As French semiologist, Roland Barthes, wrote in 1964, when analysing a print advert for Panzani pasta :
« Let us study an advertisement…because in advertising, the meaning of the image is certainly intentional…its signs are clear and straightforward, even emphatic. »
(translation by the author)
- In the same way that Patrick White's novels or Tim Burton's films call for analysis, so we might wish, from an academic standpoint, to analyse the production of a worldwide, creative industry, especially when its production is specifically designed to bear influence on individuals. Why though might this be considered useful ?
- Because citizens need to understand the society in which they live, work and procreate. This task of analysis behoves the intellectual, the academic and the journalist. For it is their traditional role to extract meaning from events and creations, past or present, in the socio-political and cultural spheres
- Let us not forget that to understand the past is to better apprehend the future, into which the citizen naturally projects himself
- A citizen requires honest, considered information and interpretation via these three professions for him to best choose his or her education, fields of interest, career, family or cultural options, amongst other things. He needs visibility
- It is also essential that he understand the forces that shape his society : the institutions, the political process, business, trade unions, and, of course, the media environment of his country, for make no mistake about it, if media barons exist, it is to wield political and economic power over a society as ignorant, disillusioned and unaware of its rights as possible
- Collective education is a tool in the combat against ignorance and poverty, we know that. Those powerful groups in the developed world who would control the destiny of society (and who indeed succeed in some) also possess a tool , a tool called disinformation.
- Disinformation (knowingly false, biased, or deliberately incomplete information) is transmitted both via the journalist (in PR, agenda-setting, false neutrality, hidden bias...) and secondly via advertising agencies (never neutral). The web has also now become a source of much unchecked disinformation, a form of good old-fashioned rumour-mongering
- All advertising (I can hear the wails of protest) IS NOT necessarily disinformation (only about... 99% - just joking). The British 2007 Moonwalking Bear commercial for cyclists' road safety in London is a good example of a thoughtful, creative campaign broadcast in cinemas, then virally on the Internet. Of course, human life is not a product...
- It is in the interest of the manufacturer or the service sector to prefer persuasion to accuracy in their sales communication or their packaging. This may be understandable given the costs and the brevity of the message, but too often, honesty flies out the window to be replaced by manipulation of fact or form (the famous asterisk on the price which says below in small print : ' price valid only at Limoges train station between midnight and 1 PM to people with a password aged 94 and dressed as toreadors'...)
(to be continued)
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