Culture Jamming

Introduction Culture jamming is one of the marketing tactics that has been used for many years among anti-consumerist groups as one of the most successful tactics in the sphere of marketing. In this respect, Carducci defines culture jamming as an organized effort by social movements to counteract messages portrayed in advertisements (161). These social movements disrupt corporate advertising using myriad of tactics such as exposing political utterances on commercial culture.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Culture Jamming specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More In addition, culture jammers may also change the original configuration of a fashion statement, logo or product images of an advertisement made by a given company in order to challenge what is written in relation to freedom of consumption. It is imperative to note that the main rationale behind this form of culture jamming is reshaping social conformity to certai n types of advertisements (Lambert-Beatty 99). This issue has been carefully examined in media that specifically focuses on the development and transformation of the counterculture which, in its turn, has provoked the expansion of capitalism, has introduced innovation to mainstream culture, and continues to influence the current mainstream culture. Regarding the above, culture jamming can be recognized as one of the most progressive, though not rebellious movements, introduced by anti-consumerist marketing strategies because many corporations, marketers and advertisers have managed to employ the policy of subvertisement while branding their product. Main discussion Development of Culture Jamming Movement: Use of Subvertisement and Its Relation to Capitalism Culture jamming has been practiced for several decades and it is difficult to exactly pinpoint the actual time when it was incepted. The term dates back to 1984 despite the fact that corporate organizations, advertisers and marke ters had been using the tactic for some time (Carducci 161). Over the years culture jamming has been led by various groups from different quotas such as women movements, media theorists and art movements. Culture jammers advocate to be involved when decisions on creating adverts are made. For instance, feminist movements fight against the use of skinny female models and in general, using women in advertising. According to these feminist groups, increased use of women in advertising makes them feel emotionally inadequate especially in sexist advertising. Hence, such groups are capable of airing their opinions against sexist advertising. Similarly, feminist groups have equally been able to raise against a number of magazines and publications that have portrayed sexist adverts in the pretext of attracting more male customers or those that are targeting women who strive to maintain a perfect body as shown in order to attract men.Advertising Looking for essay on cultural studies? Le t's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Other human rights groups have also used culture jamming to fight exploitation of workers in factories – sweatshops. To affirm this, it is vital to note that our corporate culture is mainly driven by profitability whereby workers are lowly paid and compelled to work extra hours without proper compensation. Interestingly, culture jammers often argue that individuals should be given opportunity to choose the nature of advertisement they are likely to be exposed so that they can make prior choices. They should also be exposed to hundreds of advertisements each day from various companies without corporate advertisers considering their consent. According to culture jammers, corporate advertisers ought to consider the view of the public before exposing them to adverts (â€Å"Pranking Rhetorics†16).They view marketing as socially unacceptable due to the fact that it interferes with public space without the consent of the very public. Jammers look for every opportunity to alter messages that are given in various types of adverts. They have used black marker and computer programs to change the message given in various adverts. They then insert their message which more often than not, expose anti-consumer, anti-corporation, anti-materialism and in general anti-advertising. The main aim of these groups is to recreate and transform commercial culture (Sandlin Milam 323). Subvertisement is a special type of culture jamming that involves production and distribution of anti-adverts with the aim of turning the attention of consumers in a certain direction (â€Å"Subcultures and Countercultures† 287). In subvertising, existing icons or images are altered whereas new images which are satirical may also be put to replace the original one. In this regard, culture jammers promote behaviors that are more humane and an environment that is not dominated by corporate culture. What i s more important, culture jamming movement are also directed against capitalism since they believe that capitalist culture promotes unequal race, class, and gender (Klein 30). This culture ought to be discouraged and resisted at all cost according to culture jammers. Corporate, marketers and advertisers promote inhuman behaviors and corporate culture that is driven by profit motif (Skinner 140). The desire to increase profit has made corporate to go to the wrong extent when they are making their advertisements to the public. As such, exploitation of workers in the industries is also another form of capitalism where corporate would like to reap the maximum benefits from their employees at a lower cost.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Culture Jamming specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Increased competition in the market has forced companies to look for survival tactics in order to withstand pressure from the rival c ompanies. One of this survival strategies is the use of subvert where one company may look for ways to disrupt the adverts of a rival company. The latter is illegal practice where potential customers of a given product are mislead and misinformed on the truth of an advert. As Harold expounds, pranking is one of the strategies used by anti-consumerist movements to reduce rhetoric of MNCs advertising (â€Å"Pranking Rhetorics†189). In this respect, subvertising aims to draw attention of the potential consumers to some information that may not be true about the products advertised by a certain company. The practice aim is to reveal the weakness of the company in order to discourage consumers from buying a given product. At times one company may disrupt the adverts of the rival companies to make sure that consumers do not buy their products. This make the company that is orchestrating subverts to retain its customers who may be tempted to buy products from other companies that ar e offering similar products. This will increase the sales of the company and hence its profitability. Adbusters One of the brightest displays of culture jamming is introduced by The Adbusters magazine that introduced a signature brand of subversive Black Spot Sneaker. This brand was designed to satirize Nike use of sweatshop factories, but, in fact, the introduced campaign has gradually been involved in the mainstream consumerism instead of promoting the culture jamming movement (Heath and Potter 56). According to Heath and Potter, the consumers are looking for social distinction, individuality, and exclusivity while buying the product and, therefore, they have claimed that they pursue the same tendency that the magazine advertises (57). In this respect, the Adbusters are usually seen as supporters of capitalist values. Additionally, the case with Black Spot Sneakers has stirred the debates concerning its nature because the magazine editors admit that consumerist adherents are attac hed to using the same marketing strategies. Indeed, Adbusters fight for mental environmentalism rather just for citizens rights in general. They use the notion of the environmentalist but instead of fighting external environmental pollution, Adbusters fights for internal pollution. They believe that the minds of the public are polluted by the info toxin arising from the information given to the public by the marketers, corporations and advertisers. According to Harold, this can be termed as an ‘unruly corruption’ (â€Å"Pranking Rhetorics† 5). Adbusters argue that increased cases of mental illness maybe attributed to the thousands of adverts that are pumped to the members of the public each day. Information about oil spill of BP Company, increased extinction of animals, crony democracy emergence among others have continued to affect mental health of the public in a bigger way (â€Å"Our Space† 17).Advertising Looking for essay on cultural studies? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More According to them, mass media ought to be used to promote ideas rather than to promote products as it is done today. Good mental ethics should be at the centre stage of each and every advert rather than profit motif as it is evident today in majority of the adverts (â€Å"Identity and Community†195). The Diesel Clothing Company The case with Diesel company provides an example where rhetorical advertising is used to promote fashion. Specifically, the company uses a conundrum to differ with the modern social issues as well as disputing consumerism and fashion trends. As such, being disguised by consumerist logos, the Company has successfully promoted its subversion policy through delivering symbolic messages that can be extracted from standard ideas and advertisements. According to Airing, â€Å"†¦Diesel does not seek to transmit messages of product quality so much as sell ideologies both procultural and countercultural†¦Ã¢â‚¬  because no any other brand evoked fake ideology more fiercely for the marketing purposes than Diesel did (3). In other words, the company’s campaign consists in presenting a double coded message to communicate between two terrains – the cultural jamming and consumerist culture. Bearing a concealed meaning, Diesel treats its customers as intelligent individuals who appreciate simple ideas concealing more thought provoking messages (Arning 3). In addition, such a sophisticated ideology also emphasizes the tight connection between the company’s postmodern brand excellent and cultural policy of late capitalism due to the fact that Diesel is meant to be unique in promoting the main consumerist virtues through symbolic sign and constant repeating â€Å"†¦of social mores and contemporary predictions while reflecting the paradoxes and scruples of the twenty-first century† (Arning 3). In whole, there strategies can be still considered as culturally jammed due to the intentions the company pursues while advertising its products. Although the aim of these movements was to make popular culture less popular, mainstream cultures have gained more ground in the corporate world. According to Heath and Potter, it is not possible for jam culture and all counter-culture movements to have failed (5). Thus, anti-consumerists movements have not succeeded in their effort to transform and recreate commercial culture. This implies that in reality culture jamming is not possible since mainstream cultures have already dominated corporate world and the efforts of anti-consumerist movements cannot transform the society (â€Å"The Consuming Life† 135). Regarding the above, the Diesel clothing company case proves the inevitability of the prevalence of consumerist focus because the main task of the market is to attract more customers to buy products, but not to encourage the subversive messages and promote new forms and messages of consumerist culture. In addition to this, the world is driv en by capitalism forces which consciously or unconsciously determine the culture to be followed (â€Å"Identity And Community† 287). All the efforts in the society are directed towards materialism and those who do not support this course always find themselves in problems. Conclusion In conclusion, the concept of culture jamming can be considered as one of the most successful ones because it a great number of marketing strategies were based on the ideas presented by the adherent of this anti-consumerist movement. Though the phenomenon is not presented as a rebellion act recently, this issue has been carefully examined in media and marketing with particular reference on the development and transformation of subverstisement leading to the expansion of capitalism. In addition, culture jamming has made a significant contribution to mainstream culture through a myriads of innovative tactics introduced to mainstream culture. The brightest examples of such interventions refer to the case with the Adbusters magazine and the Diesel clothing company’s strategies. For instance, Adbuster is a critical example of these movements that mainly focus on changing the message that is presented in the advertising posters. The Diesel clothing company represents an example of how companies can use advertisements oriented on intelligent humans who can extract the messages concealed in simple logos and ideas. However, as many cultural theorists will argue, jamming culture is not possible bearing in mind that the desire by social activists to transform and recreate commercial culture has not materialized. On the contrary, mainstream culture has continued to dominate the society despite the efforts of anti-consumerist groups largely due to the fact that modern society is largely driven by capitalistic ideology. Apparently, this prevalence exists due to the blurred distinctions between the contemporary policies of culture jamming and the constantly changing purposes of con sumerist movement. Works Cited Arning, Chris. â€Å"Kitsch, Irony, And Consumerism: A Semiotic Analysis Of Diesel Advertising 2000–2008.† Semiotica 2009, 174 (2009): 21-48. Print. Carducci, Vince. Culture Jamming: A Sociological Perspective. Journal of Consumer Culture, 6.1, (2006):116-138. Print. Harold, Christine. OurSpace: Resisting the Corporate Control of Culture. Minneapolis: University Of Minnesota, 2007. Print. Harold, Christine. Pranking Rhetoric: Culture Jamming As Media Activism. Critical Studies in Media Communication, 21.3 (2004): 189-211. Print. Heath, Joseph, and Andrew Potter. The Rebel Sell: Why The Culture Can’t Be Jammed. Toronto: Harper Perennial, 2005. Print. Klein, Naomi. Culture jamming: Ads under attack. Brandweek41.28 (2000): 28-38. Print. Lambert-Beatty, Carrie. Fill in the blank: Culture jamming and the advertising of agency. New Directions for Youth Development, 2010.125 (2010): 99-112. Print. O’Brien, Susie and Imre, Szeman. C hapter 5: The Consuming Life. Popular Culture: A User’s Guide. Toronto: Nelson, (2010):135-168. Print. O’Brien, Susie, and Imre Szeman. â€Å"Chapter 7 Identity And Community.† Popular Culture: A User’s Guide. Toronto: Nelson, 2010. Print. O’Brien, Susie, and Imre Szeman. â€Å"Chapter 8 Subcultures And Countercultures.† Popular Culture: A User’s Guide. Toronto: Nelson, 2010. Print. Sandlin, Jennifer, Jennifer Milam. Mixing Pop (Culture) and Politics: Cultural Resistance, Culture Jamming, and Anti-Consumption Activism as Critical Public Pedagogy.† Curriculum Inquiry, 38.3 (2008):323-350. Print. Skinner, David. Media Organization and Production/Representing Resistance: Media, Civil Disobedience and the Global Justice Movement. Canadian Journal of Communication,32.1 (2007): 139-142. Print. This essay on Culture Jamming was written and submitted by user Avery Estes to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.

Stanford-Binet test Essays

Stanford-Binet test Essays Stanford-Binet test Paper Stanford-Binet test Paper Even the latest version of the Stanford-Binet test has been so polished and psychologists rely on their validity and it is undeniably popular, it is not perfect. In fact one of the strong critics of the scale is Gould who states that Binet originally have devised his test to be carried out with an examiner in a one-on-one method for detecting problem areas instead as a means of ranking the general intelligence testees linearly. Moreover, he noted that tests of mental abilities has suffered from inadequate support and its own internal contradictions (Gould 223) that even the mayor of Chicago, had tested as a moron on one version of the Binet scales (Gould 223) I. Robert Sternberg and his Triarchic Theory of Intelligence Another theory on Man’s intelligence is that of Robert J. Sternberg who took a truly holistic approach to the conceptualization of intelligence in his Triarchic Theory. What makes the work of Sternberg special and advantageous over the conventional psychometric test is its bases. Aside from being more cognitive, Sternberg himself proclaimed that his work is based on a theory of human intelligence, the triarchic theory that is broader than conventional differential theories which â€Å"have been based on theories of intelligence that have their roots in differential psychology the psychology of individual differences† (Rowe 183) The three subtheories of Sternberg’s Triarchic Theory are the componential or analytical subtheory , experiential or creative subtheory, and practical or contextual subtheory. These â€Å"theories seek to go beyond the IQ† ( Mackintosh 27) of a human being, though Sternberg acknowledges the importance of IQ testing. He believed that IQ tests measure only a sub-set of the† multiple intelligences† (Mackintosh 27). The first subtheory, which is the componential one deals with the components of intelligence; the experiential subtheory deals with the importance of coping with relative novelty and of automatization of information processing; and a contextual subtheory dealing with processes of adaptation, shaping, and selection. â€Å"I have referred to the theory from time to time as triarchic. †(Sternberg 456) Moreover, one of the arguments of his work is that the g factor or the â€Å"general intelligence does not exist† (Sternbeg 4)although general ability does. Although the Triarchic Theory is very useful and advantageous, even more detailed than that of Binet, it has its own share of criticisms. Quoting sociologist Linda Gottfredson in Sternberg’s book, is an obvious defense for the validity of the IQ tests. The effects of intelligencelike other psychological traitsare probabilistic, not deterministic. Higher intelligence improves the odds of success in school and work. It is an advantage, not a guarantee. Many other things matter. is an obvious qualification of the arguments Sternberg has presented and a defense for the validity of IQ tests. II. Psychometric Approach and the Information Processing Approach Psychometrics or psychometry, being the basis of the Psychometric Approach, is â€Å"the branch of psychology that deals with the design, administration, and interpretation of quantitative tests for the measurement of psychological variables such as intelligence, aptitude, and personality traits† (The Free Online Dictionary) in testing human ability. The Psychometric Approach, which presume that intelligence is a measurable factor, has became the â€Å" primary method of studying intelligence† (Corr) and thus the testing of IQ was born. There are many psychologists who devoted their time on studying intelligence and have paved ways in producing a method to measure the intelligence in a psychometric manner. Among them, as previously mentioned, is Alfred Binet with his Binet-Simon Scale. The study of psychometrics was only starting with that of Binet though and its furtherance can be seen in Dr. John C. Ravens Progressive Matrices, Kaufman couple’s Kaufman’s Assessment Battery for Children (K-ABC) and in the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) . If a one is not following the psychometric approach, that psychologist would be using an Information Processing Approach. This is another philosophical theory in understanding the cognitive process, similar to the applications used by Sternberg in his Triarchic Theory and diverse from that approach of Binet as explained above. This approach views human as an â€Å"information processor† (Wyer 2). The same author further explains the idea of this approach on the character of the information processor as: .. capable of receiving information operating upon it according to certain rules, storing the results of these operations in memory, altering the contents of certain areas of memory to which new information is relevant, and ultimately reporting the results of these operations in a form that is implicitly or explicitly specified by a user. The Information Processing Approach, therefore, is based on the premise that humans have brains that are similar to computers. III. Conclusion Intelligence is something measurable and all the efforts done to measure it have greatly influenced the foundation and philosophical views on the cognitive process as well as the educational system all throughout the world. No matter what a person chooses to use to understand the cognitive process, any approach is useful and have their certain characteristic that is superior over the other. They have their respective disadvantages over each other as well. Finally, in measuring the intelligence of an individual, it is not the measurement that matters or the measurement method that was used. The most important is the application of that highly measured intelligence towards the betterness of humanity. Becker, Kirk. A.. History of the Stanford-Binet intelligence scales: Content and psychometrics. (Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scales, Fifth Edition Assessment Service Bulletin No. 1). Itasca, IL: Riverside Publishing, 2003. Corr, Bradley. The Psychometric Approach to Intelligence: How Smart am I?. Serendep. 2004. Retrieved May 5, 2008

What are some of the perspectives that western scholars have employed Research Paper

What are some of the perspectives that western scholars have employed to understand the Cultural Revolution in China in 1965 - Research Paper Example and in regard to the Cultural Revolution itself, the content is expected to better explain how Western scholars arrived at their judgments and allow the readers to better pinpoint biases, inadequacies and their opposite in the humungous body of literature on the subject. The study of Communist China is a field in itself and that the corpus of literature written about the subject in the West could probably equal the rest of Chinese history combined. In the study of the Cultural Revolution, Western scholars analyze and understand the phenomenon using the studied society’s criteria or some use their own society’s criteria. Few scholars go so far as to claim that internal criteria are in principle inaccessible to cross-cultural scholars or that using either internal or external criteria is inherently inappropriate. According to Xiuwu Liu: this dichotomous classification of evaluation criteria as internal versus external, like the similar dichotomous classification of points of view, has serious limitations. Indeed, as with points of view, it is impossible to classify many criteria according to this dichotomy. More important, the subjects and purposes of evaluation are diverse.1 Indeed, one single set of assessment criteria for the Cultural Revolution among Western scholars, whether it be internal or external to the extent that it can be identified, cannot appropriately or adequately cover all possible assessment situations. And so, it is understandable that there are many ways, perspectives and approaches to analyze the Cultural Revolution and scholars contend on the methods most appropriate for the country and for the period. Nonetheless, there are sufficient evidences from which valid and credible interpretations could be made as the subject - the Cultural Revolution – is widely documented. For this paper, two important perspectives are explored that – the Mao-in-command model and the factionalism models. Radicalism in China began in 1956 with Mao’s