Privacy

The UK is the first economy to spend more money on advertising online than on TV. According to Sweney  (2009), the UK spent £1.75 billion online in the first six months of the year 2009.  23.5% of marketing budgets is spent on advertising is for the internet, while television adverts are 21.9%. The adverts that appear on our computer screens need data though, to make sure that they advertise the right things to the right people. This is were privacy comes in. Shapiro (2009) says that we are in an advertising age, and that regarding the internet; "our very human needs around trust and security are largely absent from the conversation".(Shapiro 2009) 66% of internet users in the UK are against advertising targeting privacy grounds (Bearne 2009) and, in America, the statistics are basically the same, with 1/3 of users objecting to "tailored advertising"(Turrow et al. 2009). Even with everyone using the internet on a daily basis, people are not comfortable with their data being used to bring them more applicable adverts.

In defense, marketers who supply these advertisments say that it's what supplies free online content. They have a point with this argument because when asked, our lecture group said (all except one) that they wouldn't be willing to pay for access to Facebook. If people want free internet sites, they're might just have to give a little about themselves away. They should be able to obt-out though.

Networks: The Nervous Systems Of Society

Modernity signals the pace and scope of change for life in the future such as the expansion of the social sector of the economy and the increase of managerial, professional and technical occupations in all job sectors. It also sees education held in higher regard, as it becomes more "centralised", along with theoretical knowledge, research and information.

The internet has to be one of the largest networks accessable to practically everyone at the moment. With the capacity of users comes the issue of privacy. There are concerns about the distinction these days between public and private lives when online. More and more companies are tracking what people do on their computers everyday to try and provide a more personalised service, but most people if asked would rather have their privacy, than a search engine that is tailored to us.

Consumer Cultures

We must be careful when talking about the affects of advertising, not to oversimplify its effect on the audience. Just because someone sees an advert for a Gillete Fusion razor and later goes out to buy one, it does not necessarily mean that they did so because of the advert. It could have been due to a number of factors. The viewers razor could have broken, therefore he needed a new razor, or there was an amazing sale on in Boots, having the Fusion at 50% off, or even word of mouth, A friend could have one of these razors and said it was amazing, hence our viewer buying one. Not every purchase is because of an advert.

We also cannot ignore or neglect the affect that advertising has on individuals and the influence is has on our society and culture.

An example of this influence could be with wine. If we serve the right brand of wine, it shows that we are sophisticated and have good taste. The advert for this wine would be elegant and have to have a sense of refinement.

With the growth of material desire, there is also a growth in leisure. People must spend their time with the right activities, given their social status and class. Therefore, those of an upperclass spend their time consuming high art cultural products such as the opera and plays etc, while those of a lesser class are confined to consume more ordinary products, such as drive to holidays, cheap clothes and fast food restaurants.

It does not always work in the way stated above (someone from a lower class may love the opera) but usually there is a connection between ones social status and taste.

Simulacra and Simulations

When you dissimilate, you pretend to not have something you do. To simulate is to pretend to have something you have.
There is one major difference between the pair. If you simulate something, you threaten the difference between true and false, real and imaginary. However, if you dissimilate, the difference you have is always clear, just masked. (pg 168)

Disneyland is a perfect example of simulation. It is full of illusions and fantasys, with its displays of pirates and the future. This imaginary world is what you would expect draws the crowds in, but it is thought that it is more the social meaning of the entire thing. Once inside, you are surrounded by excitement and affection from everyone around you. The difference between inside Disneyland and the carpark outside is absolute.

Disneyland, however, is there to conceal the fact that it is the "real" America, and that Los Angeles and everywhere else in the surrounding area is no longer considered, real. It is a hyperreal and a simulation. The reality of Disneyland is neither true nor false. It is meant to be a world for childishness, a world that makes us believe that the adults are in the outside world, when really it is just allowing the adults to be fulfil the desire and illusion to be childish.

Disneyland is not the only example of this. There is also the Enchanted Village, Magic Mountain and Marine World.

Audiences

Audiences only exist through the interactions of people and technology. With the introduction of 20th century technology such as film, radio and television addressing a mass of people, the media industries aimed to control these mass audiences by aiming new communication forms of media that involved a lot of people, things like soaps. When DVD's came around, the amount of audiences increased and it also allowed the viewers to choose to watch what they wanted, when they wanted, instead of having it chosen for them by the broadcaster.

Ross and Nightingale in 2003 provided 5 dimensions to research into audiences:

1. the people involved
2. their activities
3. the media materials they use
4. the media time in which the engagement with media occurs
5. media power structure

However, they noticed that most studies of audiences cannot include all 5 of these dimensions, therefore during research, there had to be a lesser emphasis on medias contribution to events and more so on the people involved and their activities.

Adorno and Horkheimer.

In their book, Enlightenment As Mass Deception, Adorno and Horkheimer express their view that culture industries use the media to exploit the powerless, or the lower classes in order to make money and say that nothing is made unless there is hope of making profit.

"The ossified forms—such as the sketch, short story, problem film, or hit song—are
the standardized average of late liberal taste, dictated with threats from above."



When I use the term masses, I refer to the everyday person, who does not hold a place of power in society. It is these people that culture industries aim their advertisements at.

Raymond Williams.

Raymond Williams pointed out that there were 3 general catagories of culture. These are:

1. "Ideal" - Where culture is in a state or process of human perfection.
2. "Documentary" - "culture is the body of intellectual and imaginative work, in which, human thought and experience are variously recorded."
3. "Social" - Culture is a description of a way of life that "expresses certain meanings and values not only in art and learning but also in institutions and ordinary behaviour."

He also said that there was value in all 3 of the above definitions as it is necessary to look for meanings and values and to record the creative human activity in institutions and forms of behaviour aswell as in art and intellectual work.

However, in an example of Antigone of Sophocles, Williams points out that we cannot just use one of these general definiations of culture to fully understand anything.

Raymond Williams comes up with three levels of culture.

1. The lived culture of a particular time and place - only people who live in this time and place are fully accessable.
2. Recorded culture of every kind, from art to everyday facts.
3. Culture of selected tradition - A past period is studied by new periods, which eventually forms a tradition.

Disclaimer - All the ideas are Raymond Williams. Not mine :)