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Before I went to Kenya last year, I learned of the many assumptions and images that the media and other agents of socialization offer about Africa. They asked me many questions and were shocked that I wanted to go. "What will you do there besides look at lions? How are you going to communicate with other people? Do they speak a normal language? What are you going to wear? What will you eat?" My family was influenced by the way the media and other agents of socialization portray Africa. This project concentrates on just one of those agents: advertising.
Advertisements and other agents of socialization illustrate Africa as a primitive, wild, non-communicative place and people assume that in actuality, this is how life is there. At first, I couldn't believe how much information my family received from the many agents of socialization. For example, one can focus on film and have the same type of paper as this one. Films such as the Indiana Jones series depict third world nations as inferior. In Raiders of the Lost Arc, Indiana Jones, working as a professor of archeology, enters Egypt searching for ancient relics. Those that live in Egypt are not portrayed as educated or wealthy as Jones is. They are often in the background, doing grunt work while Jones defends himself against his Nazi enemies. Jones treats his Egyptian friends as if they are his slaves. In the end Jones finds the relics and leaves the country just as easily as he entered. The white European is a hero, who lived to tell about an experience in a third world country. The Egyptians, on the other hand, are seen as the 'other,' standing in the background the entire time, adding to the exoticism of the film. This is a typical western representation of third world culture in film.
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Other agents of socialization that society might gather information about Africa from are magazines such as National Geographic. This magazine can be used as an example primarily for its photographs. The publication is known for its bright-colored, glossy pictures that often make assumptions about third world cultures. A study on the magazine proves this to be entirely true. (Lutz & Collins, 87). Lutz and Collins found that photographers for National Geographic try to catch certain actions or characteristics in their pictures. For example, pictures are often in color, for "Color is the vehicle of spectacle, black and white of the depth of facts behind the screen" (Lutz & Collins, 94). A picture of a Maasai or Samburu warrior will not be as effective if shown in black and white. One does not see his bright red blanket, his beads of various colors or the contrast of his dark skin. Color allows one to make more assumptions about other cultures for we can see different contrasts. Photographs that are in black and white are factual, unexotic and possibly bland. One can often see people flipping through the pages of National Geographic just gazing at the color pictures. People can get a quick glimpse of life in 'exotic' cultures just by looking at these photographs. Through the color image, they can make assumptions about dress and rituals. In addition, they can emphasize their western ideologies. This study will be further discussed later in this paper. The magazine is just another agent of socialization that adds to assumptions that those of western culture make of those that live in third world nations.
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Color images are also used in advertisements and commercials to emphasize assumptions that people make about Africa. Commercials and ads are packed with quick images and bits of information that consumers commit to memory, from which they draw assumptions about other cultures. "Because ads are so pervasive and our reading of them so routine, we tend to take for granted the deep social assumptions embedded in advertisements. We do not ordinarily recognize advertising as a sphere of ideology" (Goldman, 1). This project explores that large sphere of ideology and try to conclude where those deep social assumptions stem from. It is impossible to ignore advertisements and how they represent Africa. They are seen in trains, buses, billboards, television, and magazines and often depict the continent in the same exploitative way. |
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