Consumerism and the press essay

In this composition, by addressing these 12 questions My spouse and i intend to give you a brief, nevertheless critical & evaluative assessment, of the impact of advertising and marketing, consumerism as well as the media. 5. What according to Diamonds creates connection technologies, & what is the effect of the phone, as one case? The creation of interaction technologies, like the telephone systems or hand-held mobile phones, could be understood because both ad advertisement business influenced by & distributed for the purpose of profit maximisation, and as a product or service of innovative, intellectual activity, highlighting is actually dominance in technological progress.

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However we are appreciated to make ethnical observations within the creation of such technologies (especially the telephone) & the roles they will play, & affect they have on/in contemporary society. Stanley Diamonds, in his functions ‘In Search of The old fashioned: A Critique Of Civilisation’, explains how the introduction & mass production of these products are their very own to “¦ Absorb & displace interest from the seclusion & aggravation that the form of society generates; these objects & services then become required, a sign of progress, an evidence of prestige for those who “own them¦ Just one way of holding the individuals at large¦ They are quite simply addictions.

 (Diamond, pp44, 1987) However, way in which all of us use the telephone is a reflection of all of us as a world. “Thus the phone ordinarily employed becomes a sign, not of communication, but of deficiency of communication, & the accompanying compelling prefer to relate to others, but to bring up at a distance¦ The product [is] an integrated aspect of the repressive tradition of monopoly capitalism.  (Diamond, ‘In Search With the Primitive’, pp46, 1987) Conversation has evolved. Personal, face-to-face interactions are lowered. We no more visit each other, but instead partake in several (& generally meaningless) cellphone conversations.

But the paradigm move in cultural evolution won’t end generally there. With the maximize of new technology and their features, the gulf of mexico of lively, personal connection is even more widened, especially since the intro of ‘text messaging’ (or txt MSG’s! ), do not now even have to connect verbally, although enjoy orality in the form of text conversations. * How exactly does glamour & envy work in the world of advertising/publicity? However you choose to view the advertising & advertising industry, there could be no question that it plays an integral part within our need to consume in accordance with their representations of glamour & jealousy.

It is this consumer tradition & the representations that John Berger tries to addresses in his operate “Way Of Seeing.  In his function we learn how to view advertisements as “not merely an assembly of competing text messages [but as] a vocabulary in itself which is always being used to make several general proposal.  (Berger, pp131, 1972) These continuous bombardment of images that seduces/deludes the public/consumer into believing that what is presented is a important into a even more fulfilling or perhaps glamorous community, where you can end up being the envy of others. But this promise “¦

Is not of pleasure, but of pleasure: happiness since judged externally by other folks. The delight of being envied is fascinación.  (Berger, ‘Ways Of Seeing’, 1972). By playing on the feelings of tension (where having nothing = being nothing), we get caught in the optical illusion that these goods have the ability & power to enhance, to bring happiness or success. The space between the you now & the future you (that these products offer) happen to be bridged by the ‘glamorous daydreams’ portrayed in the images/adverts themselves “The express of being envied is what comprises glamour.

And publicity is the process of manufacturing glamour.  (Berger, ‘Way’s Of Seeing’, pp133, 1972) To achieve this glamour, John Bergerot argues that ads/publicity present a world where our own romance (or staying envied simply by others) is just around the corner, only available after the acquiring a specific item. * How did the “Brand commence its existence, standing in intended for the sociable relationship among customer & small shopkeeper? Advertising today is not merely about selling products. It is regarding selling your brand, a dream, and a message.

Yet “Branding & advertising are not the same process. Marketing any given system is only one area of the game plan, similar to sponsorship & logo license.  (Klein, ‘No Logo’, pp5, 2000) You promote the message of your company, not your product. With all the new beginning of industries in the second half of the nineteenth century, entirely new products ended uphad been introduced, and old ones began appearing in various new forms. Once the market was flooded with these products, it has become necessary to jump out & differentiate them from your rest of the marketplace.

“Competitive logos became absolutely essential of the mechanical age.  (Klein, ‘No Logo’, pp6, 2000) The role of advertising changed from providing a product, to building an image around a particular brand name version of a item. The mass influx of branding had a destructive influence on the cultural relationship among customer & small shopkeeper. The personal, interpersonal, interaction with the shop keeper, (who was often known for years, & trusted after to give honest & educational information on products) was substituted by “Familiar personalities “such as Doctor brown, Uncle Ben & Aunt Jenna¦

A nation-wide vocabulary of brand name names changed the small store keeper while the software between buyer & merchandise.  (Klein, ‘No Logo, pp6, 2000) The brands themselves begun to speak directly to the consumer, simply by becoming (through advertising) a reliable face/brand. Reducing the need of the middleman/shopkeeper into a mere spectator. * How exactly does advertising work as a marvelous inducement? Magic is a crucial theme in Raymond Williams’ ‘ Advertising and marketing: The Magic System’ (1969). It discusses how advertising is not just a means of selling items, but that it is true portion of the culture of the confused contemporary society.

To Williams, the fundamental decision that comes forth is the decision between man as a consumer and person as a consumer, as “The system of arranged magic which in turn modern promoting is mostly important as a practical obscuring of the choice.  (‘Advertising: The wonder System’, pp186, 1969) “If the consumption of specific goods leaves the whole part of human need unsatisfied, the attempt is made, by magic, to relate this usage with human desires to which usually it has no real guide. You do not just by a subject: You buy a social esteem, discrimination, well being, beauty, success, power to control your environment.

The magic morne the real sources of general satisfaction because their discovery will involve major change in the complete common life-style.  (Williams, ‘The Magic System’, pp188/9, 1969) Magic is not a single unified system, yet a process, a mythical means of doing items, a transformation of your system. Magic is a tool around which misrepresentation might take place; it always entails a deceit of time in space or of space in time * Who owns the media & how does that affect media information?

The majority of media organisations are often owned by multinational, multi-million pound corporations, that are often linked to a number of businesses apart from the multimedia. They view the use of mass media as one aspect for wider campaigns. Material can be seen to reflect the ideology with the particular owning corporation, with concentration of ownership & lack of diversity key issues. These organizations “Sell their product into a market, & that market is of course , advertisers.  (Chomsky, ‘What Makes Mainstream Media Mainstream’, pp22, 1997)

Industrial TV channels, radio stations & most papers receive the majority of or all of their income from advertisers. The media can be a means of subjecting audiences to advertising, with media companies selling an item (audiences) to buyers (advertisers) Chomsky in his work, ‘What Makes The Popular Media Mainstream’ describe how the boundaries between your media & advertising have grown to be increasingly blurred, as corporate influence in content and information tend to be not with out bias or perhaps prejudice. This can lead to imbalance, & not being able of getting opinions/information covering the entire spectrum (refusing to give us the full picture)

“The obvious assumption would be that the product with the media, what appears, what doesn’t seem, the way it is slanted, is going to reflect the interests in the buyers & sellers, the institutions, & the power devices that surround them¦  (Chomsky, ‘What Makes Mainstream Media Mainstream’, pp22, 1997) These company influences from the television, car radio, Internet, information, newspapers and many others are operating as another agent of cultural control, simply by determining the output that most people depend on for facts about the world.? Is the Internet interactive, in Rushkoff’s perspective, & could it be communication?

In its early ideas, Douglas Rushkoff believed the net to be “A true communications medium from the beginning. It was all the about sending & receiving¦ Users might send email, join live chats, or participate in asynchroumus discussions about bulletin planks.  (Rushkoff, ‘The details Arms Race’, taken from L, Kick ‘you Are Getting Lied To’, pp eighty-five, ) However he states that the Internet has no caricatured into a supply pool info. No longer about interpersonal exchange, but for the retrieval of data. “The World Wide Web became a navigational instrument.

Unlike bulletins boards or perhaps chat rooms, the net is for one of the most part a read-only medium¦ you can’t see through it to the activities more. We avoid socialize with anyone once we visit a site; we examine text or look at photographs. This is not interactivity.  (Rushkoff, ‘The Data Arms’) Rushkoff also argues that the info cannot be definitely a form of communication as “Communication is a living exchange among equal partners¦ for anywhere real communication is occurring, there is certainly life.  (Rushkoff, ‘The Information Forearms (extracted via R, Conquer ‘You Happen to be Being Lied to you To’ pp82)

However it may be argued the fact that Internet (& other medium) is a form of indirect interaction, which symbolizes a ruse or replacement for the lack of online, personal conversation lost in the current society. * Summarise Sale & Postman’s comparisons of George Orwell’s 1984 & Aldous Huxley’ brave New World, & consider Illich’s comments on 1984. Give your own response to the relevance, regarded by Sale, Postman & Illich, of these future visions in contemporary culture Contemporary society, identity & control are most often the main styles in Orwell’s 1984 & Huxley’s Fearless New World.

There are however “Certain commonalities in the two versions, for they were crafted only 16 years separate: authotorian government authorities, advanced technologies of control & health, low body humans pertaining to menial job, lack of privateness, limited variety of thought [&] manipulation of memory.  (Sale, The Ecologist, pp41, 2000) are typical key problems. Even though some in the examples in Orwell’s 1984 have not materialised in our world today (such as the nonexistence of capitalism & consumerism), Sale (& Illich) still seem to view both of these works as an early prophecy from the conditions we now face nowadays.

He argues that the dialect in which we speak, the programming of materialism through the media (especially the Big t. V set), & governmental policies are ways in which “The Process continues in subtle, prolonged, unnoticed techniques, as with a lot of other techniques & ideologies & thought-systems by which capitalism maintain it can hold.  (Sale, ‘The Ecologist’, pp43, 2000) When it comes to relevance to today’s contemporary society, we can see the introduction of ‘big-brother methods, i. electronic.

CCTV, the ‘tagging of criminals, the concentration of ownership from the media & its lack of objective, neutral reporting/coverage, the proposed intro of electric I. M cards & the various bills & guidelines (immigration & declassification of drugs) exceeded by Federal government (which the general public & those who find themselves placed to symbolize the public, include little or no influence) as agents of interpersonal control, built to place the electrical power in the hands of the handful of, & distract the people through curve via ‘entertainment’ & the availability of drugs.

They are used to maintain us asleep & slumbering on, not able to see the fresh methods of totalitarianism & global control/dominance, going on around us each day. * Conclusion All of us live in a society that is certainly increasingly infiltrated by advertising. For most, tv, film, radio & print are essential parts of our day to day lives. With all the introduction of new media (such as the world wide web & digital technologies) the way we see the media (the world & ourselves) in addition has changed.

A lot of see it like a tool of control, whilst others might view it since giving a freedom of choice & communication. However you choose to view the media, is it doesn’t actual position & influences of the multimedia that may offer cause for concern. Above we now have already discussed ownership & ideology of various media & media corporations. But we could often unacquainted with the power of these kinds of media & its contacts to condition society or perhaps (at least the prominent culture’s society) to fit within the personal & cost-effective ideology in the controlling pushes.

I for starters do not desire to be subject to what can be essentially labelled because brainwashing, to slip into a particular train of thought or belief systems. As globalisation becomes ever more prominent, the role of advertising, consumerism & the media likewise increases. While consumption has been a part of the history, the degree of mass usage beyond fundamentals is now an elementary part of our culture. Advertising regularly promotes the myth ideology of consumerism, that individuals must (or should I tell for a better word, NEED) more & more products in a swiftly expanding universe.

However devoid of failing to grasp that it is simply this regular over absorption of the planets natural solutions, & the ever increasing space between rich & poor, that is harmful humanity overall. We have previously done almost irreparable harm to the Sides resources, the media, advertising and marketing & customer ideology do not report this. For they be aware that with the decrease in consumption, the complete unstable composition that they have thought for nearly a hundred years to maintain, will be threatened with fall.

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