How media artefacts affect our conception of reality Essay

How media artefacts affect our conception of reality - Essay Example We are placed in a consumer society and media, which brings in the importance of learning how to interpret, understand, and criticizing its messages and meanings. They participate in contributing to educate us on what we feel, fear, think, desire, and how to behave. They also show us how to consume, look, dress, avoid failure, and be successful/ popular (Verbeek & Slob, 2006). Cultural is one on itself that is focusing on the mass and media marketing. Due to extensive advertising and publicity, all the cultural products, which include human beings, are treated as commodities who share little to no meaning. This industry provides a reason to believe individual is an illusion manipulated by the authority of those in dominant class. Horkheimer and Adorno define cultural industry through its focus on the mass and media marketing. Technology, Monopoly, and Mass Production are three specific ideas of characterising cultural media. Horkheimer and Adorno addressed how big corporations contro l culture industry due to their large vertical and horizontal integration. Our society is representing a society which is heavily induced by cultural media and mass marketing. Cultural industry theory explains the concept of consumers selling out to the dominant cultures. In some aspects this is true but Adorno and Horkheimer gave much power to the class ruling and their abilities of producing ideal consumers. Media give us directions on ways to avoid failure, and conforming to various dominant systems of values, institutions, norms, and practices (Bishop, 2005). It is important to gain critical media literacy as a resource for citizens and individuals when learning to cope up with cultural environment. It is important to learn how to criticize, and read, socio-cultural manipulation to help in empowering in relation to the dominant culture and forms of media. It enhances sovereignty of individual as well as media culture by giving people power in cultural environment. The essay will feature most on contributions of cultural perspective to media literacy and critique. Recently, cultural studies have emerged as the best approach to study of society and culture. A project study was conducted in the University of Birmingham, which is the centre for cultural studies. This led to the development of various critical methods for the interpretation, criticism, and analysis of cultural methods. In 1960s and 1970s, there were internal debates and respondents to social movements and struggles. The group focused on interplay of ideologies and representations of gender, ethnicity, class, nationality, and race in cultural texts, which include media culture (Hillis, 1999). This group was among those who studied the effects of television, radio, film, newspaper and other cultural forms on audiences. The group also focused on the use of media culture and interpretation differently by various audiences. They analyzed on the factors, which made audiences respond to various media texts in contrasting ways. It is demonstrated by British cultural studies on how culture constituted distinct forms of the group and identity membership through the study of youth subcultures. Materials, which are used to construct views of identities, world, and behaviour, are provided by media culture for cultural studies. Those who follow the dictates of cultural media uncritically will mainstream themselves and thereby conforming to the dominant behaviour,