Transcript Journalism 614: Communication and Public Opinion

Journalism 614:
Consumer Culture and Opinion
A Consumer Society
 A nation of shoppers
– Mass and Micro Marketing
– Shopping Malls
– Online Purchasing
– Bargain Hunting
 Yet this consumption seemingly produces unease
– Americans are preoccupied with getting and spending
– Losing touch with deeper values and ways of living
– Withdrawing from community life
Source & Effects of the Shift
 What has caused this shift to a consumer society?
– Some say mass media presentations of the “good life”
– Media driving consumer sentiments and opinions
– Emergence of ‘competitive consumption”
• Used to “Keep up with the Joneses”: conspicuous consumption
• Now we try to emulate the lifestyles of luxury seen on TV
 Yet American’s find little satisfaction in buying
– Working longer hours
– Less happy with life and its direction
– Heavily in debt to afford purchases
– Environmental degradation tied to consumption
Delivering the goods…
30,000
25,000
20,000
15,000
Personal
Consumption
Expenditures
per capita (2000$)
(Schor, 2006)
10,000
5,000
0
1960
1970
1980
1990
2000
2005
The Output Bias:
Rising annual hours of work, CPS, 1967-2000 (Schor, 2006)
1900
1850
1800
1750
1700
1650
1600
1550
1967
1973
1979
1989
1995
2000
Income and Happiness:
GDP per capita v. % very happy, US 1946-1996 (Layard 2005)
Consumerism and
ecological disaster
es
ia
do
n
di
a
US
Se
ne
ga
l
Ch
in
a
Br
az
il
Ita
ly
Ja
pa
G
er n
m
an
y
In
In
Per Capita Footprints
12
10
8
6
Footprint in hectares
4
2
0
Veblen and Status Consumption Models
Features of Status Models
 Social positioning produce status consumption
– We look to those a rung above us to determine acceptable
opinions and behaviors, fashions and purchasing
 Game is played through visible consumption
– Must be seen to be part of a status game - who is ahead?
 Trickle down model
– middle class emulate upper-middle, who emulate the rich, who
emulate the ultra-rich
 Consumption is social, a way to marking ones social
belonging and class status - badges of belonging
Social Comparison & Rising Inequality
Share of Consumption by Household Income
45
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
top 20%
80%
60%
40%
bottom
20%
Bourdieu and Distinction
 French sociologist who observed that class status is
gained, lost, and reproduced through consumption
– Our clothing, car, home, and media consumption all
display our social position
 Can gain or lose access to social circle by
displaying appropriate taste, manners, culture
– Consumption helps to maintain basic patterns of
power and inequality - this is why it matters!!!
New Consumerism
 Neighbors are no longer the point of comparison
– Upscale emulation parallels the decline of neighborhood life
 Income and wealth concentrated in top 20%
– Surge of conspicuous consumption at the top
– Most no longer satisfied with middle-class life
 Aspiration gaps
– Desires outpace incomes
– Credit card debt
• Averages $7000 per person, with $1000 in interest & penalties
– Low savings rate
• 8% in 80s, 4% in 90s, 0% now!!!
The Rise of Competitive Consumption
 Movement of women into the workforce
– Decline of neighborhood contacts
– Workplace, with wider range of social classes,
becomes point of upward comparison
 Less time with friends and family, more at
work and front of the television
– Consumption cues from work and television
– Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous
Consumer Confidence
 Consumer confidence is a driver of economy
 Over consumption is sanctioned, even encouraged,
QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Consumer Knows Best?
 Assume consumers are rational
 Assumes consumers are well informed
 Assume consumer preferences are consistent
 Assume consumer preferences are independent
 Assume consumption does not reduce public goods
 But consumers are no more deliberative than citizens
– Neither purely rational nor deluded, duped, and manipulated
 In fact, they are one and same - consumer citizens
– Artificial distinction - consumption can be civic/political
A Politics of Consumption
 Changing opinions driving changes in markets and society
– Right to a decent standard of living
• Ex. Fair trade coffee
– Quality of life rather than quantity of stuff
• Ex. Downshifting
– Ecologically sustainable consumption
• Ex. Global warming & consumption
– Democratize consumption practices
• Ex. Starbury - Stephon Marbury
– The politics of retailing
• Ex. Walmart vs. mainstreeet
– Consumer movements
• Ex. Anti-globalism
Consumer critique
& activist practice
Newdream.org