Marshmallow Culture

Part 1: Growing up I enjoyed video-games. I was, therefore, not inclined to visit art galleries, with my mum, at the weekend. But does this make me a bad person?

What I am touching on here is of course, culture. There are two main types of culture: a) traditional, sometimes referred to as ‘high’ culture, e.g. listening to Beethoven, reading Charles Dickens, and of course, attending the art gallery, and b) Pop culture, e.g. playing xbox online, shredding Arctic Monkey’s and of course, taking selfies.

Culture then, is an incredibly tedious word to pin down, as its meaning is determined by Representation, i.e. what we actually mean when we refer to something or someone as “cultured”. It is this that will be the foundation of my study for the next few weeks, with weekly updates on my Mass Communication class:“[A]Critical Analysis of Mass Media.”

My studies will we based of: “Representation,” a book by cultural theorist, Stuart Hall et al. (2013).

To kick us off, let’s start by looking at what Hall refer’s to as the “Circuit of Culture”:

Here we can see that ‘culture’ comprises of five key elements: Production, Consumption, regulation, identity and representation. As an aspiring journalist I have been part of such as system when producing television news. The sequence is as follows…

1. Consumption: I smell the whiff of a particularly interesting story
2. Production: I produce a video that I think incapsulates the story of those involved
3. Representation: is created by what I choose to leave in, or out, of my story, i.e. who’s opinion’s I choose to include.
4. Regulation: My professor, or editor then makes a decision on whether or not to publish my work on shared student media.
5. Identity: If my work is then published it may reinforce, or contradict, the way people my identify the subjects of my story: as victims or as perpetrators.

In so doing I have fed-into a particular culture by my use of representation. However, this is merely one sequence when we consider that, as the consumer, you may also start by ‘identifying’ with my work and so ‘produce’ your own work; the system must always be continual.

For this system to work, though, we need to be able to communicate affectively; whether to an audience, or simply to my friend down-the-pub. In order to do so requires shared understanding.

Hall refers to what he calls “shared conceptual maps,” explaining that in order to describe an object to another person, both people must have associations between the language and concepts, which are easily translatable by the second person.

There are however, several theories regarding how meaning is originally determined. ‘Reflective’ is one approach to meaning, as it suggests that an object or the physical presence of something is enough to suggest meaning. For example a red stop sign may cause alarm, because it stands out more than white, green or blue signs.

Arguably though, one person’s perception may differ from another’s as we all see things differently; whilst one person may be alarmed by red paper another may find it welcoming as it is easier to read text off than white paper.

The reflective approach does, though, not explain why Android named their new phone operating system: ‘Marshmallow.’ Here we may choose to apply the ‘intentional’ approach. This suggests meaning is decided by a person through their use of language. So Mr/Mrs self-important person X may just think this is a good name and that is the end of that.

However, if I had not heard this term used before I might interpret this new, un-tangible thing differently. For example, I might call this new operating ‘system 6’ because it is in it’s sixth generation (Marshmallow 6.o).

It is then, the “Constructivist” approach that may best this process, by suggesting that whilst an object may generate meaning, and language convey’s this — it is in fact social factors that shape and build meaning. Therefore, I will call it Marshmallow, because the mass-media has broadcast this name. In doing so, I may be more likely to be understood as other people will more likely recognise this name.

That’s not to say that meaning doesn’t change over time, which of course it does. After all, Marshmallow was once, a tasty sweet.

But what actually signifies meaning? Let’s discuss some of the examples I mentioned earlier in more detail. First “STOP” — in English each of the letters S-T-O-P joined together signify that we should halt what we are doing.

This is an “Arbitrary” sign because we may see it written using completely different letters in other languages, e.g. “وقف” in Arabic. This again supports Constructivist Theory because their must be an accepted understanding culturally, for these words to exist in English and Arabic.

The word apple is an example of an “indexical signifier” because the word is used to directly relate to an object that is round, red/green and edible. Simple enough.

More complex are “Iconic” signs, which we can sometimes overlook as symbols because they strongly resemble a living object or person, say, a photo of a loved one. They may bare direct resemblance, but we must still be wary as programs may be used to edit such images, i.e. photoshop, creating an alternative image.

It’s all a little confusing.

My mind was boggled too when I reached the end of chapter one. Especially at the point where I sat down to watch Al Jazeera. Confronted with a pixelated image the presenter claimed it was a North-Korean missile. The image itself was iconic (though fuzzy); the indexical signifier, the words used to describe the object. So far, so good.

But then it turns out that north Korea are calling it a space mission carrying ‘A peaceful earth monitoring satellite’, whilst the presenter reports that it is seen internationally as “a theoretical threat”. I was in a dilemma. Which representation do you side with?

I may be no closer to defining culture, but I am a step closer to understanding representation.