Means Of Communication Groups Of People Essay - 1,715 words

The mathematical definition of the twentieth century corresponds to a hundred year period with a strictly defined beginning and an end. However, the picture differs when we look at the issue in a critical perspective. For most historians and social scientists, our century is characterized by vast and rapid changes in social, economical and political institutions. This analysis holds a large amount of validity even when the empirical data of a personal life experience is used.


Therefore, the constraints for the definition of this era shall be closely related to institutional changes. At this point two major events turn out to be the "yardsticks" for a proper periodical limitation. The first one, being the Industrial Revolution, is the innovative locomotive behind the age of mass production, the assembly line and the long celebrated monumental factories symbolized by steel. It would be hardly possible to call our second "yardstick" a revolution, for it had developed within an evolutionary process that can not be defined by a single technological innovation.


Nevertheless, the globalization of information and communication technologies is regarded to be the beginning of the post-industrial information age, the age of the Mass Media. This new age that can well be seen as a step into the twenty-first century brought fundamental changes to the classical relations between capital, labor and society. The industrial production left its place to the production of information and related technologies, basically means of communication. The blue-collared laborers are replaced with professionals, and control of information became the new tool for holding economical and political power. Therefore, this notion of profiting from information via means of communication let the rise of the phenomenon of "culture industries", and the idea of an artificially created popular culture. Among many definitions of popular culture, the one written by Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno seems to be the most compact and suitable one for our purpose.


According to the two critics, "popular culture is light entertainment that is assembled by the culture industries, then is delivered through the channels of the mass media, and finally is absorbed voluntarily, to be interpreted by the individual who receives it. Back to the culture industries goes a flow of information in the form of ratings or sales figures that will influence the subsequent round of offerings. " John Fowles adds to this definition; "popular culture consists of symbols; the act of skiing is not an example of popular culture, but a dramatic movie featuring skiing is, because it is composed of images intended to be meaningful to spectators" (Fowles, 10). Now we can develop the idea of popular culture, but first we shall keep two things in mind. To narrow down the concept of mass media, we will consider only television and not any other medium.


Secondly, our television will be a commercial one, on which everything seen is for sale. The production of popular culture is not the act of making a certain habit popular. It is creating images that can be associated with an already popular habit, and selling these images in forms of symbols. Therefore, the popularity created is not intended to promote the habit, but to promote being a part of the "populace" that massively consume the imagery of the specific act. If we get back to Fowles example of skiing, we see that when this sport is made part of the popular culture through the "dramatic" movie, it is not actually the sport that is sold, but rather its image and the products that go with it, like berets, jackets and Quiksilver outfits. At this point, advertisement joins the game.


The task of commercials is to get consumers to transfer the positive associations of the non-commodity material onto the commodity (Fowles, 11). Therefore, Marlboro does not only sell cigarettes, but also sells the Wild West and a little freedom with it. Although, advertisement and popular culture production are based on similar principals, they do not follow the same patterns, but in the very end they meet. The images that are associated with the advertised products are already brought into the domain of popular culture, like the Spice Girls, Ricky Martin and football stars.


However, an opposite process can also take place. While the freedom that we buy with a pack of cigarettes may not be a popular culture item; a Harley Davidson motorcycle, a pair of Cat boots, ice-blue Levis jeans, a black Diesel T-shirt, a silver Zippo lighter, a pair of Police sunglasses and a pack of Marlboro would definitely be popular culture items. The products themselves are individually popular, but only the unity of the images that are associated with them forms the popular culture. Therefore, while the advertisers enter the domain of the popular culture for promoting their products, they may also unintentionally formulate new stereotypes. This interaction between the two institutions in the end creates a consumer fetishism that is stuck in a vicious circle. First, skiing is brought into a symbolic imagery level, and is made a part of the popular culture.


Then, this image is used by the advert ...................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

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Essay Tags: group of people, amount of information, means of communication, groups of people, popular culture

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