing of news and events in history, we have been exposed to nothing more than the white male perspective, as stated by Melat Eskender, she is a young African American female journalist, who has had to fight a harder fight to get her foot on journalism. She claimed that part of her struggle is that her perspective of the world is not celebrated in journalism, and therefore some doors are closed. In a public sphere where are enjoying the products of a global market, diversity is key, especially in journalism. Diversity is imperative to understand multiple perspectives and to have greater grasps on new information.

On the same veil as Eskender, Robert McChesney talks about the need for diverse opinions and sources in journalism and thus in media. He claimed in a presentation in March of 2010, that the concept of journalism as we know it today must have longer longevity. The commodification of the world of journalism for corporate media, this will only limit the validity and points of view of journalism and media, basically, journalism would have its power diminished if it only comes from points of view of the elite, and in order to prevent this, we must treasure the cultural capital that comes from veridic journalist sources that may appear more unconventional.

Another area in which we must take a look is diversity in the world of automotive. Women are the most excluded group of people from the automotive industry, however, women comprise around half of the world population, and even among men, not even all men feel welcomed in a car dealership or a mechanic shop. Men who are a little more flamboyant than most, or even those who lack the knowledge of the basics, do not feel comfortable on these environments, but regardless all of these people have needed the use of a car at one point or another. The automotive industry is expecting everyone regardless of gender, race, ethnicity, or socioeconomic background to buy cars, but they do not cater for all these people to feel as though they are a part of it. Interesting, isn’t it?

The automotive industry has been bombarded with pleads for diversity. The foundation period of automotive was elitist, it was an industry just for the wealthy, but the industry soon found out that diversifying the clientele and the production would only make the industry bigger. The automotive industry quickly (tried to) embraced socioeconomic status, race, and ethnicity. In History of the African American in the Automotive industry, they mention how there were great efforts in publicity to get people of lower classes involved as the jobs in production became more and more dangerous. That is not a good reason to incorporate diversity, but in the video, they also mentioned that in the long run, this allowed for the automotive industry to enjoy of more diversity when compared to other industries at the time. However the involvement of women in the automotive industry was not embraced until recently, and that statement is still up for debate. There has been an increase in publicity for women to become part of the automotive industry. CDK Global, an organization that provides resources for dealers of various types of vehicles, posted a guide for women interested in being part of the industry. This was a piece to motivate women to become involved in the automotive industry, while also highlighting that it is difficult to get a foot in the industry in the first place. These are great indicators that at least there are other individuals in the automotive industry who at least are aware of these demands from the general public.

Pop culture is not an all-inclusive environment either. Even though pop culture tries to be in the cutting edge of progress. Pop culture and pop culture journalism embraces elitism and establishes hierarchies. Especially at this current time, that competition in this industry is at an all-time high. James May one of the most famous automotive journalists of the past few decades, said that times are changing, and the advice from the people who have been in the industry for years, no longer applies to people who are just getting started. Everyone with internet access can develop an audience and become part of the ever-growing industry. This industry has become fueled by the sources that come from good marketing. Journalism, in general, is an industry where connections really matter, and self-drive can only do so much. However, all these changes also provide an opening of opportunities. More people are more exposed to more types of media now, people in this generation, iGen’s as Jean Twenge mentions, are more proactive in the consumption of media, and they are exploring more types of media and different points of view, so it quite plausible that iGen’s will allow for the growth of more niche types environment in the media to flourish. Maybe the scatter-brain of people today will eventually develop something great in the future.

So what would be the benefits of creating a space where both of these worlds collide? It could allow for the minorities that compose pop culture, to be literate in the automotive industry. Imagine a space where a woman is not intimidated to ask a question when her ‘check engine’ light comes on. Or a place where a Ford fanboy can express excitement about Kylie’s song Shelby ’68 without having their masculinity questioned. There may not be a high demand for a place where pop culture and the automotive industry mix, but people have the right to have that space, especially if both industries want to be part of the movement towards diversity and acceptance.

 Work Cited

1. “History of African Americans and the Auto Industry” Alpha SQUAD official,

February 27, 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pg3HkWEcJMo

2. “How I got my dream job as an automotive journalist” YouTube, uploaded by

VINwiki, January 22, 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DkOAo8UYHSs “James May explains how to become a motoring journalist” Drive Tribe, April 21,

2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AsJr04D4QQQ

3. McChesney, Robert. “Rejuvenating American Journalism: Some Tentative

Policy Proposals Workshop Presentation on Journalism, Federal Trade Commission Washington, D.C., March 10, 2010.” Perspectives on Global Development and Technology, vol. 10, no. 1, 2011, pp. 224–237.,

4. Melat Eskender “Diversity in Journalism: It’s about time.” TEDx Talks Colom- bus, December 12, 2017, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFmWPF5fZtw

5. “2019 Women in Automotive” YouTube, uploaded by CDK Global, July 19, 2019 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKk38w4pv_E

6. Twenge, Jean M. IGen: Why Todays Super-Connected Kids Are Growing up Less Rebellious, More Tolerant, Less Happy — and Completely Unprepared for Adulthood*: *and What That Means for the Rest of Us. Atria International, 2018.

7. Wepler, Grace, and CDK Global. “Feeling Inspired: What I Learned at This Year’s Women in Automotive Winter Conference: Insights.” CDK GLOBAL, www.cdkglobal.com/us/insights/feeling-inspired-what-i-learned-years-women-au- tomotive-winter-conference.