Covert Prestige Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Covert Prestige - Essay Example This phenomenon, known as covert prestige, implies that the speaker or organization has a favorable affinity with the minority group that the slang is borrowed from (Savan 65). This gives the audience some instant familiarity with both groups and promotes their sense of fairness and individuality, even while exploiting the concept of race and using a mass marketing technique. However, this instant bonding may be an insult to the outgroup and embarrassing to the speaker. The bond formed by this appropriation of language is a shallow pandering to the fragile white need for acceptance by an out group, as well as having the potential to be insulting and demeaning to black people and their culture. America has witnessed an onslaught of products that have been promoted by loosely linking the product with the black culture through the use of black slang. These products run the gamut from individual promotion to political parties, and from underwear to news items. They are all advertisements used to promote a product or an audience. However, care must be taken when analyzing an advertisement as Savan points out that black talk has become "part and parcel of American talk" and is not easily separated or categorized (Savan 72). A recent promotion for a political segment on FOX News illustrates the multiple factors that need to be considered when using cross-cultural slang for promotion, and the difficulty in effectively implementing it. Figure 1 is a televised byline that was used to promote a FOX News segment that was meant to inform the public of Michelle Obama's impact on the presidential campaign. The byline referred to Ms. Obama as Figure 1 (Koppelman) "Obama's Baby Mama". The phrase is used among the black culture to indicate the unwed mother of someone's child. Used in the black environment it has the potential to be a term of endearment, but may also be an insult and does not stand up to cross-cultural translation. It is in the same class as the 'n' word. Assuming that Fox news would not be so egregious as to blatantly use racism in their broadcasts, it must be that Fox was trying to appropriate a black phrase in an effort to appear to be more black. This effort was not too far from the early 20th century vision of the misguided white men in blackface that used black language to entertain a white audience, and in doing so became a horror show (Savan 75). It was an attempt to show that they understood black culture without any true racial sensitivity. Savan seems to underestimate the potential for racial backlash and contends, "For the most part, that rented association is working" (69). Savan has failed to recognize the importance of cultural and soci al contextualization when evaluating an audience's response to black slang. The Ms. Obama characterization demonstrates the difficulty that advertisers face when trying to capitalize on 'covert prestige'. Some phrases and words have worked their way sufficiently into the mainstream as to have lost much of the African-American monopoly that the words once held. There is some safety in using a word that is connected to a culture, but not owned by them. The phrases 'you go girl' or 'Whassup' may have become sufficiently mainstreamed as to be 'part and parcel' of the American language, but it still requires a degree of cultural sensitivity and knowledge to make

Improve your life by facing the mirror Research Paper

Improve your life by facing the mirror - Research Paper Example Ideally, these fields aim at informing the targeted audience on various topics including cultural issues, politics, and business, as well as entertaining the intended audience. Apart from performing those functions, these fields intend to provide the forum for public criticism by the public in a bid to address various issues and grievances that the public have. These fields use various media such as film, newspapers, radio, magazine, social media, and television to achieve their goals (Vivian, 2005). One of the fundamental elements of achieving the intended goal by communicators is objectivity and focusing on both the internal and external factors. However, over the years, communicators have been focusing on the victim mentality which has taken hold in their culture (Morin, 2011). This is a reflection of the reality in the society where people have found it easier to blame others for their unhappy situations and existence. This prevailing situation among people and communicators in p articular is uncalled for (Brook, 2001). It is important that the people and specifically the communicators should focus on themselves through an introspective approach because the situation in society happens because of the actions and perceptions of personal individuals (Diamond, 2010). Individual’s life and that of the society at large can be improved by people facing the mirror and having a more self-awareness understanding. Improved self-awareness and subsequent self-improvement can be achieved effectively through a self-awareness training program (Goukens, et al., 2009). It is true that people tend to find it easier to blame others for their unhappy existence, and to generally look at external factors instead of focusing from within when analyzing and communicating difficult situations (Ratliffe et al, 2002). In particular, communicators have the tendency of considering themselves as the victims of certain circumstances. The culture of victim mentality is deeply entrenc hed in them, just like in other people. This mentality makes them to have the tendency of blaming uncontrollable or external factors, rather than focusing on controllable or internal factors for their unhappy existence or for the things that go wrong. Blaming uncontrollable or external factors put one in a mindset that there is nothing that one can do to control their life (McKittrick, 2010). As a result of victim mentality, people tend to lack objectivity because what they see and report is what they have created through their beliefs and thoughts. Consequently, the victim mentality makes people to make the mistake of looking for uncontrollable or external factors to fix their unhappy situations and bad moods (Zahavi, 1999). Instead of focusing within, they gain the tendency of trying to change virtually everything around them so as to feel better. However, focusing on external factors ultimately makes them to realize that they will still feel the same and nothing changes significa ntly. However, a closer look at the relationship between external factors and happiness shows that out of the many external factors that one is blaming only a few are the actual cause of people’s unhappy situation (Goukens et al, 2009). Actually, the other factors that one is blaming for their unhappy situations are innocent as the cause of such situations are internal. If one has