In this blog post we are working in pair to create a remix about the city of New York and various cultural phenomenon that are in play. Our main aim is to look at New York in a broader spectrum and highlight on media culture and how media engages us to think about the city and guide us in creating our perspective of the city.
The city of New York is one of the epic centers of modernity with hegemonic ideologies of human progress through social and cultural constructions of how people should think and do things ”natural” through the proliferation of mass media, Increasing role of science and technology, Urbanization,Capitalism, Surveillance, and Consumerism. The city through media has portrayed itself as the greatest city in the world, where almost everything happens, from sky scrapers, great architecture, good businesses, great financial markets, fashion houses,theaters, huge population and a multicultural life experiences.
There is a growing desire from people in other lands and even within the United States to migrate to New York and live in the thick of the urban populace, these desires are modified by popular currents that capitalist society, mass media specialize in formulating and conveys an image of the city as a city that strives for success for its people through various mediums such as advertisements, music lyrics, imagery and business opportunities . Hence the city’s nick name ”The Big Apple” ”City of Dreams” among others. It’s believed that if one can make it in New York, then one can make it anywhere in the world. Base on this ideology the movie titled “New York, New York” in which Liza Minnelli sung the song ”New York New York” in 1970s was made. Then the song was re-sung by Frank Sinatra a few years later which made the song even more popular. Through out the transition and remixing of the music, the main theme of the song was kept, conveying the same message as New York being a great city with hopes and dreams that one want to be a part of. Alicia Key also recently re-sung the same Song and kept the theme so that it’s easily recognizable, conveying the same message as predecessor. Passim these times the view of New York as a city of dreams still stand firm. People still have the same perspective of New York as it was in the era of modernity. In today’s society the western culture are still the information society. It is not only through the music that we got a perspective about New York but also through other media forms, information is passed on to other parts of the world that gives a clear linear perspective of how New York should be perceived. It’s an example of how society transcends its hegemonic cultural ideologies on to the masses and creates a narrative that other worlds follow.
There is some sort of media form every where in the city space of New York, from bus terminals to bill boards, everything can be a form of advertisement. New York is one of the biggest cities in the world. They say that New York never sleeps and it is lively even during the night due to neon bill boards and night life. How has New York City changed with the time? New York itself is a kind of remix and consists of many cultures. It has changed from “melting pot” to “salad bowl”. Media play an important role in New York City in terms of public sphere and consumer culture as media advertise in the city. Media events can be simultaneously local, national, and global, they can involve an extraordinary range of producers, sources.
Our remix also shows some of the media culture that connects us ”cultural others” to the city of New York and make us feel as if we are culturally inclined to the city. Movies such as “The Godfather” etc are timeless classics that has been watched by various people from different countries which gives them a perspective of the good,bad and historical life of New York city, a series such as “Wall Street Warriers” are also one of a kind that gives us an inside view of what goes on within the cultural setting of a trader’s life and what the pros and cons of trading is like. Though they are just movies and series or TV shows, to a very high degree they are a representation of what the society is like and what one should expect to see in the society.
A view of the city space of New York shows brands and advertisements. It’s interesting to note the social impact of the expansion of mass media from forms such as print and voice (such as black-and-white text-dominated newspapers and radio) into media that combine image, color, movement, text, and sound. These advertisements in city spaces are unavoidable,as one is confronted with variations of advertisements from street food to fine restaurants, consumer goods, food chain store, clothing line chains, Businesses, all sort of products and services through various media form such as newspapers, magazines, television, movie theaters, billboards,public transportation systems,website, and in many other contexts in which we may not even notice. These advertisements are in a range of things we need and thing we might never need in the course of our lives. The ideas of these products are sold to us and we buy into the ideologies of the advertisements with the aim of raising our social status, or making ourselves look or feel better or just for buying sake. With such advertisement decorations on city spaces, capitalism is at its, best people tend to buy and buy in the name of being trendy. These are the kind of images and ideologies that media sells to us consciously or unconsciously we buy into them and appropriate our lives to conform to these media cultural ideologies. We are controlled by the media culture that present products to us and the culture is controlled and manipulated by governmental powers. This posses questions such as are we really in control of what we buy? How true are the perspectives that we have on things? Are our ways of reasoning mediated by what we see around us, if so then how can we say we are in control of our own lives?
We as writers of this blog have never visited New York, our perception of New York city is propelled by various media forms available to us. It makes it very interesting to know how media culture is embedded into us, making it blurry to even know when something is one’s own idea, for this reason, I think the next time we want to buy new Converse sneakers we will think about it deeply and analyze whether or not we are propelled by media.
writing in progress…………………………….
Works Cited
http://www.chogha.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/page216.html
http://www3.dbu.edu/mitchell/modernit.htm
Cynthia Salkovic 