Media Audiences Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Media Audiences - Essay ExampleStuart Hall defines culture as, factual grounded terrain of practices, representations, languages and customs of any specified society (Hall, 1996). By this definition, western culture is its own society, merely when referred to, the regions most(prenominal) commonly thought of as embodying western culture argon Europe and the United States. The most significant aspect of western culture has to do with the ideology of the hegemony in charge. In western culture this would be the business moguls especially those that own media companies, majority members of government Hall defines representation as How the world is socially constructed and represented to and by us (Hall, 1996). The representation is key because it dictates how a group of people will act with their culture and also how other cultures will preconceive and then receive members of a certain society. passing acclaimed French Sociologist Pierre Bourdieu has done much work on culture and it s influence on decision making. He finds that the public has no genuine representation in democratic societies. When people tend to capture media coverage of certain events and they see the results of polls and statistics, they perceive the information from the perspective of a rational selection theorist. Most people based their decisions on the grounds of believing this theory, but Bourdieu is in opposition to it. wise Choice theory is the belief that human beings naturally choose a given path certified on whether it is the best path to achieve their goals. It is a belief in methodological individualism this consequence it adopts the belief that social situations, and group behavior is solely the result of individual action. Within this theory, corporations and national governments argon viewed as individual operators as well. The problem that arises with this theory are the certain assumptions. This theory assumes human beings are aware of certain information, of which they arent always aware, and it assumes that individuals consistently make mental calculations to determine their next decision. He points come issue of the closet how this belief contributes to the human tendency to conform when he argues that,Doing ones duty as a man means conforming to the social order, and this is a fundamentally a question of respecting rhythms, keeping pace, not falling out of line. Dont we all eat the similar wheat cake Dont we all get up at the same time These various ways of reasserting solidarity contain an implicit definition of the fundamental virtue of conformity. (Bourdieu, 1977)He after goes on to show that conformities only other opposition is eccentricity, which becomes natural for those intrigued by it irregularity.the opposite of which is the desire to home apart from others. Working while the others are resting, staying in the house while the others are working in the fields, traveling on deserted roads, wandering round the streets of the village while the others are asleep or at the market - these are all suspicious forms of behavior. The eccentric who does everything differently... (Bourdieu, 1977) Bourdieu believes that society cannot just be analyse in terms of economic classes and ideologies, but that individual education and culture must be employ as well. Bourdieu does not separate people based on class and then analyze them, but groups everyone into what he calls a field/ social arena. This contradicts classic Marxism, as well