Are we slaves to the media? Baudrillard likes to think we are, I offer a different perspective.
The media is a very powerful instrument for manipulation of the masses, that much we know for certain. Baudrillard (1994 & 1998) states that the media creates the language of symbols that we use to understand the world and our reality. “We therefore no longer acquire goods because of real needs but because of desires that are increasingly defined by commercials and commercialized images, which keep us at one step removed from the reality of our bodies or of the world around us” (Felluga, 2003). We have even lost all sense of use-value, read more about that here.
To some extend Baudrillard is right, because the media does manipulate the masses. They can make us want things we don’t even need, like the koffiepads. These are small round filters with coffee in it to put into a special coffee brewing machine. There was nothing wrong with the way normal coffee brewing machines made coffee, but the media made such a hype out of it that everyone started buying them.
The media does not only make us want things, they also create fears for us. In Bowling for Columbine Michael Moore shows that the popular show Cops creates a negative image for black people, because they always show black men as the perpetrators. He also shows that Americans are ruled by fear with his little clip A Brief History of America which is featured in the documentary and created with the makers of South Park. This clip shows the obsession of Americans with guns and their often irrational fear for black people.
While the media can manipulate us to think in certain ways, we also manipulate to media. One aspect that is lacking in Baudrillard’s theory is the influence of culture, which he plainly describes as the language of symbols, simulation. This doesn’t describe the complex relationship between media and culture. Media is a part of culture and acts upon the values and morals of the culture. You can see this relationship clearly when the media goes to far and culture regulates the media, like the following Xbox commercial that got banned from television, because it showed a person dying.
If the media has to work within the values and morals of culture. They don’t want to step on anyone’s toes, because they want to sell us something. Apparently we think it’s ok that the media bombards us with images on logos. If we want to change any aspect of the media, we have to change society first.
Literature
Baudrillard, Jean (1994). Simulacra and Simulation. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
Baudrillard, J. (1998). The Consumer Society. Myths and Structures. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Felluga, Dino (2003). ‘Modules on Baudrillard: On Simulation.’ Introductory Guide to Critical Theory. Purdue U.