POPULAR CULTURE

(The Impact Of Media On Commodity Fetishism)

BY :

STEPHEN ALI BARKAH N1D216140

ENGLISH LITERATURE STUDY PROGRAM

DEPARTEMENT OF LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE

FACULTY OF CULTURAL STUDIES

HALUOLEO UNIVERSITY

KENDARI

2019
 CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background

Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the

means of production and their operation for profit. Characteristics central to
capitalism include private property, capital accumulation, wage labor, voluntary
exchange, a price system and competitive markets. In a capitalist market
economy, decision-making and investment are determined by every owner of
wealth, property or production ability in financial and capital markets whereas
prices and the distribution of goods and services are mainly determined by
competition in goods and services markets.

Mass culture is a cultural product that is continuously reproduced and

consumed in bulk, so that the industry created from this mass culture is oriented
towards creating maximum profits. This mass culture is a result of criticism of
traditional culture, where traditional culture emerges and comes from the
community itself and is not bound or dependent on the mass media. Traditional
culture itself is built from the process of adaptation from the interaction of the
elite class of society in terms of aesthetics, greatly glorifying scientific and artistic
traditions. Whereas in mass culture, as a critique of traditional culture, referring to
the process of thick pluralism and democracy, trying to eliminate the classes that
base themselves on the culture of capital, bourgeoisie and elitism, by promoting
togetherness and egalitarianism. However, negatively, mass culture is also
interpreted as consumerism, universal pleasure that is only instantaneous, easily
extinct, and has superficial and non-dual meanings, referring to the understanding
of cultural products that are created solely for the market. In other words in mass

culture, product orientation is a trend or fashion that is in demand by the market.

 CHAPTER II

DISCUSSION

2.1 The Impact Of Media On Commodity Fetishism

In Karl Marx's critique of political economy, commodity fetishism is the

perception of the social relationships involved in production not as relationships
among people, but as economic relationships among the money and commodities
exchanged in market trade. As such, commodity fetishism transforms the
subjective, abstract aspects of economic value into objective, real things that
people believe have intrinsic value.

I am going to have to agree with what she is trying to say that ''capitalists
are controlling the media through ownership of corporations and an economy that
makes them able to control the mass media''. Capitalism only functions in
societies with the “proper economic institutions and the proper respect for the
rules of behavior” (as cited in Galbraith, 1993, p. 12). Just for instance it has been
fairly recent on the news and I'm sure many people have heard about the whole
US government phone hacking scandal, and that just goes to show how the people
with power do and can get away with controlling the media.

The media is one of the key areas in society where power is exercised,
reinforced and contested. It is hard to imagine a successful left political project

that does not have a media platform. The media was not a major political issue for

earlier generations of the Left. In the 19th century, a very different media system

was in place. 19th century socialists wouldn’t be talking much about the need to
criticize the New York Herald Tribune because they weren’t organizing people
who read the New York Herald Tribune. It was much easier and more common

for the Left to have its own media. The workers had worker papers. They weren’t

consuming mass produced commercial media products. But this started changing
in the first half of the 20th century. Capital accumulation colonized much more of

popular culture and communications. Capitalism became the dominant mode of

producing and distributing information in society. The media has since become
central to politics; it is a central concern for anyone that wants to understand
politics and intervene politically. The challenge for us is to understand, use and

struggle to change the existing media.

2.1.1 Positive and negative impacts from the mass media

The mass media opens our view of the world today. The media has positive
and negative impacts that can affect us, which are related to our daily lives and
culture. The media has also influenced us in many ways where we ourselves are

not aware of what the media is doing to us. The biggest tool in the media that

generates income is advertising. We will see how the media affects us in terms of

positive and negative impacts.

The following are the positive and negative effects of mass media:

Positive impact

 Mass media has a way to show us information that is neatly arranged in

the news. Children also benefit from mass media because they can

increase their knowledge in certain subjects.

 Mass media can also entertain and provide educational knowledge.

 We have a sense of what is happening around us and also about
everything else in the place. With mass media we can see, hear and get

information from countries in various parts of the world via television.

 The media in all its forms can introduce us creative ways of thinking
that can help us improve ourselves in different ways, whether in our
personal or work life.
  Media can also help us connect with other people around the world
from a great distance.

Negative impact

 The screening of scenes or news about violence or pornography is the

main factor that is seen and has the potential to be a dangerous
instigator of young people (adolescents). Even children are easily
influenced by what they see on television and on the internet, and then
can be imitated.
 At this time, the information reported may be authentic from every
angle. Therefore, there may be a misinterpretation of the situation.

 News can manipulate to influence the viewer's mind. For example,

certain political parties can manipulate reports that benefit them.

 Make forgetting time, especially when studying.

 The spread of misleading messages can turn the mind towards the
wrong path.

From the explanation, it is stated that the media can influence people's
lifestyle. If that is the case, then capitalists can easily use the media to get their
own benefits from the products they offer through the media, these products are
purchased by the public without realizing that they have been affected because
they have bought the product without thinking about the usefulness of the product.

A product’s utility has evolved over time. Every commodity that we own
today not just reflects our social status and values but it also possesses the power
to define us. It is difficult to refute the negative influence of capitalism that we

witness in the form of obsession with possession. Its about how advertisements,

with their clever strategies, have a major role to play in consumerism. Under the
main theme of consumerism, the sub-theme that this paper touches upon is that of
gender and its relation with consumerism as depicted in popular culture.

Baudrillard acknowledges that “the pressure is exerted on women through

the myth of Woman ... as [a] collective and cultural model of self-indulgence”

(95). “ÉvelyneSullerot puts this well: Woman is sold to women ... while doing
what she believes is preening herself, scenting herself, clothing herself, in a word
`creating' herself, she is, in fact, consuming herself” (qtd. in Baudrillard 95). The
relationship between women, femininity and consumption is a popularly known
and widely accepted one.

The consumer society emerged in the late seventeenth century and

intensified throughout the eighteenth century. While some claim that change was
propelled by the growing middle-class who embraced new ideas about luxury
consumption and about the growing importance of fashion as an arbiter for
purchasing rather than necessity, many critics argue that consumerism was a
political and economic necessity for the reproduction of capitalist competition for
markets and profits, while others point to the increasing political strength of
international working-class organizations during a rapid increase in technological
productivity and decline in necessary scarcity as a catalyst to develop a consumer
culture based on therapeutic entertainments, home-ownership and debt.
 CONCLUSION

The media is one of the key areas in society where power is exercised,
reinforced and contested. It is hard to imagine a successful left political project
that does not have a media platform. Every commodity that we own today not just
reflects our social status and values but it also possesses the power to define us. It
is difficult to refute the negative influence of capitalism that we witness in the
form of obsession with possession. From all of these explanation, the society must
be clever to choose what they want, and thinking twice about the usefulness of the
product shown on the mass media.