1. Neil Postman outlined a theory in 1982 that suggested that the masses in society use media to “amuse themselves to death.” Considering the PBS documentary Generation Like, use an example from the film to outline how culture industries use the masses (regular people) to generate profits and serve their own interests.
Amusing Ourselves to Death is a theory by Neil Postman that explains how the media influences the way people think and the way that they look at the world. His 1985 book, Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business, on the same theory, explains how media opinions and assertions shape society’s culture. Postman compares the age of written information with the television age. He examines the typographical period when people used to analyze and understand information to the television age where the media uses its influence to make the masses believe in whatever is suitable for them. The news reaches the masses in bits that strewn together to make it more appealing. Unrelated bits are purposely combined to give specific information. Postman theory concludes that the flashy and entertaining portrayal of information has made people less intelligent and unable to differentiate facts from lies.
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As explained by Postman over three decades ago, today’s society is heavily influenced by social media. Even though social media is an avenue for people to share information, the culture industries have infiltrated it and use it as a cash cow to shape people’s opinions of products and services. PBS documentary Generation Like provides an insight into how social media is used by corporates who target young people to market their brands unknowingly. One such teenager that the documentary explains was targeted is Ceili Lynch. Lynch used Twitter to gain likes and have a good feel. She frequently tweeted about the movie franchise The Hunger Games, and this caught the attention of the company. The company went on to rank her among the top fans on their website (Laville, 2014). Due to her frequent tweets and appearance on their website, she gained thousands of fans on Twitter. Her fans who were mainly young people could identify with her tweets, and this helped further the company’s agenda. Unknown to her at the time, she was doing marketing for the company worth thousands of dollars. Even though she received backlash from older people who knew that Hunger Games was exploiting her, she felt comfortable since her craves for likes was being satisfied. Lynch’s case is a suitable example of how culture industries exploit the masses for their profits. By targeting Lynch, Hunger Games understood that they could easily market themselves to teenagers at a reduced cost and save thousands in advertising costs.
2. Resistance Moving towards Social and Cultural Change: Using an example outlined of either culture industry or cultural hegemony theory, discuss the role resistance to dominant (hegemonic) ideologies plays in our media, culture and changes in society.
The theory of cultural hegemony explains how a particular group exerts dominance over the other in society. Cultural hegemony was put forward and extensively described by Italian philosopher Antonio Gramsci (Libraries, 2017). The theory divides the society into commoners and the ruling class. As explained by Gramsci, the ruling class manipulate the beliefs, perceptions and thinking of the nation by forcing their viewpoint onto the commoners (Libraries, 2017). Eventually, their ideologies come to be accepted as the norm in the society. Gramsci believed that the media has a significant influence on what people think. For example, peoples’ belief in capitalism is heavily based on the ideas of the ruling class who are the principal beneficiaries of the system. Instead of people claiming what is rightfully theirs, they cling on to small benefits that are handed down to them by those in power.
Gramsci ideas of power as a means of exerting dominance and control over others provide insight on resistance movement as a means of achieving social change. The struggle should be against societal beliefs, and perceptions to achieve social change. Since power is seen as a means of exerting influence over ordinary people by the ruling class without directly controlling them, fighting these ideas is an efficient way of achieving societal changes. Power is constituted through knowledge and ideas rather than physical presence. Hence resistance movement needs to be strategized to fight these ideas. As a result, education has been used to discredit dominant ideologies that have been peddled by the ruling class for centuries in their efforts to maintain dominance. Similarly, resistance towards what the media feeds to the public is another effective method of effecting change in society. Gramsci’s theory explains how the ruling elite influence the media to feed the public on ideologies that benefit those in power. Hence, cultural hegemony theory has been influential in making people understand the role that the media plays in in the domination of the ordinary people. Resistance movement tasks the media with the role of ensuring that the public is fed on information that is truthful and not necessarily meant to benefit those in power. For example, media houses that broadcast information that portrays the government as perfect are being shunned. Hence, the media today is required to assess their content before putting it the public. Furthermore, dominant ideas are discredited through the press. Finally, Gramsci’s theory provides an insight into how power decides the culture of the society. Since culture is a gradually changing aspect of society, the wealthy use their ability to influence culture through traditions and the media. By resisting ideas that are forced upon the masses by the ruling elite, societal culture can change.
3. The future of media keeps shifting as the culture and society shifts. Discuss a shift in media and technology that you can predict based on some of the changes you see in people and society today. Provide a clear explanation as to why you believe this shift will take place.
One foreseeable trend in media is the dominance of social media as a means of accessing information by people. Social media has revolutionized the way journalist access and collect information. Unlike in the past where information gathering was a slow and costly process; today journalists can get updates and access near accurate information as a result of the growing use of social media. One of the main reasons why social media use will surpass all the other methods of accessing information is people’s consciousness on assessing information that is relevant to their needs. Sources like newspaper do not provide information that is wired to a specific audience. Hence, a reader who wishes to access business news is still required to purchase the whole newspaper with content that they do not necessarily need. More conveniently, a user can access business information from various media houses using social media. Additionally, social media usage enables interaction between the user and professionals thus the clarity of information being accessed can be confirmed.
Social media use is also set to increase in the years to come. The use of social media to access information has witnessed an upsurge in numbers in recent years. Going by the current trends, the increase is not set to change. Currently, over 40% of the world population has access to the internet (Internetlivestats, 2018). With a projected increase in the number of people who will have access to the internet, social media dominance will increase. Hence, media houses will have to channel more resources towards satisfying the needs of the social media audience. Furthermore, social media is relatively cheap as compared to other means of accessing information like television and newspapers. The integration of social media with news broadcast is also inevitable. Even though most houses are already using the strategy, it has not been fully implemented. Since information from social media is more captivating and flashy, views tend to be drawn towards it. Interaction also offers another incentive in satisfying the needs of the audience. All these trends and predictions highlight the importance of social media today and in future.
References
Internetlivestats. (2017). Number of Internet Users (2016) - Internet Live Stats. Internetlivestats.com . Retrieved on 8 January 2018, from http://www.internetlivestats.com/internet-users/.
Koughan, F., Rushkoff, D. (Writers), & May, K. (Director). (2014). Generation Like [Motion Picture]. Retrieved on 8 January 2018, from https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/generation-like/.
Laville, M. (2014). What did "generation like" think of "generation like"? Frontline . Retrieved on 8 January 2018, from https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/what-did-generation-like-think-of-generation-like/.
Libraries. (2017). 13.7 cultural imperialism/ understanding media and culture: An introduction to mass communication. Open.lib.umn.edu. Retrieved on 8 January 2018, from http://open.lib.umn.edu/mediaandculture/chapter/13-7-cultural-imperialism/.
