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Power is the ability to create change by mere influence or suggestion.  Marketing a product involves some sort of power; influence must be created so the buyer wants to use the product.  Thus, power involves money.  Within Berger’s “Way of Seeing,” there are numerous supporting details that support the idea of power to the elitists within society.  For example, Berger argues, “Publicity is the culture of the consumer society” (Berger 139) therefore meaning the consumer must have money to remain elite within the society.  Hall calls power politics, since many important ideas in society stem from politics and how these ideas are seen.  The representation, or way of showing off a product/object/idea, creates appeal that makes the public want to buy the product.  Our own opinions, our way of looking, also alter the way we view people/products within the society.  The quote below is true in many instances.

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Through these opinions popular culture is created.  Popular culture is a thought or idea that is made famous through a multitude of people’s opinions.  The consumption of information is what creates pop culture.  These opinions follow the same trend and create a mass media phenomenon and a mass consumption of information.  Popular culture can involve objects, many of them materialistic.  For example, the iPhone was one of the most popular electronic devices of 2012.  On Google News, the iPhone is always one of the trending topics.  This is due to Apple’s popularity in the electronic world and the way Apple showcased its products to the public.  Popular culture can make or break an image of a perfect product/person.

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Sexism plays a major role in the way people view each other and the world.  Women are sometimes seen as objects instead of people, creating a harsh stereotype.   In Hall’s argument, Black men are seen as “childlike and oversexed” (Hall).  This is similar to women being seen as subservient to men in early advertising.  Sexism is created by a sense of inequality.

Hegemony is creating a dominion through the usage of force.  Within bell hooks’ “Representing Whiteness,” hooks argues that all Black people within the US will be harassed by the “whiteness” of society.  This, according to hooks, stems back to the Jim Crow south.  This is supportive of many movies and film.  This hegemony has tried to create a nation where whites are dominant to the minority.  This is not the case.  Since reading “Native Son” by James Baldwin, the character of Bigger Thomas, a young Black boy, is seen as having this “whiteness.”  Bigger is able to avoid being caught because he played into the stereotype of being a typical Black boy.  This stereotype is negative and slight blunder causes Bigger his life, merely because he is Black.

Stuart Hall explains that this has “polarized into…extreme opposites” (Hall 146).  Hall goes on further to explain the instability of Haiti, a predominately Black nation.  Hall also explains that these stereotypes paint of stereotypical picture of what some whites seen Blacks to be.  This creates a separation of classes and the creation of power.  Many people like Martin Luther King Jr. and Mohandas K. Gandhi fought to end these stereotypes and hegemonies.

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Today, many people who have expensive products are considered upper class.  These people are considered to be powerful.  Celebrities and athletes fall within these categories and are usually created by the general public.  Most singers are probably created this way since one famous song can lead to the public’s interest in the singer’s other albums.  Advertising is much more eye-catching to the public if a physically fit person is advertised with a product.  Sometimes the person has nothing to do with the product.  We buy what we feel is worth buying and this is generated through our own opinions.  Through all of this imagery, we are able to create the world around us and create our own public images. 

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