Consuming Signs

Lecture 1 Consumption as Manipulation?

Lesley Scott

Andrea Peach

consuming involves the using or using-up of something

browsing

shopping

acquiring

owning

listening

touchingtime

eating

looking

The act of consuming expresses (consciously or unconsciously) a wider set of cultural and ideological systems

Consuming within a free market place is about personal choice …

… access to goods is limited only by the consumer’s ability to pay for them …

Consumer culture is based on a constant expansion of demand

Western economy is fuelled by insatiable desire to produce more wealth, acquire more power and consume more goods

Tracey EminI’ve got it all 2000

Consuming Signs

Consumption becomes the leading device through which individuals construct their identities

Cultural Consumption as Manipulation?

Is consumption an expression of personal freedom and individualism? ….

Or is it a manipulation of needs and wants by dominant institutions?

Are we Passive or Active consumers?

If consuming requires making individual choices …

Theodor Adorno (1903-1969) The Frankfurt School

The Culture Industry

Adorno believed that consumption was being used as a vehicle for pacification, coercion and manipulation of the masses

As soon as the film begins, it is quite clear how it will end, and who will be rewarded, punished, or forgotten. In light of music [popular music], once the trained ear has heard the first notes of the hit song, it can guess what is coming and feel flattered when it does come.

Theodor AdornoDialectic of Enlightenment1947

A key feature of the culture industry’s products is standardisation coupled with a pseudo-individualisation

This is because work under capitalism is dull and boring, leaving little energy or imagination for real escape

The Culture Industry is a product of capitalism generates false needs. These needs work as a means of social control.

The culture industry makes people aspire to the false fulfillment of wish dreams such as wealth, adventure, passion, love, power and sensationalism

Problems with Adorno?

Presumes consumer to be a ‘cultural dope’ - a mindless victim of the consumer industry

Imposes his own ‘elitist tastes’ on a culture he doesn’t understand and doesn’t want to understand (popular culture)

Does not allow for any critical engagement or debate with cultural consumption …

which brings us on to Baudrillard …