Reading about advertising can be pretty depressing. There’s deceit, Photoshop, manipulation, and bribery. In this week’s selection we learned about dominant ideology through which the ruling power maintains control. We learned how police and God force or convince people to act certain ways and believe certain things. We learned that hearts are to women as boobs are to men.
Then, along came chapter 14.
I was refreshed and excited upon hearing about cultural jamming. While I’ve certainly witnessed this type of rebellion, I was unfamiliar with this term. What better way to criticize the media than to use media itself?
In colleges across the country and presumably the world, there are intellectual discussions held about media messages, advertising ploys, the sexist, elitist, determinist (insert “ist” word here) depictions in print, on airwaves, and on screens. I have been in sociology, history, and women’s studies classrooms where these concerns have been raised. Yet, analyzing alone doesn’t create change.
Reading about the Nike case study (p.217-219) and the power of subversive technology has opened my mind to new possibilities in critiquing the media.
What are you going to DO about the things in the media that you are frustrated with?
Strategically Communicating 
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