14 thoughts on “Week 5 – Manipulative Effects of Media (T1)

  1. Kaede Lim

    This weeks readings focus on the manipulation of the consciousness of the masses with the use of media.

    Ewen writes about the tactics used by capitalists in raising wages and cutting down on woking hours in order to change their worker’s identities to being both labourers and consumers as well. This is in line with Marx view on the exploitative nature of capitalism. In this sense, the standing reserves of human labour becomes the promising pool of consumers to buy their products. Advertising through media are aimed at creating a sense of self-consciousness amongst people so that they develop a desire and need that can only be satisfied by the products of capitalism. Furthermore, elements of social psychology are carried out to penetrate the consciousness of consumers to fuel their feelings of need and desire.

    Karaucer’s idea of the cult of distraction further amplifies this effect. There is a vicious cycle created when the escape from the toil and mundaneness of working lies in further consumption that gives more power to the capitalists. The idea of ‘leisure’ hence becomes some sort of paradox when the only free time that people have are spent on reinforcing themselves in the enslaving system of capitalism and exploitation.

    Herman and Chomsky also write about the use of media in the political economy using the propaganda model.

  2. M Priyanka Nair

    Out of the four readings, I personally find Ewen’s writing most unsettling because it brought to light the vicious cycle of capitalism. “Higher wages and shorter hours” seems like an amazing improvement to work life, and I know a whole lot of people personally who are in the working world and would obviously love to have higher wages and shorter hours. It seems natural to want this, but then Ewen brings to light how this is actually detrimental to us and this brings up the question of whether higher wage and shorter hours is genuinely what we would like, or is it something that is so deeply inscribed in us that we cannot break out of it. I think the question of false consciousness is always a tricky one because there’s always a fine line between breaking out of false consciousness and realizing you are being exploited but feeling justified enough that you are not being exploited. It is unsettling to be put in a position where you end up questioning which side of the line you’re on and this is exactly what Ewen’s article does. Higher wages and shorter hours translates to more free time and more money for workers to spend. This consumption then lends to this money going back into the pockets of elites. The fact that advertisements falsify the solutions to legitimate needs by attempting at convincing workers that their solutions are purely market solutions entraps us into this vicious cycle of suffering from production and then easing this suffering through consumption, which then traps us further because we need to keep producing in order to have enough buying power to continue consuming.

  3. Ong Yan Ting

    Enzensburger is concerned of the issues of manipulation of media. Media is always manipulation, thus the larger issue would be the power play behind the manipulation of media, who gets to manipulation media. Such manipulation of media would involve the falsifying of needs, where advertising dictates what we buy to fulfill such needs. Stuart goes on to argue that manipulation of media serves to lock workers into the system of capitalism, whereby they work to spend and after spending, go back to work for future spending. He also talks about media helping people to find solutions to ‘problems’ pointed out by media and created by capitalism.

    Chomsky and Herman talks about how state manipulates media in order to sell propaganda to the citizens, whereby news outlets have relations to state agencies and they report news given to them by state agencies, thus feeding certain propaganda to the audience. Media companies also manipulate media in order to cater to certain audiences and gain sponsorship from advertising companies. Content thus can be influenced by companies who would not want any content harmful to their product to be published.

  4. Tan Yuan Ting

    Chomsky proposes that media allows for mass inequality of power between the state and the media. It talks about 5 filter; namely (I) size and ownership, (II) advertising, (II) sources of news media, (IV) flak, (V) anticommunism as a religion. Focusing on the first 2 filters, the first filter mentioned a structural relationship between the media and shareholders. With investment bankers and government officials as stakeholders/shareholders of the company, these large owners have influence over the type of news that is published, which is usually skewed in their favour. Typically, the media is forced to pursue market objectives in order to please them, or risk losing valuable shareholders and be put at the risk of a takeover. Such risks came from the deregulation of the market, where it became an arena of “whoever has the most money wins it all.”

    Taking focus in advertising, it allowed for a creation of a specific set of audience, particularly those with buying power. The reduction in the cost price of the paper also saw that production cost would be lowered with advertisers paying the newspaper a fee in order to publish the advertisements. This in turn segmented the audience into those with money and those without. In modern advertising, consumption increased. In modernity however, it creates a whole new kind of advertising. Instead, they focus on the problems that consumers supposedly have, and offer the solution to that problem, which undoubtedly turns out to be their product. Essentially, it targeted the dissatisfaction of consumers – that of which came from the advertisers themselves. A smart move.

  5. Goh Xi Hsien

    Stuart Ewen’s “Captains of Consciousness: Advertising and the Social Roots of the Consumer Culture” delves into the rising use of productions lines and how it shaped consumerism. Working hours become shorter and pay rises reults in the worker becoming a consumer as factory owners realized they could sell their products to the workers. Consumerism was then facilitated through the use of advertisement, which mobilized the masses and made consumers desire for products that weren’t neccessarily needed.

    In Jean Kilbourne’s “killing us softly”, she is critical of the advertising industry, which she argues that the objectification and superficial, unreal portrayal of women in advertising has affected women’s self esteem. Advertisements have changed how society views women, how all females are expected to emulate the bodies seen om the advertisements – that every other body shape besides skinny is not beautiful. This leads to women trying to attain the ‘perfect’ bodies, and companies thus make use of this desire to sell women products to help them fulfil it. Every body is different, as Kilbourne points out, generalizing all of women’s bodies into one particular type, and sexualizing them, only serves to benefit companies looking to earn massive amounts of profits. By focusing on the flaws of women, making them desire a ‘model’ body, which would unlikely happen without the effects of advertising.

  6. Yeow Xinyin Christy

    Enzensberger in his article is concerned with the industrialization of the human mind and called for the need of a participatory model of communication and information exchange. He used the terms ‘repressive’ and ‘emancipatory’ use of media and the emancipatory use of media as he is suggesting, can be a remedy to the capitalist systems controlled by the bourgeoisie and influential class. The emancipatory potential of new media lies in the reciprocity of information (feedback) between the transmitter and the receiver, which allows media to be more productive.

    Media equipment when in the hands of the masses, becomes not just a means of consumption, but transformed into a socialized means of production. However, due to complexity of the politics involved, the opening up and transformation of the media from a distributive to a communication platform is somewhat hindered.

    Chomsky & Herman asserts that America has a system of propaganda that is imposed largely by the media through a series of ‘filters’. These filters limit debate and the media content presented emphasizes the interests of those in control. He believes that people have the capacity to understand the world and must work together to see beyond the illusion that elites have put on them.

    Media becomes a tool of society’s elites and are owned and controlled by them to impose what they deem as ‘necessary’ illusions to divert the rest of the population away from political awareness and participation. The present system tends to keep people in isolation and Chomsky argues for people to work to develop independent minds through alternative media and activism.

  7. Tham E-lyn

    The two articles I found most enlightening were Ewen’s article on how advertising is conceived as a form of social production, as well as Kracauer’s article on the cult of distraction.

    “Advertising offered itself as a means of efficiently creating consumers and as a way of homogeneously controlling the consumption of a product”.
    This creation of consumers was done through the creation of “fancied need”, where an advertisement focuses on a social problem, which links to the product that the company is trying to sell.
    For example, a problem of bad breath might compel the consumer to purchase breath mints. They have a desire to market on the dissatisfaction of individuals; the dissatisfaction that is created by the advertisers themselves who offer a solution, through the consumption of their product. This perspective of looking at advertising came through as completely new to me, and I found it incredibly intriguing. It presented an image of advertising as manipulative, and as a function of domination. This manipulation, however, is subtle, with many consumers falling for it without even realizing.
    Ewen substantiates this by saying that if advertising copy appealed to the right instincts (ie struck the right nerve, igniting in individuals the desire to rectify the social problem highlighted), the urge to buy would naturally be created.
    Advertisers now seek to sell their products not through the direct marketing of their products, but through the subconscious appeal to individuals’ self-consciousness.

    Kracauer’s article, I feel, serves as a complement to Ewen’s article. Kracauer alludes Berlin’s picture houses to be “palaces of distraction”, where aesthetic beauty basically distracts. This can be drawn in parallel to Ewen’s article, where in the context of advertising, they act to distract – appealing to the individual’s self-consciousness in an attempt to sell their product. They too, are distracted. As in Berlin’s picture houses, the “spectacle” of distraction only gets bigger and greater when the people come closer to realizing how inadequate (or how exploited) they truly are – something that advertisers pounce on they moment they see it.

  8. Vivienne Khoo

    The readings this week places a large emphasis on the hold of power and politics in media and how it attempts to shape our consciousness. To illustrate, I will begin with Chomsky and Herman’s propaganda model which constitutes five filters. In his discussion the on first filter – size, ownership and profit orientation of the mass media, he expounds on the increase of costs in newspaper enterprises due to the stress of having to reach large audiences. He also mentions that the expansion of a free market was accompanied by the “industrialization of the press” and under the free market there is deregulation which means that one is allowed to do anything so long as he possesses the capital. Therefore, this allows for integration to happen and propaganda ensues when the power of handling information is in the hands of few. His second filter refers to advertising as the primary income source of the mass media, which means that the advertisers make new norms and become a central reference point dictating the news content on media. For example, for television programmes especially those that are not live shows, there is a huge amount of censorship that goes on behind the scenes to ensure that there is no bad press for the sponsors of the show. The third filter which explicates that the source of information used by news media is where power is concentrated, hence the news becomes bias and undemocratic. The fourth filter termed ‘flak’ refers to the negative responses to a media statement or programme. However, the propaganda can be observed in the way the media chooses to frame the event by providing different opinions, they will be able to frame the event in a certain way. The last filter is anti-communism where the new media can create a common enemy by controlling what information is available to the audience.

    The kind of manipulation of the content is also apparent in Ewen’s writing. He argues that modern advertising mobilises instincts and lubricates the consumer market. Advertising creates problems and offers a solution which involves the purchase of the item the ad is trying to sell. The alienation that one feels at work can be ameliorated through consumption it creates what Ewen has termed “fancy needs”. This ties in to the theory of self-consciousness as we now have a heightened awareness about our sense of self that we becoming increasingly dissatisfied with. To eliminate or minimize this dissatisfaction, we buy the products we are sold as a form of pleasure seeking experience, spend our money and go back to the work that we are trying to escape from in the first place.

  9. rebecca quek

    this week’s readings focus a lot of the manipulation, or the ability of media to influence the consciousness of the mass.

    this is especially interesting if, as chomsky and herman write, we think about the news industry, or the media industry in singapore. singapore’s media industry has long since been given flak for the being the mouthpiece of the PAP, and this example of state-influence newsporting once again gives empirical evidence to chomsky’s and herman’s theory of the weberian bureaucratic affinity.

    one particular theme that becomes evident in these three readings is power and influence, may it be enzenberger’s lamentation about the issue of distribution, chomsky’s reading of war coverage in the US, or ewen’s articulation of the changing mode of production and its consequences, power is always part of the equation.

    what we have to look past is how news and reporting is often seen as “neutral” and “objective”, rather, we have to realise that the media industry is a profit-making industry, that relies on networking with other state institutions and other MNCs to survive in a cutthroat capitalist society.

    the problem or issue that keeps me thinking though, is if we can have something outside of this industry, to survive without consumption, through pure production. this reminds me of an article i read awhile back about a man who decided to go off and live away from society. but then he came back and wrote a book about it which he sold to publishers for money. which i think undervalues what he’s been saying about capitalism and consumerism, but on a sadder note, highlights the incapable escape from capitalism.

  10. Annabel Su

    This week’s readings perpetuate the notion that mass media is an agent of power as much as it is a subject of power. Chomsky and Herman’s chapter on the propaganda model highlights that there is ‘a systematic and highly political dichotomization in news coverage based on serviceability to important domestic relations.’ This is done through the employment of five various filters (size, ownership, profit orientation of mass media; advertising license; sourcing mass media; flak; anticommunism) that essentially narrow down the choice of news presented to the masses to one that is not only sellable but also adheres to political requirements. Hence, although mass media firms seem empowered in the dictation of what is disseminated, they are also subjected to the demands of external forces that are of capitalistic and political origins.

    Similarly, Enzensberger maintains that mass media is a tool to ensure individuals adhere to a society that is ruled by the elite as well as those who own the means of production. However, the media also ‘has to be artificially reinforced by economic and administrative measures.’

    Ewen’s article reinforces the idea that capitalist systems needed mass media and advertising to sustain mass production, which in turn lowers their costs and increases their profits. Such sustenance is done through advertising that creates a perpetual consumer with an insatiable desire to consume.

    Personally, I would subscribe to this notion of mass media being both a subject and agent of power. It is apparent especially in tabloids and gossip magazines that can serve to either tarnish or salvage the reputations of prominent figures. But at the same time, these magazines and tabloids are highly dependent on advertisers and are driven by the need to profit in order to survive in a competitive industry.

  11. Frances Tan Wei Ting

    This week’s readings are concerned with the use of media in mobilizing political consent or opposition.

    According to Enzensberger, propaganda does not mobilize people since its use assumes that people are passive objects of politics. A monolithic consciousness is unlikely to be maintained, whether by force or not, since there is increased links of communication and information that exceeds a critical size, making central regulation impossible, and supervision based on statistics inadequate. What does move people to action, increasing internal stability of the system is the chance for mass participation based on media’s productive capacities for communication (feedback in reversible circuits) and not just distribution (similar to Marxist view of those who own the means of production and those who do not). Instead of attacking the existing property relations, or even denouncing the use of media (since they are always manipulated), we should look at the ability of media (egalitarian in nature) to organize collectives and lead to new “political self-understanding and behaviour”.

    In Enzensberger’s article, he also gives a critique of McLuhan and Benjamin. He also compares the written book to electronic media and writing to oral performance.

    According to Ewen, mass production and mass distribution led to the need for mass consumption. The nature of labour was changed. Not only were they alienated (Marx), they were also required to consume the “products” of their labour. They were offered more money, commodity and psychic wages. Their protests were “understood” in terms of consumption. With increased focus on consumption, attention is diverted away from production. Objective conditions of labour were changed so that they would become able to purchase (higher wages and shorter hours).

    In addition, they were to learn how to consume and spend. The advertising industry claimed to aid in this process, to enable the efficient creation of consumers and increase homogeneity in consumption of products. “Fancied needs” of “selves” (not just utilitarian needs) were created and denied satisfaction of (to keep consumers discontented). to boost the consumption that previously only looked at utilitarian needs. To get the individual to buy into a moment and hopefully change their habits for life.

    The crux of the Chomsky article lies in page 2, 4th line, “A propaganda model focuses on….what amounts to propaganda campaigns”. Key terms within include the propaganda model, filters, flak, worthy and unworthy victims, etc. Anticommunism is used as an example to apply the model.

    Kracauer talks about the picture houses of Berlin, and how these are places of distraction. They are “self-contained shows which shows the film as part of a larger whole” and contain the “total artwork of effects [that] assaults everyone of the senses using every possible means”. Either the masses are overburdened as workers in the industrial centers that they do not realize they are handed “rubbish…entertainment” or they are in the provincial towns where they do not have the power to “shape the cultural and spiritual structure on their own” due to segregation and illusions of control. As masses form and recognise themselves as such, however, they lead to a homogeneous cosmopolitan audience with same responses. Other points are also made with regard to the nature of distraction provided and its results.

  12. Lucy ab Molloy

    The manipulative effects of media.

    In modern, secular, ‘democratic’ and increasingly globalised society, the media is fast becoming the new source of authority. By media, I mean press and by previous authority I mean religion.

    In the UK in particular, the media has the means to directly influence government policy, for better or for worse.

    Arguably, the Ford production line facilitated the current capitalist system
    It is a symbol for the move away from traditional trades and into mass production.
    For Marx, the assembly line disassociated the worker from the pleasure that they used to have in their work.
    The concept of disposable products made by disposable workers is what drove the capitalist system of exploitation according to Marx.

    On the other hand. Mass production decreased the monopoly that the upper and middle classes had on goods. It simultaneously facilitated and forced change. Arguably, mass production actually broke down class boundaries by forcing companies to appeal to a wider range of consumers. Products transcended class barriers and created a new way in which to define oneself, by the goods and the brands that one bought into.

    The dynamic relationship that exists between a consumer and a technological product is also true for brands. For example, Burberry was marketed as couture, and targeted at high earners who could afford luxury goods.

    http://pzrservices.typepad.com/vintageadvertising/images/2008/02/29/burberry_ad_1991_copy.jpg
    Circa 1991

    Unfortunately for Burberry, they fell victim to social suicide when their brand was high jacked by chavs.
    Who donned fake Burberry accessories alongside tracksuits and wife beaters.

    http://www.refreshpr.co.uk/images/chav-30187.jpg

    The brand experienced an identity crisis that they could not have foreseen and tried to reinvent themselves by employing Emma Watson as their new face.

    http://theshortfashionista.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/emma-watson-pic-burberry-67985622.jpg

    The attempt of the brand to manipulate its target market was thwarted because products are always at the mercy of a market which is fickle. In turn, this is true for social media websites such as Myspace, whose attempts to revive their business in 2012 were made a mockery of.

    http://www.newsy.com/videos/new-myspace-can-the-social-networking-site-be-revived/

    However, the (human) market is also very susceptible of manipulation. There exists a hotbed of debate surrounding how ‘the media’ (mostly advertising and fashion magazines) have redefined modern opinions of beauty and they are blamed for creating a culture which strives to achieve unrealistic standards of beauty.

    http://www.upworthy.com/see-why-we-have-an-absolutely-ridiculous-standard-of-beauty-in-just-37-seconds?c=utw1&utm_content=buffer7302c&utm_source=buffer&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Buffer

    These types of videos which expose the myth that the media perpetuates are very commonplace on the internet. However, they have not actually induced widespread change in media practice or the mentality of the audience. Despite many individuals knowing that the photos of models that they idolise are unnatural, it hasn’t stopped a vast number of men and women taking drastic measures such as plastic surgery in order to imitate these unrealistic standards. In this way, the culture that certain media outlets project is similar to religion. An image of perfection which is idolised and aspired to.

  13. Lee Cheong Khi

    Kracauer held a somewhat similar view as last week’s theorists, Adorno and Hockheimer. He pointed out that people are seeking entertainment and pleasure so that they “will not sink into the abyss.” He focused his research on movie theatres, particularly the ones in Berlin. He described the entire experience of watching a film, from the interior design of the theatre to the effects of the films. Although there were attempts to associate such an entertainment to high art, the author rejected it and elaborated on how this activity has become largely consumed by the public and even their reactions become homogenized. It has served as a distraction as it prevents us from critically thinking about our lives and merely acts as an entertainment that does not acknowledge “the actual state of disintegration which such shows ought to represent”.

    This reminds me of the movie, Les Misérables which was originally a novel, was popularized by the musical theatre adaptation and became a movie in recent years which talks about the struggles that an ex-convict faced. Below is the link of a video, describing the live singing of the film. It makes me realize that the novel has become so much more commercialized, because a supposed difficult read that details about the historical struggles in France, becomes a musical and even a film that seems to me largely romanticized. Also, the live singing in the film seems to be in agreement with Kracauer’s view that the “leading movie theatres are once again longing to return to that stage.” To Kracauer, this return to the stage does not mean that culture is any less mass produced, but instead he probably mean that such attempts are creating distractions and seem to make audiences attracted to the movies. Back to the example of Les Misérables, Kracauer would assert that the film’s technique of live singing acts as a distraction that prevents the audience to think critically and reflect about their own lives through the film. Instead, the focus becomes the whole experience of the movie filled with music and special effects. As such, the supposed meaning film has made the audience “stupefied only because they are so close to the truth.”
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOTTUaZVtJA

  14. Khrisha Chatterji

    This week’s readings by Enzensberger, Ewen, Herman and Chomsky and Kracauer have a common theme of manipulation – manipulation by those who control media. The readers, the viewers… basically the general public are being manipulated by those who control media.

    The authors are trying to say that what is shown to the public need not necessarily be the whole truth. What’s presented in the media is what’s thought by those controlling media (the board of directors, sponsors and advertisers, business leaders and conglomerates with holding media company stocks, the state… those in power) to be acceptable to show to the masses. As the general public sees and hears what people in power want them to see and hear, this allows them to take control of the general public’s lives as they successfully influence the general public’s lifestyle and way of thinking and at the same time maintain power relations and dominance over the general public.

    Examples mentioned in the readings this week were on media content such as news and advertising in which it showed how conglomerates and the state influence content and their purpose for generating such content.

    News coverage or media content in general are shaped by what brings in money for the media companies. Media companies get their support from businesses and the state. Thus, in order to maintain their share in the industry, media companies have to keep the state and businesses happy by producing content that is deemed satisfactory by their supporters. In the event that media companies go against their supporters or release content that are against the ideals of their supporters, they can be punished or removed from the industry as their supporters are highly influential.

    Advertising is a very powerful tool in media for businessmen as it generates desires and urges. Through the generation of desires and urges, it changes the way people think about consuming products. Influenced by advertisements, people would go out and buy the goods produced and evidence of advertising’s success can be seen in the way it has successfully created a culture of consumption in today’s world. This allows for more production, more technological innovation to create cost efficiency in production and, more importantly, enables the businesses to secure higher profit margins. This serves to strengthen the positions of businessmen at the top of society and ensure one’s dominance over others.

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