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But the cellphone does more than mix the digital and the physical, more than allow conversation with someone any place in the world from anywhere you happen to be. It not only integrates speech into the forest, the beach, the automobile, the city streets, but has begun to subsume, to blend into the mix, all the media that the Web has already brought into its precincts, and indeed many media that have flourished for decades or more before the Web. (Levinson, 2006:13)

Mobile phone technologies are advancing. According to Barr (2000:22), computing technologies are increasingly integrating themselves with telecommunication components such as the internet. With the help of these technological convergences, mobile phones are now considered as a mass medium, and a device that is capable of carrying a multitude of media platforms (Arceneaux & Kavoori, 2006:1). That is, they incorporate both broadcast and network capabilities. Recent mobile phone designs which have been gaining popularity in the marketplace are ones that hold MSN and internet capabilities (M2 Presswire, 2007), in addition to broadcast television services (Levison, 2006:14). It is no longer a device just used for verbal communication, but a tool that has “blended” all technologies into one (Levison, 2006:13). The impact created by this, according to De Souza e Silva (2006:19), is that mobile phones have now more than ever, blurred the borders between physical place and digital space. For Meyrowitz, a media ecology theorist, mediums such as the phone, the television and the internet, serve to blur the lines between public and private and either seeks to create a sense of belonging or a sense of isolation (Meyrowitz, 1985:7). As social places become increasingly blurred, and the social roles played in these places become continually altered, Meyrowitz (1995:51) argues that mediums create new social environments which need to be examined to understand how new technologies shape society and create certain problems in communication and social behaviour. This paper will examine mobile phone technologies in relation to the problems of belonging or being isolated in society. By looking at both the television environment and the internet environment and spaces they create, this paper will address how mobile phones – a convergent of both these types of media – either connect people together and create a sense of belonging, or disconnect people from others in addition to their surroundings.



The Media Ecology Perspective
The media ecology perspective looks at the media as an environment. According to Lum (2006:28), the media ecology perspective aims to understand how technologies can create environments that shape the way people interact with each other, as well as the world around them. Using the works of McLuhan who pronounces that “the medium is the message” (McLuhan, 1994:9), media ecology theorists argue that to understand how the media functions, the focus must not be on the content but the medium itself. As McLuhan (1994:9) argues, the importance of the medium was never noticed because the content of the medium always had the focus of the theorists. “Indeed, it is only too typical that the “content” of any medium blinds us to the character of the medium” (McLuhan, 1994:9). However, the fundamental importance of looking at the medium as McLuhan (1994:90) suggests, is because mediums become the extensions of men. That is, the technologies delivering the messages need to be examined because they are the extensions of people’s biological appendages. For example, the television becomes the extension of people’s sight, and the radio becomes the extension of people’s hearing. Therefore, having technology as extensions of people’s physical attributes, these technologies have the power to change the interactions in their environments and the relationships and communication patterns between people. McLuhan (1994:90) writes: “the use of any kind of medium or extension of man alters the patterns of interdependence among people, as it alters the ratios among our senses.”

By extending the arguments made by McLuhan (1994:90), Meyrowitz (1985:6) argues that the medium, by becoming the extensions of men, serve not only to alter the interactions between people, but also changes the “situational geography” or the social settings of places in society. For example, if someone switched the television on to watch the football in the middle of an intimate dinner, the social setting of the intimate dinner changes from being two people sharing a warm meal, to place that seems more crowded. “To be physically alone with someone is no longer necessarily to be socially alone with them… intimate encounters are changed.” (Meyrowitz 1985:117) Physically, there would only be two people in the room, but with the cheers of the crowd at the stadium and the commentators speaking directly to the audience at home, the communication between the two would be distracted, because instead of only needing to pay attention to one, there are now several people to “interact” with. Furthermore, having the television or the football match dominate the social setting, also changes the social roles and behaviours of the people in the room. For instance, instead of them being attentive to each other, one or both make take on the persona of the crowd and applaud or jeer at their football team and their rivals. It would of course be directed at their television screens, but it would be as if they were actually there at the match. So then, if not for the broadcasted football match, such behaviour would be considered odd for an intimate dinner for two. By bringing many different types of people to the same “place,” electronic media have fostered a blurring of many formerly distinct social roles. Electronic media affect us, then, not primarily through their content, but by changing the “situational geography” of social life. (Meyrowtiz, 1985:6)

In discussing the social roles of places, Meyrowitz relies on the work of Erving Goffman, an American sociologist who argues that for each defined situation there is a specific role or behaviour attributed to it (Meyrowtiz, 1985:24). However, as Meyrowitz (1985:36) argues, it is not simply the physical space that defines these social behaviours or roles, but the information flows that surround them. So for example, if people had information about a priest’s secretive affairs, the atmosphere in the church would not be one of a sacred environment. The information present in amongst the physical settings, changes the social behaviours and attitudes of the people. So it is in this regard that Meyrowitz (1994:51) and McLuhan (2003:57) argue that the introduction of a media or a medium, the extensions of man, introduce new information and enhance certain sensorial patterns to change the physical settings and social relations of people. To further these arguments, Meyrowtiz examines the distinct phases in society where the introduction of a new medium changes the information flow, which thereby creates a new set of social settings and thinking patterns for social life (Meyrowitz, 1994:53). The phases which he describes are the oral, the scribal, print culture and electronic culture (Meyrowitz, 1994:53).

The most important aspect learned after distinguishing these phases is that with each new medium introduced, the interactions of people in societies change due the sensory pattern that was enhanced. For example, in contrast to the print society – which enhanced the sense of sight and formed the world in a linear fashion, as print consists of lines – oral societies had the balance of all senses, and formed more circular patterns of knowledge (Meyrowitz, 1994:56). What Meyrowitz (1994:58) argues is that the environments changed by the influence of new media and mediums, changes thinking patterns, which then changes social settings and the social behaviours attached to them. Meyrowitz (1994:56) explains:
Changes in thinking patterns are echoed by changes in physical settings: habitats evolve, over time, from villages and towns with winding paths to linear streets in grid-like cities. Production of goods moves to the assembly line. Modern classrooms are built with chairs bolted to the floors in rows just as letters are fixed on a page. The new physical settings generally discourage informal oral conversation. In short, the mental and physical worlds shift in structure from circles to lines, from the round world of sound to the linear form of typography. The redefining of social settings in the way that Meyrowitz speaks of ultimately returns to McLuhan’s theories which suggest that new technologies create new environments, which evolve into new social formations and behaviours.
They create environments. Every technology at once rearranges patterns of human association and, in effect, really creates a new environment which is perhaps most felt although not most noticed in changing sensory rations and sensory patterns. (McLuhan, 2003:57)

In addition to these things, the introduction of a new medium or media includes either a greater sense of personal involvement – that is belonging – or a certain degree of isolation and separation. In Meyrowitz’s (1985:7) words, “the media can reinforce a “them vs. us” feeling…” Returning to the phases explored by Meyrowitz, the sense of belonging created in oral societies were associated to the people who could be seen, heard and touched through the day to day experiences of the people living in that actual society (Meyrowitz, 1994:54). The boundaries between the ‘us’ and ‘them’ depended upon who was physically known inside their oral community, and who was not. So therefore, the people who were not seen on a constant basis, or who were not known to others through verbal communication, became the strangers of that society and so consequently profiled as the ‘them’. Moreover, the ‘them’ were normally understood as other oral societies that were unseen, unheard and unknown. Then as print came along, Meyrowitz (1994: 55-56) explains that the ‘us vs. them’ scenario changed to the people who shared the same language in both the oral and written form. Since print managed to disperse information past the local, even the communities that could not be seen were profiled as ‘us’, and the ‘them’, therefore, referred to people who did not know the common language (Meyrowitz, 1994:55). Meyrowitz (1994:55) explains that the concept of nationalism arises because of this occurrence. However, the introduction of this type of media does lead to segregation, where society becomes divided between the literate and the illiterate (Meyrowitz, 1994:55). Finally, with the introduction of electronic media, Meyrowitz (1994:57) argues that ‘us vs. them’ shifts again, but this time becomes inconsistent and unpredictable. Meyrowitz (1994:57) explains that by bringing back the oral form of communication through the visuals provided by television and the internet, others who are different but yet seem similar, become introduced in everyone’s social sphere. Since the proliferation of electronic media bestows the shared experience upon all who watch (Meyrowitz, 1994:58), a more unified sense of belonging is created. Therefore, as ‘the many’ watch television or use the internet for browsing purposes, the definitions between the ‘us’ and the ‘them’ become blurred. “As a result of the widespread use of electronic media, there is a greater sense of personal involvement with those who would otherwise be strangers – or enemies.” (Meyrowitz, 1994:58)

While electronic media such as the television and the internet pursues the goal of a shared experience for all, the very nature of its ability to include others into people’s social environments, also support the blurring of boundaries. Meyrowitz (1997:65) writes:
In the postmodern electronic society, the social functions of physical locations become fuzzier. The family home, for example, is now a less bounded and unique environment, as family members have access to others and others have access to them. We can remain at home, yet travel via TV and VCR remote controls through dozens of psychological video spaces in the course of a few minutes, or interact through customized telephone and computer networks. We “travel” through, or “inhabit,” electronic settings and landscapes that are no longer defined fully by walls of a house, neighborhood blocks, or other physical boundaries, barriers and passageways.

In doing so, Meyrowitz (1985:93) argues that the public and private spheres of everyday life become merged, and sometimes the things people do in private become paraded in the public and visa versa, the things that belong in the public sphere become private. An example of this is seen when DVD players in cars are used for inappropriate purposes such as viewing porn. As Kirby (2004) reports, porn viewing in cars have become a disturbing phenomena in America. With car DVD technologies becoming more popular and available, Kirby (2004) explains that with the rising number of car DVD installations, there are also many cases reported of car DVD misuse, where children and adults have been increasingly subjected to X-rated material. In this case, the medium of the car DVD player, serves to bring the private into the public arena, changing the overall atmosphere. Instead of the environment being one for a ‘public’ space – that is for all eyes to see (Thompson, 1994:38) – watching porn in the car (in a public space) makes the environment a more closed off private space, where it is necessary for parents to consciously shelter their kids from any inappropriate adult material. Thanks to technology what once remained in the private realm, now materialises everywhere in public spaces.

Broadcast: The Television Environment
As Meyrowitz (1994:67) suggests, “television makes the boundaries of all social spheres more permeable.” Television can invite the public into the domestic sphere (Silverstone, 1994:29), or create a private setting into a public one. Meyrowitz (1997:62) argues that it is boundaries that create a feeling of inclusion or exclusion, and with television and any other broadcast technology, this sense of feeling is interchangeable depending on the situation. For example, if a home DVD of a child’s birthday party was created for the benefit of their grandparents (who possibly lived overseas or could not attend) to watch, the grandparents might either feel a sense of inclusion or exclusion. On the one hand, they may feel a sense of inclusion because the DVD being broadcasted on their television screen allows them to feel like they are a part of the celebrations. In other words, they are involved in a “shared experience” (Meyrowitz, 1994:58). However, on the other hand, the grandparents may feel a sense of exclusion, as being physically absent from the moment in addition to only being able to watch and not participate, may create a feeling of separation. The mediated experience of the DVD isolates them by presenting experiences that they cannot fully participate in, unless they were physically there.

Another way television creates a sense of belonging or isolation is through the actual process of consumption. Since television is increasingly seen as a part of the everyday culture of society (Silverstone, 1994:13), it provides a strong basis for social interaction to flourish (Abercrombie 1996:3). That is, the conversations people have in everyday life or the way people understand the world, is normally due to what they have seen, heard, or experienced on television. Thompson (1995:38) reinforces this point as he suggests that the consumption of media communication helps to build new forms of social interactions and relationships. Furthermore, as Silverstone (1994:1) and Lembo (2000:27) argue, there are no areas in everyday life that escape the power and presence of television. If people do not consume television, they are more likely to feel isolated in everyday life. Since television provides subject matter for conversations, or common ground for relationships to thrive on, the people who do not consume television become alienated as they cannot participate in the same television culture as everyone else. Therefore by just owning a television, there is a sense of belonging. Silverstone (1994:83) calls this double articulation, where both the content of the television and the material object itself, assists in enforcing a certain form of social integration or belonging. Silverstone (1994:87) explains that the television “is consumed as a sign, as a status object both in itself and through its communications (the consumption of programmes to be shared and discussed)”. Moreover, the material object of the television also serves to shape the domestic settings of people’s lives, resulting in a creation and transformation of their own physical space. As Silverstone (1994:100) writes:
Television spawned supporting technologies and created new spaces: TV dinners, the TV lounge, the open plan itself, labour-saving household technologies, all were designed in one way or another to integrate television into spaces and times of the household…”
McLuhan (2003:57) and Meyrowitz (1994:58) would argue that this occurrence is an example of the ways mediums change the sensorial patterns and therefore people’s physical and social surroundings.

More than a sense of isolation, however, Meyrowitz (1985:308) argues that television creates a sense of belonging. Couldry (2005:60) argues that the reason behind this feeling of connectedness is due to the ‘myth of the mediated centre’, where as he writes “…we imagine ourselves to be connected to the social world” (Couldry, 2005:60). For Couldry (2005:61), media consumption becomes ritualistic, and people structure their day to be involved in media rituals, so that they can feel like they are a part of a broader social network; to feel like they belong. Lembo (2000:101) gives evidence to this as she suggests “turning to television, like turning to other activities, becomes a ritual part of people’s everyday life”. Rove Live is an example of how television can create a sense of belonging and order. For some people, watching Rove on a Sunday night, every Sunday night, becomes ritualistic. Furthermore, as Rove involves the audience at home by conducting events such as asking certain suburbs to switch their lights on and off, or other media performances – which Couldry (2005:67) explains, helps with the ritualisation process – the audience comes to feel that they are connected with the rest of society that is also watching Rove.

Network: The Internet Environment
McLuhan (1994:8) argues that “…the “content” of any medium is always another medium.” Therefore, since the internet holds broadcast characteristics, the sense of belonging conveyed through broadcast can also be attributed to internet technologies. However, more than television, the internet is able to merge more of the private into public spaces. Since the internet is available to anyone who owns a computer and has an internet connection, private affairs can be broadcasted through Web cameras, personal information can be conveyed through weblogs and so forth. Of course, the internet does invite global spaces into the private sphere, but unlike television which is governed by rules and regulations about what it can and cannot broadcast, the internet is less restrictive and generally uncensored. Anyone can show their private spaces to the public. An example of this being video blogs that are normally set up in rooms, which the user occupies and which allow continuous coverage of what they do in their domestic realms.

More than a sense of isolation, the internet evokes a sense of togetherness amongst people. Couldry (2005:60) even mentions that the internet is another type of media that helps to support the idea of the social centre. In addition, Willson (1997:644) suggests that as communities in real life break down due to the processes of modernisation, people are increasingly seeking virtual spaces to construct new communities which can form a sense of togetherness. Turkle (1997:244) gives evidence to this as she writes:
Today many are looking to computers and virtual reality to counter social fragmentation and atomization; to extend democracy; to break down divisions of gender, race and class; and to lead to a renaissance of learning.

This is because the internet enables people to transcend their physical bodies and geographical environments (Willson 1997:647). Being disembodied (Willson, 1997:647) and having no restrictions or limitations, Campbell (2003:180) argues that people are free to create any types of spaces they choose; join any forms of community they desire; and be subsumed in an environment where anything is possible and everything can be done (Campbell 2003:180). For Willson (1997:647), these opportunities presented through cyberspace help to combat people’s feelings of isolation. However as Campbell (2003:182) warns, the result of this sort of freedom, where texts and images become the user’s sense of bodily flesh, the distinctions between real life and cyberspace can become blurred. This being the most likely reason for what Meyrowitz (1985:93) calls the merging of the public and private spheres.


Converged: The Mobile Phone Environment
The most interesting aspect of mobile phone environments as De Souza e Silva (2006:29) suggests is that mobile phones can allow the change in physical surroundings as well as social settings. That is, they allow people to talk while walking; to move through physical place, but still remain in a social space (Klein cited in De Souza e Silva, 2006:29). For De Souza e Silva (2006:19), mobile phones create hybrid spaces, similar to that of the space produced by the internet, as well as the connectivity associated with broadcast technologies.
Hybrid spaces merge the physical and the digital in a social environment created by the mobility of users connected via mobile phone technology devices. Cell phones are digital interfaces that make us “inhabit” these hybrid spaces. Mobile and portable interfaces are embedded in physical space, promoting the blurring of borders between and digital spaces… It has become possible to literally “carry” the Internet wherever we go, feeling as though we are everywhere at the same time… Furthermore, cell phones and other mobile devices, such as Palmtops and PDAs (personal digital assistants), are responsible for the feeling of being always connected, in contact with digital spaces.The reason for this is due to convergence, where mobile phones have been increasingly integrated with forms of both broadcast and network components. For instance, they do not just connect people with each other through verbal communication anymore; rather they connect people through the oral, through the written or text form, through the internet, and through broadcast TV facilities offered by telephonic TV channels (Levison, 2006:14). Furthermore, as De Souza e Silva (2006:20) explains, mobile phones are now more than ever, devices of entertainment as well as communication. They hold games, cameras, and other forms of interactive sociability.

These elements combined, the mobile phone creates a sense of connectedness and disconnectedness – a midway point between the two (the hybrid space). People feel a sense of belonging and connectedness through the ability to contact anyone at anytime through either the phone or internet; the ability to feel connected through the spaces they move in cyberspace, with the mobile phone’s web browsing functions, and also through the sense of togetherness derived from taking part in broadcast television consumption, as was mentioned earlier. However at the same time, mobile phones tend to create a sense of disconnectedness, as once immersed in the digital space, mobile phone users become displaced from their physical environments (De Souza e Silva 2006:30). Doyle (2007) pursues this point when he recalls a dinner he observed where a family was happily conversing over a meal until the husband’s mobile phone rang and displaced him from his physical surrounding. Doyle (2007) writes:
The whole scene changed. He became immersed in an animated, head-thrown-back-and-laughing conversation and his family were sidelined. The one-on-one private/public conversation silenced his wife and her parents. They had nowhere to go, no contribution to make, so they sat mute, averting their eyes from the conversation of one.
Meyrowitz (1985:115) explains that the dissociation with the physical environment is characteristic of the medium’s power to change the defined situation (Meyrowitz 1985:25). When the husband answered his phone and started talking to his friend, the backstage behaviour that is normally attributed to talking to his friend in private, presented itself in the surroundings of the public dinner. As mediums merge the physical place and the social space (the public and the private) together (Meyrowitz 1985:93), Meyrowitz (1985:315) argues that it becomes difficult to separate social spheres. “The difficulty of maintaining many “separate places,” or distinct social spheres, tends to involve everyone in everyone else’s business” (Meyrowitz 1985:315)

In addition, returning back to Silverstone’s (1994:83) theory of the double articulation of television, the same can be said for mobile phones. That is, mobile phones create a sense of belonging not only through its functionality, but through the material object itself. The Sussex Technology Group (2001:211) remarks that the people who they interviewed, reported that by carrying a mobile phone, they are expressing a statement of belonging as it shows that they are connected to a social network. “Perhaps being seen with a mobile, therefore, might be said to be partly about displaying membership of a network of inclusion, and partly also about displaying a technological competence” (Sussex Technology Group, 2001:211). Furthermore, Katz (2006:67) argues that the material object of the mobile phone is progressively becoming fashion statements that symbolise the individual’s personality, identity and status.
The mobile phone influences how people perceive others as well as whether people would hope to have a personal relationship, and it turns influences how people decide to incorporate the mobile phone into their self images. (Katz, 2006:67) For the Sussex Technology Group (2001:212), these things only help to exacerbate the distinctions between the public and private, as they write:
As the phone becomes appropriated, as people make the mobile their own in efforts of self-creation, the two categories of use – private and public – are becoming indistinguishable for mobile phone users.

Conclusion
Media environments help to change the sense of place in everyday life (Meyrowitz, 1994:51). They breakdown boundaries and undermine the social settings of physical spaces (Meyrowitz, 1985:115), as well as merging the private into public, and the public into private (1985:93). They enable people to be connected, yet at the same time be disconnected. For nearly all types of media, this is considered to be true as media environments hold a dynamic tension between a sense of belonging and a sense of isolation. That is, media and mediums evoke a sense of both of these feelings or one in exclusion to other. Each individual situation is different, and it depends upon the culture, the person and informational environment. For new convergent technologies such as mobile phones, spaces are increasingly becoming hybrid (De Souza e Silva 2006:19). With the freedom induced by cyberspace available on people’s phones, the body becomes weightless, and movement is not restricted to the physical. People’s lives are increasingly being lived in digital spaces (De Souza e Silva 2006:20). The eternal connectively that this presumes, suggests that electronic media have, indeed, become the extensions of men (McLuhan, 1994:90). And as more and more devices infiltrate people’s lives, this relentless barrage of new electronic media will continue to open new places and spaces. What is left to be seen is whether they will endeavour to create a sense of belonging, or a sense of isolation, or perhaps a peaceful balance of both of these.



References

Abercrombie, N. (1996) Television and Society United Kingdom: Polity Press

Acheneaux, N & Kavoori, A (2006) ‘Introduction’ in The Cellphone Reader New York: Peter Lang. pp. 1-7.

Barr, Trevor. (2000) ‘Forces for Change: Communications as Catalyst.’ (chp.2) newmedia.com.au: The Changing Face of Australia’s Media and Communications. Sydney: Allen & Unwin 20-39

Campbell, Heidi. (2003) ‘Congregation of the Disembodied: A Look at Religious Community on the Internet’ in Virtual Morality, Eds. Mark and Wolf, New York: Peter Lang pp. 179-199

Couldry, N. (2005) Media Rituals: Beyond Functionalism, in Eric Rothenbuhler and Mihai Coman,(eds) Media Anthropology, pp.59-70.

De Souza e Silva, Adriana. (2006) ‘Interfaces of Hybrid Spaces’ in The Cellphone Reader, Eds. Anandam Kavoori & Noah Archeneaux, New York: Peter Lang. pp.19-45

Doyle (2007) ‘Call waiting, reality dying’ May 6th 2007 in The Sunday Age.

Katz, J. (2006) ‘ Mobile Phones as Fashion Statements: The Co-Creation of Mobile Communication’s Public Meaning’ in Magic in the Air: Mobile communication and the transformation of social life, London: Transaction Publishers. pp.65-86.

Kirby, D. (2004) ‘When the Car Beside You Is an XXX Theater’ October 27th 2004, The New York Times, Retrieved June 19th 2007 from Really Long Link

Lembo, R. (2000) Thinking Through Television, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press.

Levinson, Paul. (2006) ‘The Little Big Blender: How the Cellphone Integrates the Digital
and the Physical, Everywhere’ in The Cellphone Reader, Eds. Anandam Kavoori & Noah Archeneaux, New York: Peter Lang. pp. 9-19.

Lum, Casey Man Kong. (2006) Perspectives on Culture, Technology and Communication: The Media Ecology Tradition / Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press. pp. 28-38.

M2 Presswire (2007) ‘Microsoft Announces the Launch of MSN Mobile’ 18th June 2007, Retrieved June 19th 2007, from Factiva database.

McLuhan, Marshall. (1994) Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man, Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press.

McLuhan, M (2003) Marshall McLuhan: Understanding Me, Lectures and Interviews, Eds. Stephanie McLuhan and David Staines, Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press.

Meyrowitz, Joshua. (1985) No Sense of Place: The Impact of Electronic Media on Social Behaviour, New York: Oxford University Press.

Meyrowitz, Joshua (1994) ‘Medium Theory’ in Communication Theory Today, Eds. D. Crowley & D. Mitchell, Cambridge: Polity Press, ch.3, pp. 50-77

Meyrowitz, Joshua. (1997) ‘Shifting worlds of strangers: medium theory and chages in the “Them Versus Us.”’ Sociological Inquiry, Winter 1997 v67 n1 p59(13).

Silverstone, R. (1994) Television and Everyday Life, London: Routledge

Sussex Technology Group (2001) ‘In the company of strangers: mobile phones and the conception of space’ in Technoscapes: Inside the New Media, Eds. Sally R.Munt, London: Continuum.

Thompson, J. (1994) ‘Social Theory and the Media’ in Communication Theory Today, Eds. D. Crowley & D. Mitchell, Cambridge: Polity Press, ch.2, pp. 27-49.

Turkle, Sherry. (1997) ‘Virtuality and its Discontents’ in ‘Life on the Screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet’ New York: Touchstone. pp. 233-254

Willson, Michelle. (2000) ‘Community in the Abstract: a Poltical and Ethical Dilemma?’ in Bell and Kennedy (eds.), The Cybercultures Reader, London: Routledge pp. 644-57.




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Jung, Religion and Modern Man

February 26th 2008 12:13
Throughout the ages, religion has been a constant idea within every society and civilisation (Freeman, 1964:1). Freeman (1964:22) suggests that religion in the biblical sense could be described as a relationship to God that gives rise to action and emotion, such as devotion and ritual. “Religion is here more than worship; it is the service of God, with one’s whole being throughout the entire course of one’s life.” (Freeman 1964:22) For Jung this statement could be considered somewhat true, because for him religion is a “peculiar condition of the mind” (Jung 1969:5), which he says is a constant process in one’s life that results in the construction of the whole being. However, unlike what Freeman implies, that is, religion being a service to God; Jung considers the service of religion as a service to oneself, the psyche, which Jung believes to be the “God within us” (Jung cited in Luther 1985:30).

According to Noll (1997:9), Jung in his prime was greatly influenced by the theologian and philosopher Schleiermacher. Schleiermacher (Noll 1997:9) suggested that religion was “…a spiritual movement that emphasised feeling, intuition, inwardness and a personal experience of God” (Noll 1997:9). As Noll (1997:23) suggests, even though spirituality seemed to be growing in popularity at the time when Jung was developing his concepts, there were many professionals and academics who sought to rebuke these arguments with a more rational and scientific explanation, an example of this being the psychoanalysis of Sigmund Freud. Unable to accept Freud’s presumption that religion was reduced to the sexual theory (Noll 1997:53), and the connection Freud made with the belief in God and the father-complex (Palmer 1997:13), Jung decided to break away from these theories and find his own. Jung desired to explain the human experience, the numinosum, and the spiritual nature of people and so concluded that “religion can only be replaced by religion” (Jung cited in Noll 1997:53). Dunne (2000:3) suggests that Jung recognised that the human psyche was religious by nature and because of this Jung understood psychoanalysis as the religion of modern men (Noll 1997:66). For Jung, religion was found to be a significant need of the human psyche.

In his paper on Psychology and Religion, Jung suggests that “religion is incontestably one of the earliest and most universal activities of the human mind” (1969:1) Dunne (2000:152) indicates that Jung described religion as a defense against the religious experience, or what Jung (1969:7) calls the numinosum. The idea of the ‘mystical numinosum’ is understood by Jung as the impulsive thoughts of the mind, which come from the unconscious. Since Jung (1969:46) believes that the unconscious mind, like God is something that is unknown to people, religion is there to act as a barrier between the unconscious “perils of the soul” (1969:15) and the conscious part of the human mind. For Jung (1969:4) the existence of God is not a philosophical question, but something that can be understood by looking at the inner workings of the mind.

The numinosum as Jung suggests is:
A dynamic agency or effect not caused by an arbitrary act of will. On the contrary, it seizes and controls the human subject, who is always rather its victim than its creator… it is either a quality belonging to a visible object or the influence of an invisible presence that causes a peculiar alternation of the consciousness (1969:7).
According to Cambray and Carter (2004:205), Jung’s theory of the “God within” is derived from the understanding that the numinosum was similar to that of instincts, which like sexuality, aggression or hunger, were seen as omnipresent. The omnipresence of these thoughts and urges from the unconscious is then seen as transcendent and universal, depicting the characteristics of a higher power, or that of God. Therefore the ‘influence’ that Jung talks about when he describes the numinosum is then said to be the influence of the unconscious, which is the “God within”. Furthermore, Cambray and Carter (2004:205) imply that Jung considered religion to be an omnipresent function that paid attention to the “dynamic effect” caused by a numinosum, to serve as a mediator between the conscious and the unconscious.

Where as Freud defined the unconscious as something that was resultant of the conscious mind, Jung suggested that the conscious mind was due to the unconscious (Palmer 1997:95). Jung’s theory of the collective unconscious supports this point that the unconscious is something of a divine nature that gave way to the rise of the conscious mind (Jung 1969:345). This is because the collective unconscious holds symbols or what Jung calls archetypes that are constant and common to many different people all over the world. It is therefore the theory of the collective unconscious that gives credibility to the idea that the unconscious is transcendent and universal. Jung having studied so many cases where people exhibited the same dream symbols, allowed him to conclude that the factor which instigates these symbols, the unconscious, is the greatest power which is rightly called “God” (Gay 1984:87).

Since having a numinous experience is considered something that is psychical, religion as suggested by Palmer (1997:140) acts as a consequential process to the numinous experience. If as previously stated, the unconscious was something of great power, of Godly direction, Jung considered religion to be the natural occurrence in the mind to act as a defense to forces that were unknowingly present. In Jung’s words, religion behaved as “…spiritual safeguards and means of defense against the immediate experience of the forces waiting for liberation in the unconscious mind” (1969:59). Therefore Jung concluded that religion was a necessary component for the normal functioning of the mind, and an absence of it would imply that a neurosis was impending. For Jung this was evident in the patients he came across as he suggested that most of them fell ill due to a lack of spirituality, which was a symptom caused by the loss of meaning in the modern man’s life. (Cambray and Carter 2004:209)

Cambray and Carter (2004:208) supports the idea that Jung found that the modern man’s disposition to value science and reason over spirituality, was a primary cause for the religious function being disabled and producing a neurosis in the subject. They suggest that due to modernity: There are no unassailable spiritual facts, only theories, and every theory is open to doubt and revision. Thus modern people, it seems, are condemned to live a life of psychological poverty and partialness in the midst of material plenty, without the option of wholeness because the religious function has been disabled. (Cambray and Carter 2004:208)
With the adoption of science as the phenomena to explain everything, even the numinosum was reduced to brain chemistry and biological facts and figures and the idea of God and religious practices decreased in popularity and acceptance. Since Jung discovered that religion and religious practices were a way of finding meaning in regards to the workings of the mind (Cambray and Carter 2004:204), the psychoneurosis was deduced as a condition where the subject could not find a consistent meaning to their thought processes (Jung 1969:330). Since science did not consider the factors of the collective unconscious and the “God within”, the primary victims of a neurosis were that of intellectuals and modern men who had given up their dogmatic practices.

As the advancement of science continued and the loss of meaning due to science’s ability to reduce spirituality into theories progressed, Jung noticed that modern civilisation was regressing to that of an uncivilised state of being (1969:95).
It seems to me that, side by side with the decline of religious life, the neuroses grow noticeably more frequent. We are living undeniably in a period of the greatest restless, nervous tension, confusion and disorientation of outlook. (Jung 1969:336)
Jung explained that this was due to the modern man’s liberated unconscious. Since the religious function did not act as a defense anymore to the inner workings of the unconscious, darker aspects such as the shadow could reign freely and dominate the psyche in behaving in an ego driven way. What used to be the concept of the “God within” was now exchanged for the concept of man being God himself and Jung suggests that it is because of this egoism that there is dilemma among modern civilisations, which is characterised by the continuation of dissent and chaos in society.
He may not know, but he behaves as if his own individual life were God’s special will which must be fulfilled at all costs. This is the source of his egoism, which is one of the most tangible evils of the neurotic state. (Jung 1969:341)

The shadow is one of the dark aspects of the unconscious that religion seeks to govern and keep at bay. Without the function of religion in the modern man’s psyche, the shadow could be considered one of the main culprits that promote the onslaught of neuroses and also is perhaps one of the major causes for civil unrest and increasing tension in society. Jung (1969:60) suggests that not having religion to understand thought processes and what is present in the unconscious, the shadow is inadvertently projected upon the neighbour. Since the shadow consists of things that are repressed, like qualities that a person dislikes or doesn’t want to acknowledge about themselves (Dunne 2000:82), the projection of the shadow upon the neighbour, for example on a country different or unknown, creates civil tensions and the clash of modern civilisations with one another.
As nobody is capable of recognising where and how much he himself is possessed and unconscious, one simply projects one’s own condition upon the neighbour, and thus it becomes a scared duty to have the biggest guns and the most poisonous gas. (Jung 1969:60) Adorno (cited in Padgett & Allen 2003:35) supports this point as he suggests that “man imagines himself free from fear when there is no longer anything unknown” Since this is not the case, modern man battles the unknown through war and violence when the unknown is a race, or in regards to the shadow and the unconscious, battles the unknown with a neurosis (Jung 1969:345).

The unconscious is something to be aware of but Jung (1969:94) considers that even the shadow is not entirely evil and with the religious function in place, can be used to help in the process of self realization. The tarot deck which could be considered as another religious practice, uses many of Jung’s archetypes to define the card’s meaning for the purpose of self realization. Banzhaf (1995:49) with relation to the Aleister Crowley tarot deck and the Lovers card suggests that the Lovers card is symbolic of the anima and animus. If a person receives this card, it is considered to be a sign that the person should try and balance the anima and animus within their personality. The tarot card is more of a mystical apparatus to self realization than psychoanalysis but using Jung’s theory of synchronicity – where nothing is considered coincidental, or in other words is considered as a meaningful coincidence – tarot stands as basically another way that meaning can be obtained about the unconscious.

It is this, the principle of finding meaning about the unconscious that is the fundamental function of religion. As Cambray and Carter (2004:204) suggest, the religious function is present “wherever people make culture and try to find meaning.” Luther (1985:41) furthers this point as he states:
The shift of locus of meaning and order the social and traditional to the inner, personal, psychological sphere is the central conceptual leit-motif running throughout both Jung’s psychology and his theory of religion. (Luther 1985:41)
The neurosis of modern men is mainly due to the religious function not being present, because modern life as Noll (1997:171) suggests “created a crisis of meaning, a religious crisis that must be counteracted with religion”.

Whether it is the religious practices of Christians, Buddhists, or New Age mystics, meaning is what religion strives to achieve in order to understand the unconscious, which in a sense is to understand God. God is reduced to the mind and the Godly power is that of the unconscious which is universal and cannot be explained fully. In the words of Jung:
Nobody can know what the ultimate things are. We must, therefore, take them as we experience them. And if such experiences help to make your life healthier, more beautiful, more complete and more satisfactory to yourself and to those you love, you may safely say “this was the grace of God”. (Jung 1969:114)

References

Banzhaf 1995 The Crowley Tarot U.S Games Systems Inc, Stamford: USA

Cambray J & Carter L 2004 Analytical Psychology: Contemporary Perspectives in
Jungian Analysis, Brunner Routledge: East Sussex

Dunne C, 2000 Carl Jung: Wounded Healer of the Soul, Parabola books: New York

Freeman H.D, 1964 A Philosophical Study of Religion, The Craig Press: New Jersey

Gay V, 1984 Reading Jung: Science, Psychology and Religion, Scholars Press: California

Jung C.G, 1955 Synchronicity: An Acasual connecting principle, Routledge & Kegan Paul: London

Jung C.G, 1969 Psychology of Religion, Twentieth Printing: USA

Jung C.G 1969 The Collected Works of C.G Jung Vol. 11, Editors Read H, Fordham M, Adler G, Routledge & Kegan Paul: London

Luther H.M, 1985 Essays on Jung and the Study of Religion University Press of America Inc: USA

Noll R, 1997 The Aryan Christ: The Secret Life of Carl Jung, Random House: New York

Padgett, A & Allen, B (2003) 'Fear's Slave: The Mass Media and Islam After September 11' Media International Australia. n 109 November. pp pp.32-39.

Palmer M, 1997 Freud and Jung on Religion, Routledge: London

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Television Frames Our Lives

February 21st 2008 08:55
Since the advent of it, television has been increasingly seen as part of the everyday culture in society. Even when people are not watching television; television is seen to frame and structure the lives of many individuals. Not only does it provide a strong basis for social interaction to flourish (Abercrombie 1996:3), but it is also used to produce and maintain many national, cultural, and political ideologies and identities (Green & Guinery, 1994:41). Silverstone (1994:1) and Lembo (2000:27) both argue that there is no area in everyday life that escapes the power and presence of television. It not only governs the temporal aspects of a person’s life (for example people scheduling their day in accordance with certain TV programs), but through its spectacle (Debord 1994:13) and its use of representation (Baudrillard 1994:2), reality itself is being constructed. With the rise of realty TV, and the Internet allowing the audience to be placed in the position of the producer, Holmes (2005:85) suggests that this situation may be undergoing change, where everyday life actually influences television. However, for many of the theorists mentioned, television is seen as the dominant medium creating its world around its individuals.

Television is a culture. William (cited in Barker 2003:58) suggests that culture can be defined as the human lived experience, and because many individuals nowadays “live” their lives through television screens; use what they have seen to converse with one another, or relate to real life through what they have heard or seen on television; television becomes a culture. Lembo (2000:101) writes “turning to television, like turning to other activities, becomes a ritual part of people’s everyday life”. Adorno (1999:129) implies that television is seen to be a tool in the production of culture, which he further argues is driven by a capitalist state and comparable to any other commodity. He then suggests that the status quo delegated by the state, is preserved and enforced through television, resulting in culture becoming just another industry in the world of capitalism (Adorno & Horkheimer 1999:133). Even though many of his theories lean towards extremist views, where mass communication is seen as weapons of mass deception and the audience considered as passive; for many modern theorists such as Lembo (2000:19), Adorno’s arguments still hold their validity, as television does serve to maintain social norms, as well as to confer power and status on certain types of people (Lembo 2000:19).

Silverstone (1994:83) extends this argument, when he suggests that the material object of the television, itself, also assists in enforcing social norms. Commenting on McLuhan’s theory that the ‘medium is the message’, Silverstone (1994:87) writes that television “is consumed as a sign, as a status object both in itself and through its communications (the consumption of programmes to be shared and discussed)”. This means that by actually owning a television, people are conforming to a lifestyle represented through mass communication and its technologies. This is said to be true in the consumer society of the everyday, as objects are increasingly used to portray a person’s status or wealth (Baudrillard 1998:32). So, for example, having a high definition, wide screen TV, would imply more wealth and a higher status than a person having a standard model. In this way, McLuhan’s (cited in Silverstone 1994:83) theory becomes a reality as the object itself becomes just as important as the image it delivers. In addition, Silverstone theorises that with the purchase of television, and the consumption of its culture, further technologies become necessities in order to accommodate the time and space required by television. “Television spawned supporting technologies and created new spaces: TV dinners, the TV lounge, the open plan itself, labour-saving household technologies, all were designed in one way or another to integrate television into spaces and times of the household…” (Silverstone, 1994:100) So, by promoting the consumption of products as well as the lifestyle that accompanies it, people’s lives are framed by television even when they are not watching it.

The previous examples of how television constructs people’s lives comments on what Holmes (2005:85) states as the “‘control society’ age of broadcast”, which he suggests is something that is quickly disappearing. Holmes (2005:219) gives the example of reality TV, which he describes as a form of television that is supposedly governed by real life. “Simply put, reality TV is a genre in which the audience appears interchangeable with the producer” (Holmes 2005:219). Having an interactive voting system in place for shows such as Big Brother, the audience is under the guise that they are producers. However, these opinion polls and voting systems for Baudrillard (1993:63) reinforce the idea of the ‘control society’ as he suggests that having no other option than what is given, is evidence that control belongs to the ones behind the scenes of television, and not to the individual consumer. Baudrillard (1993:74) then suggests that this whole facade of audience participation helps support the hyper reality that is created through television. Lumby and Probyn (2003:13) supports this idea, as they suggest that reality TV’s “realness” and documentary style editing, allows reality TV to align themselves with news and current affairs programs, destroying the distinction between real life and mediated life. With reference to terrorism as something that is sensationalised by the media (Kellner, 2003:1), news itself is progressively becoming a commodity; and therefore the construction of real life portrayed by the media, using these two forms of programs as examples, blurs the lines between entertainment and information. It is then down to Debord’s (1988:9) theory of the ‘integrated spectacle’ (which television encompasses) that leads to television framing and managing people’s day to day lives.

Debord (1994:12) defines the spectacle as “a social relationship between people that is mediated by images”. Since the spectacle is seen as a commodity (Debord 1994:29), the relationship between them, could then be said to be a consumeristic one, where the people demand the spectacle and the spectacle supplies the people. Even as the Internet becomes more popular, due to its interactivity and almost democratic potential (Holmes 2005:9); it is still unable to divert the power that television has over society, because the spectacle as Debord (1994:13) suggests, remains supreme. Holmes (2005:207) also comments on this as he writes: “Publicity and public spectacle are, of course, an aspect of flanerie which cannot be achieved on the Internet.” A good example of this is seen through the YouTube and the Backdorm Boys. The Backdorm Boys were simply two students from Guang Zhou - China, who got bored one day and decided to film themselves miming to the Backstreet Boys. They launched this on YouTube, and eventually their popularity increased to the point where they were asked to appear on television to advertise products and do live performances. It could be argued that the Internet actually made them popular, but their fame was only validated through their appearance on broadcast TV. This can be referred back to Lembo (2000:19) when he suggests that television confers status on certain individuals. Television gives ordinary people the opportunity to experience fame, and the Big Brother obsession is evidence to this.

As technology develops even further, television or broadcast media will still have a dominant power over society. Even though the Internet is rising in popularity, computers come equipped with TV cards, suggesting that television is an integral part of everyday life. Baudrillard (1994:21) suggests that since reality is increasingly represented through the media, everything is being lost to the hyper reality of mediated culture. Since life is seemingly being structured and framed around the spectacle (embodied by television), Debord (1988:27) too, argues that technological advances which encourage image production, representation and consumption will result in the reduplication of reality, leaving the individual’s primary connection to the world to be forgotten. It is true that the audience is not as passive as some theorists like to believe. There are many people who study these concepts and are aware of these sorts of issues, and these people lead lives that are not framed around the television. However, for many people who are unaware, or who take television for granted (which is mentioned throughout Silverstone’s book); for these people, it can be said that television frames their lives even when they are not watching it.

References

Abercrombie, N (1996) Television and Society United Kingdom: Polity Press

Adorno, T.W (1999)‘The Culture Industry Reconsidered’ in Bronner S.E & Kellner D.M (Eds.) Critical Theory & Society: A Reader London: Routledge

Barker, C. (2003), Cultural Studies: Theory and Practice, 2nd edn, London: Sage

Baudrillard J (1993) Symbolic Exchange and Death, London: Sage

Baudrillard J (1994) Simulacra and Simulation USA: Ann Arbor The University of Michigan Press

Baudrillard, J (1998) The Consumer Society – Myths & Structures, London: Sage Publications

Debord G (1988) Comments on the Society of the Spectacle London: Verso

Debord, G (1994) Society of the Spectacle. New York: Zone Books.

Green L & Guinery R (1994) Framing Technology: Society, choice and change NSW, Australia: Allen & Unwen Pty Ltd.

Holmes, D (2005) Communication Theory: Media, Technology and Society London: Sage Publications

Kellner D, (2003) Media spectacle London: Routledge – Taylor and Francis Group

Lembo R, (2000) Thinking Through Television, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press.

Lumby C & Probyn E (2003) Remote Control: New Media, new ethics, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Silverstone R (1994) Television and everyday life, London: Routledge











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The Power of Culture Jamming

February 20th 2008 23:38
In the postmodern global era, the dominant order of the State seems unchallenged by attempts of resistance such as terrorism and cultural jamming, posed by many subaltern groups. Debord (1992:13) has suggested that the reason is due to modernity’s ability to absorb and appropriate the ‘challenge’ back into the system. “…the spectacle is both the outcome and the goal of the dominant mode of production” (Debord, 1992:13) With regards to the (WEF) World Economic Forums protests, Debord’s ideas can be validated as the spectacle of the protest which was instigated to resist the ideas of modernity and capitalism, were then used by the media to create spectacular news resulting in the promotion of modernity’s products such as news reports. The protests were transformed into money making tactics in the forms of television broadcasts, newspapers, magazine articles, etc, which does not serve to challenge the dominant order but to reinforce it.

No matter what the challenge is, the status quo has been constructed to resist and appropriate it, so that it maintains the order of the State. Attempts to challenge the State by cultural jammers with their semiotic terrorism might have posed a threat at the beginning but now has been appropriated by the State and is used for their own purposes. A famous example of this is Nike jamming their billboards. The purpose of cultural jamming is to promote anti-capitalistic ideas using existing ad campaigns, which as Jordan (2002:114) suggests now can be wielded by the “enemy” to encourage consumerism


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Since the dawn of time man has been plagued by uncertainty. Throughout history, there are innumerable accounts of civilisations looking towards prophets and visionaries to foretell their future. Ancient civilisations believed that prior knowledge provided them a chance to control and master their future; a chance to shield them against the unknown. Over time, with the aggregation of knowledge which was thought to defend against uncertainty, fear was not alleviated but intensified (Furedi, 2002:55), and with it the need for certainty and control. Modernity tried to form itself as the solution, where the process of modernisation involved the destruction of old beliefs and traditions, and the replacement of these with new ones that would remain forever solid (Bauman 2001:3). Giddens (1990:59) argues that modernity embodies capitalism, surveillance, military power, and industrialisation, where order, obedience and conformity were seen as its main preoccupations (Bauman 2005:111). However, as Bauman (2001:6) implies, what remained permanent was not order and certainty but the cycle of its destruction and rebirth, the permanence of 'melting the solids'. Due to this, modernity became liquid (Bauman 2001:8), knowledge became questionable (Giddens 1990:40) and certainty became transparent (Bauman 1995:106); all of these assisting in the spread of uncertainty and the difficulties in which modern men and women are faced with today.

As Bauman (2001:21) suggests, having modernity liquefied resulted in a loss of absolute certainty. Since liquid modernity meant that everything went under the process of revision and replacement (Bauman, 2001:14), Bauman (2001:21) argues that certainty had to be produced and maintained. Thanks to modernity's gift of capitalism the bureaucratic way of life emerged, where Bauman (2001:20) argues that routine and regimentation ensured the guarantee of certainty. Furthermore, this product which Lefebvre (1987:9) calls the everyday, was assisted by the invention of the mass media, where the mass media took the role of maintaining a sense of order and certainty by keeping people informed and entertained (Silverstone, 1994:19). Couldry (2003:2) suggests that this is due to 'the myth of the mediated centre', where media rituals in everyday life are seen to form a social order, and provide a centre to the social world of a society that seems to be decentralised. Couldry (2003:4) writes: The term 'media rituals' refers to the whole range of situations where media themselves 'stand in', or appear to 'stand in', for something wider, something linked to the fundamental organisational level on which we are, or imagine ourselves to be, connected as members of society


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The Everydayness of Terrorism

February 20th 2008 04:03
Terrorism is often constructed by the media as extraordinary. On the other hand, it can be argued that terrorism is anything but extraordinary, and that rather, it is characteristic of the everyday. For instance, on September 11th 2001, like a blockbuster movie, the twin towers of the World Trade Centre burnt down to the ground. This “unprecedented” event rocked the lives of many people around the world as the media portrayed the tragic events repeatedly on television screens. With responses such as “America’s New War” and “America’s War on Terrorism” (Nacos, 2002:54), the attacks resulted in a media frenzy, where the US and its media suggested that terrorism was something out of the ordinary. Still to this day, the media portrays terrorism as something that is extraordinary, but in actuality, as Lewis (2005:16) argues, terrorism is a product of the system that has been built to promote democracy, liberty and capitalism. Through television, films and other types of media, terrorism has been transformed into the everyday (Kellner, 2003:6). Debord (1994:29) elaborates this point as he suggests that terrorism, as a spectacle, is converted into a commodity. The sensationalism of the spectacle of terror becomes something which can attract audience attention and create ratings. It turns into a commodity which can be bought, sold, packaged and manufactured, something that is very much of the ordinary and the everyday.

The idea that terrorism came out of nowhere to engulf the lives of people is a narrative that has been constructed by the media to sensationalise terrorism as a spectacle. Unbeknown to many people who use the media as a reference to what goes on in real life, terrorism was something that was already actively present. In fact, Laqueur (1977:220) suggests that “terrorism is believed to appear wherever people have genuine legitimate grievances,” and goes on to say that “…one nation’s terrorism is another people’s national liberation” (1997:219), suggesting that terrorism has been a product of the system, as a resistance, rather than a foreign invader. This point is reinforced by O’Sullivan (1986:27), who suggests that terror was a concept of the French Revolution, which in this day and age, is seen as an event that caused the liberation of people


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Compassion Fatigue

February 20th 2008 03:43
The new epidemic facing modern men and women living in capitalist societies is the spread of compassion fatigue. Through the media, people have been engulfed by images, showing the sorrows of the Third World; that being war, poverty and social disorder. This relentless coverage of the spectacle of suffering by the media, has assisted in the development of a distant, uncaring attitude, which Moeller (1999:9) describes as compassion fatigue. Moeller (1999:14) suggests that the sensationalism in which the media delivers Third World suffering has desensitised people to the point that action and compassion are only incited when the spectacle is greater that its predecessor. As Debord (1994:33) suggests, within the society of the spectacle; no spectacles are immune to the process of commodification. In addition, since culture itself is becoming “a process of market exchange between producers and consumers of images…” (Ignatieff 1998:29), the suffering of others has no other option than to go through this same process as well. In a capitalist society, suffering becomes another product to manufacture and sell, if not just for money, but for compassion.

Ignatieff (1998:24) suggests that this is television’s bad conscience, where the suffering of others is reduced to a slide show of corpses, allowing for people to misunderstand what the real cause for the suffering is. Moeller (1999:13) explains that this is due to the agencies behind the news, where reporters and newspaper companies only determine coverage of Third World suffering based on its horror and “news worthiness”. Adding to this, Moeller (1999:22) reports that people are more inclined to care about others when they are able to relate to that person’s plight. Since most people in Western societies are unfamiliar with the experience of war and famine, this is hard to do, and instead of an outward show of compassion, people take these images for granted and turn to the next page or to the next channel (Moeller, 1999:14


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The Body As Never Ending Project

February 20th 2008 03:26

Since ancient times, body creation and development have been natural processes in people’s day to day lives. The Ancient Egyptians adorned themselves with jewellery, basked their skin in oils, and sort to present their bodies in a form closest to perfection. Like the mind was seen to be in need of continual development by Greek Philosophers such as Socrates, Plato and Aristotle; the body too desired for perfection, which was done slowly over time, unlike today where it is done through spontaneity, for the purpose of conformity. As Bauman (1998:24) suggests, the impact of capitalism and the consumer society has led to this natural process of self creation changing into a never ending project, sustained and promoted by the media through its ability to turn the body into a commodity, and also by the seduction of its representation (Baudrillard, 1998:129). Baudrillard (1998:49) argues that consumerism is equated to happiness, and since the body itself is now objectified, people are increasingly pushed to sculpt and mould themselves until they inevitability conform to what the status quo deems as happiness. In this case being beauty, youth and elasticity.

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