Post One - Allyza

Through the readings that were assigned, the definition of power can lie between media and the people. To analyze Berger's Ways of Seeing, power lies beyond the image(s) we see in media. In modern day, media is considered almost anything and everything we consume whether we like or not. As Berger puts it, "You are observed with interest, but you do not observe with interest." In other words, media approaches with all its power to catch our attention; and in some cases we either take it in or don't. Perhaps, when one may take the power of an image, they too may reflect on it. For example, in advertising we see how happy or dandy and materialistic an individual can be. Through that, it may influence one to have such material. Once that comes to play, we feel some type of power because there's ownership involved.

As for the gaze, an individual may feel as they are seen as an object to the world. This can reflect back to the quote up there by Berger. We, people, are being observed by media as we are the objects that need to feed off of whatever they are producing. (Does that make sense? I hope it does.) We are either influenced by objects in the media or we are the objects media is serving to.

If you think about it, power and hegemony are not that different. As power is more about control, hegemony is more on the dominance in social class. "Doubletake", a piece by Lucy Lippard, talks about a photograph of a Native American family in which the perspective of the photo tells a story about truth. The photo gave an authentic feel as it told the everyday life of a Native American family. No photoshop, no nothing, just truth.

Another example is Bell Hooks' saying, "The term racism keeps white people at the center of the discussion. White Supremacy evokes a political world that we all frame ourselves in relationship to." History made white men/people seem very influential to the world as they were the ones who created to what now is America. It seems like it was the white man that came before the minority. (But we have Obama now! Woot!) While Hooks touches upon the term White Supremacy, sexism can fall under hegemony. Men tend to give a more dominant image in the publicity given to them. They were the bread winners of society as they usually made more money than women (and still do), and aren't given any double standards. (That needs to change!)

When sexism comes to play in ads.

Still on Bell Hooks, she introduces, and often refers to, popular culture as a pedagogical tool in which we learn about our society. Popular culture gives a great impact to modern day society as social media fills us in with what's trending, what's happening in the world. However, usually it's entertainment that influences how we are today. The most of us would rather know about One Direction, Justin Bieber, or whatever you prefer rather than a tornado in Lake Tahoe that killed a few people.

This also leads to the term spectacle in which Guy Debord says "is a social relationship between people and mediated images". As Guy Debord's The Society of the Spectacle degrades humanity as one that is influenced by capitalism and materialism, the digital generation cannot help the consumption of media. We end up fitting into a mold where we are highly influence with trends, or <insert role model> is wearing, and etc. Debord basically says that our perceptions and minds are clones of each other as we don't have any other ways of seeing.

Credit: GizmoTrends

In the end we are represented with what is presented in the media. As the saying goes, "we are what, we eat", what we consume [in media] is what we are in today's society. And, I think, some of us are afraid to break that mold.

Media. So delicious.

- Allyza
@HighLaife