Major Corporations and
Facebook
By Jason O'Neill
Image From: twentytwowords.com
pnMMj.jpg
As
emphasised by Patel, it is the power of large corporations that control the consumer’s
food choice. Take apples for example, there are about seven thousand varieties
of apples and yet the most common seen on your local store shelves will amount
to about five different sorts. This is because major corporations will only put
the ‘healthiest’ looking produce on the shelves. This being the apples with the
most colour or harder to bruise. Guided by profit motive, the corporations that
sell our food shape and constrain how we eat (Patel, 2007).
Social media
is also controlled in the same way by similar major corporations. Certain
groups and pages are funded by these corporations for social media networks
like Facebook to advertise. The more people who become a part of these groups
and pages add to the popularity of these sites. And on social media networks, popularity
means power. Therefore it is important for major corporations to get as much
advertisement possible to gain popularity as it is their means or profit.
Taste is
culturally constructed (Kuttaiten, 2015) and taste in the sense of social media
perspective would be considered our interests. So the phrase “you have good
taste in …” applies to the interests of that individual. These interests could
also act as an expression of our identity. Thus when we join a group or page
that is seen as popular we are also seen as popular. Because being popular is
seen as high status many people will see their only choice being to conform to
these corporations and join their pages and groups to keep up with the current
trend.
References:
Kuttainen, V. (2015). BA1002:
Our Space: Networks, Narratives, and the Making of Place, Week 8: Networked
Narratives: Food. Retrieved from http://learnjcu.jcu.edu.au/
Patel, R. (2007). Stuffed
& starved. Black Inc.
Image Reference:
Abraham. (2012, April 25). Chart showing the 10 companies
that own most of the food products we buy. Retrieved from TwentyTwoWords:
http://twentytwowords.com/
The argument that was presented was clear and consistent, and was corroborated well with the reading and the lecture. I did notice that you did have two main sections to your argument, which were: demonstrating the power of corporations in shaping consumer food choices (Patel, 2007), and stating how Facebook shapes consumer choices through a different means. This allowed you to conclude that our social media interests are an avenue for expressing our identity. I agree with this argument and conclusion, however the second section of your argument should have been corroborated with an additional source. The first section of your argument that was corroborated with Patel (2007) clearly outlined your argument, had an example to demonstrate it, and stated that corporations were indeed guided by profit motive. To link this to Facebook, it may have been useful to provide a source that statistically proves how much Facebook specifically is guided by profit motive through advertising. An interesting source that clearly shows the process of which Facebook sells us a culturally constructed image through advertising is the info-graphic linked below by Ritholtz (2014).
ReplyDeleteReferences:
Patel, R. (2007). Stuffed & starved. Black Inc.
Ritholtz, B. (2014). How Does Facebook Make Its Money? Retrieved from:http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2014/02/how-does-facebook-make-its-money/