Introduction Electric technology has extended us in “a global embrace” because it has overcome the restrictions of space and time. It reduces our world to a “global village” where the individual is de-emphacized and everyone is involved in everyone else’s lives. The Medium is the Message We need to be reminded that the content of … Continue reading »
Bogost, Ian (2007) Persuasive Games
Videogames persuade players through procedural rhetoric. The procedures of rules-based interaction in games functions as a new form of rhetoric that influences players’ opinions and perceptions. Bogost examines 3 key areas videogames are used to influence opinion: politics, advertising,and education. Chapter 7 – Advergames Bogost understands advergames as any game created specifically to influence players’ … Continue reading »
Messenger Davis, Maire (2010) Children, Media and Culture
Chapters 1 & 2 The concept of childhood is a cultural construct. It is not fixed – it varies by geography and historical period. In all cultures, children are socialized through toys, games, stories, songs etc. In The Disappearance of Childhood, Neil Postman (1994) maintains that childhood can be defined as a stage of innocence … Continue reading »
Lasch, Christopher. (1978) The Culture of Narcissism
Our culture has become so fiercely individualistic that we are obsessed with ourselves and gratifying our id. We are in a constant quest for fulfillment, happiness and the respect and adoration of others. (22-23) Advertising promotes self-doubt (not self-indulgence) so that needs are created and never satisfied (181). Chapter 4 – The Propaganda of Commodities … Continue reading »
Schudson, Michael. (1983) Advertising, the Uneasy Persuasion
Introduction “Many people believe, with Christopher Lasch, that advertising “manufactures a product of its own: the consumer, perpetually unsatisfied, restless, anxious, and bored. Advertising serves not so much to advertise products as to promote consumption as a way of life” (Schudson, 6). “The ads say, typically, “buy me and you will overcome the anxieties I … Continue reading »
Pope, Daniel. (1983) The Making of Modern Advertising
Writes from a business history perspective. Suggests critics of advertising are too harsh and not grounded in fact. Advertising began in its modern form well before 1920. The rise of national brands and control of the market (what he calls “the end of competition”) around 1900 was not intentionally engineered but a natural outcome. Very … Continue reading »
Lears, Jackson. (1994) Fables of Abundance
“I have not tried to write a comprehensive historical survey of American advertising… Nor have I asked whether or not a particular advertising campaign has helped to sell a particular product.. . Instead, I have tried to explore what were, for the most part, the unintended consequences of advertisers’ efforts to vend their wares: the … Continue reading »
Schrum, Kelly. (2004) Some Wore Bobby Sox
Note: Schrum’s primary sources are mainly high school year books, private correspondences, magazines and private diaries. Introduction At the turn of the 20th century there was no such thing as “teenagers” yet in the 1950s they are a major segment of consumer culture. “At the turn of the twentieth century, teenaged girls received little, if … Continue reading »
Wernick, Andrew. (1991) Promotional Culture: Advertising, Ideology and Symbolic Expression
Case study of Wedgewood recreating an ancient roman vase as a marketing device to draw attention to his full product line. Advertising rose along with the rise of mass-produced commodities: “Commercial communication between buyers and sellers is an inherent feature of commodity exchange and without it no market can survive…The histories of advertising and commodities … Continue reading »
Stern, Barbara B. (2003) “Masculinism(s) and the Male Image: What Does it Mean to be a Man?” in Sex in Advertising
Men’s studies developed as a response to feminism and women’s studies. It began with the publication of The Liberated Man by Warren Farrell in 1975. Men’s studies challenges the concept of the ideal male as powerful, strong, active, a breadwinner, straight etc. and allows for many forms of masculinity. There have been 8 major popular … Continue reading »
