РефератыИностранный языкMaMarty Pelletier Essay Research Paper Channels of

Marty Pelletier Essay Research Paper Channels of

Marty Pelletier Essay, Research Paper


Channels of Identification


When we see stories on the news of children murdering each other, what


must we think in terms of responsibility and which influences


contributed to the decisions which left four children and a teacher


dead? Who is responsible? How do we as individuals make decisions?


What in our culture influences our behavior and impacts our value


systems? More specifically, what exactly does it mean to be


influenced? I have chosen television as my focus because I feel it is


the most successful media in terms of sculpting social values and,


therefore, social relations. The examination of the television


industry, with an emphasis on communication (through perception and


subsequent identification), yields answers to these questions that are


so essential to understanding core sociological themes. I will first


discuss how the process of acculturation produces the human need to


create a personal identity every second, and the inherent implications


of the role of communication toward this goal of self-identification. I


will examine why television fits this human need so perfectly, as it


presents an incredibly safe place to identify without being judged in


return.


Television is notorious for its ability to create and alter our concept


of reality, but how did it become such a powerful influence? Which


human cultural need produced such a demand for a medium that can be


passively consulted for clues to our personal identities? What is the


nature of the interaction that people have with television? The act of


watching television highlights a number of phenomena that explain the


culture of television. The key players are the programs on TV and the


viewers, the latter creating a need for the former. After all,


television would have no place in a world with no viewers. Television


is a profound clue in to the inter-workings of the larger culture, as


well as to the nature of human behavior, in that it reflects our


weaknesses and goals, and the extremely exploitive nature of power.


^?Communication is a symbolic process whereby reality is produced,


maintained, repaired, and transformed^?. This process is enabled by the


fact that communication is necessary for human survival. The very


nature of humans as a social animal accounts for such a need to


communicate. The media^?s ability to influence the individual and serve


as a cultural resource is the result of the individual^?s incessant


search for identity, which established a permanent niche for television


in society. In other words, it was our need to be influenced, to have a


resource of clues as to our identity, which made television an authority


in values and ideas about reality. TV is important because we as humans


need to identify ourselves everyday and it is an easy and safe way to


reinforce what you want to see. It is a basis for interpreting and


defining our environment, about which we are constantly having to learn


and adjust. I will argue that inherent to human social relations is the


need to identify oneself in the moment in order to know how to respond.


All living organisms have a fundamental need to interpret their


environment in order to survive, and to do so as efficiently as


possible. This raises the issue of why humans have such a need to find


identity in sources outside of the self. The answer lies in the fact


that humans do not have instincts, meaning that we do not have the


luxury of having access to predetermined responses to stimuli within the


environment. As such, we have to scan and consult our environment


(culture) to learn a system of responses that appeals to us


individually. Orchestrated by the ^?self^?, our perceptual data from our


five senses is filtered and interpreted based on how we need to see the


world. Every second we are efficiently interpreting only the necessary


stimuli that must be responded to according to our self-created


investments. This is the reason you have not felt your feet in your


shoes until just now, there was no reason to. In a very real sense, we


are controlled by our investments in that it is in our investments that


we make or break our identities. Where we look then, what we listen to


is almost chosen for us (and yet somehow by us) as we are driven to


create an identity every moment based on the brain^?s incredible need to


efficiently respond to its perceptions. We take clues from family,


educators, role models, peers, and the media, among others. Television


was designed in such a way that it is easy for us to consult it for


quick answers about who we want to be, what appropriate behavior is, how


we want our society to view us, how we want to spend our time. This is


a critical aspect to TV^?s ability to impact us. It takes very little


energy for us to turn on the TV, it allows us to forget about the stress


in our own life, it does not require that we speak with anyone or have


to defend our ideals, it is optimistic in that it convinces us that we


can always be prettier, richer, better, and always more accepted by


others, only with the help of their products of course.


My intention in purposing this thesis of self-identification as the


basis of all communication is to show where the relationship between


perceiver and perceived truly lies, as this will show where


responsibility rests. I will demonstrate why TV is so appealing to our


impressionable nature, and why it is so potentially dangerous. I say


potentially because I will simultaneously argue that it is the perceiver


that ultimately must react to the message, and that although accountable


for her reaction, she is not necessarily in control. This idea that


humans are accountable for their perceptions while not being in control


of them may seem awkward or even conflicting, yet it is evidenced in


this theory of self. This theory is instrumental in illustrating the


process of perceiving, and thus the formation of values, because it


reflects how and why humans allow their mass media to affect them. It


is in the way in which we perceive an event, a commercial, or a


conversation that determines what we think about it, and therefore


whether to invest energy in it. The real question is what determines


how we perceive, how much influence is taken, how much is forced?


Television is an authority in social values because we invest so heavily


in its messages. In other words, people have assigned to television the


role of educator, informant, and mentor through our reliance upon it for


clues. Commercials serve to tell us what products, attitudes, and


behaviors we need to be socially acceptable, and characters model the


lives that we ought to lead. Through these means television sculpts our


ideas of success, health, beauty, happiness, love, and morality, of


which these productions avow to be an authority. However, it must be


acknowledged that viewers are those that truly make TV an authority in


social relations and ideals. The producers simply live up to such


responsibility.


The initial step in television^?s ability to influence us is its capacity


to hold our attention in the first place, long enough to impact us and


leave a lasting impression. Television has long been a greater source


of entertainment than books or lasting conversations about life. We


turn to it and dedicate more time to watching than we do to any other


leisure activities. It is from these large proportions of invested time


that television derives its power as a primary influence. Furthermore,


the viewing of television is a ^?safe^? activity because we are not judged


as we view, no one knows what reaction we have to what we see is in the


privacy of our own mind; whereas with speaking we have to risk having


our ideas refuted.


The second step in television^?s success in influencing us is through its


array of programs, messages, and realities, which ensures that everyone


will find something that speaks to them and provides some sort of


desirable feedback. Television is a powerful invention in that it allows


channels to human identity. Satellite TV, (soon DHTV) and comprehensive


cable programs present hundreds of channels with individual programming


that have the power to captivate anyone, regardless of background or


belief. This makes it easy to identify. Producers are able,


furthermore, to determine in which ways we identify with the messages


through Nielson ratings and product sales, and continually reinforce


whatever values or messages that sells. This selling of attention makes


billionaires of certain CEOs and immediately raises questions of


responsibility, morality, and where exactly free-will lies in a society


so structured in conformity.


Producers of programs and advertising are well aware of the competition


they have with other sources for clues as to identity. Being the


quickest, easiest, and least expensive product through which values and


answers are communicated is an asset that makes it so influential. This


is why millions of dollars are offered per episode to a comedian living


in New York City for playing the part of a comedian living in NYC.


Conglomerates of businesses, thousands of jobs, all rest on product


sales. Americans have become so addicted to finding our personal


identity in consumerism that Jerry Seinfeld has become extremely


influential to our economy.


Is it too late? Are we already so conditioned to need to be influenced


by the same messages that we can^?t see it? Are corporations already so


invested in their own growth that to take their ^?customers^? well being


in to account would be bankruptcy? A perfect example is the Tobacco


Industry. They are so incredibly invested in their worldwide


distribution of nicotine that they knowingly target children, heighten


nicotine levels, and then lie about its addictive nature and ability to


kill if used properly. They were not born evil, I believe they have


just learned to identify themselves by not looking at the consequences


of their actions. This would be pretty easy with billions of dollars to


spend and a true belief that one is simply offering a product for sale,


as a public service almost.


Smoking cigarettes is another perfect example of how the ^?self^? needs to


find identity. The act of inhaling cigarette smoke is incredibly


dangerous to one^?s body and yet I feel that is exactly why kids do it.


They know its not healthy, they smoke because it^?s not healthy. Smoking


started out as a social activity but as it became a ^?dirty habit^?,


suddenly it was attractive to anyone who wanted to rebel or make a


statement, namely teenagers. They smoke because it^?s cool and important


to claim your independence as a teenager. What better way than to show


that they can successfully ingest one of the most harmful substances


known to man. The recent uproar and court cases over tobacco, I


believe, only gives kids more reason to smoke as they see how easy it is


to find identity in what others believe is bad. That is why they snuck


that first cigarette in the first place. What are the implications of


all individuals needing to find their own identity and a society so


attached to its products? Are we growing in our consumerist need to


find our^?selves^? or will this trend result in an intense rebellion when


the cards are finally laid on the table and everyone sees the true


relationship of a commidified culture to it^?s need to identify?


To what extent does conformity promote a stable society and at what


point does it limit its possibilities? What responsibility do


corporations have in sending messages that could easily harm social


relations, such as the beauty myth, or the problem of drinking and


driving? What freedoms are granted by our Amendments and further


reinforced by our government^?s subsidizations? What is my


responsibility? I hope to attack these questions, based on the above


assumptions, in my next paper.

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