Evolving Identities in the Media Project - Case Study Example

Evolving Identities in the Media Project This paper is devoted to the issue of social identification in connection with the study of Media Literacy. So to discover this issue we need to define these two phenomena within the context of this work. Than we discuss the use of this knowledge and make a practical research of the commercials and the social identification of the would-be users. The main thesis of this paper is – the commercials respond to the changes of the society and represent the ‘popular’ (most common) types of social identities within this society. The Social Identity is the issue studied by sociology, psychology and also anthropology. The social identification is the initial part of the person and of the whole society. It includes the social identification of the different social groups and separate persons within these groups. Social Identification is the special process by which the person defines him- herself in terms and categories that he/she shares with other people. In contrast to characterizations of personal identity, social identities assume some commonalities with others. There are several different forms of the social identity which have their distinct characteristics. For example they can be divided into personal and group identifications. In this paper we are going to deal with both of these types. Also this paper’s important topic is Media literacy. To be Media literate means to be able to "decipher the complex messages we receive from television, radio, newspapers, magazines, books, billboards, signs, packaging, marketing materials, video games, recorded music, the Internet and other forms of media" (Introduction to Media Literacy). For the media-literate people it is easier to see the hidden information of the, for example, the commercials. Currently, advertising becomes increasingly important part of the world and society. It should be noted the role of the television commercials is still increasing; this kind of advertisement serves as a channel of transmission of cultural norms and values. As a social phenomenon, it is endowed with enormous informational potential, which has both positive and negative effects and which results in the ability to change the separate individuals, and the society as a whole. Promotional image - is not only a vivid picture, video and music - it includes also a general impression, and the effect produced by the advertisement on the viewer and potential buyer. In the given paper we need to trace the change of the social identification image using the example of the commercials. The issue concerning the creation of advertising is directly related to the sociology and perceptual psychology. The Freuds theory of self-concept pays a significant role in both of these studies. Different people perceive themselves differently, and it often depends on the surrounding society. Social identity imposes some standards and patterns of behavior that a person follows involuntarily. In the commercials, it is used as follows: first, sociologists define the potential group of customers and the image that could be an ideal one for this group of consumers; further the image itself (for example, a successful businessman, uninhibited teenager, Fatal Beauty, etc.) is shaped; with a help of commercials this image is introduced in the consumers mind as an ideal one and therefore as an example to follow. Further a simple logic of the process can be traced - the consumer sees his/her ideal, who, for example, uses a certain brand of goods and hence there appears an association "product-dream", the customer buys this product from a desire to simulate the ideal image. Also we should mention that all the patent images in the commercials are influence by the world technological progress. In this essay we will consider the personal social identities of the successful businessman and the group of active and young people which are among the most popular patterns on the commercials of the 20th century. So, if we study the mobile-phone market through the last ten years we will see that the image and the social identification of the would-be buyer and user have changed. We can trace this tendency in the line of mobile phones Nokia. The social identification would-be users of the mobile phones Nokia changed a lot through the last ten years. For example the model of the 2004 year Nokia 6630 was oriented for a business man who travels a lot and needs to use both computer and mobile phone (this model was one of the first so-called smart phones), so in the commercial we see the successful journalist who uses his phone both as a computer and the cell phone by adjusting an additional keypad. So the phone was more of practical that of recreational use. The best model of the 2006 year Nokia N93 was designed for those people who want to use their phones more as cameras. Here we see no particular image of the person-user but we can figure it out judging by the main functions of this phone. It would be a young, active person who wants to fix all the interesting moments of his life; we said his on purpose because the size and the design of the Nokia N93 points on the fact that this very phone is most popular among the male users (huge size. steel cover, big buttons). Nokias N98 (the year 2008) commercial shows us the main audience, for whom this phone is designed, consist of youngsters who like to take photos, send them and discuss in their blogs. This commercial is bright and it reflects the general mood of the first smart phones users generation. In the commercial we see a lot of young people of different races so it also reflects the general world tendency to support inter-racial friendship and communication. The main motto of the NOKIA N8 (2010 y.) commercial is be social, so the would-be users are those who often use social networks which turns our attention to the teenagers who are more social active in the internet field than adults. Also this advertisement resembles the previous one because the main idea is to communicate more, so here we can conclude that the general tendency of the users image didnt changed a lot through 2008-2010 years - to have NOKIA means to be social. Here we trace the general tendency to use the image of those people who socially identify themselves as socially active youngsters. And the last one of the commercials under the study is the one about Nokia Lumia 1520 created in the year 2012. Here we can see a young businessman who travels and uses his phone also as computer, but now without adjusting anything to it; the motto of this advertisement is Nokia Lumia - for smarter business. So the youngsters from the previous two commercials are now replaced by the already known but updated image of businessman; we also should mention that though the image was changed the idea of social communication is still crucial. The image of the successful man becomes dominant in the world commercials in general in the year 2012. The development of the IT technologies caused the appearance of both represented types in their modern variant; they became mobile and more developed. We also could see that the pattern image has changed several times throughout the last ten years, being influences by different social tendencies. So, we can say that the commercials and the social identities of the people are interrelated and reflect the needs of the society during a certain period. In conclusion we should say that we have studied five bright examples of the commercials of the mobile phones Nokia and we saw the two main types of the social identities – a successful quite young businessman and the youngster (also a group of youngsters) and they appeared and disappeared from the commercials according to the prevailing pattern identities of the people (would-be customers) all over the world. So the main thesis of our paper - the commercials respond to the changes of the society and represent the ‘popular’ (most common) types of social identities within the certain society – proved to be right. In this paper we based our work on the concepts, described in the Media Literacy Project, saying that ‘Media literate youth and adults are active consumers of media’, ‘Media construct our culture’ and ‘Most media are controlled by commercial interests.’ Both these concepts are represented in our five examples of commercials. Works cited Deaux Kay. Social Identity. Available from: http://www.utexas.edu/courses/stross/ant393b_files/ARTICLES/identity.pdf Accessed [4 October 2014] Media Literacy Project. Available from: medialiteracyproject.org Accessed [4 October 2014] YouTube video. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDOoENE16Mk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ew9PXZWHJRw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fx2QBy0ZolY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKQxwBRAGes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4UxpZ5njx2c Read More