Myths and masks
Television and its impact on the transmission of cultural representations
Keywords:
Identity, Television, Globalization, Semiotics, Cultural representationsAbstract
This study looks at cultural identity in a transnational and global world through the impact of television. To understand the influence of television in our lives, a semiotic analysis is made of how programs make sense and how television presentations and representations are positioning viewers on how to understand and enjoy these senses. During the day there is a type of program on Salvadoran television that we call sofa programs. It is a global concept with a similar structure, while the content is local. What all the sofa shows have in common is the absence of analysis of the political-economic situation and how this affects the issues discussed such as migration, health, sexuality, education and prices. Confessing something, resolving conflicts in public seems popular, in addition, Dr. Nancy Álvarez, presenter of Who's Right, affirms that her program is the only program that teaches you. The point of view of confession programs is that we must learn something about how to solve intra-family problems or intimate relationships. Also, there are a variety of programs with the goal of earning something: love, money, fame, or the honor of being a good person. These elimination programs fascinate us, the psychological game catches us, a spectacle that from time to time is very cruel. Soap operas represent fairy tales for adults. It is a transmission of myths - myth as a way of "speaking". What is significant with television is its ability to transmit temptations and to create an illusion of belonging to imaginary communities in the construction of a daily identity, through the encounter with the transmission of the meaning of being heard, seen and confirmed, through visual consultations, therapy visual and mythical fairies. It is the social belonging to a global identity without roots in any special territory, but which shares the same interest. The subliminal transmission of information through the spectacle not only serves to transform our behavior but is the best form of ideological penetration that is the magic of television. We must know, and not ignore, the impact that television has as a cultural model for its programs in the creation of new lifestyles, the impact on samples of consumption, in an indirect dialogue that constructs identities as masks to function in a world mythological.
Downloads
References
Berger, P. L. & T. Luckmann (1985). The Social Construction of Reality. A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge. Penguin Books
Bignell, J. (2002). Media Semiotics. An introduction. Manchester & New York: Manchester University Press.
de Botton, A. (2000). The Consolations of Philosophy. London: Penguin Books
Burton, G. (2000). Talking Television: An Introduction to the Study of Television. London: Arnold.
Córdova et al. (2005). La televisión en El Salvador (canales) y las compañías de TV por cable y TV digital. San Salvador: Universidad Centroamericana José Simeón – UCA.
Edwards, E. (1997). Beyond the boundary: a consideration of the expressive in photography and anthropology. In Banks, M. & H. Morphy (eds.), Rethinking Visual Anthropology. New Haven and London: Yale University Press.
Eriksen, T. H. (2000). Små platser – stora frågor. En introduktion till socialantropologin. Nora: Nya Doxa.
Ferrés, Joan (1994). Televisión y educación. Barcelona: Ediciones Paidós Ibérica, S.A.
Feyerabend, P. (1993). Against Method. 3rd edn. London: Verso.
Giddens, A. (1991). Modernity and Self-Identity: Self and Society in the Late Modern Age. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Hannerz, U. (1996). Transnational Connections. Culture, people, places. London and New York: Routledge.
Hebdige, D. (1987). Cut´n´Mix. London: Comedia Methuen
Hendry, J. (1997). Pine, ponds and pebbles: gardens and visual cultura. In Banks, M. & H. Morphy (eds.), Rethinking Visual Anthropology. New Haven and London: Yale University Press.
Hughes-Freeland, F. (1997). Balinese on televisión: representation and response. In Banks, M. & H. Morphy (eds.), Rethinking visual anthropology, New Haven and London: Yale University Press.
Mazziotti, N. & L. Borda. (1999). El show de Cristina y la construcción de lo latino. En Sunkel, G. (coord.), El consumo cultural en América Latina. Construcción teórica y líneas de investigación. Santafé de Bogota: Convenio Andrés Bello.
Poster, M. (1990). The Mode of Information. Cambridge: Polity.
Postman, N. (1990). La desaparició de la infantesa. Vic: Eumo.
Sciolla, L. (1983). Identità. Turín: Rosenberg & Sellier.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
