Advertising and democracy - Politics Forum.org | PoFo

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By QatzelOk
#1190993
This is the introduction of an essay I wrote for my Propaganda class:

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In my essay,I wrote:In our day and age, advertising is as ubiquitous as mosquitoes or air pollution. Privately owned conglomerates control the content and means of production of our daily media diet. What are the implications for democracy of this situation?


Is the loss of our "freedom to think" at risk of undermining our "freedom to act?"

What does "democracy" mean in a propaganda-saturated media environment?
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By Dan
#1191143
In our day and age, advertising is as ubiquitous as mosquitoes or air pollution. Privately owned conglomerates control the content and means of production of our daily media diet. What are the implications for democracy of this situation?

Simple.

People should not be stooges and learn to think critically.

Is the loss of our "freedom to think" at risk of undermining our "freedom to act?"

Learn to think critically about what you read. There is no lack of "freedom to think." Well, at least not if we stop people from you from completely destroying the free press.

What does "democracy" mean in a propaganda-saturated media environment?

How does the media change the meaning of a word?
By kami321
#1191407
What does "democracy" mean in a propaganda-saturated media environment?

It's definition stays the same.

It's other words that lack meaning in our age... these are "freedom" "individualism" "sovereignty" etc. But democracy is democracy.
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By Citizen J
#1191762
The implication is that everything we watch and read, as long as it's associated with business, will always be slanted to maximize interest in the products they advertise.

Even the news is reported in a way to maximize ratings - ratings that determine advertising value so they can charge advertisers more. It's not about news or information, it's about ratings and profits.

Big businesses, of course, would like it even better if we just dropped the pretext and just start watching their infomercials exclusively. Thus, there is pressure to turn all media programming into commercials

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By QatzelOk
#1191998
Beyond the overt advertising, ownership by private corporations of our "entertainment" media means that every movie and every sitcom contain social norms that make people feel like they need to consume certain products to feel "socially normal and healthy."

This is the how our media turn against us - by twisting our acquaintances' vision of social normalicy to mean "owning lots of stuff and working really hard to get them."

This is how they kill democracy in two steps:

1. Create a virtual world where the things that you own determine your personal happiness and social status

2. Take away people's free time by forcing them to buy a lot of extra trinkets (like cars and fashion) so that they have to work a lot of extra hours, and have no time to discuss politics or society with friends so that TV becomes their ONLY forum for the development of social norms.

Once most people's social norms have been contaminated by media, it really doesn't matter if you indulge or not. Just EXISTING IN SOCIETY will force you to immitate the dead-head media drones who surround you every day.
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By Dan
#1192012
Do you ever get bored writing the same thing over and over and over and over and over and...?

The media doesn't force anybody to do anything. If you're too stupid to not make your own decisions, then you deserve what you get.
By kami321
#1192023
The media doesn't force anybody to do anything. If you're too stupid to not make your own decisions, then you deserve what you get.

Some people will disagree that Americans deserve Bush. Others will prefer to hate all Americas, for that refer to Osama.
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By QatzelOk
#1192080
If you're too stupid to not make your own decisions, then you deserve what you get.

No one makes "their own decisions" regarding social norms, Dan.

You either play by the rules that TV makes among TV viewers (who are the vast majority), or you LEAVE SOCIETY.

Leaving society is too traumatic for the vast majority of the world's people, regardless how intelligent they are. Intelligence can't defend you against manipulation, but it can fill you with enough hubris to fantasise about being immune to media power.
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By Shannonnn
#1192444
You either play by the rules that TV makes among TV viewers (who are the vast majority), or you LEAVE SOCIETY.
:lol: That's a bit extreme, no? Which category do you fall under?
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By QatzelOk
#1192799
By cutting myself off from television and Hollywood, and then running away from my own familiar cultural homeland, I have left society in many ways.

Nonetheless, I am obliged to respect and follow the basic rules of the society that is currently hosting me, much as I was obligated to follow the basic (for foreigners) rules of Montreal society.

I must add here that Montreal seems to have less society rules than Paris or most cities I have been to. Could this be because I've internalised so many of them? Or is it because Montreal has so little social hegemony?

In any case, all of the environmental advertising in Montreal is in French (by law) which helps immunise residents from the semiotic domination of Anglospheric norms and semantic constructs.

In other words, Montrealers are a bit sheltered from "McOpinions," and "McSoundbites," along with "McSpectacles" like 911.
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By Kylie
#1192805
You either play by the rules that TV makes among TV viewers (who are the vast majority), or you LEAVE SOCIETY.



Then how exactly should advertising work in your perfect world, Qatz? Any form of advertising, whether it be word of mouth, or television, radio, newspaper, or internet, is going to have some form of propaganda telling you if you use this, or try this, or want this, it will be better.
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