Professional Contexts: How does taste and
fashion fuel consumerism?
Casey Watts
12/8/2012
CATS
Digital Media Journalism- Year Two
Contents
1. Introduction
2. What is Consumerism and Why is it
important?
3. What are the current trends in Journalism and
the media?
4. What is the relationship between consumer
and identity?
5. In what ways are products designed for a
target audience?
6. Conclusion
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Professional Contexts: How does taste and fashion fuel consumerism?
The advances within the media sector have altered the dynamics of consumerism and as a
consequence have altered the trends and tastes within Journalism and the media itself. In
tracing the current fashion trends of Journalistic technology, and the ethical, sustainability
and exploitation issues which recurrently arise as a consequence, this essay will investigate
the notion of fashion and its role in acting as a catalyst for consumerism. Also, this essay will
highlight important issues relating to this field including fast fashion, Marxism and how
products are designed for a specific target audience, in order to argue that consumerism is a
complex and culturally relative issue. Furthermore, this essay will establish what
consumerism is and why it is important and how it affects our identity as individuals and as a
society.
What is consumerism and why is important?
The emergence of the digital and technological age continues to have drastic alterations to
consumerism as we now have many options in retrospect to the many technologies available
to us, for instance, there is many leading mobile phone companies which offer us similar
products, for instance, Blackberry and IPhone. This juxtaposes the dynamics of old age
consumerism as people now have multiple options to choose from, for instance, when
deciding a mobile phone provider most of the decision process is based on which company is
in fashion at that moment and personal taste. ‘Suppliers of services should give out accurate
information so that the consumer is able to make a comparison and choose what is best suited
to their needs’ (Firth, 2007, page 1.)
Consumerism is defined as ‘The movement seeking to protect and inform consumers by
requiring such practices as honest packaging and advertising, product guarantees and
improved safety standards’ (www.thefreedictionary.com.) We consume a variety of products
and resources on a daily basis and with the various improvements in technology we have
been able to move beyond basic needs to luxury items and technological innovations to
improve efficiency and to make people’s lives easier. Consumerism is at the core of most
societies and is important as it affects many aspects of our lives including: the environment,
culture, our personal values and ethics, society and our relationships with other people.
Positive consumerism effects are:
‘More industrial production.’
‘A higher growth rate economy’
‘More goods and services available.’
‘Increased production will result in more employment opportunities.’
‘More comforts for a better living style.’
Negative consumerism effects:
‘Over dependence on labor-saving devices’
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‘Our natural habitat is destroyed to make more goods.’
‘Material wealth is the deciding factor about whether a society is highly developed or not’
‘Crime rate also increases as wants to possess expensive gadgets increase. Thefts become
common and daylight robberies take place.’
‘Personal relationships also get affected as people are busy trying to earn more to maintain
their standard of living.’
(http://www.paggu.com, 2009)
What are current trends in Journalism and the media?
The current technological age has Infographics have been used by media organizations for
many years and with the proliferation of many free and simple tools such as Many Eyes and
Tableau Public, Infographics technology is available to most people. Infographics is defined
as ‘a visual representation of data or information’ (www.macmillandictionary.com, 2012), the
aim of Infographics is to utilize graphics to enhance data and statistics in a more visually
appealing way. In Journalism, Infographics is used by news organizations to show the
weather, as well as maps, and graphs for statistical data. Media organizations like The
Guardian have realized how crucial Infographics are in the displaying of statistical
information and have created a data blog to visually show all the information about various
media stories. ‘We are drowning in information. The web has given us access to data we
would never have found before, from specialist datasets to macroeconomic minutiae’
(www.guardian.co.uk, 2009.)
Infographics and the internet itself, has altered the newspaper industry as more and more
readers are choosing to receive their news information via other media platforms. With many
people receiving their news information through the internet, the newspaper industry has
chosen to alter to this format for their news content. The I Newspaper was created in 2010
with a concise and scan able format;’ The problem is that some of the (Independent’s)
audience don’t want to read the full ‘Sunday roast’ variant during the week’ (www.bbc.co.uk,
2010.) This has created a trend within the newspaper industry as more and more readers are
opting to receive their news content through an old-fashioned print medium but in a new and
easy to read way.
Although Infographics and concise newspaper journalism are both juxtapositions, they are
similar in the way that they present content in a new and easy to understand way. Fast
Fashion plays a crucial role in the development of such Journalism as the technologies used
to create the products have rapidly altered, for instance, Data Visualization software such as
Tableau Public allows you to create complex data visualization for free. ‘The emergence of
fast fashion is often regarded as a key to success’ (Barnes, 2006, page 122.) Fast fashion
refers to the notion of creating products which are not sustainable and have been produced in
a short time as it is a reworking of a previous design or idea.
What is the relationship between consumerism and identity?
Consumerism is a part of our daily lives, areas of modern life that were at some point free of
demands now have to adapt to the needs and desires of the consumer. It affects us
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individually as in our current era material wealth is the deciding factor in whether people are
of working, middle or upper class stature. ‘It can be said a large part of who and what we are
takes shape in the products we buy’ (Davis, 1992, page 25) and in doing so the products form
a large part of our identity. Western culture advises us that our identity is an acceptable image
we convey to the world fuelled by self-absorption and materialism. ‘Modern consumption
patterns seek to promote self-indulgence as self-doubt, creating needs, not fulfilling them’
(www.arebelwithacause.org, 2011.) As well as being a deciding factor in terms of class
structure, it also influences our wants and needs as advertising is becoming more prominent
and helps to highly influence what we desire in terms of basic and luxury products and in
doing so forms part of our identity. Our personal relationships can become compromised as
people are trying to earn more money to maintain a certain standard of living. ‘Products come
to serve as a metaphor for identity’ (Davis, 1992, page 25.)
On a larger scale, consumerism can affect the identity of whole societies. As consumer
products consist of materials, for instance, fiber and fabrics ‘there are direct physical
environmental impacts connected to the use, resilience and sustainable actions’ (Hethorn,
2008, page 3.) Trees are being destroyed to produce paper, our cities are becoming lager as
more industrial factories are created, and most of the products that are created aren’t
sustainable and are soon disposed of. This can effect society on a large-scale as Green House
gasses in the atmosphere and environmental damages affects us all to a degree. Exploitation
is a major problem in our consumerist society as many problems can arise from high prices,
to poor quality to false product information. People ‘have basic needs that must be addressed’
(Hethorn, 2008, page 2) and if these needs are not met the consumers desire for new and
better products may be exploited. This may result in serious consequences, for instance, if a
duplicate product is sold unwittingly to a consumer it may lack the required inbuilt safeguard
and can cause an accident to the consumer.
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Figure 1. Asia Focus : Asian Consumerism, More, Not Less, (2006), HKTDC Research,
Chart.
This chart explores the over consumption by the world’s richest countries. In comparison,
China and United States have different private spending consumption habits with America
adopting a fast fashion lifestyle as they are more affluent. By investigating the over
consumption of products by various countries in the worlds, this chart has shown how over
consumption directly links to the society we belong to and how much money that society
possess.
and shows the Fast Fashion style consumption of people throughout the world, especially in
terms of the consumption of cars and food. By investigating the over consumption of
products, this visualization shows how over consumption is at the core of many
environmental issues.
The idea of consumerism having an influence on our identity has many connotations of
Marxist ideology, most notably class structure and helps to fuel these ideals. Marxism views
society as ‘a structure, in which the economy is ultimately the most influential in determining
the importance of other social, political and ideological institutions’ (Appelbaum, 1988, page
139) and is directly linked to consumerist ideology. For instance, the clothes we buy and
what shop they are from can be directly linked to Marxist ideology as if we buy clothes from
a shop which is popular and deemed socially acceptable, we are fuelling the economy by
buying fast fashion, and also by doing what is socially expected of us.
What ways are products designed for a specific target audience?
‘Audience targeting is the process of developing and delivering programs or products
designed to meet the needs of specific segments of the population’ (Ritter, 1988, page 2.)
Companies succeed by developing and promoting products to certain people they feel the
products would be suited for. Business like Apple, which is one of the leading technology
based companies in the world, ‘tend to target people who are affluent’ and ‘studies show
Apple users tend to be younger and consider themselves to be adopters of the new
technology’ (www.ehow.com, 2012) and this is indicative in their product prices as Apple
computers tend to be more expensive than Windows-based computer. Apple, for example,
designs its technological based products with interfaces such as a mouse, buttons to press and
touch screen interactivity to allow the user to interact with their products easily, but also to
produce a produce which will surpass the consumers designer expectations. Apple produces
computer based products for consumers who are computer literate and know how to
proficiently use most technologies with ease. It’s important for Apple to meet the consumers’
needs and design products with their audience in mind as if they produce products with the
right interfaces and devices the target consumer will be more inclined to buy the product.
With the emergence of new products on a daily basis, designers are tasked with creating a
product which is sustainable yet fashionable. Sustainability is defined as being ‘capable of
being continued with minimal long-term effects on the environment’ and this notion
encompasses more than environmental factors and by exploring these factors we are able to
understand the wide-ranging complexities that sustainability addresses. As people consume
products, we have ‘basic needs that products can address’ (Hethorn, 2008, page 2) and as
individuals we can sustain the environment by altering our product choices and choosing
environmentally friendly products we are able to better sustain the planet. The manufacturing
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of our consumer products can drastically influence sustainability and can result in us
producing an ‘ecological footprint’ (Hethorn, 2008, page 2.) For instance, if our products are
manufactured using poor quality material then our products will not be sustainable as the
consumer will eventually have to dispose of the product and update to a better quality device.
Other factors which encompass sustainability are: packaging, type of material used, and
production design.
Conclusion
To conclude, this essay has examined what consumerism is and how it can affect us
individually and the society we are part of, and has as a consequence revealed that
consumerism is a complex and ethically questionable subject. By firstly investigating the
notion of consumerism then investigating into further details of this subject such as fast
fashion etc., this essay has revealed the Marxist ideology which encompasses this vast
subject. Marxist ideology is evident in consumerism and is inherent throughout consumerist
history. Following my research, I am aware that throughout history people are placed in class
systems which are representative of the products they buy and how much money they
possess, and I believe this will continue.
Word Count: 1,879 words
Bibliography
Books
Hethorn, J (2008) Sustainable Fashion: Why Now, New York, Fairchild Books Inc
Davis, F (1992) Fashion, Culture and Identity, Chicago, University of Chicago Press
Clark, J (1994) The face of Fashion, London, Ruttledge
Barnes, L (2006) Fast fashion : Journal of fashion marketing and management, London,
Emerald Group Publishing
Appelbaum (1988) karl Marx: Master of Social Theory, London, Sage Publications Ltd
An article in a Journal
Frith, L (2007) Consumers and Consumerism, Issues, Vol. 134, p.1
Ritter, E. (1988) Reading and Teaching: A Study in Audience Targeting, Vol, 26, p.5.
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