Ways Of Seeing Summary

In Stuart Ewen’s All Consuming Images, the preface “Introduction to the New Edition” opens by giving the audience varying progressing images, from break dance to Madonna to Windows 95. This demonstrates a fast change in society: what matters in the history may not be an important issue now. Ewen then questions how a book written earlier still remains important and deserves republication. The book is durable because of the fact that it was written when the idea “images are everywhere” begins to develop. From political stand point, all the images, or specifically propaganda, that people see are to manipulate people’s emotions. In economic sphere, due to the ubiquitous advertising, marketing

In David B. Tyack’s “Ways of Seeing: An Essay on the History of Compulsory Schooling”, multiple lenses are used to analyze compulsory schooling in order to provide different observations. Tyack address two stages that he considers to be major in the history of compulsory school attendance, the symbolic stage and the bureaucratic stage. The symbolic stage lasted from the mid-nineteenth century to around 1890 and was when several states began passing compulsory-attendance legislations. In the bureaucratic stage, which began before the turn of the twentieth century, school systems began to become bigger and more complex with school officials developing techniques to bring in absentees to school. By the end of the bureaucratic stage in the 1950s,

Press, media, news, and entertainment today are used to both influence, shape and mold our minds. Whether it is politics, fashion, sports, conflicts, or finance the way and how it makes it's way to the people is very important. The perspective and delivery of the news determines if the message will come off as propaganda, gossip, or informative. News can be both a positive and negative weapon given the impact that is has on the minds, views and behavior of the people who are consuming it. The impacts and effects of the news can either unite a group of people or separate them. Although

I came to realize that all writing consists of a series of choices” (Bunn 72). From the works, “The Inspired Writer vs. the Real Writer,” “What Is “Academic” Writing?”, and “How to Read Like a Writer”; Bunn, Allen, and Lennie are well versed in formulating information and tools that can be very beneficial for the student writer, works that complement each other. For example, Mike Bunn explains about the analytical process of reading like a writer, to consider the choices the author made and decide whether to apply them, Lennie Irvin gives a very detailed method on how to tackle academic writing tasks, and Sarah Allen tackles the issues and myths that plague the writer. They understand that writing and reading is a simple task with complex implications and put conscious effort to show that.

Television is an electronic telecommunication device that transmits pictures and sounds. Since its inception and release into society, the Television has grown to become extremely popular. The undying devotion to this medium has helped shape many aspects of human life. It has become a tool for education and entertainment. Businesses have found an efficient means to access the wider public through advertising. Advertising is a paid form of publicity aimed at a large audience by businesses with a view to increasing sales. Advertisements, unlike propaganda, have clearly stated sponsors. Through advertising, businesses can communicate with the user of their goods and services. The television allowed for the exponential expansion of advertisement. While older media is still used for advertising, Television’s ability to transmit moving picture and sound put it well above print media and radio (Messaris 2)

For many years now, the primary medium for advertisements has been television. A majority of society has access to a TV, and because of this reality, producers promote their products via this media outlet. However, are these companies just trying to sell their products? or they also advocate their personal agendas upon the masses. Throughout history, the various media channels have influenced society to believe or accept twisted fallacies.

Some critics might say that advertisements are not purely manipulative or persuasive. They might argue that advertisements can positively contribute to society while trying to sell a product. This is debatable because modern day advertisements have reached a peak of meaninglessness and emptiness. They do not necessarily contain any thoughtful portrayal of society or its culture. Rather, they are packed with many false ideals distant from reality.

Media impacts our lives everyday. The average 14-to-28 year-old will be exposed to about 3,000 ads every day. Ben Franklin once said that nothing is certain is this life except death and taxes. I believe it is now safe to assume we can add advertisements to that list now. We are literally bombarded with them. After seeing all the advertisements I am led to believe that they are the most carefully constructed of all human communication, being it the most expensive too. In 2004, according to www.answers.com, advertisement was in excess of $450 billion in the United States alone. It is not our fault though that these advertisements display messages that we cannot perceive. When we see an ad, our conscious mind will filter out the things it cannot deal with and make an acceptable idea or image that is made conscious. This is

Human emotions remain as one of the world’s biggest secrets. Like sleep, we know what happens to our body when we experience these emotions whether it be a release of hormones or a certain area on the body becomes more sensitive. But we don’t know why we have them, experience them, or what purpose they serve. All we know is everyone’s emotions behave differently. Different types of arts can elicit completely different emotional response from people. Some art may have the ability to appeal to dangerous emotions in certain people. Whether it be the corruption of a once faithful and beautiful young girl, plagued by the desire for romanticism and lofty ideas, or a handsome young nobleman who is obsessed with living life to fullest. Both are fueled by the emotion that a certain type of art elicits in them, leaving them in a never ending chase that ruins there life’s. In the Novels Madame Bovary and The Picture of Dorian Grey the protagonists in these stories perfectly exemplifies the danger of arts emotional appeal by showing the corruption and eventual downfall of two once young and beautiful souls by exposing them to art that pleases dangerous emotions such as desire, pleasure, entitlement and disappointment.

In class we watched two documentaries that focuses on advertising in the 21st century. The first documentary we viewed was called "The Persuaders" which described many techniques on how to influence the public to purchase a product. The next documentary, "Generation Like," was regarding to the idea of advertising on social media. Everyone is frequently exposed to advertisements that consumers do not recognize them most of the time. As a whole, our society is an audience to everything; we are an audience to products, politicians, networks, etc.

Advertisements work in such a way that we grow to envy those we are not; they exploit our perceived flaws by displaying a person who is the living and breathing version of who we wish to be. John Berger in his book, Ways of Seeing, explains that publicity works by convincing his reader that advertisements use envy to entice the public to buy products: “Publicity persuades us...by showing us people who have apparently been transformed and are, as a result, enviable” (131). Though Berger published his book in 1972, his arguments about envy and publicity still hold truth, perhaps now more than ever. Furthermore, the more present advertisements are in our everyday life, the more envious our society becomes. With the power of envy, those who fall under its spell become choiceless, and therefore powerless. Berger also argues in his book that there is a correlation between the number of advertisements we see and the less freedom Americans possess. However, Berger believes that capitalism hides this powerlessness with the illusion of choice: “Publicity helps to mask and compensate for all that is undemocratic within society” (149). This idea Berger has relates not only to the advertisement of products, but also to present-day politics. Withheld information creates power using envy which is used in both advertisements and the US government. As more envy is created with modern day technology, and we become more immersed into social media, the further we stray from democracy.

These images provide audiences with both a break from the flow of commercial media messages as well as a new degree of consciousness regarding the physical and cultural implications of corporate capitalism (Carducci, 126). They are a sort of cultural commentary utilized by Adbusters to help audiences cleanse their “mental environments” of the seemingly never-ending flow of advertisements we are constantly exposed to. These kinds of visual techniques are key to the ideological goals of Adbusters; as part of the “Media Carta” campaign, the organization seeks to take back the public space of broadcasting and make mass communicating a more democratic

Recently, Victoria's Secret launched a worldwide advertisement for Collegiate clothing, attempting to appeal to female college students but instead succeeded in doing little more than belittling women. John Berger’s book, Ways of Seeing elaborates on how publicity methods speak to consumers in an emotional and spiritual level to lure the consumer into believing they need a specific product to look a certain way. He describes publicity as being its own language and essentially “working on a natural appetite for pleasure,” (Berger 132) offering an ideal image of oneself. In relation to Berger’s Ways of Seeing, the Victoria's Secret Collegiate advertisement uses Berger’s concepts of publicity by depicting light complected women wearing college gear and being primarily concerned with their appearance rather than their education, promoting an unrealistic expectation or ideal of women in college.

Every day, companies present the people with advertisements everywhere they go. Advertisements have become very prevalent in today’s society nowadays focusing in on a negative connotation. Advertisement has become an effective way for producers to display their new products. In present day, they come in forms of billboards, flyers, e-mails, and even text messages. It is widely known that companies create advertisements to persuade people to buy specific products or goods; however, it is not widely known that advertisements can make a negative impact on today’s society. The companies manipulate people’s mind and emotions, swaying people by new promotions and therefore generating a strong desire to fit into the society, that causes them to make inessential expenditures. Advertisements pose a critical impact on the American culture.

Throughout Chapter 1 of Ways of Seeing, there are many different aspects that are discussed thoroughly. First off, the way we perceive things and the way things are perceive differently are mostly affected by what we know or what we believe in. For instance, the way we look at images and paintings can be something different from what a person next to me is seeing. The way we are known to perceive images and paintings are based off prior knowledge, even the lack of knowledge we dont have when it comes to a certain topic especially in images and art. The relationship between words and what we see is what recognition.