marketing as a philosophy of market media?

Transcription

1 MEDIA ANTHROPOLOGY the science of prophets? MARKETING APOCALYPSE or marketing as a philosophy of market media? Study text for lectures Author: PhDr. Peter Jan Kosmály, PhD., VŠE, Faculty of management, Jindřichův Hradec, 2014

2 Media anthropology the science of prophets? Marketing apocalypse or marketing as a philosophy of market media? So the world doesn't come thinged; it doesn't come evented Alan Watts, The Nature Of Consciousness 1 Annotation: This series of lectures is named Media anthropology the science of prophets? Marketing apocalypse or marketing as a media philosophy of market? The content is introduced through analysis of case studies in the first lecture the science of media anthropology is explained and in the second lecture the marketing is explained as a market/media-oriented philosophy. Both lectures benefit from actual and modern theories and therefore comprise not only the related topics regarding media and marketing research, but the lectures also link media and marketing theories with a broader context of human-oriented research with anthropology, philosophy, ethics or education. Furthermore in these lectures there are described some alternative methods of media reality interpretation that can be either re-used in sociology, psychology or education on media, or they can act as the corpus callosum in media reception and interconnect sociological/psychological, educational/communicational and other aspects of media and marketing communication. There are two questions representing two topics of lectures in the title of these lectures. First question we are asking is whether media anthropology could act as a (new) science of prophets and thereby explain relations between natural humane world and artificial media reality. We thereby explain the difference between terms and metaphors, between human logic, natural languages and artificial systems such as media, the issues of media and communication abuses (addictions), media ethics and media education/therapy of learning or reception defects. The second question is asking, whether the marketing is in its apocalyptical phase, or if it is a media oriented philosophy of the market. Thereby we explain basics of marketing, the essence of marketing management, the language of marketing, new trends in marketing such as neuromarketing and a broader context of consumption. Each chapter includes a list of quoted sources and a short quiz to verify your comprehension of the material.

3 Contents 1. Media anthropology the science of prophets? 1.1. The science Timewave zero and the Quest for the Holy Grail the science of prophets 1.2. The study of language, signs and media reality mass media communication 1.3. Media abuses, education about media and education through media 1.4. Media ethics the way of using media (internet as a new type of social formation) 1.5. Media shamanism and therapy of reception defects (organic reception, multisensory therapy and sensory deprivation therapy, etc.) 2. Marketing apocalypse or marketing as a philosophy of market media? Marketing as a communication philosophy of the market (Product Identity, Logo, Design, Packaging, Price, Promotion communication, Place sociology of the market) 2.2. Marketing analysis and marketing strategy as effective management tools 2.3. Neuromarketing and cognitive sciences 2.4. Marketing apocalypse and the future of consume by destruction (marketing metaphors, eschatology, organic reception)

4 1.1. The science Timewave zero and the Quest for the Holy Grail the science of prophets Case study on the scientific metaphor and its use within scientific discourses in the 20 th and 21 st century. 3 Let me first explain the relation between terms and metaphors (from Greek: μεταφορά=transfer, transport). For example expressions like Anthropocene period, Globalization, Regionalization are agreed terms (in Latin terminus technicus) and they are used upon a consensus (agreement), so also their meaning is thought to be consensual. On the other hand (side of the same coin) we will mention words and concepts with less agreed meanings; words holding more imaginative meaning than the straight one (in linguistics the denoted, denotative meaning is straight and connoted, connotative meaning is added, symbolical; e.g. a value on thermometer is denotative as the number is a fact, but for a patient it is connotative when it symbolized patient s medical status for a doctor, nurse, etc.). Metaphors such as de-globalization, globish (global English), Timewave zero or Global Village (Marshall McLuhan s name for the interconnected global situation) carry an additional meaning or they enable various pathways of meanings. To continue with our (de)globalization example we can symbolically explain the difference between structures of meaning in terms and metaphors as following: Source: 1. Mark the two mentioned terms globalization and regionalization with numbers 1 and 2: for example globalization as step 1 and consequent regionalization as step 2 (important are the numbers, not their order). These two constitute a whole, so the numbers 1 and 2 are at the same level 2 isn t bigger than Imagine the symbolical relation between terms and metaphors using the metaphor (image) of de-globalization and imagine that de-globalization is related to the whole globalization-regionalization as a 1/2 or 2/1 of this whole. So the metaphor allows a shift in meaning, either being a part (half) of the original or being twice the original (e.g. exaggeration hyperbole).

5 Of course, this is not a rigid division of words and their meaning as the language itself is a consensual phenomenon no meaning can last unchanged forever. Take for example microscopes and telescopes. Data gathered from them are pure facts they even many times have to be sent to a computer to process them. It is a form of signal and computer is technically constructed to process those signals in some way (e.g. to a picture). That s the trick media improve our physical abilities (such as function of the eye) and they serve us new insight, facts, images on a daily base. Asset of computers is that they also enable to extend our abilities microscopes or telescopes zoom thousands and millions time more that any human would ever; computers are able to do mathematical operations much faster and at the level transferred beyond our physical abilities. 4 So, now we would be able to understand the nature of the object of our lecture upon Marshall McLuhan s thoughts media are extensions, improvements of our abilities, consequently amputating the improved ability or skill. That is why the youngest generations today are losing their sense for linear flow of text (tale, book, etc.) as they are using and getting used to the new non-linear structured HTML language and interconnected hypertexts. Now that we have understood the basic division of word meanings, we should yet think about the very beginning the first word that was spoken. In Greek and some Christian esoteric traditions Logos is meant to be the God, a principle and a manifestation of divine character of our language (where did we get it, how, when, etc.), nevertheless the search for the first word remains in the human collective mind in the form of a myth which in accordance with the title of this lecture will be marked as the Quest for the Holy Word. This archetypal quest can be seen in every child upbringing, where all the people involved impatiently await child s first word. A similar quest the Quest for the Holy Particle (Higgs Boson) represents the humane intention to explore and to discover; the very essence of science. The desire to know; to predict by studying the present and the past, is deeply connected with human mind and consecutive actions, such as for example science. Philosopher Alan Watts in his lecture The Nature Of Consciousness explains: if the business of science is to make predictions about what's going to happen, science is essentially prophecy. (Available through And using the metaphor of prophecy we will refer to chosen theorists from fields of communication, media and marketing research as prophets of media anthropology and their theories and concepts will be quoted from the standpoint of media anthropology as prophetical these theories enable us to understand and predict relations

6 between people (humanity) and media. I will yet mention two examples of a play between terms and metaphors, between fact/reality and myth. First example is McKenna s Timewave Zero, which tries to analyze and describe relations between events in a form of fractal geometry of history. Events marked new represent novelty waves; with the help of McKenna s algorithm and a computer program known history can be mathematically re-constructed into a graph. McKenna has set up the algorithm and placed historical events representing novelty into such a graph and came to the conclusion, that the novelty will end ZERO; precisely on the 21 st of Dec There was much going on before this date and naturally much is going on after trespassing that date. It may be discussed what changes we meet after 2012, but it should be less argued on the concept of leaving an old world of language and logic and entering the new world of virtual reality, media extensions and hypertexts. How should we then read McKenna s apocalyptical message? How could it be understood? Should we read it literally of copy it virtually? 5 An appropriate discussion seems to be that on whether McKenna s Timewave Zero was a hoax (representing false alarm, conspiracy, quasi facts, pseudo-terms, etc.) or a myth (representing a cultural message with prophetic statement on what is going on among humans). McKenna s concept of Eschaton, the transcendental object (without substantial essence) constructed of humane beliefs and anticipations of the final end, approaching humane minds in space and time (e.g. in 2012) is a deep structured cultural message and could be also marked prophetical in terms of media anthropology, as it explains relations between human and media (in this case e.g. fantasy, mythology, beliefs, etc.). Second example of a play between terms and metaphors, between reality and myth and an example of a play between language and communication is the example of Alan Sokal s text Transgressing the Boundaries: Towards a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity written by Alan Sokal and published in the periodical Social Text in The article has on the first sight concise form and precise argumentation, according to author himself it was thought to be a parody, but in fact the article had raised passionate debates between natural and social approach, on argumentation and validity of experiments, on facts and on relevance of scientific metaphors. Standing above this structure (Sokal s hoax), which includes also

7 author s intention and reaction of the audience as well, with the help of structuralism literary communication theory it could be also explained as a meta-communication that is additional to the original communication; meta-texts are linked to the proto-text either in affirmative way (report, copy, duplicate, annotation, advertisement, plagiarism, etc.) or in controversial way (review, pamphlet, etc.). Sokal s text then represents a meta-communication based on the original communication on scientific metaphors that is the essence of differences between language used by natural scientists and language used by social scientists. 6 Understanding of the play and shift of reality/virtual reality, of facts represented by terms and myths represented by metaphors is similar to an archeological excavation or astronomer s observations and predictions. We do see pieces, we do know, that it has to have some form but without meaningful indicators, orientation, we are not able to tell the story behind. So we have to assign functions, intrinsic features which are clearly telling us, that what carries the name photon has qualities assigned to the photon and is not changing according to situation. But again, later also photon becomes a metaphor and new knowledge seeks its place in the struggle of scientific paradigms (patterns, models) therefore reactions of the photons become flexible or inflexible, neutrinos small particles almost without mass start to oscillate and even transform into antineutrinos. To give this a sense and orientation even a new branch in science the neutrino astronomy was created. So we can close down the issue of scientific metaphor for now with declaration that language and literature of science represent certain communication system. To analyze communication systems of humans and media we can bring together humane and media oriented disciplines (media psychology, media sociology, media archeology/ecology, media education, media ethics, mass-media studies, etc.) and the new scientific tool (or paradigm) than can be then called media anthropology. Why is media anthropology so important? I have mentioned the metaphor of Global Village, according to which we live in one interconnected society such as were formerly the tribes. Within tribes the shamans were those who prophesied and cured the people of such tribe. As we have marked media theories and theorists prophetic for final understanding and utilization of relations between media and humans, we could construct such a virtual shaman for the virtual tribe of Global Village. The shaman is the science itself; it is a globalized

8 science for a globalized media reality with use of regionalized methods and techniques (e.g. in every country you will analyze media content also in terms of national language, cultural background, political or economic situation, etc.). Finally, the Global Village (or Global Theater, as McLuhan later changed this metaphor) and related media realities are a part of so called Anthropocene period, when human rules the planet and changes it; his presence and actions strongly influence his surroundings. We may declare that empirical reality is human nature (we construct and understand it as our natural surrounding) and a traditional shaman in a traditional tribe is as well human nature flesh and bones. But then we could also declare, that in shifted situation of virtual and media reality things there and the whole media reality is a system nature, therefore also shaman for this virtual tribe (Global Village) could be a system nature as well. And by this shaman prophesizing and healing such tribe I mean the science of media anthropology. 7

9 USED SOURCES AND RESOURCES FOR FURTHER STUDY: 8 Anthropocene. [online] In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. [Accessed ] Available online: KOSMÁLY, Peter. Authenticity and reception of media reality. In Creative and Knowledge Society. Bratislava Warsaw: Paneuropean College in Bratislava, Versita Warsaw, Volume 1, Issue 3, pp ISSN (print), (online), Available online: KOSMÁLY, Peter. The Science Timewave Zero. In Creative and Knowledge Society. Bratislava Warsaw: Paneuropean College in Bratislava, Versita Warsaw, Volume 3, Issue 1, pp , ISSN (print), (online). Available online: MAGOULICK, Mary. What is Myth? [online] [Accessed ] Available online: McKenna, Terence. [online] In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. [online] [Accessed ] Available online: MEYER, Peter. Terence McKenna's Timewave Zero Theory. [online] [Accessed ] Available online: Paradigm. [online] In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. [Accessed ] Available online: SHELDRAKE, Rupert. Mind, Memory, and Archetype: Morphic Resonance and the Collective Unconscious. Part I. In Psychological Perspectives, vol. 18, no. 1, pp Available online: SOKAL, Alan. D. Transgressing the Boundaries: Towards a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity. [online] [Accessed ] First published: Social Text. vol. 14, no. 46/47, pp Available online: Timewave zero. [online] [Accessed ] Available online:

10 Quiz 1. What is a metaphor? a) an image b) a fact c) a description d) an agreement 2. How do we understand prophecy in relation to science? a) Studying the past and the present and predicting what is going to happen. b) An analysis of what has happened. c) A faith in what is going to happen. d) Arguing on what has happened. 3. What is an anthropocene period? a) when human rules the planet b) when planet rules the humanity c) when everything is ruled by a higher principle d) when we are awaiting the final end 9 4. What does the Global Village metaphor mean? a) a world of interconnected community b) internet and social media c) human beliefs in eternal life d) community using global English (globish) 5. What is called a Sokal s hoax? a) a parody on a social scientific study written by Alan Sokal b) a study on scientific metaphor by Alan Sokal c) a TV show with Alan Sokal making fun of people in the streets d) an advertisement on a non-existing article by Alan Sokal 6. What is a meta-communication? a) additional communication based on original (proto) communication b) communication between metastases in a body treated for cancer c) communication above the level of perception d) communication under the level of perception 7. What is a media extension? a) improvement of humane natural skills and abilities through media b) separation from nature and humane society c) new technologies and possibilities offered by media d) critique of media reality

11 8. What is a scientific paradigm? a) a pattern or a model b) a conflict between natural and social scientists c) a situation of new trends in science d) a scientific communication through facts and terms 9. What does the metaphor of Timewave Zero represent? a) an algorithm for graphical representation of mathematical re-construction (fractal geometry) of known humane history b) an algorithm graphically representing the conflict between new and old events c) an algorithm for graphical representation of struggles between new and established scientific paradigms d) an algorithm graphically representing the known history of humanity 10. Which of these expressions can be called terms? a) globalization, regionalization, anthropocene b) globalization, de-globalization, regionalization c) Timewave Zero, Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity, antineutrino d) proton, anthropocene, de-globalization 10