Subliminal Persuasion

"For the sake of our children and grandchildren, we must balance the perspective we gain from the media with our own lived experiences and use a wider sociological lens to look at what is going on around us everyday life. "- Diana Kendall

In both "Framing Class, Vicarious Living, and Conspicuous Consumption" by Diana Kendall and "Two Ways a Woman Can Get Hurt: Advertising and Violence" by Jean Kilbourne send out the message that media is subconsciously shaping our realities. Whether it be violence towards women or the gap between classes, the media is manipulating our very views on life. For example, on the "reality" TV show Real World you are able to see this manipulation first hand. First observing the people that are placed on the show is primarily white good looking people with one or two ones of ethnicity. I believe this kind of simple placing reflects what the media has been teaching us all our lives, which is that Caucasian race is superior to any other race. Even though as history goes on we find out how wrong that belief is, the media continues to instill this message into our heads.

However, this is not the only thing being put in our heads by media either. The media has a way of appealing to our senses and getting their message to stick. For instance, when they put on a beer commerical with 3 very attractive women half naked at the will of a man, it puts that image in our head subconsciously the way women should be viewed as. Also, by appealing to men sex drive this acts as a huge reinforcement and incentive to believe this way.

Now you ask why does the media try so hard to force these advertisements in your minds and give us incentives to believe a certain way? The answer is profit, when their is a consistent belief held, the easier it is to persuade that person to act a certain way or buy certain things. So next time you are watching a commerical about a product or an idea, think to yourself is there a subliminal message behind this?