New Social Movements: Importance in Advertising and Globalisation - Essay Example

?Introduction Over the past few decades, there has been a phenomenon of global restructuring which has resulted in intensive globalisation and marketoriented economies. This has enhanced global industrial capitalism to a great extent, and the old social movements have in a way come short of addressing concerns of individuals to this. This has given rise to new social movements, which according to Della and Diana (1999) are diverse forms of collective action that have displaced the old social movements presumably due to the fact that industrial capitalism has become transcendent. Amid all these, culture has come up as an important component of the politics of new social movements. They have also been observed to markedly differ from old social movements and they have a big impact on the public regarding the industrial economic setting. One of the most visible forms of these movements in some countries is culture jamming, which can be traced back to individuals in the society becoming critical of everything. New social movements versus old social movements According to Schmidt (2006), new social movements are those which have come up in many western societies as from the 1960s and have a tendency to draw individuals from the middle class as opposed to the working class part of the society. They place emphasis on collective identity and change of lifestyle and culture. Rather than focusing on the economy and class alone, these movements include matters of ecology, peace, gays’ rights and feminist movements. The origins of these new social movements can be traced to the 1960s, where according to Pearce (1991) several movements based on ecological issues sprung up including; campaigns against RTZ and Windscale by the Friends of the Earth movement which started in 1969, the “save the whale” campaign by Greenpeace in 1971 against nuclear testing in Alaska, and WWF’s agitation against the toxic effects of industrial pollution on wildlife. Several feminist movements also sprung up during those periods, later accompanied by gay rights campaigns among other movements. Pichardo (1997) identifies the origins as several students strikes across Europe and America in the 1960’s. They markedly differ from old social movements in several ways. To begin with, they place more emphasis on collective identity and culture change rather than on developed ideologies as were in old social movements. Della and Porta (1999) reckon that new social movements are based on a decentralized nature of power and agitation rather than on the Marxist centralization class-based nature of social change. Morris (1992) argues that new social movements these new movements create a collective identity while old movements were based on structures, a feature that hindered collective identity. The other difference between the two is that while the old social movements were nearly entirely focused on economic issues, new social movements are instead post-material. Sociology Essays (1990) lists the range of these movements to include ecology, ethnicity, feminism, sexual identity, peace and alternative medicine among others, and indicates that they have come up to challenge the traditional forms of social movements. They appear to be widely independent and virtual, based on no single interpretation like the traditional forms of social movements were. New social movements also differ from the old ones in terms of the class of people involved (Schmidt, 2006). While the traditional forms of social movements were based on the working class, new social movements do not entirely draw from this class and instead contain the middle class and young people who do not identify with the existing political groupings (Inglehart 1997, p311). Importance of culture in the politics of new social movements While the old social movements were to a large part concerned with financial welfare and class issues, new social movements have integrated a lot of cultural concerns in their undertakings. Capra (1984) identifies seven principles of new politics: nonviolence, decentralization, deep ecology, participatory demands, post patriarchy, social justice and spiritual renewal. These are clearly mainly cultural aspects as opposed to economic aspects in a movement. Pichardo (1997) identifies the emphasis of new social movements on identity and culture, aspects which he claims were largely ignored in the earlier social movements due to the fact that participation in these movements was instrumentally based. This involvement of culture in social movements is a unique feature of movements based on the middle class according to Parkin (1968), and the expressive nature is connected to the cultural aspects of such movements with people seeking to present their case based on morality. There is a civic sphere of culture that has been identified to be independent of economic issues in terms of providing a basis for agitation. Culture Jamming: Klein’s Arguments Klein (2000) persuasively presents her case on the activities of new social movements through exploring culture jamming- a phenomenon in which individuals strive to undermine the symbolic power of the corporate world in terms of advertising. Cultural jamming stems from people questioning the legitimacy of the invasion of their environments with numerous advertisements and not just about what good advertising should entail. As a way of fighting back the intrusive corporate symbolic power, cultural jammers parody advertisements in a bid to bring out what they regard as the truth behind the advertisement. With the advent of new technology, cultural jamming has grown in sophistication from mere parodies to interceptions; where counter messages are sent from the corporate’ own systems of communication through hacking. The messages sent in this case are in contrast to the intended ones. The internet and other new technologies such as photoshop have made the creation and distribution of ad parodies a lot more easier than use of graffiti, for example, and thus although it has been around for quite some time, it is currently under a resurgence due to these technological advancements. The Impact of Culture Jamming on the Public The definition of a good jam is one that will explore the subconscious of the campaign in a bid to uncover the deeper truth under what people see in the advertisement. It seeks to liberate people from the forces of corporate marketing. The market is a very dynamic place as any business would reckon, and a change in the perceptions of your product by the public will spell doom to your business. Klein (2000) already recognizes the fact that the public is not comfortable with replacement of their culture with massive advertisements by the corporate world, and the resentment provides a basis for culture jamming to build upon. A super-brand can be rendered absurd within no time when the perception of the public changes. Culture jamming focuses on preventing the public from falling back to another brand once the previous one has been banished through sustained campaigns to expose the corporate world as in bad light. The effects of jamming on the public can be better visualized through the losses that several companies have suffered due to parodies of their products on billboards. The reluctance of the corporate world to crack down on the jammers is evidence to the fact that they are afraid of the repercussions because the public could side with their perceived victims, in this case the jammers. Culture jamming can be related to the middle-class part of the society who are particularly more dissatisfied with the corporate world. The jammers are mostly relatively young people with access to contemporary ideas such as graffiti and more importantly access to the internet. The political power of culture jamming was in fact demonstrated from the resistance to washroom advertisements by students, converting what to the corporate world was an ingenious tool to exploit the youth market into a potential way of countering the corporate world. “… For a growing number of young activists, ad-bursting has presented itself as the perfect tool with which to register disapproval of the multinational corporations that have so aggressively stalked them as shoppers and so unceremoniously dumped them as workers” (Klein 2000, p.284). Culture jamming can also be related to the current state of the modern man. Modernity and reflexivity has resulted in people becoming overly critical of several aspects of society, more especially to the economic dispensation; globalisation and multinationals taking control of their daily lives. According to Klein, a fashionable sneaker can suddenly look absurd in the eyes of people and a popular song can in no time become intolerable to people. As opposed to other traditional forms of movements in the past which focused on fighting industrial capitalism, culture jamming is more political; individuals are not just questioning the way advertisements are presented as in the past use to be, they are instead criticizing the legitimacy of the corporate world to advertise to them just because they have paid for it. People have become particularly critical of the politics and economics of the day and ad-bursting is one of the routes of voicing their criticism. Culture jamming also feeds on the transformations that are happening in the public’s view of politics and aesthetics. People have become openly critical of how the government has let the corporate world take over their lives, and the institutional rigidity of governance structures. The advertisements are seen as influencing the way society lives in a bid to profit from it while over-riding morality and culture Conclusion Since the advent of new social movements in the 1960s a different approach to agitation has been created which unlike the old social movements is not institutionalized and is run by the middle class and not the working class. New social movements span from gender-based issues and ecology to gay rights, and are more centered on cultural aspects rather than the economic aspects. One of the new social movements avenue of agitation against the corporate world is culture jamming; which involves creating parodies of advertisements and sending corrupted messages to consumers from the companies’ owns systems through hacking. Technological advances have led to a resurgence of culture jamming and its effect on the public are serious, as can be acknowledged by the corporate society. He main driving forces behind culture jamming is the current nature of the public to criticize nearly everything and their change in terms of view of politics and aesthetics. References Capra, F et al. 1984, Green politics, 1st edn, New York, Dutton. Della, PD & Diana, M 1999, Social movements. Oxford: Blackwell. Inglehart, R 1990, Cultural shift in advanced industrial society, Social Value, Priceton University. Klein, N 2000, Culture jamming, No Logo, Collins Publishers Morris, AD 1992, Frontiers in social movement theory, Yale University. Parkin F 1968, Middle class radicalism, New York, Praeger Pearce, F 1991, Green warriors: The people and the politics behind the environmental revolution. Bodley Head, London. Pichardo, NA 1997, New social movements: A critical review, Annual Reviews, 23:411-30 Schmidt, K 2006, Account for the rise of European New Social Movements in the post war period, viewed 15 Aug 2011 . Sociology Essays, 1991, New Social Movements, viewed 15 Aug 2011 . 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