Culture, the System of Production and Consumption Essay

The hegemonic role of the media

Hegemony refers to the ways in which dominant groups or ideologies control the weaker ones. These groups become so influential by gaining the consent of the society. Hegemony to great extent determines social change, as it allows shaping individuals’ worldview and “program” their actions.

For instance, the film entitled “Minority Report” (2002) depicts a utopian society or society of the future where absolute safety is achieved through preventive justice. The Ministry of Interior hires three experts proven to have prophetic abilities, who can foresee crimes. This model, although it was tested before implementation, is not perfect and errors happen from time to time and innocent people are imprisoned or murdered. However, the corresponding security agency successfully handles these problems by increasing control over citizens and returning the old methods of working with crimes.

It is clear that utopia in the present case is a tool of modeling society where technology is used to protect dominant values, such as career and compliance with the control measures, taken by the ruling class. Therefore, “Minority Report” and similar films to great extent determine social change. Although the governmental surveillance has intensified over the last decade (recording IP addresses in the Web, surveillance in public spaces and even intervention into private life), citizens accept these changes, because the movies similar to “Minority Report” demonstrate the outburst of violence which might occur as a result of the lack of control and supervision. Consequently, the control is growing and citizens do not reject it, so there is no risk that the system, created and maintained by the ruling class, will be once undermined. Furthermore, citizens become more passive and obedient. The main character is eager to make a career as a chief executive of the governmental institution, so the theme of careerism is also developed. As a phenomenon, careerism is beneficial to government and private enterprises, because it is associated with the increase of working time and tax deductions. In fact, in the Western countries, the number of people who prioritize career over the other values (such as family, personal development, meaningful leisure activities) is growing annually, so careerism is becoming a widespread tendency, promoted through the media. Employees are loyal to the profession and their contribution to the employer’s success is maximized.Therefore, the dominant values are communicated through the film and for the purpose of modeling people’s behavior, which subsequently turns into the change of lifestyle and attitudes, or social change.

The relationship between commercial culture and privatization of our life

First of all, it needs to be admitted that individualism and the “vision of the private” have always been inherent to the American culture. The rise of commercial culture resulted in the greater privatization and abandonment of community life. Such a phenomenon is close-knit with contemporary communication, which is strictly diversified so that each advertisement, each film or TV-show addresses its specific audience, appeals to the viewer’s values and beliefs as described in marketing research reports. Therefore, each individual subsequently selects their unique mode of consumption and products or services to use and constructs their lifestyle, which appears to be distinct from the life trajectories of others. In addition, modern commercial culture promotes the values of the existing democracy, which include private property and privatization of political views and religious believes. Privatization of public space also played important role in the decline of community experience. In particular, some 80-100 years ago people lived in different conditions; for instance, urban and often rural homes (flats) accommodated 3 or more families. As a rule, several generations of close relatives resided under the same roof. As a result, people lived their lives in the presence of others and used to work and spend leisure time together. Furthermore, privatization left to people no opportunity to play street games, traditionally favored by children and young people, as open space land is nowadays used by private enterprises (business centers, parking). In urban settings, the remaining public places (e.g. plazas) are crowded with office workers eating their lunch or having a meeting with business partners. Privatization also accounts for the growing diversity of products and services, so people have more freedom to choose among the places of consumption. Therefore, the children in the classroom are no longer the children from the same neighborhood and a woman may drive to the other town every Saturday, because this town has a more convenient fitness club. As a result, neighbors rarely see each other and their communication is limited to “Hello ! How are you?”

De-collectivization of the most important dimensions of life is another important reason for the erosion of community experience.

Culture and the system of production and consumption

The existing system of capitalist production is characterized by several important elements. Primarily, the goal of capitalism is production of profit. Capitalism is close-knit with private property, or right to exclude others from the use of a certain facility or object, which also relates to the division of entitlements between owners of the means of production and wage workers. Exchange value of the product is an abstract price on the market. Social stratification refers to the division of individuals into groups by the criteria of relationship to production, power and status. The contemporary system of production involves manual workers (or working class), intellectual workers who organize and manage production at the local level as well as business processes they are responsible for and founders (owners) in whose hands the capital and instruments of production are concentrated. In the contemporary world, consumption is a means of constructing status and social identity. As the income of the population has grown in the last 100 years, our society is characterized by conspicuous consumption, which does not merely meets individual’s basic needs but also provides social class attributes. In order to regulate consumption, contemporary culture suggests taste and fashion which fit into a given social class. Accordingly, high-quality commodities (‘exclusive”, “branded”) and conceptual or intellectual art are intended for elite and partly for middle class, whereas low-cost and mass culture products are created for working-class. Due to the fact that culture becomes commodified, it is also a matter of taste imposed to each social class and group.

Distraction, standardization and illusion as described by Adorno and Horkheimer

According to Adorno and Horkheimer “Films, radio and magazines make up a system which is uniform as a whole and in every part. Even the aesthetic activities of political opposites are one in their enthusiastic obedience to the rhythms of the iron system.” (Lecture notes, sl.3). Standardization, or creation of cultural products with the use of clichés or typical scenarios that address the main values of the social group. On the one hand, s5tandardization creates the illusion of free choice and the existence of multiple options to choose among. However, each product is pre-digested so that it fits into certain cultural movement. As a result, viewers and listeners become docile and develop fear for everything new (including the fear of changes). Distraction is the overall purpose of entertainment, i.e. it is designed so carefully that does not require concentration from a viewer. So the consumer of this product becomes passive and accepts dominant values as they are. The authors further discuss the oppression of desires the culture does through “teasing” consumers: “By repeatedly exposing the objects of desire, breasts in a clinging sweater or the naked torso of the athletic hero, it only stimulates the unsublimated forepleasure which habitual deprivation has long since reduced to a masochistic semblance” (Horkheimer and Adorno, p.1231). The popular culture also tends to mock such universal values as love and beauty, positioning laughter as the illusion of freedom from dangers and fears, but actually the “canned” laughter is extremely artificial and provides only illusionary friendliness and solidarity. So individuals believe they have freedom of choice, but in fact remain passive and therefore controllable.

The concept of reality and identification effects

One of the examples of the effects of reality and identification in popular media is the film entitled “Tart” (2001). The film depicts the personal drama of an ordinary school girl, in which she is betrayed by her boyfriend and loses her best friend.

The reality effect occurs when the world shown in the film, article or advertisement is integrated into the dominant culture so that the interests of the ruling class are presented as natural. In “Tart”, the protagonist’s parents are careerists and workaholics; for instance, when the girl wants to see her father, she visits him at work, as there is no other way to talk to him eye to eye. When the girl tells her friends how her parents are overloaded at work, she receives a response that they have the same happens in their families, so it is natural. In addition, all characters are apparently attached to their homes, and most of the scenes take place in the flat of protagonist or her friends. There are also several scenes that underline consumerism, or perception of personal happiness through the lens of consumption. For instance, all female characters, mostly teenagers, are obsessed with buying new dressed and accessories for their “golden party” and look really happy and proud in the new clothes.

Identification effect occurs when through the act of consumption individuals identify with the characters and view them as real subjects. As a result, the consumer of the cultural text integrates themselves into the fictional world. The target audience of “Tart” includes middle-class individuals aged 16-20 and living in large cities. The consumption patterns of the film’s characters are similar to those of the target audience. For instance, they attend night clubs and hotel parties where they put on their brand clothes (beautiful dresses and suits) and drink tequila and martini. Similarly to all teenagers, the characters also experiment with cigarettes and drugs. It is also evident that the female characters are lovers of expensive cosmetics and luxury bags which they as dependents cannot afford too frequently, but value greatly. In terms of consumption preferences, it is necessary to underline that the characters are not interested in reading books assigned for various classes, and even when they study in the library, they take glossy magazines. As a result, viewers of the film, especially young females, perceive themselves as a part of the world depicted in this ideological text.

Works cited

Horkheimer, M. and Adorno, T. “Dialectics of Enlightenment”. In The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism, pp. 1220-1240. W.W. Norton & Co., 2001.

The History of Popular Culture. Lecture Notes.