thestig, Bourdieu

It’s pretty remarkable to me that the people of today’s society aren’t getting more angry at “the man” for focusing on things “which are apt to arouse curiosity but require no analysis, especially in the political sphere” (Bourdieu 332). For example, our news is dominated by Brittany Spears and the death of Anna Nicole Smith. At a time when our nation is taking over national corporations, it’s important for the American people to be aware of what is going on with their money. However, these networks have the “audience ratings mindset,” in which those who “set the agenda” are focused more on what is of interest to the consumer and lessen the importance of what is actually going on in the world.

I thought one of Bourdieu’s strong points is that the agenda setters are also “victims of the ‘audience ratings mindset’” (Bourdieu 333). It’s a symptom of capitalism. We’ve seen greed take over our economy in the past year, i.e. Madoff’s Ponzi scheme, which is an example of this sort of capitalism. Do whatever it takes to make more money. In this case, we’re seeing media executive and agenda setters focused of featuring profitable programming as opposed to programming that educated its viewers.

Finally, I thought that Bourdieu’s solution to the problem as rooted in sociology is an interesting approach to this issue. As I mentioned earlier, I think it’s incredible that today’s society isn’t more critical of the media, demanding more honest reporting. Bourdieu contends that in order for this to happen, individuals have to be educated on the “mechanisms at work” (Bourdieu 335). It’s true – this will start the movement. I just finished writing a paper on Emile Durkheim’s analysis on the malaise of modern society, and he contends that it will be solved by moral regulation. With corporate organization – Durkheim’s term for organizing infrastructure and a collective consciousness amongst individuals in society – people will be able to realize media’s shortcomings.

I asked Ed Royce earlier this morning what the deal is with corporate media in America. I asked, about advertising and it’s highly politicized organization, if that’s just “the way it is.” His response was along the lines of this: It isn’t just the way it is because there was someone behind all of this who decided that the privatization of media had to be driven by enormous profits. All we have to do is look at how other countries model their mass media to realize how ridiculous our media companies really are, i.e. the BBC.