Sunday, January 25, 2009

big paper

It seems people have always been on the search for what is the meaning to life. We look for the answers to these question in our parents, our elders, and from the society around us. We can categorize the two major places that we receive our answers from as corporate culture and folk culture. Both categories seem to focus on the idea of happiness, and that this acquired happiness will lead us to the answers we seek. However, the extent of which the messages vary within both categories, leaves people unsure of what the real meaning truly is, and therefore is left to simply consume and believe the most obvious messages.
CORPORATE MESSAGES
When it comes to the messages we get from corporate culture, it is no secret that we live in a world controlled by corporate media. We are constantly being sent messages through these corporations, telling us the best ways to live. These supposedly best ways to live, are usually those that consume the most. Within media, we find there are three different types of messages. The first are dominate messages, which are the messages we see the most often, and those that are most visible. The next are marginal messages. These are messages that we only occasionally see. Finally, there are prohibited messages, messages which corporate media would not want to be sent to the public.
DOMINATE CORPORATE MESSAGES
One of the most dominate messages we can find is that we are not as good as we could be. We are shown things that would somehow improve the state we are at, whether that be our appearance or through our relationships with others. We are constantly being told that we are good how we are, but we could be better with the help of what they can provide.
We can see this dominate message a lot through magazines. In the November 2008 issue of Esquire magazine, there is an entire section called "Man At His Best", already we are seeing that the magazine is out to tell us how, with the help of this magazine, a man can learn how to improve himself. Within this section, there is an article called "Ask Dr. Oz, the Lightning Round" in which readers have sent in medical questions searching for answers. This is telling the reader to value their health in life, and to always ask questions if they are ever uncertain. We are being shown that a "man at his best" is a healthy, fit man, with no weird medical problems.
In the style section of this November 2008 issue of Esquire, there is an article on page 59 titled "A Few Words On Low Key Luxury", in which it discusses a new watch that has just come out. It discusses how the watch itself is classy and not "flashy", however it's famous for just how expensive it is, so although it may not look like much, everyone who sees it will recognize just how expensive it is. This will portray an image that you are so successful and rich that you do not need to spend money on flashy things, because you have enough to spend it on expensive "low key" things. This shows us a major message we get a lot from corporate culture. We are often presented with messages of how important it is to be successful, and how much money is really valued. This article, specifically, is also showing us how everything appears to be a competition when it comes to success. The entire purpose of purchasing this new expensive watch, is not because it is unbelievably attractive or does anything amazing that no other watch is capable of, their reasoning for purchasing it is simply because it is famous for being so expensive, and other people will see it and be impressed and envious. We're being programmed into revolving our actions and choices around what other may think, and how we can "beat the rest". It's almost as if we are still acting out survival of the fittest, however it's no longer the fittest or most intelligent. It's become survival of the one who did the best job of conforming in order to make the most money to show off to their friends.
Another section in this issue of Esquire was labeled Influence. In it there was an article "How to be a Sweet Talker", page 78, by Tom Chiarella. The article is essentially a complied list of techniques for sweet talking in order to get what you want and what will make you happy, whether that means within the job place or with girls. The article brings up the case of happiness again, where it seems that the article has the readers best interest in mind, for it is trying to help the reader get what it is that would make them happy. However, in order to get those things, we must follow a certain technique or rule, in order to achieve these things. It gives off the sense that we may not necessarily deserve these things that would make us happy, but anyone is capable of achieving them as long as you "sweet talk" enough. It is an article that essentially encourages brown-nosing, claiming that it's a very effective way of moving up in the world. This article is also showing us the value of success, in whatever aspect of your life you might be lacking it in. It seems common for this magazine to demean aspects of our lives into competitions, in which we are all out to succeed, and there are certain skills one must attain in order to reach that goal, or that prize (prizes either being girls or money). So far, all articles have commented on how to “improve” things, whether that be your health, your image, or in your ability to get what you want.
In the November 2008 issue of Seventeen Magazine, there was a piece on page 30 titled “Change Your Body” which advised girls on how to dress according to their body type. It’s interesting, because initially, the title of the piece may lead one to believe it has to do with fitness. However, the article is basically saying you are allowed to be lazy and allow you’re body to get out of shape, as long as you go out and purchase clothes according to each stage of your increasing obesity. The article is encouraging consumption, in both the sense of purchasing clothes and of continuing to eat however you may want. This, too, appears to be about improving something. It’s all about how to “flatter” your body, therefore improving your appearance. So far, it seems that improving ones self is the most dominate message amongst corporate media.
MARGINAL CORPORATE MESSAGES
Corporate media is also capable of portraying marginal messages, which are messages that we don’t often see and are liable to be contradicted by other surrounding messages. We can see many marginal messages through songs.
One song that has a very strong marginal message that we may see often is Tupac’s “Changes”. The song preaches that people need to unite and work together to help change the way we live in order to better our ways of life. At one point during the song, Tupac says
“We gotta make a change...
It's time for us as a people to start making some changes.
Let's change the way we eat, let's change the way we live
and let's change the way we treat each other.
You see the old way wasn't working so it's on us to do
what we gotta do, to survive.”
Tupac is saying that the way we have been taught to live, is not the way we should continue to live. He is claiming that people have become so disconnected by this way of life, and we need to change that, by uniting, and trying to improve all the different aspects of our life. This song is showing us that we do not currently lead meaningful lives because there is still so much struggle within our culture. In order to make it truly meaningful, we need to create this sense of community amongst the people, by uniting in order to change.
This is a marginal message because most other aspects of corporate culture will not encourage this kind of change. It will not openly say that it does not want to allow change, it simply will make it very difficult for someone to actually go about creating the change. We are so used to our routine, and corporate culture feeds on that, using that as a way to prevent these marginal messages from being completely successful.

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